July!
July saw me six months into my 1809 project. July, of course, brought with it the anniversary of the Battle of Wagram. 4 July found me cowering under my painting desk as my home was bombarded by very heavy rain reminding me of the torrential rain that drenched the French army together with its commander-in-chief as it crossed the Danube on the night of the 4 July 1809. For what it’s worth, coinciding with the anniversary of the Battle of Wagram on 5 July, two months since announcing my Blog on the forums, my introductory post on The Miniatures Page reached 700 hits while the Pendraken Forum post reached 900. More importantly for me were the really kind and supportive comments that people took the time to post which made me feel that this ΄ere blogging malarkey was worth something.Anticipated Reinforcements
Hopes of Pendraken July releases were dashed on the first of the month with the news that Pendraken were not planning to release any new 1809 figures until August – so still no Austrian cavalry or artillery. Not a real problem as there was plenty to paint. But I had hoped to finish off ordering this year’s lead mountain before Pendraken’s upcoming price increase on 1 August, then picking up my order at Claymore, Edinburgh’s wargames show on the 4th.
Trial Grenz-Infantryman
In 1809, the Austrian Grenzer regiments had both white and brown jackets. I made a start with the 13th regiment that were involved in the attack on the village of Essling. They had brown jackets with light pike grey collars, facings and pointed cuffs. This meant that I had to make a choice on a brown jacket colour – another of those much debated Napoleonic uniform colours. Referencing the Osprey plate in Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars (1): Infantry, I chose Foundry’s Peaty Brown 61B, which seemed a good match. I stuck with Foundry’s German Late Field Grey Light 78C as my light pike grey for this trial figure. I used the same colour for the breeches that I had used for the Hungarian line infantry: Foundry’s Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73A.
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