Austrian Engineers
The Pendraken Austrian Engineers pack (NPA29) came with three different figures: an officer, an engineer working with a shovel and another knocking back a beverage of some sort with his entrenching tool still in its case slung on his back. The drinking figure was, in fact, a miner as he had – unlike pioneers and sappers – a pistol in a holster at the rear of his right hip. The engineer with the shovel was the same figure I had used to convert into a Fuhrwesen wagon driver (see Post 92, Post 94 & Post 98). A fact
that nearly escaped me while painting
the unconverted figure. This engineer
didn’t have any distinguishing features
apart from his boots that marked him
out as a sapper or miner. Somewhat
casually, I painted the two engineers as
pioneers with light grey jackets with
green (Foundry Dragoon Green Shade
70A plus 70B) facings. My main reason
for doing this was to avoid the miner
and sapper’s controversial jacket
colour (variations of grey and blue).
Obviously in doing so, I managed to
equip one of my pioneers as a miner.
Cue alternative story line.
As a bit of base clutter, I made a spade with
a piece of metal rod and some putty. I
modelled a labouring engineer’s jacket
hanging on the shovel. I painted the jacket as
a miner or sapper’s with dark red facings,
possibly nailing my colours to the grey-not-
blue-jacket mast at the same time.
I based the pioneers with my converted
Austrian workmen with pick and shovel (see
Post 94). The story might have been that the
pioneer with the miner’s pistol was looking
after it while the minor got his jacket off and
did the hard work! Originally, I was going to
put three figures on a base but thought
two looked better and also gave room
for any associated clutter. I intended
working parties to be used not as troops
but as markers so I based them – as I
had my ADCs, also to be used as
markers – on 20mm round bases, the
size I had chosen for my marker bases.
As my bases were 3mm thick, I was
able to dig an actual hole in one of the
bases. I didn’t use much static grass on
the bases as I wanted to create churned-
up, earthy, rocky work areas.
POST 101
101
