Prussian Field Camp Vignettes

 

SYW Prussian camp scene. The tent modules were made by Herb Gundt
and the figures are from a variety of figure ranges.

CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE

I have a large terrain set up on my 6ft by 12ft game table. I put villages and towns in each of the four corners of the table so that they do not interfere with a potential battle that I might want to have. For now, this is a display that I will leave up for about a month.

Here is a longer view of the game table:

The main village is located in the upper left corner. The Prussian camp is off-photo in the upper right corner. A smaller village and Austrian camp are in the lower right corner. The North German farmhouse is located in the lower left corner. I will be posting pictures of the other corner display areas over the next several days.

The above picture depicts my WAS Prussians and Austrians lined up on the table top. When I am working on building new armies, I like to set them up on the table so that I can watch the armies grow with each additional unit that comes off of my painting table. As the number of units grows, my enthusiasm level climbs, and seeing all of these new figures on the table inspire me to keep on with the War of Austrian Succession Project.

Probably 95% of the figures shown in the above picture are Minden Miniatures or Fife and Drum Miniatures.

Join the Fife & Drum Minis Forum

A view of the Prussian encampment outside of the town of Altefritzenburg during the Seven Years War (click the picture to enlarge the view).

At the end of February 2017, I formed a new discussion board, fifeanddrum-minis, to have a place to talk about figures sculpted by the very talented Richard Ansell. These include the Fife & Drum AWI range, the Minden SYW range, and the Crann Tara Jacobite Rebellion/War of Austrian Succession figure ranges.

I would like to invite everyone with an interest in these topics to join our forum by clicking on the following link:

Fife & Drum/Minden Forum

There is a very user friendly registration process and once that is down, then you can contribute to the forum whenever you wish. There are no rules such as a requirement to post anything or to click on "like buttons" in order to be a member of the forum. In fact, there are very few rules other than to engage in gentlemanly behavior.

The forum has been very active and it "has legs" or momentum evidenced by a total of 403 different threads and 3,857 total posts since its establish at the end of February 2017. We currently have 191 members from all over the world.

A selection of the Minden Mounted and Dismounted Ladies and Gentlemen. Note that each mounted figure has its own dismounted version. (click picture to enlarge)

Forum Categories and Boards

If you have an interest in 18th Century military history and wargaming, then I think that you will find many bits of information that are very useful. We also have made an exception by having a 19th Century Colonial Era board that features some awesome pictures of Dave Docherty's 28mm Sudan collection, among other topics. Why? Just  because I like the Sudan period of history, not to mention the fact that there are many interesting Colonial wargame collections and projects across the internet that need to be seen.

Categories include:

* 18th Century Campaigns

* Museums and Battlefield Pictures

* General Discussion Topics

* Fife & Drum AWI Figures

* Minden SYW Figures

* Crann Tara Miniatures

* Picture Gallery

* Der Alte Fritz Rules

* Market Place (for buying and selling things)

Within each broad category you will find a number of interesting sub-topics, which the forum structure calls "Boards". I'm not going to mention all of the boards that we have on the forum, there are just too many to list. However, here a few that are of interest:

* My own South Carolina campaign for the AWI

* SYW battlefield pictures and European museums devoted to the 18th Century

* Convention reports in the UK and USA

* Wargame Scenarios, where you can talk about your favorite game scenarios

* Painting Table Work in Progress, where you can display current painting projects

* Recommended Books

* Fife & Drum AWI figures and news announcements

* Minden SYW figures - I'm in the process of adding a forum picture catalog for the entire range

* CrannTara pictures and news

* Picture Gallery which features a broad array of topics from The Great Northern War and up to the War of 1812 (plus the fabulous Sudan board).

So click on the link and check out the forum today. There is no obligation to join or post anything, lurking is allowed. The range of topics are very interesting and the pictures redefine the term "eye candy" by a wide margin.

DAF's South Carolina Campaign

My own personal project is the establishment of an AWI campaign that focuses on the 1780 campaign in the Carolinas. I am using a heavily modified version of Tod Kershner's Sport of Kings and Bohemian Blitzkrieg campaing rules, with my own AWI specific rules. I am currently working on the campaign map and jotting down some of the rules that I will use. I anticipate launching the campaign within the next couple of weeks and you will be able to follow its progress over the rest of this year. I'm excited by this project and hope that you will enjoy following along.

This is not my campaign map, but I plan on using a variant of this map for my campaign.

The Best AWI Link Every

The above map can be found by clicking on the link above. This takes you to a very useful web site that covers the AWI in the Carolinas. The amount of information on the site makes this a must see place to visit if you have an interest in the AWI.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Web Store News

I am happy to announce that the web-store now accepts credit cards in addition to PayPal payments. This should make it easier to place orders going forward.

I am also adding pictures of the painted figures across the entire web site. Each product code, or SKU, will depict all of the figures in a pack painted. In other words, if a pack of Prussian Musketeers has 8 figures, then there will be a picture of 8 painted Prussian Musketeers in the Product code listing so that you can see what you are buying and how it will look once it is painted.

I have also added a 10% discount for any order of $1,000 or more. This gives buyers an opportunity to save money on larger purchases, or they could even make a group order with their friends or club members in order to qualify for the discount.

What's Next on Fritz's Painting Table?

I'm currently working on some British infantry as part of the SKU painting program. After I paint the samples, I will build them up into units of 30 figures and start on a British SYW army. Same holds true for their French opponents.

I just finished the civilians in the Minden range and I really like the way that the sets of mounted and dismounted Ladies and Gentlemen look when painted. These could be used for ordinary civilians on your game table or could represent your characters in your Imaginations world.

Those pesky Russian horse grenadiers (the second squadron) are also primed and ready to be painted soon. My plan is to build up a SYW Russian army over the summer of approximately 8 battalions, 4 cannon and crew, and several squadrons of horse grenadiers, dragoons and some Cossacks.

Prussian Bakers in Revolt!

Prussian Field Bakery constructed by Ed Phillips, using Minden Pioneers workers set.

Prussian Bakers in Revolt 1757, 1758 and 1760

(the following article was written by Martin Tomczak  and posted on his website: Tomczak SYW Site along with a number of other interesting SYW related documents)

Frederick the Great wrote that the foundation of an army is the stomach; as such the most important requirement if the army was to operate effectively in the field was to keep the stomachs of men and horses filled such that the men could carry on marching and fighting and the horses could pull the guns and wagons and carry the cavalrymen into battle. The most important materials involved were flour for bread for the men, and fodder for the horses. This meant that a regular supply of flour was one of the most vital aspects of all when the army was in the field, and Frederick had a corresponding organisation in place to ensure that it was available in magazines before a campaign began, and subsequently could be brought to the army in the field such that the supply was regular and sufficient. The carrying capacity of wagons could be measured exactly and this meant that exact calculations could be made of how much flour an army would need over a certain period, and arrangements could be made to transport it accordingly.

Once the flour reached the army it would be converted into bread by the bakers with the army. These were civilians, with a staff of Bäckergesellen (Journeyman Bakers) working under Oberbäcker (literally "Higher Bakers") and Bäckermeister (Master Bakers) and as such subject to their own rules regarding discipline, and on three occasions during the Seven Years War the fact that they were civilians working within their structure of Guilds caused the outbreak of revolts that threatened the army with possible starvation.

Jung-Bunzlau, Bohemia 1757

During the Siege of Prague in 1757 the bakeries were operating at Jung-Bunzlau in Bohemia. When the army under Feldmarschall von Schwerin continued its march to Prague they were left there with the whole Feldkriegscommissariat (the organisation responsible for organising supply for the army) under the command of Generalmajor von Brandeis and two regiments of infantry. The bakery at Jung-Bunzlau had to supply the army on one side of Prague during the siege, and also the army under the Duke of Bevern at Czaslau and Kuttenberg, with both forces having to collect the bread and transport it in their Regimentsproviantwagen ("regimental provisions wagons"). At one point during the process of collection several officers felt that the bread was being supplied too slowly and it came to a disagreement with the Bäckermeister, which resulted in the officers beating them with sticks. The Bäckergesellen were so angry at this maltreatment of their masters that they beat the officers up, so severely that they had to be carried into the town from the bakery, which was in the suburbs.

Generalmajor von Brandeis sent a detail to the bakery to arrest the bakers; they all resisted and the soldiers arrested some of them and took them away as prisoners. This caused a greater uproar, and two companies of troops with fixed bayonets dispersed the bakers. The rumour now spread that von Brandeis intended to punish all the bakers with Spiessruthenlaufen ("running the gauntlet"), so during the night they all marched away with their belongings.

This revolt, caused by the actions of a few hotheaded officers, put the army and the Kriegscommissariat into great difficulties. It was essential that 100,000 loaves of bread were baked every three days, instead the bakery had now stood idle for three days and two nights. The need became critical, and von Brandeis was obliged, however much he may have disliked doing so, to free the few bakers under arrest and to urge the Bäckermeister (who it had been established were not responsible for the delays which caused the original dispute) to use all their influence to get the Bäckergesellen, who by now were dispersing in all directions, back to work. As a result of the promise that the whole matter would be forgotten they succeeded in getting the bakery back to work, and the bakers made great efforts to catch up on the missed baking.

Hirschberg, Silesia 1758

A second revolt occurred at Hirschberg in Silesia during winter quarters, when several Bäckergesellen went for a ride to Warmebrunn and returned late after drinking too long in an inn. It was decided they were to suffer military punishment. The other journeymen regarded this as an insult to their Corporation and promised the Obercommissar the stiffest punishment of the wrongdoers by the Bäckermeister. The Obercommissar persuaded the military authorites to do this and the wrongdoers were each given a number of blows with sticks by the Bäckermeister in his presence. As a result the bakery got back to normal.

Königswalde, Neumark 1760

The third revolt, which resulted from the pride in their trade of the guilds, occurred in 1760 when the two corps under Prince Henry and Generallieutenantvon der Goltz combined in the Neumark. The Feldkriegscommissariat ordered that the bakeries of both corps be combined at Königswalde. The Silesian bakers of the von der Goltz corps, who were white bread bakers, refused to work with the Prussian bakers of Prince Henry`s corps, on the grounds that they were only black bread bakers, and were therefore beneath them. The Silesian bakers considered the order from the Feldkriegscommissariat so insulting to their pride as bakers, and the bitterness between the two groups was such, that the only solution was to keep the two groups separate, and there were duly two bakeries outside the town, on opposite sides of it.

Conclusion

During the later years of the Seven Years War the officer responsible for overseeing the bakeries, Hauptmann von Fuhrmann, was very keen to organise the bakers along military lines. This proved impossible, because it was incompatible with the spirit of Corporation among the bakers, who were civilians in their guilds; they had no objection at all to being punished by the higher ranking bakers by being beaten with sticks, but any attempt to bring them to the guardroom under military arrest would have led to very bloody rebellions.

This is another example of how the generally highly organised armies of the period were still not fully militarised in some aspects of their structure. A regular supply of bread was one of the most essential requirements of all for an army in the field, and huge stocks of flour would be built up and maintained in specially-built magazines in peacetime. Then during wartime the supply of bread depended on civilians with their own organisation. Another example of civilians in the military organisation is with the Prussian artillery, where horses and drivers (who were all civilians) would be assembled on the outbreak of war, or at the beginning of a campaign; on a battlefield they were among the first to flee if things went against the Prussians, and this was one reason why the Prussians lost large numbers of guns in their defeats (the Prussians did not have a fully military Train until one was established during the army reforms after 1806).

Prussian Field Bakery

Prussian field bakery model by Ed Phillips. The lefthand oven is under construction while the right hadn oven is completed. From the collection of Randy F.

18th Century Field Bakery - built by Ed Phillips - from Der Alte Fritz's collection.

The field bakery with several Minden Pioneers to show the proportions.

Ed Phillips creates some wonderful life like models of Seven Years War era buildings and terrain pieces and while I have featured these models in some of my other blog posts, I thought that Ed deserved a shout out and recognition for his work. Ed usually brings a dozen or so different models to the annual SYW Assn. convention and they fly off the shelves like hot cakes!

Below is a picture of some drawings of Grunewald 30mm flats, sold through the Berlin Zinnfiguren store. The drawings give you an idea of the types of laborers and poses that you might want to have should you ever consider building your own field bakery model. Fortunately, Frank Hammond's Minden Miniatures range has a growing number of civilian figures that could be easily adapted to KP duty on  your table top.

Drawings of Grunewald Flats - Prussian Field Bakery

Here are some more of Ed's creations, these are in the collection of Randy F., who is one of our BAR group of table top generals. So we get to see these models frequent, tucked in the back corners of the table.

Field bakery is under construction. Model by Ed Phillips and figures are the Minden Miniatures Pioneers.

The armies of the period would haul the iron bands from camp site to camp site and construct a new field bakery on-site, making the bricks locally. The bands provide the framework for the brick oven.

Prussian Camp in the SYW

Marshal von Schwerin and his dog Otto greet one of the residents of Potsdorf, where the King's Army is encamped. Click or double click all pix to enlarge the view.

Last evening I tore down my winter terrain, stashed it away and then set up a large Prussian encampment during the SYW. Please stroll through the camp at your leisure and inspect what is going on. Also, please feel free to click on the comments box at the end of this blog entry and leave a comment or two. I like to read what people think.

All buildings are made by Herb Gundt, model master supreme. The handsome church and some of the large trees are my latest editions of Gundt masterpieces to grace my wargame table. I made all of the terrain squares a few years ago. They are ceiling tiles covered with spackle compound, brown paint and flock and are fairly easy to make, but not very durable, so I use these tiles mostly for game in my basement, rather than taking them to conventions.

Musketeer regiments von Winterfeld (orange flag) and Alt Braunschweig (yellow flags) practice their steps on the marchfeld in front of the town of Potsdorf.



Jagers patrol the nearby woods to catch any deserters or worse yet, some of those pesky Croats.


A view of the Prussian camp area behind the town church (made by Herb Gundt). On the left hand side you can see the field forge, artillery repair area and the field bakery. The soldiers tents can be seen on the right with the officers tents next to the church.


Der Alte Fritz addresses his generals and gives them the orders for the day. Note the sentry box near the Royal Tent. A courier arrives with a message.



Meanwhile, back in the camp, one of the rank & file gets familiar with a camp follower.


The stocks await any soldier who gets out of line in camp.

H.G. Walls Goodies

The new church fits in quite nicely with the rest of my town. All the buildings, tents, fences and large trees were made by Herb Gundt.

Saturday evening I made a trip to the Games Plus hobby store to meet up with Mr. H.G. Walls, himself, to pick up a couple of models that I had recently commissioned with him. As usual, the models were stunningly good, for Herb has the knack or intuition for knowing exactly what it is that I want whenever he makes a model for me.

The first item is a small German onion dome church to use with my Minden Miniature wargame project. I have decided that built up areas will occuppy an area that is two feet square, i.e., anything that sets foot in the square module is considered to be in a built up area ("BUA"). That eliminates the argument over whether or not a battalion is in or outside of the village. If you are in the square, you are also in the BUA. As a part of this system, I want each BUA to look like a diorama, so I want my buildings to be a little bit smaller than usual because I want to cram 3 or 4 buildings into each square, plus a number of large trees. No more of these tiny little tree models for me. I want my Great Oak to look the part. You can see what I'm talking about in an arborial sort of way by looking at the picture below.


A view of the front of the church. Front Rank civilians are having their "ears bent" by the minister in front of the church. Notice how the larger trees are in proportion to the buildings.

Once of the things that I noticed in some of the flats dioramas at museums in Germany, is that they clump a bunch of buildings together (3 to 5) and add some very large trees, to create a sense of realism. This is what I am trying to duplicate with this set up.

Next on my list of Gundt Goodies were some border guard posts that I asked Herb to make for me. He made two single guard boxes (you can see an example in the first picture at the top of the page, look for the house with the black and white chevrons, next to the command tents. Herb also made a border crossing post with a guard house and gate that actually raises and lowers. The only thing missing was a sign that said "Austrians Keep Out!"/



I forgot to turn off the flash, but the effect was rather interesting. It looks like the picture was taken at dusk. Minden Prussian sentry, RSM officer, and fire from Miniature Building Authority. Smaller trees by K&M. Click the picture to enlarge the view.

And finally, as long as I was at Games Plus, I had to do a little bit of shopping, so I picked up some paints and metal and wood bases. I was about to walk out the door, when I spied a large bucket full of "casino dice". These are large dice with square corners, rather than the standard rounded corners that most game dice have. I seem to recall a discusion on Old School Wargaming about the benefits of square cornered dice. So I bought ten of these beauties and plan to use them at my next wargame, next weekend.



Casino dice - guaranteed to roll lots of box cars (I hope). They are also huge and I like them a lot.

I am currently painting feverishly in order to finish some British cavalry in time for our game next weekend. As usual, the game will be held at Chez Protz on saturday October 30th. This time the game will feature the British against the French. I added a squadron of the 1st Horse (later 1st Dragoon Guards) to bring this unit up to 36 figures. Now I'm working on a squadron of Life Guards, using Stadden figures. The first test figure turned out nicely, so I'm looking forward to completing the unit and adding it to the dozen horse grenadiers that I already had painted. I also cleaned and prepped some more cavalry, but I ran out of metal bases, so I can't blitz paint some thing like The Blues at the last minute. More to follow this week.

Prussian Field Forge

Prussian field forge (left) and gyn (right) for repairing artillery carriages. Minden pioneers (orange waistcoats) and mounted officer, Hovels civilians, and tents from Miniature Building Authority. (Click pictures twice to enlarge the view)

I finally got around to painting my field forge, that I bought from the Berliner Zinnfiguren store in Berlin several years ago. As I have been building up my Prussian artillery park with various supply wagons and repair crews, I was eager to get this vignette painted and based to finish things off.

The blacksmith and his boy helper are from the Hovels range of 18th century civilians. The anvil and tools are included in the field forge set. I made the tool table from bass wood and card stock and also added a barrel from Front Rank.

Prussian field forge from Berliner Zinnfiguren and Hovels civilians (blacksmith & his helper) make up this nice little vignette.

These models won't play any role in any of my table top wargames, unless I have a skirmish game or a raid scenario where perhaps a task force of Austrian hussars and Croats are on a raid behind the Prussian lines with the objective to destroy a Prussian camp or supply center. Nevertheless, the field forge vignette is attractive and will enhance the overall look of my wargames.

Sale Update
The Zieten Hussars are still available to a good home and I will be posting two more regiments of RSM Prussian infantry later in the week (IR9 Puttkamer and IR20 Bornstedt). Each infantry regiment has two 20-figure battalions.

Altenzaum Parade Ground

A view of the Prussian encampment from the eastern edge of the town. Note the larger trees next to the Gasthaus and in the far background. Also note how the several Austrian battalions in the far right background only look like light, very un-Prussian like blocks of color. I would imagine that this is how approaching troops must have appeared to the generals in the field.

I have been playing around with the layout of the Prussian encampment at Altenzaum, somewhere in Silesia, by gradually adding some more scenic elements such as larger trees and some unpainted camp personnel to sort of see how things will look once everything is painted. I have posted several pictures of the "upgraded" camp for you to view. Eventually, I will have a large population of civilians and support troops roaming around the town and the encampment, giving things a look of hustle and bustle as they do their jobs to support the army.

Please click the pictures once for a larger view and twice for a really close up look at what is going on.


A view of the town from the western side. Again, note how the larger trees look more realistic. These were made for me by Herb Gundt using rubberized horsehair and pieces of driftwood.



IR5 Alt Braunschweig marches through the town under the watchful eye of the King and Major General von Winterfeld.


A closer view of IR5 as it marches through the town. The civilian figures are from the Front Rank 18th Century range, the Prussian infantry are Minden Miniatures, and the officers are RSM figures. All buildings and trees were made by Herb Gundt.

I really like the look and proportion of the larger trees that I have added to the tableau. They look more realistic, like mature trees that are as tall or taller than the buildings. This looks correct to my eye.

Now that the Chicago Blackhawks have won the NHL Stanley Cup, I will have more time to devote to painting and modeling as I build on and expand the behind the scenes aspect of my Minden Project. Next on the list: the Prussian field forge which I primed the other day.

Black Hussars Part II

Minden Prussian hussars - HR5 von Reusch Hussars, or simply, "The Black Hussars". Please kindly click the image to enlarge the view and enhance your viewing pleasure.

I am beginning to think that I might have "cracked the code", so to speak, on quickly painting the Minden SYW Prussian hussar figures. I cranked out six of them on Sunday and managed to get the spackle compound applied to their bases. Meanwhile, the first dozen hussars that I had completed earlier in the week received their final application of static grass. Both sets are depicted above.

The hussars come with two different horse poses: legs bunched and legs stretched. I decided to place one of each horse type on my 2-figure stands to enhance the look of movement and motion. Think about Lady Butler's painting of the charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo for an example of what I am trying to achieve.

A view from the side and rear of the Black Hussars. Some Minden Croats cower in fear in the background.

The key to fast hussar painting is to select an easy unit to paint! Like black, what can be easier than that? Seriously though, after black priming, I apply a coat of acrylic black to cover the rough surface of the primer with a smoother coating of acrylic paint. This also serves the purpose of covering the little nooks and crannies that did not get a good coating of primer.

I decided not to paint the scharwarden and kit the hussars out in buff colored breeches, such as the ones shown in one of the Knoetel uniform plates. So I just painted the whole leg tan, save for the cavalry boots. The "van Dyke" pattern of the shabraque edging can be complicated and tedious to outline. However, it occured to me that I could simply paint each little triangle (they are engraved on the shabraque to make it easier for you) white. Then I come back and place a small dot of red in the center of each triangle. The end results appears that I have painted the triangle tooth of the van Dyking red, and then outlined it in white, but I didn't. If you have ever painted hussars before, then you will know what I mean.

King Frederick and his generals all agree that the Black Hussars will make a wonderful addition to His Army. Various makes of figures including a Suren Fritz, Stadden Zeithen and Seydlitz, some Front Rank and Foundry lesser lights fill out the tableaux. Camp tents and furniture are from Herb Gundt of HG Walls.

I assembled the remaining dozen hussars that I need to bring the regiment up to 30 figures and plan on priming them this evening. Then I should be able to start the painting process all over again tomorrow night and get them finished by the weekend.

Artillery Hoist Is Completed

A front view of all three artillery park vignettes after completing the static grass phase of the basing process. On the left, a Minden Prussian dragoon officer has been converted into an infantry officer. All I did was file off the aigulette on his right shoulder. He is slightly different from the mounted colonel in that his right arm is bent and his hand is in a jaunty pose, resting on his hip.

Note: click the pictures to enlarge the view. Double click for a really large picture.

I completed the final phase of the artillery hoist vignette that you saw yesterday. All that I had to do was to affix the static grass onto the base with Elmer's White Glue (pva glue in the UK) and then it was ready for its photoshoot. In the picture above, you can see how all three artillery vignettes fit together and complement one another.


A view of the model during its construction.

In the picture above, you can see the hoist frame during its construction phase. The legs are made from bass wood (1/8 inch square) cut to 2.5 inches in length. A spare offcut from a North Star flag pole was used to provide the connecting rod at the top of the A-frame and similar pieces were used to make the turning handles on the lower axle. The lower axle is a piece of dowel rod. I used wooden bead sleeves to act as a sort of washer at the ends of the lower axle. Since these were made from wood, it was easy to drill four holes in the bead to accomodate the turning handles. Florists' wire was used for the rope on the block and tackle suspended from the top of the hoist.


Left side view of the hoist vignette. The officer in the blue coat is from RSM. I clipped off the lapels on the figure since Prussian artillerists did not wear lapels. Note the coiled rope on the ground running from the hand of the labourer in the foreground. The rope was made by twisting two pieces of florists' wire together.


The view of the front of the model.


A view of the right hand side of the vignette.


Another view of the complete artillery park and a long view of how it fits with the rest of the Minden Miniatures Prussian army. Supply wagons are now in the painting que.

The will be it for the vignettes for the rest of this week, unless something strikes my fancy and I embark on some new project that catches my eye. I was working on the second battalion of Itzenplitz (IR13) this evening and I want to finish it this week. So after Itzenplitz is completed, I may work on some more vignettes. I am almost out of Minden labourer figures to use in these projects, but never fear, a new package of inventory is winging its way across the ocean, even as you read this post.

By the way, I am very close to surpassing my 200,000th visitor and we should pass that milestone sometime this week. Click on the little Sitemeter logo at the bottom of this page to see how many visitors have passed through. You can also click on the map inside Sitemeter to see where other readers of this blog come from. It's kind of a cool thing to see.

Oh, and keep the comments coming -- I love to read the feedback. There is no telling what might come next as I build on and expand this wonderful Minden Project.

Update
A big fat box of miniatures arrived this evening chock full of Minden figures including Prussian fusiliers, Austrian grenadiers and labourers for vignettes. I've got my work cut out for me now. Kudos to Frank on the super fast service. I am looking at some of the Prussian fusilier NCOs and I see pioneers holding their tools in their hands. I was going to lop off heads and do some swaps, but the NCO figure for the fusiliers is a ready made pioneer in mitre hat.

Update II - Monday Night
This evening, after watching the Blackhawks vs. Canucks Stanley Cup Hockey game, I went down to the basement and started converting the Prussian jager standing firing into an officer holding a telescope.

I cut out the rifle and kept the left arm and hand that held the rifle. This would eventually hold the telescope. Then I had to amputate his right arm at the shoulder - I tried but I couldn't save it and use it by bending the arm into position. I measured out the length of the old arm at about 11-12mm and cut a piece of wire the same length.

Then, after drilling a hole in the shoulder socket, I glued the wire armature into the shoulder and started applying green epoxy putty to form the arm. The hand is much better on this model. I seemed to learn a thing or two from my last arm conversion. Then, as an afterthought, I decided to remove the jager belly box and turn the figure into a dragoon instead of a jager officer. So I filed away the belly box and covered up the scratchings with a new officer's sash around the waist. It looks fairly decent. The telescope was just a piece of brass with some putty building up the end of the spyglass.

Then I got really crazy and decided to make a dragoon shabraque and saddle set for a standing RSM horse. The idea is that this will be the officer's horse as he will be dismounted. I may add a horse holder to the stand using one of the existing Minden generic horse holders, or I could just have the horse and the officer on the vignette stand. I will decide on that later.

It will probably take a couple days for the epoxy putty to cure, so I will prime the figures on Wednesday and start painting on Thursday, if all goes well. Preliminary basing on Friday and then I can finish off the base and shoot some pictures on Saturday May 8th. Stay tuned for that.

My Minden Prussian Brigade

The whole brigade as seen from one of Monsieur Montgolfier's hot air balloons.



IR5 Alt Braunschweig with Minden Miniatures.


IR5 Alt Braunschweig in the front rank and IR1 Winterfeldt in the second line.

I finished the basing of the second battalion of IR5 Alt Braunschweig last evening and so I now have a nice brigade of Minden Prussians: 4 musketeer battalions, 1 grenadier battalion, 1 jager battalion, 3 artillery crews and 12 Bayreuth Dragoons. click on all of the pictures for a larger view of my Prussian brigade so far.


Closer view of IR5 and supporting artillery.

They look pretty nifty en masse, don't you think? I particularly like the effect of two flags per battalion and four for the entire regiment. The long ranks and the GMB Designs Flags really enhance the overall look of the brigade. The marching pose and the furling flags really seem to give the appearance of everything in motion.

Once April turns the corner, I will have to take a temporary time out from the Mindens and paint 24 Elite Miniatures SYW British Dragoon Guards for our BAR Fontenoy game at Little Wars, at the end of April. Then I will pick up the brushes again and paint IR13 Itzenplitz (2 btns), which would get me to the end of Phase I of my Prussian Minden army. I might switch over to Minden Austrians at that time and build them up to eight battalions. Then go back and forth between the two armies until I get 12 battalions and 4 cavalry regiments completed for each side. The goal is to have enough of an army to run a game at next year's SYW Association convention in March 2011.