Nearly There - SYW Prussian Artillery Battery Update

SYW Prussian Artillery Battery

 

The view from the front of the 7-gun battery.
Can you identify the types and poundage of the cannon?

The view from the right hand side. Note the third row of terrain blanks to create
more space between the  gun crew and the ammo wagons.

I am nearly finished with my SYW Prussian artillery vignette which depicts a 7-gun battery of assorted ordnance with crew, a row of empty spacing between the gun crews and the ammo wagons, ammo wagons, and finally, 4-horse limber teams. 

The blank pieces are only being used to make this vignette and will not be used in a game. I wanted to create more spacing between the gun crew and the munitions wagons for an improved visual effect so I made seven 60mm by 60mm square mini-terrain pieces. Some of them have a support figure or two: one fellow with a wheel barrow, two laborers carrying a heavy wood chest up to the gun position, and two gold brickers taking a rest, sitting on top of some ammo chests.

The munitions wagons are an assortment of Front Rank and Fife and Drum Miniatures pieces that I have collected and painted over the years. Now that F&D makes its own ammo wagons (2 and 4 wheel versions), I no longer use the FR models, although they are fine in their own right. I have three more munitions wagons painted that only need to be based to be completed. That leaves me with one more wagon to paint so that each of the seven gun models has its own limber and munitions wagon.

The limbers are a mix of models from Berliner Zinnfiguren (expensive at around EUR30 each) and Fife and Drum Limbers (at $7.00 each). The horses are a mix of standing RSM limber horses and walking Fife and Drum limber horses. The reins and traces on the limbers are made from fine gauge wire.

I have started work on the Austrian version of this vignette. The Austrians have three 12-pounders and two 6-pounders so I want to add at least two more gun models, probably 7-pound howitzers. I need three more limber teams for the existing five cannon, plus two more sets if I expand the size of the battery.

Some people think that painting all of the wagons and limbers is a waste of time or too expensive, but I think  that the effort provides a big payback in the look of the battery on the table top. And of course, you can add some rules wherein some of the artillery hits from cannon balls might roll through the rear areas of the battery and take a few limber horses, or God forbid, a munitions wagon. Boom!

I should have an update on the Austrian battery by the end of this week, so come on back to see more pictures.

ON DECK CIRCLE: I plan on painting 12 Prussian HR7 Yellow Hussars (wearing mirlitons, using the NEW shouldered sword poses instead of the charging pose). A dozen more HR1 Green Hussars in the same pose, but wearing fur busbies, are also in the painting queue.

When I get tired of painting horses, then I will tackle the IR15/III battalion of the Prussian Guards in mitre headgear.

The Most Versatile Pack in the Minden Range - CIV-003 Pioneer Set

Prussian Field Forge from Berliner Zinnfiguren. The smith and helper are made by Hovels.

Following on from the previous thread about the Prussian artillery park, I thought that I would post pictures of the field forge and repair station vignettes that I made quite awhile ago. In all of these photos you will see how I employed the figures from a pack of the Minden pioneers set to make some easy to make vignettes to grace your table top games.

Pioneer Pack CIV-003

Before we get started, I want to introduce everyone to one of the most versatile packs in the entire Minden Miniatures figure range. CIV-003 is a pack of four civilian workers that have a wide variety of uses. The set comes with a sprue of tools including a shovel, an axe, a sledge hammer and a pick. So you could paint them as civilians working on a road or building a house or what ever your imagination can create.

The genius to the set is that you can also paint the figures as SYW era artillery crewmen who have taken off their heavy wool coats so that they can be more comfortable working in their sleeveless waistcoats. For Prussians, simply paint the waistcoat and breeches a straw yellow; for Austrians, paint them fawn brown; red for the French; and blue for the British. I often put a rammer into the hands of one figure, let another hold the linstock match, and another holds the trail spike. I use one or two pioneers with the rest of the regular artillerymen in their coats to create a variety of uniforms on my artillery stands.

I also like to dress up my pioneer figures as artillery "matrosse-men", or the laborers who get to push and drag the heavy cannon into place. Two of the poses can be holding cable rope used to drag the cannon into position. I take a piece of fine guage wire and bend it back in the center of the selected length of wire. Then I twist the two parts of the wire together such that the twisted wire resembles rope cable. This is a very easy conversion to make. 

I often have some wire end cuts left over from my wire flag poles, when I've trimmed to flag poles down to size. I keep the pieces in the old bits box and save them until I need them to make wood lever poles that the crewmen might use to either lift the cannon carriage or perhaps to pry one of the wheels out of some mud.

Minden Pioneer set CIV-003 set painted as Prussian artillerymen wearing just their waistcoats.
Drag ropes are made by twisting two pieces of wire together.

This picture shows the four different poses in the CIV-003 pack, showing how diversified they are. 
The figure on the far right has been given a barrel rammer to show how these figures can be 
used as artillery crewmen for any country that used the sleeveless waistcoat.

I have seen other modelers make mealie bags out of epoxy putty and position the bags to make it look like one of the pioneers is carrying a bag of flour or something else. I've seen a pioneer or two carrying a flag that is resting on his right shoulder. Again, the possible uses for these figure is only limited by one's imagination.

The wheel repair vignette shown below demonstrates some of the uses for pioneer figures. Look at the two previous pictures for the figures carrying ropes. Now look at the wheel repair vignette below and see how those same figures appear to be rolling the replacement wheel up to the cannon. Another figure is seen prying up the axle of the carriage so that the new wheel can be slipped onto the axle. The officer waving his sword (useless twit!) is the officer figure from the Prussian Jagers command set.

Replacing a broken wheel on a Prussian 12-pound cannon.
The workers are from the Minden Pioneer set CIV-003.

Reverse view of the broken wheel vignette.

The Blacksmith's Shop

The Blacksmith set CIV-005 is a nice 3-piece set that includes one horse, a blacksmith changing the horse shoe, and a young helper holding the horse. I also used one of the horse holders from the CIV-009 set (two horse holders and two sitting wagon teamsters) to, well, hold the reins of a pair of horses. I used two RSM standing horses and filed off all of the horse tack so that only the reins and bit remain on the figure. Then I drilled a small hole through the reins of the RSM horse and threaded a piece of fine wire through the horse and through the hands of the horse holder. I envision the horse holder leading a pair of horses up to the field forge for some shoe repairs.

Minden Blacksmith and helper on the left from the CIV-005 set.
On of the horse holders from the CIV-009 set is holding two RSM horses,
with horse furniture and tack filed off.

The Artillery Gin

This tripod-like devised is called a "gin" with a hard gee, rather than with a soft gee that would make the word sound like the alcoholic drink. The gin was used to lift the heavy cannon barrels off of the carriage so that repairs could be made on the carriage. I first saw one of these at the Saratoga National Military Park and decided that I needed to make one for a vignette. 

I used the Minden pioneers, again, to make the workers. The two workers in the foreground are turning the cranking devise on the pulley to lift the barrel of the gun. The other two figures have attached rope to the trunions of the cannon barrel to help change out the barrel. An RSM officer is supervising the whole operation.

The gin was constructed from pieces of bass wood. I constructed two "gee-shaped" sections and drilled holes at the top where the wood pieces intersect. Then I pushed a small dowel rod (or craft stick from Michael's Stores) through the holes to connect the two vee pieces together. I also put some small craft beads onto the dowel to give it more diameter and heft. Finally, I found a block and tackle pulley from a ship modeling company and threaded some more wire through it to attach to the cannon barrel. The men will now crank up the cannon barrel using the pulley.

Work crew use a "gin" to lift the heavy brass barrel of the cannon off of its carriage
Minden Pioneer set figures were used. The gin was scratch built from pieces of bass wood.

The full "repair crew" vignette comprised of two vignettes that fit together quite nicely.

It is a nice change of pace to work on some one-off vignettes, especially after painting all of those cavalry and infantry figures in your wargaming armies. I have shown several different uses for the CIV-003 pack and I should point out that CIV-001 Agricultual Laborers Set 1 and CIV-002 Agricultural Laborers Set 2 also have a nice variety of figures that can be easily customized with nothing more than the color of the paint that you use and a few different tools to hold in their hands.

Why not give it a try and see for yourself?

Click on the link to our web store. Click on the pull-down menu at the top of the page, labeled Minden Miniatures and then scroll down to the Civilians tab and click this open. You will find all of the civilian packs mentioned in this blog post.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Web Store

Fritz Expands His Artillery Park. Yikes!

Prussian artillery battery composed of seven cannon: two each of 12-pound Brummers,
and 10-pound howitzers, and three regular 12-pounder guns.

Click or Double Click on All Pictures to Expand the View

The past couple of weeks I have focused on building out my Austrian and Prussian artillery units so that each cannon model has its own munitions wagon and 4-horse limber team. I started with the additions to the Prussian artillery. Come on, did you really expect otherwise?

I confess that I borrowed this idea from Barry Hilton, as shown in his Revolution to Empire set of rules wherein he did the same for one of his Napoleonic artillery batteries. The idea is that there would have been a significant area behind the cannon that was filled with equipment such as munitions wagons, repair workers, limber teams, and a beehive of activity from all of the support crew carrying munitions from the wagons to the actual cannon. The laborers, who moved the guns so that they could be resited by the professional artillery crew, are also depicted immediately behind the cannon models.

Side view of the Prussian artillery battery gives one a sense of how deep
the area of an artillery deployment is what with all of the supporting equipment.

Another side view of the artillery battery.

My cannon models are not glued or otherwise attached to the bases, which allows me to pick and choose the types of cannon that I want to use in a particular game. For example, the giant 12-pound Brummer fortress guns were not used in very many battles (think Leuthen for a notable example of their use in a battle) so I might want to use the regular Prussian 12-pounders in my game, or some of the 6-pounders or 10-pound howitzers. Fredick seemed to especially like his howitzers so there should be a couple used in every game.

The artillery battery vignette shown in these pictures features Minden Miniatures Prussian artillerymen and the generic pioneers in waistcoats, used as the mattrosses, or laborers. The cannon models are all from the Fife and Drum Miniatures artillery selections in the catalog.

The limbers are a mix of Fife and Drum Y-shaped limbers as well as some of the more expensive limber models from Berliner Zinnfiguren. The limber horses are a mix of RSM standing limber horses and Minden walking horses. The munitions wagons are from Front Rank Miniatures and Fife and Drum Miniatures. The pictures give you a sense of how nicely everything fits together.

I like how this looks. What do you think?

Your comments and questions would be most welcomed in the comment section at the bottom of this blog thread.

I still need to paint three more munitions wagons to complete the Prussian artillery park and then I will start working on the Austrian equivalent.

Some war gamers will view the need for limbers and wagons as an uneccessary addition and expense, but the effort really pays off. One doesn't have to use 4-horse limber teams, two horses will look just as nice. In fact, I use 2-horse teams for the munitions wagons due largely to the fact that I can't fit the wagon and four horses onto the 60mm by 120mm bases that I use for ammo wagons. I also use the same size bases for my limbers and cannons. The laborers are mounted on a 60mm by 40mm base. You will note that all of my artillery/component bases are 60mm wide so that everything lines up neat and tidy when deployed or on the move.

When I limber up and move the guns, the gun is hooked onto the back of the limber, followed by the gun crew stand, followed by the laborer stand and the munitions wagon. When the gun is ready to unlimber and deploy, then the gun is placed back on its stand, backed up by the laborers, the munitions wagon, and finally the limber team.

I also have some extra repair vignettes such as a field forge, a gun with a broken wheel, and an artillery "gin" (a device with a pulley that is used to lift the heavy gun barrel off of the gun carriage in the event that the carriage needs to be replaced and repaired). 

The field forge would be used to repair iron work on the equipment or to reshoe horse shoes for the limber horses. These vignettes are not placed with the gun battery, but rather, further behind the lines back at the camp. They look particularly nice and add to the overall look of one's table top.

Painting Prussian Artillery Crews

 

Prussian artillery battery deploys in front of a popular drinking establishment.

This week's fox is the painting of several sets of SYW Prussian artillery crew and matrosses to fill in some holes in my Prussian artillery park. I often use the Minden Pioneers figures as either the fellows who push and pull the cannons into place or as actual artillery crewmen who have taken off their uniform coat to man the cannon in their waistcoats.

The Prussian artillery deploys in the village square as the locals look on in wonderment.

Take a look and judge for yourselves:

This week's painting production consists of all the crew shown above. The cannons were painted previously.

My new Prussian artillery battery (L to R): 12-pounder, 10-pound howitzer, and 3-pound battalion gun.

Another view of the same artillery battery, but with the addition of a munitions wagon in the background  and some civilians carrying crates of ammo to the cannons.

Both the artillery crew figures and the Pioneer figures come with open hands and an assortment of tools that allow one to customize each figure. In addition, I sometimes give some of the figures a drag rope to hold in their hands - the drag ropes would be attached to the cannon so that the men could pull the piece back in to its firing position.  I make the drag ropes from bits of florists wire that I twist together to make it look like they are holding cabled rope. Other figures get a piece of wire to hold, which represents a wood lever to use to pry the gun trail off of the ground, or to use as one of the poles that slide through a pair of rings on the gun trail, which are then used to left the trail to move it by hand.

Some of the Pioneers in waistcoats are holding artillery tools such as linstocks, rammers, water buckets and worms, etc. This makes them look like crew men who have removed their blue uniform coats so that they can get to work wearing waistcoats.

Each gun model is mounted, unattached, on an MDF base (60mm by 100mm). I glue four crew to all of my medium and heavy guns, but only three crew for light guns. I also place a smaller stand (60mm by 30mm) with two matrosses that is placed behind the gun model stand. This is done mostly for "looks" to indicate some of the depth of "stuff" that is found behind an artillery piece. I would typically include a limber and team of four horses behind each medium (5-8 pounds) and heavy ( > 9 pounds) cannon model. Light cannon (1 to 4 pounds) generally do not get a limber team because I usually attach the light guns to the infantry battalions and so the guns move with the stands of the infantry.

The 3-pound battalion gun is detached from the rest of the battery and
placed by itself on the righthand side of the picture. The Winterfeldt Regiment (IR1) is
 marching down the road to provide support to the artillery.

All of the pictures are set up on a game mat from Cigar Box Battle Mats, which have become one of my favorite mats to use on my game table.  Link to the web site: Cigar Box Battle Mats. This particular mat is the New Europe Plus (6ft by 4ft) and I use it with the New Europe Two mat that creates a table surface of approximately 10ft long by 6ft wide. The width of the mats are closer to 5ft rather than the 4ft Plus advertised. 

All of the buildings shown in my pictures were made by Herb Gundt, who also made the corn fields and trees that you can see in the background.

Nearly all of the miniatures are from the Fife and Drum and Minden Miniatures ranges of figures. There are also several civilians from Perry and Blue Moon.

Next UP:

Prussian Winterfeldt regiment IR1

New Personalities & Brummers Pix

The new Minden Prussian Brummer 

Russian General William Fermor (left) and Austrian Marshal von Browne (right)

Here are some pictures of the new Minden Personalities including the Russian general Fermor and the Austrian Marshal von Browne. Also included is the new Prussian 12-pound fortress cannon, also known as the Brummer (used to great effect at the battle of Luther).


f

It's No Bummer When You've Got a Brummer!

Here are some preliminary piccies of the 12-pound Brummer that Frederick used at the battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757. These big artillery pieces were actually fortress guns located at Glogau ( in Silesia). Frederick had a shortage of cannon prior to Leuthen ( the Silesian army based in Breslau had lost most of their cannon after their defeat by the Austrians outside of Breslau, whereas the King's half of the army, fresh off their victory at Rossbach, was traveling light with respect to its compliment of artillery).

There are a couple of changes that we are making: bigger wheels and the placement of the trunnions is a bit off, but both are being corrected.

I want to thank Christian Rogge for allowing Fife & Drum to use his scale diagram of the Prussian Brummer

I expect to have these giant cannon in production early in 2015.

Here is a link to Christian's blog:

Christian Rogge's Blog

Austrian Artillery Train from Minden

Austrian artillery train driver from Minden Miniatures. Ammo wagon is from Westphalia Miniatures, although Minden will soon be adding its own 2-wheel  and 4-wheel ammo wagons.

The above picture depicts the new Minden Austrian artillery train driver and the new limber horse designed to accomodate the driver/rider. We also have a similar Prussian driver and two new civilian drivers for the SYW or AWI (tricorn and jacket or brimmed hat and waistcoat).

Prussian train driver and all three of the new Minden limber horses and the ammo wagon, all from Minden Miniatures.

The 2-wheel Austrian ammo wagon is made by Westphalia Miniatures and the very talented Niels Reulkotter. Minden has its own ammo carts on the designer's bench at this very moment, but these Westphalia wagons are really special and you ought to check out their website.

Artillery Campaign Is A Success!

The SYW artillery Kickstarter was a great success with the final pledge tally at $9,354. As a result, the following equipment and figures have been funded for sculpting and production:

Austrian Artillery & Equipment

3- pounder

6-pounder

7-pound howitzer 

12-pounder

"y-frame " limber

2-wheel munitions wagon 

4-wheel munitions wagon

Status: cannons and limber at the caster; and wagons are completed and will be sent to the caster this month.

Russian Artillery Equipment

8-pounder

12-pounder

12-pound Unicorn

12-pound Secret Howitzer

Russian artillery crew (4 loading and 4 firing poses)

Status: work has commenced on the cannon models

Prussian 12-pound Brummer

Status: not started yet.

Personalities

General Fermor (Russia)

Marshal von Browne (Austria)

Prinz Moritz of Anhalt Dessau (Prussia)

One personality to be determined

Status: not started yet.

Let's Get Frederick the Great Really Ticked Off!

Prussian (Left) and Austrian (Right) artillery train drivers on the new LH-003 Limber Horse

Pledges are $6,214 USD as of today so that means that the Austrian artillery is funded as is the 12-pounder Prussian Brummer. (Fritz likes Brummers).

Fritz is also happy that the Russians, so far, are not going to fight their next battle with artillery because the KS campaign still needs $786 USD dollars within the next 11 days in order to hit the stretch goal of $7,000 USD, which will unlock all of the Russian artillery.

So if you like the Austrians and Russians and cannot stand the Brandenburg Usurper, then help make Fritz unhappy by clicking on the link below and making a pledge. Pledges start as low as $15 USD and there are seven pledge levels of $100 USD or less:

link

Also, our spies report that the Austrian artillery greens are already at Griffin Moulds getting outfitted for production moulds. So when this Kickstarter closes, the cannon will quickly be on their way to backers. We understand that Fritz is very upset over this rearmament of Marie Therese's army. He he he. 

Finally, here are some of the new Austrian and Prussian artillery train drivers and the new limber horses, which are now in stock in the US and through our UK distributor : Crann Tara Miniatures.

All of our previous civilian limber drivers and limber horses have been removed from stock (they were made by a different sculptor) and replaced with new limber horses and drivers sculpted by Richard Ansell. This provides a more uniform appearance to the range in that every man and beast in the range is now sculpted by Richard.

Tomorrow night I hope to have painted samples of the two new civilian limber drivers. One wears a brimmed hat and is wearing a sleeveless waistcoat. The other driver is wearing a tricorn hat and a full jacket.

The new LH-001 (left) and LH-002 limber horses are shown with the Prussian artillery train driver and  AE-019 munitions wagon.

Artillery Train Drivers amd Limber Horses

Prussian (left) and Austrian (right) artillery train drivers

Here are some quick pictures of the Austrian and Prussian artillery train drivers that we added to the Minden range of SYW figures. We have also reworked and replaced all of the existing limber horses and civilian riders so that they are all sculpted by Richard Ansell.

Updated Code Numbers as of midnight October 1, 2014

New product codes are:

AE-027  Pair of civilian limber drivers (hat and tricorn) w/o horse. -- $4.00

AE-028  Pair of Prussian artillery train riders  w/o horses  -- $4.00

AE-029 Prussian artillery train rider & horse (1 of each) -- $6.00

AE-030  Pair of Austrian artillery train riders  w/o horses  -- $4.00

AE-031  Austrian artillery train rider & horse (1 of each) -- $6.00

AE-008 Pair of Limber Horses   -- $8.00

Prussian (left) and Austrian (right) artillery train drivers.

A picture of the two new limber horses that replaced the old horses.

The Brummers Are Coming, the Brummers Are Coming!

Kickstarter Update:

Pledges made:        $6,002

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

Amount needed:      $998

This morning, one person pledged  a very generous $500 to push us past the $6,000 stretch goal that will unlock the Prussian 12-pound Brummer. Thank you very much to this gentleman and to all of the backers who are making the launch of SYW artillery in the Minden range possible.

The fine picture of the Brummer was taken by Christian Rogge at the Musee des Armes in Paris. Christian reports that the cannon show is actually a version of the Brummer that was produced after the SYW, but the SYW version is very similar .

Now we get down to the real nitty gritty of this campaign -- the Russian artillery! I am very excited about the prospect of adding the Russian cannon to the range. Although we are starting with four cannon, there are so many varieties of Russian ordnance that I am sure that we will add more than four cannon.

If you want to see Russians in the Minden range and you have been meaning to back the Kickstarter campaign, then please visit our KS site and get more of the details:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1937253848/fife-and-drum-syw-austrian-artillery

Prussian Artillery Equipment from Fife & Drum

New Prussian Artillery Models (from L to R): 12-pdr, 10-pd Howitzer, 6-pdr, and 3-pdr. Click pix to enlarge.

Prussian 12-pounder (left) and 10-pound howitzer (right) shown with Minden Miniatures SYW Prussian artillery crewmen for size comparison.

The Fife & Drum artillery works has been busy these past couple of months designing, forging and assembling and painting the new Prussian SYW artillery equipment that we have added to our range of 18th Century artillery equipment. The artillery range is done in 1/56 scale, which means that they are utterly and completely compatible with the Minden Miniatures range of SYW figures. These cannon models were designed with the Minden range in mind, as I needed some cannon for my own armies of Minden Miniatures Prussians.

A special thanks goes to Christian Rogge for his tireless work in creating drawings of all of the French and Prussian SYW era artillery equipment. Christian's work made it all possible to have the sculpts made and the pieces put into production.

The range also includes the necessary limbers and horse teams to go with your Prussian (and French) artillery, and we also added a munitions wagon and pontoon wagon, both of which could be used with any European army in the 18th Century.

Prussian 6-pounder (left) with light 6-pounder limber, and 3-pounder (right) M1740 Holtzmann model. Click pix to enlarge.

Munitions wagon (left) to provide ammo for your artillery and a pontoon wagon with pontoon (right) for all of those river crossings. You can also purchase an extra pair of pontoons and a pair of draft horses with civilian driver. Click pix to enlarge.

Prussian 12-pounder with limber. Minden Miniatures artillery crew shown for sizing purposes.

Here is a list of the new product codes for the Prussian artillery equipment:

AE-008   Pair of limber horses and civilian driver  ($8.00)
AE-017   Pair of pontoons only ($8.00)
AE-018   Pontoon wagon with one pontoon   ($10.00)
AE-019   Munitions wagon (wicker-sided with canvas cover) ($10.00)
AE-020   Prussian 12-pounder  ($6.00)
AE-021   Prussian 10-pound Howitzer  ($6.00)
AE-022   Prussian 6-pounder  ($6.00)
AE-023   Prussian 3-pounder M1740 Holtzmann model  ($5.00)
AE-024   Prussian light limber with ammo chest (use with 6-pdr and 3-pdr)  ($5.00)
AE-025   Prussian heavy A-Frame artillery limber  ($5.00)
AE-026   Pair of civilian limber horse riders only - 1 brimmed hat & 1 tricorne ($4.00)

For more information, click on the Fife & Drum link below to go to the web page:

Fife & Drum Miniatures


In the future, we will add the Prussian Brummer and the 7-pound howitzer to the range.


In a few more days, I will post pictures and product codes for all of the new French Valliere artillery equipment that we now have in the Fife & Drum range.

Prussian Artillery Bricoles?

Minden Miniatures Pioneers painted as Prussian artillerist in waistcoats. RSM limber and driver.

Here is a picture of an artillery vignette that I created back in 2010, based on the Knotel print below, where we see Prussian artillery crew manhandling the cannon back into its firing position. They use a combination of ropes to pull the cannon, and a lift bar to keep the trail from dragging alone the ground creating friction. The ropes were called avancir-Riemen according to Christopher Duffy -- 

"(they) were attached to hooks on the carriage cheeks and the ends of the axle and pulled over the right shoulder of the crewmen. At the same time, a transvers bar was inserted (see below) by two of the crewmen through a set of eyes on the trail of the carriage, lifted to clear the ground and pushed from the rear. Over reasonable ground the piece was capable of being moved at slightly more than the pace of marching infantry, and on each bound the gunners reckoned to haul their cannon far enough ahead to enable them to get off a couple of rounds before their infantry caught up. The heavier pieces were dragged by horse-power all the way to the battery sites."

-- The Army of Frederick the Great (page 179)

Prussian artillery crew manhandle the cannon into position. Knotel print.

Artillery crews were using drag ropes to haul the heavy cannon back into place for many years prior to the Napoleonic Wars. They were certainly using drag ropes during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748) and during the Seven Years War.

In my artillery vignette, I used florist wire to create the rope by twisting two pieces together to form a cable. At one end, I twisted the wire into a loop so that it could be attached to the axle of the cannon model. The "rope" is then fit into the open hands of the Minden Miniatures "Pioneer" figures. These are wonderful figures, very versatile and useful for a number of purposes. They can be holding the tools that come with each set. They can be holding planks of wood or rods used for pontoon bridge building. They can carry sacks of flour or gunpowder by making a burlap bag out of green epoxy putty. You are only limited by your imagination. I use the same figures for both Austrian and Prussian artillery crew matrosses (helpers) and countless other uses.

Prussian Artillery Command Stand

Colonel Karl Friedrich von Moller, commander of the Prussian artillery at Rossbach and Leuthen. Minden Prussian officer mounted on an RSM standing horse, accompanied by a Minden Prussian officer (his spontoon has been replaced with the regimental flag). Click to enlarge the view.

I was browsing through my copy of Hans Bleckwenn's uniform books on the Prussian army of Frederick the Great when I happened to come upon a picture of the artillery uniforms and their regimental flags. I had always intended to have a separate artillery commander for my Minden Prussian army, so when I saw that the artillery had its own flag, I knew that I had to put one on the eventual command stand.

The flag itself looked like it might be a tad beyond my painting skills, were I to hand paint it, so instead, I took the book to the copy shop and photocopied the flag at 33% of its original size, versus the picture in my book. This reduced the length (the fly?) to about one inch and the width (the hoist?) to about an inch and a quarter. This turned out to be a perfect fit for the officer on foot, who would be holding the flag. I also tried reducing the flag to 45%, but while the added size displayed the flag details much better, it was way to big for the figure that would be holding the flag.

After reducing two copies of the flag, I cut both pieces out and glued them to a sheet of plain white paper so as to have the two sides opposite one another. Then I photocopied this version and produced my own flag sheet. White glue was applied to the underside of the flag and then the paper was pressed together around the flag shaft. Then I took a small paint brush and used it to shape and curl or furl the flag so that it would look more natural.

Colonel von Moller shown outside the Gasthaus Alter Fritz, modelled by Herb Gundt after an inn at Hochirch (across the street from the church where IR19 met its demise). Herb made all of the buildings, trees and the guard house shown in the picture. Click the picture to enlarge.


Von Moller (left) confers with Marshal von Schwerin (right) while Major General von Winterfeldt (center) looks on. Click the picture to enlarge.

The foot figure holding the artillery flag is the Minden Prussian officer on foot with spontoon. As with most Minden figures, you are required to drill out your own hole in the officer's hand, which is a simple matter to do if you have a pin vise tool. So instead of inserting the spontoon in the resulting hole, I clipped off a section of a North Star 100mm spear with flat head spear tip and used it for my flag pole. This flag pole will never break off due to the fact that the holding hand has been drilled out. I like it this way.

Finally, I glued the mounted Prussian officer (also a Minden figure, but mounted on an RSM horse) onto a 1.5" diameter round base from "Georgo Bases" -- this is my standard size for command stands in my Minden armies. Then I glued down the flag bearer and terrained the base with spackle compound, covered in railroad ballast, then washed with brown ink and flocked with static grass. The final vignette is quite eye pleasing, if I do say so myself.

A Four Day Weekend Begins

Prussian artillery battery - a great picture deserves a second showing. Minden artillery crew, Berlin Zinnfiguren cannon and limbers, Front Rank supply wagons, and RSM horses and drovers. Click (or double click) the picture to enlarge the view.

The picture of my SYW Prussian artillery battery is one of my favorite pictures in my archives. I think that I posted the picture in August 2010, but I like it so much that I wanted to lead off today's blog entry.

Tonight starts a long four day holiday weekend for me, with the office closed for Veterans' Day tomorrow, a vacation day on friday to bridge to the weekend, and the normal saturday and sunday weekend. That should give me plenty of time to recharge my batteries after 12 consecutive weeks of "balls of fire" workload at the office. I'm really looking forward to the time off and the promise of some significant family time and painting time mixed in for balance.

I plan to finish off the Minden Austrian grenadiers and then hopefully pitch in to some of the Austrian artillery crew. I've got a long way to go before I can bring the Austrian artillery park up the quantity and standard that you see for the Prussians, in the picture above. I will probably have to spend a full day assembling limbers, reins & traces, and riders to get all of the pieces that I need to replicate the complete section of cannon & crew/support-drag rope men/supply wagon/ limber team for each Austrian section. It's a lot of work up front, but the painting is relatively quick and easy, plus the end results are well worth the effort.

RSM Prussian & Austrian Sale / Foundry Russian Sale Pending
I have decided to sell off the rest of my RSM Prussian army and the remaining Austrian cavalry that I still have. With these armies being sold, I will not have a reason to keep my SYW Russian army (Foundry) either, so watch this blog over the next week or two for pictures of these armies. I will sell them as individual units or work out a discount for larger purchases of brigades or even whole armies. Stay tuned.

Prussian Artillery Battery in the SYW

Four gun Prussian battery with all of its support pieces deployed to the rear. Guns and limbers are from Berliner Zinnfiguren, the crew and labourers are Minden Miniatures, the supply wagons are from Front Rank Miniatures, and the horses are from RSM.

I knocked out two supply wagons, another limber team, and a stand of labourers over the weekend in order to expand my SYW Prussian artillery battery, which is a part of my Minden Project. The results can be seen in the pictures (above and below) and I am really pleased with the way that things are shaping up. Eventually, the battery will have four 12-pounders and each gun stand will have four crew men, backed up by a stand of two labourers, one supply wagon stand and finally, the limber team. This will create the depth of the battery which should be more realistic, what with its complicated and busy logistical tail attached.

Front view of the Prussian battery in action, with a little bit of kapok or cotton to simulate the smoke after the guns fire. Buildings by Herb Gundt of H.G.Walls.

I only need to paint and assemble one more limber team, a supply wagon, and a stand of labourers in order to complete the fourth section in the battery. Given that I am using a 1:20 ratio (or about 2:1 ratio of gun models), the four gun sections equate to about 8 actual guns.

A closer view of the limber teams and the supply wagons that support each gun. In the background you can see Frederick the Great talking to his generals, near the tent.

I also assembled and primed some ammo supply wagons for the infantry this evening. Each brigade will have one small arms supply wagon to accompany it into battle. The 2-wheel carts are from Front Rank.