The Granary of Essling is one of the essentials of the battle of Aspern-Essling, the other being the church of Aspern. This was a long time project that I wanted to get my hands on somehow. I thought about ordering one in 3d resin and 15mm but the easy shape of the building convinced me to scratchbuild it..
Even if Aspern-Essling was an Austrian victory the French Grenadiers of Lannes managed to keep the Granary up to the end of the battle after constant attacks by the reserve Austrian Grenadiers of Rosenberg on the 2nd day.
The true building should be 50cm long in 1/72nd scale but this one is 16cm X 11cm. Only the height, 15cm, is close to the real 19cm. Card was used for the outer walls and roof. The windows are external and the small dormers are made in BlueBoard with card roofs.
The inside of the building was strenghtened with plywood which also serves to represent the 1 meter thickness of the walls that even resisted to cannon fire.
The small side entrance is again in BlueBoard. This material is great for you to avoid lots of calculations as its a very easy material to work.
The roof fits nicely on the walls with the help of some plywood.
The painting was simple: black priming; ochre walls with sand drybrush.The roof got dark grey on top of the black, followed by lighter greys for the the tiles with a brick red color at the end.
A few pieces of card gave some details for the doors.
The front painting was copied here but in a slightly simpler way.
More details for the openings.
The back part of the building. The corners were made with many dozens of small card rectangles. A bit boring but the result is much better than simply painting them.
Archduke Charles is also an old desire of mine. Initially I thought about going Franznap which produces an amazing metal model of the man with one of the Nr. 15 regiment Zach flags in its hands, something portrayed in many period paintings. In the end I opted for the cheaper and faster solution which was to convert the Italeri officer on horse and placing a Prussian head on top.
The other models are also Italeri. The one with the telescope is a converted French officer from the staff box; the Hungarian officer is a conversion mixing the mounted Austrian officer with Hungarian legs (clearly this one is a very conservative person keeping its old Raupenhelm as the Hungarian were the first to receive the shako around 1809) and the foot staff officer is Prussian with French head.
The mounted generals are Esci and Italeri bodies from the Scots Grey boxes with Prussian heads. The coat tails and sashes are GreenStuff.
The Bissingen Grenadier battalion was also added and painted in the colors of the Nr 50 IR. The only figure to be converted was the flagbearer which began its life as a marching Grenadier before being promoted to a fire attraction.
Next: more Napoleonics
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