28mm Legione Polacca (Polish Legion)

These figures represent the Legione Polacca (Polish Legion). In addition to fighting in the Hungarian Revolt and the Crimean War, the legion was first hired by Piedmont to reinforce the Northeast of Italy, but it didn't arrive there in time before Piedmont sued for peace. They then were in the service of Tuscany for a few months, finally ending up in Garibaldi's Army of the Central Italian League, aka the Army of the Roman Republic serving in 1849 and 1850.

These are the last figures from my recent order from Keelmen Miniatures. They are lovely sculpts that were quite fun to paint, although the white hat piping was very challenging. I will not hesitate to order more Keelmen miniatures should I ever choose to paint up a Hungarian army for the Hungarian revolt. I highly recommend the line.

This unit is a 'Swiss Army Knife' able to be slotted into several armies of the period, but it will likely be used mostly in it's primary role as a line or 'foreign volunteer' unit or a for the Central Italian League army.

This adds six more 28mm figures to this year's painting totals. To be honest, I'm finding these small six-figure units quite motivating to paint. Each is like a 'snack' on the painting table providing lots of variety. Even when you hit a challenging part of the unit, you're through it relatively quickly.  We'll see how I feel about that when I paint up four units of Piedmont line infantry at once at 24 figures.  Before that, I have two more two stand units on the table that I'll reveal here when they are finished.

28mm Volunteers of the Italian Legion - Second War of Italian Unification

This is the first unit in my Italian Roman Republic / Central Italian League / Garibaldi army. This unit represents the 'Italian Legion' or 'Legione Nationale'. I've depicted them in the second uniform, as it also makes them eligible to be used as generic Garibaldists if I wish. 

These are lovely Keelmen miniatures from their Volunteer Legions - Hungary 1848-49 range. I've filed off the "death's head" emblems from the hats to convert them for use as the Italian Volunteers. 

This line has just enough poses to allow each of these three-figure stands to be a small diorama. This one the NCO is giving some orders to the troops and....

 

 

 

in this one, the men are standing at the ready, drinking and reloading.

I've used a mix of traditional acrylic and Vallejo Xpress color 'contrast' paints on these. Contrast for the bedrolls, packs, hat feathers and flesh, traditional paints, washes and highlighting on the rest. I'm starting to get 'in the zone' as far as deciding when to and when not to use 'contrast' style paints. 

This adds six more 28mm figures to this year's painting totals. Next up, volunteers of the Legione Polacca (Polish Legion).

28mm Austrian Grenzers

This is another unit for my Austrian army for the Italian Risorgimento project. These are Keelmen miniatures. My friend Ed gave me the tip that if I painted these up in pink facings they could also represent one of the few Grenzer units that fought for the Hungarians during the Hungarian revolution. Not wanting to pass up the extra utility I took Ed's excellent suggestion. There's also the bonus that you don't get to use pink facings and piping often when painting figures. You can read more about Ed's Grenzer shuffle on his blog.

I'm happy that Chocolate Box Wars allows you to paint units with only six figures. Any more and the piping on these might have been too much for me to handle. Even at 28mm scale, it's quite fiddly to paint accurately. I am happy with the final result, although there was some profanity involved in the process. For the pink I used a base of Pro Acryl bold titanium white with Vallejo red added to taste. The coverage of this mix was fantastic. Even over the medium brown I got full coverage in a single coat. I continue to be impressed with the Pro Acryl bold titanium white. 

 

Next up on the painting table some Piedmont Bersaglieri from Gringo40 miniatures.

28mm Austrian 1849 Grenadiers

Here are the first figures that I've painted up for my Risorgimento project. These are 1849 Austrian Grenadiers with their awesome bearskin hats. Similar to Ed's Austrian Grenadiers, I'll not hesitate to also use these for the Hungarian revolt if I choose to do that conflict with this army. As Ed says, "Everything is OK in Chocolate Box Wars!"

These are Keelmen Miniatures from their Hungarian revolt line. They're a touch larger than Perry and Foundry, but not enough to bother with. They seem quite compatible with the Gringo40 and Pirans Warriors figures that I'm using with the rest of this army. In any case, with a less popular period like this, it's catch-as-catch-can for figures. When someone makes the exact figure you need, it's a lot easier to use it than to go the figure conversion route. I'll be doing plenty of that for this project though, I'm sure.

I've used a mix of 'contrast' and traditional paints on these figures. The fur packs just cried out for some 'Gore Grunta Fur' contrast paint and the white uniforms I used Vallejo Xpress Color 'Templar White'. After that it's mostly standard acrylics including highlighting the leather belts with some Monument Hobbies Pro Acyl 'Bold Titanium White'. This was my first job for this highly acclaimed white paint and it did not disappoint with great coverage in one coat. Granted, that was applying it over an already off-white surface. 

Next up on the painting table are, some 1949 Grenzers for the Austrians.

Update: Thanks to my friend Ed seeing these in person, he noticed that I inadvertently forgot to paint the badges on the front of the bearskins on these. This has now been corrected as seen to the left.  Thanks Ed!