Prussian Quick Messenger Service

My Prussians were feeling a bit second rate next to my French. The French had a bunch of pretty looking ADC's but my Prussians had to make do with a handful of individual infantry officers, on foot, pretending to be ADC's. I couldn't find any real Prussian ADC figures (I'm sure there are some out there) so I used a bunch of mounted officers that I already had on hand.

They're a bit of a mix - Three of them are Calpe (I think), two Perry metals and one that I made using leftover parts from a box of Perry plastic Allied Heavy Cavalry. They're a bit rough but they're going to get a lot of handling so there's no need to make them perfect.

These are the Calpe figures. As far as I can tell they're standard infantry battalion commanders but they'll do the job. They have the green collar and cuffs that distinguish them as ADC's and that's good enough for me. Nice figures and easy to paint.

These three are the Perry figures. The one on the left is the plastic kit-bash. I used one of the dragoon horses. I got 3 boxes of Allied cavalry to make two regiments and, as a result I had a few left over figures and horses. I might use one of them to make a cavalry general (even though all the Prussian generals basically wear the same uniform so it doesn't really matter). I have the two metal figures painted up as actual generals/brigadiers but Prussian officer sculpts are limited so I make do with what I can get.

These are for General d'Armee and I'm pretty sure six will be enough for the majority of situations. If I ever need more I'll just place a dice or something else as needed.

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Just as an aside, we've had to make room for visiting relatives so my wife and I had to amalgamate my hobby room and her home office. This means I have limited access to my hobby room during the days she works from home (today being one-such). So I brought my little, el cheapo, Aldi lightbox down and set it up on my desk. It looks bright outside but that was just a momentary break in the clouds. It's a cold, wet, spring day in Melbourne today.

P. S. Listening to The Cramps whilst I work.

One Size Fits All - 10mm Napoleonic's

One Size Fits All was the second record by The Mothers of Invention that I bought some time in 1976 or '77.  How does that fact relate here? I don't know.

I started doing 10mm Wars of the Spanish Succession a couple of years back and thought I might buy some Napoleonic French to see if they are easy paint. I got them prepped them and left them to get dusty. But, now that I'm back to painting and trying to clear things out I decided to try my hand at these tiny guys.

They were certainly quicker to paint than 28mm but not as easy as the WSS / Marlburian figures. Even with a couple of hiccups and a bit of a learning curve, this battalion took about 5 days to complete. I reckon I could do another in about 4 days. They have a little bit of detail in the straps and badges etc, but not too much. I considered doing buttons on their cuffs but I didn't worry about them. The flag is over-sized but I like them that way. I made it myself using Photoshop. In fact I made a whole sheet full of them including the fanions for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th battalions.

They look pretty nice and a few brigades full of these battalions would look very nice on the tabletop. I'm going to do another battalion in a couple of week but first I want to add some more troops to my WSS English (especially some horse). I only have a single brigade at this stage and I need more before I can start gaming with them.

For the sake of comparison here they are next to their 28mm compatriots. I've also added a couple of overhead shots so that you can get an idea of the footprint of the battalion in line and column. Each base is 50mm x 25mm, 2mm MDF.

That's all for this time,

Cheers and thanks for reading.

IanKH

More Prussians ~ Musketeers

This week I've finished the musketeer battalions of the 5th Line Regiment (4th East Prussian). I finished the first battlion a while back and started on the second but put them aside. They they sat around waiting to be finished for about a year or so. Now they're finished.

The figures are the boring Perry plastics. They look okay and they are affordable but they are pretty boring. I'd much prefer an "advance at the port" pose which I think looks better than the marching pose. The flags are from Flags of War. I very rarely purchase flags and prefer to make them myself but this time I bought them (I don't know why). Nice flags though! I bought them some time back.

Now below there's a couple of photo's of the second battalion. I also took a few pics of the first battalion but the light changed in between shots and the pics came out awful. This is a shame because the first battalion is painted better than the 2nd. I once again played with the AI Generative Fill tool on photoshop to add a background to get rid of the window and blinds behind the table.

And that's it for now. I'll get on to the fusilier battalion soon but first up I'm going to try my hand at some 10mm Napoleonic's to see how hard they are to paint, how long they take and how they look as a battalion.

Cheers,

Ian KH

Prussian Jaegers

I've added to my Prussian skirmish line and decided to put all of them out on parade for a photo opportunity. I have quite a decent array of skirmishers (21 bases) with plenty of variety in their uniforms. I also played around with the new AI Generative Fill feature in Photoshop 2024 to block out the wall and window that sits behind my table. Quite an impressive background for a few seconds of work.

I'm currently putting in an effort to finish a Prussian line infantry regiment (the 5th) but I took the time to finish these volunteer jaeger. Like many figures, these troops have been sitting on my painting desk for some time. They were half finished and dusty. They are from Warlords and, in my opinion, they are pretty crappy figures. That's one of the reasons why they gathered dust for so long.

On the other hand here are some more volunteer jaeger in Tyrolean uniform. These figures are Perry and they're very nice. These are from either the Brunswick or Austrian range. When I got them there were no Tyrolean's in the Prussian range so I had to adapt.

Here are some of the other troops in my skirmish line. The guys in black in the centre of the photo below are part of my Lutzow's Freikorps. There are only three bases strong but I can add one or two of the jaeger bases to bring them up to strength. The Freikorps is one of my favourite Prussian formations.

Here's another use of the Photoshop Generative Fill tool. For this one I asked it to generate a background featuring Napoleonic Prussian troops. It came out pretty well.

These two below come from the Perry Prussian infantry boxed set. The top lot are just the basic rifleman figure. All the same pose and pretty boring - But they do the job. The guys below are conversions made from the same rifleman figure. They are Guard Jaeger and they were made by using bits from some Victrix French infantry and the Perry French Dragoon set.

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And last but not least, here's another little chap that has been half painted and gathering dust. He's a Reaper Bones figure that I got a couple of years back. Now he's finished and hanging out with my other fantasy figures. I've named him Otto the Pack Mule.

The Brigadier & The Galactic Patrol

Keeping in the spirit of getting things off my painting desk, I bring you a Prussian general and some space dudes. To be honest, the brigadier is a new purchase but the other figures have been sitting on my desk, collecting dust for over a year (or two) and it's a relief to see them done and ease my guilt. And for that reason they can be first on the bill: 

These figures are Galacteers from Hydra Miniatures. I bought them a long time ago when I was doing a lot of pulp wargaming. I started painting them a long while back but I didn't enjoy it. They look okay now that they're finished, but they were horrible figures to paint in many respects and I don't really like them. Unfortunately I have another squad of five to paint. They've been prepped for a long time so I put them on the desk last night and I'll take my time painting them.

These figures were really difficult to photograph. I think it's becuse the colours I chose are pretty vibrant and the white is very white and it was reflecting into the lens and causing problems. I ended up photographing them in daylight because artificial light made them glare even worse. As a result most of the shading isn't coming through. On the actual figures there is definition and shading on their muscles but it just isn't showing. 

Anyway, that brings us to Herr Brigadier... I needed an extra brigadier for my Lutzow's Freikorp cavalry element. The Freikorps was very difficult to command with only one officer for both the infantry and the cavalry. This figure is from the Perry Prussian Mounted Officer set and I think he really looks the part. As I was adding the final touches to him I thought I should have painted up a hussar officer in the spirit of Von Schill. No worries though. This fine chap will do sterling service, I have no doubts!

And that's this week's update. Not much but even if it's only small steps it means that I'm getting back into painting and slowly getting out of my wargaming funk.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.

Prussian Cavalry ~ 3rd Dragoon Regiment

 Back again but not a soon as I'd hoped. I was hoping to post something sooner but the the troops I chose to paint took longer than expected. I've had a box of Perry Prussian dragoons assembled and and undercoated sitting in my cupboard for months so I decided to paint them. They came out okay and I'm going to do another regiment in the near future. 

As you can see there are 18 of them. That's more that a single box. Prussia had large cavalry regiment so I decided I needed more figures which meant I had to wait for the post to bring them to me. That was the first delay. The second delay happened as I was basing them and I decided that I wanted bases with3 figures. I had 16 figures painted and I needed another two. So I painted two more.

Anyhow, here they are. As I was starting this job I found that I had a set of Flags of War flags for the 3rd and 4th dragoons, hence these guys became the 3rd Regiment and the 4th will follow soon so that I can field them as a heavy brigade. I might make the 4th regiment larger (24 figures)

Getting these photos ready I noticed that I got some of the base colour on the front hoof of the officer's horse. I fixed it up later but it's annoying to have in the photo's.

And that's it for the moment. I've now started work on a Prussian infantry battalion that was also sitting there assembled and undercoated along with the cavalry. These shouldn't take too long. As far as Napoleonic's are concerned; Prussians are on the easy end of the spectrum.

A Napoleonic Quickie...

Since I last posted I've been diligently painting 10mm French for the War of Spanish Succession (this included rebasing too!). This has taken me longer that I expected due to other nighttime commitments getting in the way of painting but I'll make a post soon regarding my progress.

In the mean time I played a game of General d'Armee last weekend at my club. Once again this game pitted my Prussians against my own French. My opponent was Darryl (he who won the Battle of Bach-Sachenkrach earlier in the year - Link). I played the Prussians (again) and Darryl commanded the French.

The battle was fought for control of the chateau and adjacent farmland in the centre of the table. He who controlled these objectives would be declared the victor!

With the opening moves the French advanced right across the centre, threatening the chateau. The French guns were well sighted and pounded a Prussian battery unlimbering on some high ground opposite. The Prussian guns held but became unformed due to a poor morale result.

The Prussian Leib Regiment also advanced boldly in the centre. Unfortunately their flank support failed to get moving. No matter, they'll get into position soon enough and catch up! On the far left (and out of shot) a brigade of uhlans moved up to threaten the French flank.

Lutzow's Black Legion advanced cautiously until they saw a brigade of French dragoons cresting the hill to their front which caused them to halt and form square. At least their rifle armed jaegers were able to take shots at the dragoons from a safe distance whilst the considered the solid block of Prussians in front of them..

The French reached the chateau first and one of their battalions invested the grounds. They also sent a line of voltigeurs out front to confront the Prussian skirmish line.

In the fields a landwehr regiment took up defensive positions whilst the Turingian battalion (off camera), attached to the Lieb Regt advanced through the rye towards the French line in support of an impending attack on the chateau.

Now, I seem to have lost all the photo's of the Prussian attack on the chateau and other pieces of action. The Prussians took it easily and drove the defending battalion back. Subsequent attacks by the rest of the Leib also drove the rest of the opposing French regiment back.

On the Prussian left the uhlan brigade advanced & their attached horse guns pounded a French leger regiment hard as the cavalry forced them into square. The Prussian cavalry then charged a single regiment of chasseurs a cheval and performed dismally. They were driven right back and then, after a very dismal Faltering Brigade moral check, the entire brigade routed leaving the Prussian left flank wide open.

The entire left flank I hear you ask?
Remember that brigade that was supposed to support the Leib Regt in the centre? I said they'd get moving...? Well they didn't. They were Hesitant every single turn. They sat there in front of the well sighted French guns and got pounded. Only an Out of Ammo result on the guns saved them from further destruction.

In the fields the Thuringian Battalion was thrown back after a short vicious firefight and the French advanced. The landwehr lined the hedges and put a couple of volleys into the French but lost fire discipline. The Prussian guns on the hill beside the landwehr got very heavily beaten up but managed to stay in the line. They saw off one regiment of dragoons and the other regiment was charged by Lutzow's cavalry.

The game came to an end. The Prussian controlled the chateau but the French were contesting the fields. The Prussians were declared the winner but it was a Pyrrhic victory at best. They had lost one flank and the landwehr were unlikely to be able to stand up to a concerted French attack even if they were defending the hedges.

A thank you to Darryl for this game. I wasn't keen to go to the club as I've lost a bit of my love for it recently. But I'm glad that Darryl coaxed me out for this game as I really enjoyed it and enjoyed the company. We have a Dark Ages game set for the near future my veteran Anglo-Saxons against his newly minted Normans. Black Powder or Saga... I'm not sure.

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And then I found some other photo's:

Two fine generals at the height of their martial prowess!

Below: The uhlans that bravely fled the field.

General Darryl standing tall and looking in the wrong direction as the Prussians prepare to assault the chateau and liberate their stolen sausages from the clutches of his garlic munching Gallic hoards.