A Peaceful Village In Silesia, Circa 1758

 

The Prussian Red Hussars (H7) come marching into Frobeldorf.
Is the captain's name Ned and is he the pride of the regiment?
 Minden Prussian hussars and some Blue Moon and Minden civilians

Another view of the March of the Red Hussars.
Buildings by HG Walls.

Click on all pictures to enlarge

I have been working on my terrain for the SYW era group of German villages located somewhere in Silesia. The pictures in this post depict the little hamlet of Frobeldorf, which has suffered from the depredations of marauding Russian light cavalry and Cossacks. They have made an appeal to King Frederick II of Prussia to protect them and save them from the bad guys: the Russians. Boo, hiss!

When I set up the four villages on my game table, I realized that I needed to have more civilians on the table, so I painted 20 Minden civilians and converted the pioneers into civilians by painting the latter in civilian clothing colors. I am also working on some of the Ratnik civilians, but I find these to be more difficult to paint due to all of the extra nic-nacs and accouterments that they have. I also found a box of Venture/Suren Miniatures civilians that I forgot that I had and I will be placing an order for some more Old Glory 18th Century civilians to add into the mix. The more the merrier I say.

Minden agricultural workers cutting down the grain.

The grain fields were made for my Pickett's Charge project, but I had 28mm vignettes in mind when I made them. I used a coir material door mat for the grain and sprinkled it with coir cuttings that I clipped off of the door mat.

I find that if I stoop over and crank my aged knees into the down position, then I can view the various villages and vignettes from "the ground level". This point of view almost makes the little men come alive and if you squint your eyes just a little bit then a sense of realism is seen. Good stuff. Good idea.

Here are some ground level pictures that I recently snapped:

Minden Bosniaks and Black Hussars on the march.

Looking down the main street of Gross Kammin. Buildings by HG Walls. Roads by Der Alte Fritz
and some Foundry, Perry and Minden civilians.

The Heroic Zeiten personality from the Minden Miniatures figure range.
This is one of the best figure sculpts every made by Richard Ansell.

Prussian camp scene. John Ray made the officer and servant vignette and 
the two camp followers are Foundry figures.

Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick vignette from the Minden Miniatures figure range.

My next terrain project will be to make some green agricultural fields for my 18th Century villages. I also want to make some "backyard" terrain pieces, such as the ones that Troop of Shew (Alan Steward) made for his Normandy WW2 terrain. He includes things like flower and vegetable gardens, an out house and general yard clutter. Each small terrain vignette tells its own story.

This picture shows some of Alan's work. This is THE ULTIMATE in war game terrain modeling.

Normandy terrain vignettes by Alan Sheward.

Very inspirational to say the least.

Next up on my painting table are another 8 Prussian Yellow Hussars that I need to finish in order to complete a squadron of 12 such figures. These figures are the newer hussars with shouldered swords pose that can be used for hussars at rest or trotting into position or prior to a charge. While I like the Minden charging hussar poses, I prefer the shouldered sword pose for its durability.

I am starting to get adjusted to painting smaller 28mm figures as compared to the large 54mm figures that I had been painting over the past twelve months. Once you get the hang of it, Minden Miniatures are a joy to paint.

I hope you agree.

And finally, Bella the Golden Retriever asks that you leave some comments in the comment section of this blog post. Bella says, "My favorite human is much happier when people leave comments, so please do so. He will give me some liver treats if you do."