From MikeW - Rousell's Sandhill - 20 x 28mm Vienna Militia, Siege of Vienna 1683. (133 Points)

My Grand Tour of the island has brought me to Rousell's Sandhill, where I can go into 'Floppy Hat' mode again - I have some more Floppy Hatted silliness in the pipeline but this is the first instalment! Sorry no badgers or sandbags...

These guys will go towards my Siege of Vienna project but I wanted to make sure that they could also be used as generic militia for any nation through-out the period.

As such I have ensured that the rank and file have plain grey coats and a variety of trouser and hat colours to give the look of the period where uniforms were only just coming into fashion. They represent citizen volunteers who joined the colours to help defend their city.

20 x 28mm Vienna Militia Unit

The figures are from the 'North Star' 1672 range and I have painted up a command stand and four musketeer bases. At some point I really need to add another 8, possibly 12 pikemen to give other options to configure such a generic militia unit, by varing proportion of pike to musket.

 I realised after starting this group I did not have sufficient pikemen in my lead mountain to cover this at this time.

Focus on the Command team and their colourful dress code!

The figures were undercoated in white and then I painted flesh first - really, only because it was a sunny morning and I wanted to do something bright!

I moved on to the gun stocks - done with a faithful old pot of Bestial Brown, followed by the musketeer's coats using an even more faithful and even older pot of Army Painter 'Ash Grey' which expired on me as I was completing this unit. I will have to get some more.

Ash Grey is one of those shades that I find can be used for many armies and when used with 'dip', shading, the effect works really well. Hats, breaches, socks and hair were all done in a variety of colours before the steel work was painted in.

I used Army Painter 'Dark Tone' dip and then varnished with my current favourite matt varnish, available in the UK as part of the Windsor and Newton range - 'Galeria Matt Varnish'. See right.

So much for the men and NCOs, the officers are much more flamboyant and this is where the silliness kicks in...

Another close-up on the officers

As per the period, officers were not obligated to where uniforms and they supplied their own wardrobe for field service.

As you can see these guys have various interpretations of what is practical wear for on the field.

Fashion for the period was lead by the French and although these officers could represent any nationality, I have tried to show that they are followers (or victims) the current French fashions!


To tie the unit together I have given all the figures yellow ribbons on their hats, yellow ties on their socks and where appropriate yellow sashes and boot laces.

Another view - flags are swap-able,
so unit can be used for other nationalities

I constructed the flags myself using Microsoft Paint Software, and share here. It seems that Vienna region had a simple red over white flag - similar to today's Polish flag (albeit upside down) the city its-self had a coat of arms consisting of a white cross on a red shield.

So I have incorporated these to make two speculative flags that can be used for the period, see below - feel free to use - as I made them from scratch - there is no copyright etc on the flags!

Free to use, speculative Vienna Militia Flags

POINTS
20 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points each = 100 Points
Rousell's Sandhill = 30 Points
TOTAL  100 + 30 = 130 Points

From DaveD - looking good i must say - and with floppy hats i think Ray will also be impressed! - lets go with extra 3 for the flag