Painted Austrian Wagon Driver
I painted the Austrian wagon driver I converted (see Post 92) as a member of the Fuhrwesen, the military transport service. Another white uniform! I had modelled the figure’s hands as I imagined reigns are held – thumbs on top with palms facing one another – but I had no real equestrian know-how to back up my assumptions. A decision had to be made on whether the supply wagon was to be painted as a military vehicle in Austrian Imperial yellow (a light ochre colour) or natural wood as aAustrian Diggers
A couple more of the Pendraken non- Napoleonic figures I took home from Carronade (see Post 88) were the two figures that make up Pendraken’s Generic 19th Century Working Party (FPX1) – two workmen in shirt sleeves. Apart from adding a little more point with green-stuff to the pick of one guy, the figures were converted by simply trimming and filing their trouser legs down to boot shape – and paint did the rest. On the subject of painting them, I had to stop myself. I was enjoying painting them too much. And there were far too many more important weapon-yielding types demanding attention.
White wouldn’t appear a practical trouser
colour for men at work but it was how the
Austrians chose to dress their engineer services.
I offset the white of the trousers (lots of blue-
grey shade in the photographs) by painting the
shirts a sand colour – Foundry’s Base Sand Light
10C. And I made sure the uniforms did not look
their pristine best!
Now I had every reason to have a Korséhut or
two lying around – if I could bring myself to
sacrifice a few figures just to snatch their hats!
hastily
requisitioned
transport –
shortages of
official
transport
were quite
usual.
POST 94
94
