Maurice de Saxe Coaches Have Arrived

I received the wicker coach models today so I can begin shipping pre-orders this week.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette Part II

Maurice de Saxe in his chariot at the Battle of Fontenoy and some of his personal escort of Volontaires de Saxe. Minden Miniatures figures (click to enlarge)

I was able to finish the grassing and basing of Maurice de Saxe and his wicker wagon at Fontenoy. And for good measure, I also finished one each of the other four Volontaires de Saxe cavalry. I really like the way the cavalry turned out. It makes me want to paint more.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette Painted

Maurice de Saxe at Fontenoy Vignette (click to enlarge)

Kickstarter Update:

Pledges as of today:   $6,102

Next Stretch Goal:     $7,000  (unlocks the Russian artillery)

Amount Needed:        $898

Second Stretch Goal: $11,000 (unlocks the Russian artillery crew and free Lt. General Fermor figure)

Days Left In The Campaign:  14 days

How to back this project: click the link below:

Minden SYW Artillery Kickstarter

Backers:  33 (thank you everyone! You are true heroes)

We are sooooo close to unlocking the Russian artillery equipment and I am sure that we can make the final push to $7,000 this week. After that, we will need the artillery crew to man the guns, but the goal here is $11,000 as it costs a lot of money to get 16 new individual figures sculpted, master moulds made, production moulds metal even before we start spinning the metal and making the product. So we need your help to get the Russian artillery crew into the production cycle. 

I have probably had more requests for Russians than I have for any ten other nationalities combined. Several of you have been quite vocal, but your names are not among our backers so far. Now is the time to help the campaign so that we can all see Russians added to the Minden range.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette

I spent quite a bit of time Saturday painting the Maurice de Saxe vignette that Minden Miniatures and Crann Tara Miniatures are offering soon (I'm waiting for the wagons from the caster, but I have Maurice and all of the figures that go with the wagon. Crann Tara has everything in stock).

Maurice reviewing the  troops

I stayed up until 3 AM Sunday morning getting the basing done, to this point, grass to come later today. Hooking up the metal traces was a bit tricky. I might use wire or black thread in lieu of the traces were I to assemble and paint another one of these models.

The Volontaires de Saxe uhlan driver looks very nice as well. I also painted the officer and have a few of the lancers on my painting table. These uhlans are the goods! Relly nice looking figures and easy to paint since they do not have a lot of equipment on them.

Inspiration for the Maurice de Saxe vignette was drawn from the following pictures:

Final Thoughts

You may have noticed that I have been picking up the pace of my blogging lately. It will continue as I want to hit the 100 posts goal for 2014. At 53 posts, I have a way to go, but I think that I can make it. So please stop by and visit more often because there will be a lot of new content going up several days each week. And do feel free to leave any comments. We like to read your comments.

Maurice de Saxe, Your Table Is Ready

Kickstarter Update:

Amount Pledged:        $5,317

Stretch Goal:               $6,000. ( unlocks the Prussian Brummer )

Pledges Needed:           $683

Next Stretch Goal:      $7,000 Unlocks the Russian artillery models

Pledges Needed:        $1,683

SYW Artillery Kickstarter

Ever since I first read the story about the Battle of Leuthen and Frederick's use of the giant fortress guns from Glogau, called Brummers ( because of the loud noise that they made when fired), I have wanted to have such a model in my SYW Prussian army. Now with this Kickstarter stretch goal of $6,000 so tantalizingly close, my imagination may finally become a reality. As of this morning, we only need $683 of new pledges to hit this stretch goal. I feel like this is definitely an achievable goal, so with one final push over the weekend I think that we can make it. So if you are planning on backing this project, but you just haven't gotten around to doing so, then please click on the link below to visit our KS site and make your pledge. We have seven pledge levels of $100 or less so if you can only make a small contribution ( $25 is the smallest pledge amount), then we can accomodation your needs. Every pledge, no matter what size, is important.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette:

I finally got around to assembling my wicker coach model for the Maurice de Saxe vignette last night and I must say that the prospect of assembling the model was more difficult than the actual assembly process. Sometimes you just have to just pitch in and start working on it. The only difficult part was figuring out how or attach the rear bracket to the rear axle of the model. However, a look at one of the pictures provided by Niels Rullkotter, the designer, soon made things clear (see the third picture below):

I plan to prime the model Friday evening and start painting on Saturday in anticipation of completing the project over the weekend.

Volontaires de Saxe - New Minden Figures

Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy, shown with his African bodyguards from his Volontaires de Saxe.

I have long been fascinated by the idea of someone creating a vignette of French Marshal Maurice de Saxe shown riding in a wicker wagon or chariot during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Maurice was terribly ill prior to the start of the battle and he could not mount his horse, so someone found a small wagon that the marshal could use during the battle. Some say that Maurice was suffering from the effects of Dropsy, probably a result of his life of hard living and drinking. But I digress...

So several months ago, several of us on the "A Military Gentleman" Forum, were discussing the wagon that Maurice used during the battle. Niels indicated that he was interested in creating such a model in 1/56 scale (suitable for 28mm and 30mm figures). I chimed in that if he would make the wagon, I would commission Richard Ansell to sculpt a model of Maurice sitting in the wagon. So quicker than you could say, "Bob's your uncle", Niels set to work on the wagon and had the model completed in record time. Here is a picture of the finished model below:

Marshal de Saxe's wicker chariot used at Fontenoy. Model created by Niels R. at Westphalia Miniatures. Limber horses are from the Minden range.

Once Niels' wagon model was cast in metal, he sent a copy to Richard so that he could sculpt the figure of Maurice de Saxe that is shown below:

Marshal Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745

Now it occured to me that we would need a pair of horses to draw the wagon and a driver to ride on one of the harness horses. Looking at the picture at the top of this page, one can see that the driver had to be one of the Volontaires de Saxe. As a result, we had Richard create the following driver figure:

Marshal de Saxe's wagon driver

 The drawing also depicts one of Maurice's African uhlans that comprised his personal bodyguard, which were a part of the Voluntaires de Saxe. So we had Richard sculpt the bodyguard as well, as shown in the picture below:

African trooper - personal escort of Marshal de Saxe

By this time, I was thinking, "in for a penny, in for a pound" so as long as we were adding some of the uhlans to the Minden range, why not make the rest of the figures that one would need to create the whole regiment. Thus we had Richard work on adding another uhlan, an officer and a trumpeter, shown in the following pictures.

Uhlan trooper

Uhlan trooper

Officer

Officer

Trumpeter

At the end of the day, this joint project between Westphalia Miniatures and Minden Miniatures came together quite nicely. I think that Niels' work on the chariot is outstanding (you ought to see what one of these vehicles looks like when painted - WOW!) and I think that I am running out of superlatives to use in describing Richard's sculpting work - that Maurice de Saxe personality figure is amazing, as are the rest of the Voluntaries de Saxe.

The greens will be sent to Griffin Moulds next week, along with the French Cuirassiers du Roi and some horse team riders (2 civilian figures, 1 Austrian and 1 Prussian rider, both in uniforms) and hopefully we can get these little master pieces into production very quickly.

The Maurice de Saxe vignette will be sold as a set to include the chariot/wagon, Maurice sitting in the wagon, two harness team horses, and one uhlan harness driver. The rest of the Volontaires de Saxe will be available as individual figures for purchase. Crann Tara Miniatures in the UK will handle all orders in the UK and Euroland while the USA and the rest of the world will be handled from the USA. I'm assuming that Westphalia Miniatures will also have the complete Maurice set added to their product line.

I am really really pleased with how well this project came together and the results are quite impressive. I look forward to collaberating with Westphalia Miniatures on some other projects in the future.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge the view so that you can see all of the details.

New Minden Greens: Cuirassiers du Roi

Here is a peek at the first batch of French cavalry greens that I received from Richard Ansell today, depicting the Cuirassiers du Roi regiment. The CdR have the distinction of wearing bearskin hats and also of being the only cavalry regiment to wear their cuirasses outside of their coat.

Please take a close look at each figure and let me know what you think. If there is anything that needs to be changed, now is the time to speak up. :)

Cuirassiers du Roi officer (click to enlarge view)

Cuirassiers du Roi officer

Cuirassiers du Roi Standard Bearer

Cuirassiers du Roi Standard Bearer

Cuirassiers du Roi Trooper

Cuirassiers du Roi Trooper

Cuirassiers du Roi Trumpeter

Cuirassiers du Roi Trumpeter

Here is a teaser photo of the figure that Richard sculpted representing the French marshal Maurice de Saxe as he might have appeared during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. He was riding around the field in a wicker carriage because he was ill. The carriage was created as a joint project with Westphalia Miniatures: Minden made the Maurice figure and Westphalia made the wicker carriage. We will also have the Volontaires de Saxe Uhlans to provide an escort for Maurice - pictures of these will be posted tomorrow.

Maurice de Saxe riding in his wicker carriage during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.

Wicker 4-wheel carriage created by Niels Rulkotter of Westphalia Miniatures as part of a joint project with Minden Miniatures.

Here is a print of Maurice de Saxe and his wicker carriage at Fontenoy. His  uhlan escort is also shown in the picture. Minden has also made the carriage driver monted on the horse and of course, the uhlans de Saxe.

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