Nova Hungaria - Artillery company

I have brought these fellows and their equipment to the dorm as my laptop was being repaired to complete them there. I had an old HP with Windows XP, but I wanted to paint something after a week of studies.

They are part of the gift pack János gave me on Games Day. I stripped most of the figures and selected them to batches - I have a great surplus of infantry, twenty-something cavalry, a lot of surplus staff and these guys who build up the artillery contingent of the Vladislaus V Penal Battalion.

The unit (Class) is made up of two batteries, one of Gardner guns (on a lease to the naval unit on the Maria Theresa) and one of Krupp cannons, two heavy field pieces and a galloper gun. It is led by Major Manfred von Hersch, artillery staff officer to the battalion HQ, and Sergeants Pruffer and Kővári. The major was demoted from LtCol after an affair with General Hohenspitz's daughter that the Vienna court did not very much like. Suffice to say it included a horse cart, a dark night and three bottles of Schnapps. 

The major has no deputy officer at all and the unit that is actually under his command consists of only nineteen men, six or seven of which are able to man the guns and two or three to drive a limber. The rest are used to dig positions and are occasionally slapped to the 'Subpoena' platoon or The Bad Guys under 1st Lt Vajdafy for menial labor.

Few words about the painting: black undercoat, VGC Stonewall Grey uniforms and the usual burnt umber/black glaze quickshade. As the goal is to move these off the painting queue as fast as possible, I did not bother with highlights again. These figures take the quickshade a little less better than the Italeri ones, but the result is good enough for a penal battalion. 

I used the contents of a pair of tea filters for the guns' bases. The idea was stolen from the North Star guys.

The Major orders the diggers to move up that hill and make taunting motions towards the enemy to divert their fire from the battery's position. No regrets.

First Sergeant Sándor Kővári (a self-made pun on Sean Connery's name) tells the men to behave. He has a revolver, a whip and a quick temper.

The limber was fancied from an Airfix nag, two halves of a gun carriage and a scratchbuilt box that was lying among the figures when I received them.

And these are the wounded men that fell under a cartwheel, or Sgt Kővári's fist. The details of the incident are unclear.