Austrians, snakes, dead and undead

 My FLGS had a sale recently, and I bought some Victrix Austrian Landwehr (56 of them) for less than a packet of 8 official North Star Austrians cost. So for no really good reason (I already have two warbands) I made an Austrian Silver Bayonet unit. 

These are all made from that Landwehr box (well, giant ziplock bag), with just a few bits from Frostgrave boxes and Warlord's Pike & Shotte cavalry. From left to right here we have a Jäger (light infantry), a dhamphir (with an unhealthy complexion, and a nasty looking ancient bronze knife), my officer, a grenadier and an occultist. The dhamphir was made from the standard bearer body, and the occultist from the drummer. The top hat on the occultist is a converted corsehut, the funny looking hat half the unit wears. 

These last four are all provincial soldiers from the Vienna Volunteers. There's only three in the warband, but I happened to build an extra, so he got painted up as well. 

I traded one of the landwehr sprues for a sprue of Wargames Atlantic's new zombies, and I used the tricorn hats to build spectral soldiers. These sorta look a bit like what I think Austrians looked like in the 1780's, but don't quote me on that. This way I saved the actual Napoleonic heads for revenants, if I ever get around to replacing my generic fantasy zombies.

The spectral soldiers are for the Italy campaign, and in that you also need some dead bodies. Most of them are home cast zombies from a Prince August mould, I just removed their integral bases and weapons, and bent some limbs so they'd lie more flat. One of them has a plastic arm as well. The clothed guy use another landwehr body, treated the same way, but with a metal zombie head. He reminds me of The Scream. I decided not to base them, since they'll just lie around and can't fall over. This way they are stackable as well.

Last we have some snakes for Egypt, these are from a Dead Mans Hand blister. The colours are all imaginary, and just used left overs.

 

More NPCs for The Silver Bayonet

 This time I've finished more models for The Silver Bayonet.

 

First we have the mounted version of my Bedouin for the Egyptian unit. It's made with the torso of a GB Dark Age warrior, the legs of a Perry knight (well, Mounted Men at Arms), a rifle arm from a Perry zouave, and the same head as on the foot version. The horse is from a Prince August 25mm mould.

 

 

 

Next we have a couple of vampires. They're Noble Vampires from the Frostgrave range, and look like they've been hanging out in Transylvania somewhere. The poor peasant on the ground is a Norman casualty figure, with a new head to make it more generic.

 

Here are three Frenchmen, they'll be used for the roving patrols in the Italy campaign. They'll obviously fit as Frenchmen and deserters, and since they have greatcoats on, which my other French doesn't, they're clearly different enough, so they will probably moonlight as English patrolmen as well.

Last we have some bandits or briganti. If they look like old Warhammer militia models, well, that's because they are. I wouldn't get around to build more models for Mordheim, so this was a use for the old sprues. I tried to make them as non-fantasy and modern as possible, so no helmets and armour. Yes, these doesn't look like briganti should, but they look generic enough I think. 

Walk like an egyptian

 An Egyptian warband for Silver Bayonet, gnolls werejackals and more black dogs. The Egyptians are all plastic, and converted from various bits from various manufacturers. 

First we have a sapper, my officer, a junior officer and a bedouin. The sapper has a Perry zouave body, and arms and head from Warlord's Desert Rats. The musket is a zouave one though, and not the original Enfield. The Officer has a Frostgrave sorcerer body, Frostgrave knight arms, and a head from the Desert Rats. The Junior Officer has a Frostgrave cultist body, arms from Warlord's Pike & Shotte storming party, and the head and the end of the blunderbuss (it's a trumpet) from Gripping Beast's Arab Spearmen & Archers. The bedouin has a body and head from that Arab box, and arms from the P&S storming party.

Next we have two Janissaries, with bodies and heads from Perry's zouaves, and arms from the P&S storming party. The third guy is an Egyptian conscript, just built from Perry's Ansar box. The last guy could also work as a conscript, but he is in fact a Champion of the Faith. I see him as a poor village priest or something. He's made from a GB Arab body and arm, with a head from the WG Desert Rats.

These gnolls will work as werejackals. Simple and easy build and paint job.

Last we have two more black dogs, since you need more than one for the Italy campaign. 3D prints from Greenstuff World, so very cheap, but the tail broke on the standing dog when I tried to remove it from the support, I'm not totally sold on printed resin.

Ghosts, witches and terrain

 This time it's mainly old Mansions of Madness figures, which I've painted up for The Silver Bayonet, so a double whammy.

First we have a quartet of scantily clad females. I'll use these as Nightmare Witches in Silver Bayonet Italy The Shades of Calabria. Yes, I know the bob cut is too short for the 1800s, but that's just part of their scandalous sexiness. Or something.

Nexe we have some ghosts and skeletons. I might not need more skeletons, but these had more modern clothing, so should fit better than my medieval/fantasy ones.

And a guy from Mansions of Madness which I'll use as one of the marks in Stargrave Dead or Alive. No, that's not a penisworm with arms. It has tentacles as well.

These are two swivel guns. They are extremely crude, but looks sort of right. They're made from two gun barrels (cast in a Prince August 25mm mould) mounted on plastic spacers from the packaging of a toy space ship.

And finally some terrain. These are from Mantic's terraincrate kickstarter. I had to resculpt some of the boxes on the end due to mould deformation, but never bothered to complain to Mantic about it.

 

Silver Bayonet bestiary

Parallel with painting my French warband I started work on the bestiary, the human and non-human foes you may end up fighting. We'll start with a totally normal soldier in napoleonic garb, there's nothing fishy about this guy at all, is there?

Oh no, it's a vampire!

This vampire is made from a German WWII body and arms, hands from some Mantic ghouls, backpack from napoleonic French, and the head of Zacharias the Everliving. You might think this is sacrilege, but he was lying literally armless in my bits box, and without his dragon, so I didn't really have a better use for him.

Next we have a black dog, a 3D print from Greenstuff World. I'm a bit worried about how fragile the resin is, but 10 dogs were cheaper than buying most metal single dogs, so...

Here are some bandits I cobbled together from plastic I had. First we have four Russian WWII bodies, three of them with medieval phrygian caps (which were in vogue in revolutionary France), and one head from a British Zulu War guy. They guy to the left is a TYW guy. Most of them have muskets from a box of ACW zouaves.

The last four bandits are three Prussian landwehr from the old Warlord set, and one Gripping Beast Dark Age warrior with a new musket.

Last we have a cute doggo I got free in an order of 3D printed stuff. Might get a use?

 

Starting The Silver Bayonet

When Osprey had a sale before Christmas I bought a few books, and one of those was The Silver Bayonet by Joseph A McCullough. I mainly bought it to check it out, I do enjoy his other games, after all, but of course I got inspired and started checking out what figures I had. I've never played any Napoleonic games before, but surprisingly enough I did have a few figures available. I had Baron Larrey's ambulance (got it free from Warlord ten years ago), a free sprue of French line infantry, and one of the old sprues of Prussians. So, ok, French it is! My idea was to do this on the cheap, so I'll try to work with what I have.

 

First here is Baron Larrey, who'll be my officer, and a doctor. We also have two infantrymen.

Next up we have a sailor, a grenadier, a junior officer and an occultist.

These have been more or less converted. The sailor is made from a Pike&Shotte flintlock, with pistolhand from a cavalryman, and the other arm from a Frostgrave cultist. The junior officer has a pistol and sword from P&S, and I sculpted a furlined hussar's (?) jacket over his shoulder so he looks a bit special, and to cover where the musket used to be. The occultist has Frostgrave magician arms, a body from a ACW zouave officer, and the head from the line infantry. The bicorne is made from greenstuff.

Next we have some wolves. I cast these in a Prince August mould more than 30 years ago, but they'll do.

 

 Here are some gravestones which are needed for a scenario. They're made from sprues and a few bits.

I also finished an Aragorn, from Mithril Miniatures. This is the fourth Aragorn sculpt I paint. :)