Death on the Danube: Hungarian Border Guards & Hussar Statue

Finally got around to finishing up some new Hungarian minis in anticipation of the upcoming World at War tournament this Saturday. First up, is a 12-man squad of Hungarian Border Guards made from Brigade Games' WW1 Austrians. Models are basically right out of the box, with the exception of the machine gunner. I used a Reaper BAR with some modifications to represent an older Madsen LMG. This LMG saw extensive use by Hungarian troops during the interwar period, slowly being phased out of standard use by the Solothurn and MG34 models. However, they were retained by some rear-echelon units and were brought back into regular issuance after 1943.

As with my regular Honved troops, uniform color is VMC English Uniform with some midtone Green added, almost similar to Reaper Worn Olive. Kit is mostly VMC Red Leather, with some Territorial Biege for canvas and Reaper Dark Leather for strapping. Helmet color is VMC Brown Violet, "whitewash" done with Reaper Misty Grey/White reverse crippling.

Weapons are Pavement, highlighted with Pewter Grey, extreme highlights in Light Grey, then washed with P3 Armor Wash. Wood is VMC German Brown, with highlights/grain done in Biege. Glass is Admiral Blue, gem effect highlights in Cool Blue, flare in White.

Of note to button counters - I painted the collar tabs as the early war "Madder Red" color, as I wanted this force to primarily be used for early war battles. However, the border guards did see action during the late war period, but would have had the standard Honved infantry green collar tabs at that time.

Last but not least I also made an objective - a statue of the Hungarian Hussar Andras Hadik that stands in Budapest. This is an excellent article on what the statue means and why it was erected just before WW2 broke out. Big, huge thanks to Eureka USA who helped me get this particular miniature as it is the closest I've seen to the real-life statue. The plinth is built up using wood and plastic "prone" bases.

This was also a new approach to verdigris painting for me. As usual, I primed everything using a zenithal spray technique of gray and white primers. I started by painting GW Tin Bitz in the "shadows". I then washed everything with a basic bright green, then started drybrushing the "light" areas with a verdigris mixture (mostly a 50/50 mix of bright green and light blue, almost turqouise). I then did a highlight with the verdigris and some basic white. The plinth is Pavement, drybrushed with Granite Grey, and finally highlighted in basic White.

Still more to come! I have an 1ZM armored car (doing double duty in my Italian force as well), a Pz38(t), and one finally unit of regular Honved troops!