Supply Wagon & Pioneers

Artillery & crew (left), matross stand (center) and supply wagon (right) will make up my artillery batteries in my Minden Project.

I have been working on some Front Rank ammunition wagons from their 18th Century equipment range and the picture above gives you some idea as to how I will eventually organize my artillery batteries for the Minden Project armies. A battery will consist of two gun models, a small stand of matrosses to drag the guns back into place, and finally, a supply wagon that will set on the table perpendicular to the gun models. This will provide the necessary depth to depict all of the equipment that is placed behind the battery in the field. There will also be limber teams.

The picture above provides a general impression of how it all might look, although I haven't painted any extra matrosses for the middle stands yet. The actual artillery pieces will be Berlin Zinnfiguren 12 pounders with Minden Prussian artillery crewmen in blue coats.

A picture of the Front Rank wagon. Minden drover, artillery crewman carrying a round, and a Minden horse holder walking alongside the wagon. A stack of powder bags completes the vignette.


Minden pioneers painted as IR49 Prussian pioneers. I really like their orange waistcoats and breeches, although the pioneers actually wore fusilier mitre hats. Still, they look very nifty.

I like the way the pioneer figures turned out in the above picture. My plan is to base them two per stand and have approximately ten or twenty figures for pioneer work. Thus a few stands could be working on constructing gun emplacements, filling gabions or working on pontoon bridges.

This has inspired me to paint a unit of Minden Prussian fusiliers next, as IR49, the pioneer regiment. This was eventually turned into a regular fusilier regiment for battlefield use when Frederick needed the extra manpower to fight on the field.

At some point on Sunday morning, the 200,000th visitor will have visited the Der Alte Fritz Journal. We were about 170 visits short of that milestone as I entered this posting this evening. Thank you everyone for your support. It is much appreciated.