Prussian Guard Grenadiers (painted unit)

 

Third battalion of the Prussian Guards (IR15/III) - Minden Miniatures

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I finished, finally, the painting and basing of the third battalion of the Prussian Guard infantry during the Seven Years War. It's numeral designation was IR15/III meaning that it was the third battalion of the regiment numbered "15" in the Prussian establishment.

The first battalion was the ceremonial battalion with all of the fancy and expensive uniform lace. They appeared in only one SYW battle (Kolin), spending the rest of the war stationed at the royal residence at Potsdam.

The second battalion (IR15/II) wore tricorn hats and the third battalion (IR15/III) wore grenadier miters. Regardless of the type of headgear that they wore, all guards were considered to be grenadiers.

Here is a link to the Kronoskaf site for more information on the Guards Regiment. IR15 Prussian Guards

Here are two views of the battalion from the rear ( I have removed two of the stands from the unit so that it would be easier to take a photograph).

As per my new basing system, the figures are mounted on 3mm thick MDF bases that measure 60mm frontage and 80mm depth. The stands hold either 8 or 9 figures. The officers, NCOs and musicians form a third rank. Flags are from GMB Designs.

Here are pictures of the full battalion with five stands of figures. My recollection is that there are 44 figures in this one battalion compared to my line regiments' strength of 32-34 figures.

Both the Guard musketeers and grenadiers are available from Minden Miniatures as distinct castings (these are not line regiment figures converted with paint). The main distinction between the line and guard units is that the Guards wore an aigulette on their right shoulder.

Here is a link to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store Prussian figures section of the catalog.

Minden Prussian figures

The relevant product codes are:

MP-020 Prussian Guard Command in Tricorn Hats  

MP-021 Prussian Guards in Tricorn Hats

MP-022 Prussian Guard Command in Grenadier Miters

MP-023 Prussian Guards in Grenadier Miters

Painting & Basing Methods Tutorial

 

Newly painted third battalion of the Prussian Guards, wearing mitre hats.
The second battalion wore tricorn hats.

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Yesterday I finished painting a 42-figure unit of the 15/III third battalion of the Prussian Guards for my Seven Years War army. The unit had been sitting on the painting table for several months now and I just couldn't find the gumption to finish them off. So I decided that enough was enough and it was time to finally get them finished and on the game table. 

Front view of the Guards unit.

Rear view of the Guards. The officers and NCOs form a third rank to the line.

I had previously painted the second battalion of the Guards - they wore tricorn hats whilst the third battalion wore grenadier miters. The first battalion was the ceremonial guard unit that only saw action at the Battle of Kolin during the Seven Years War. The second and third battalions saw a lot of action over the course of the war. All of the figures, both second and third battalions, are Minden Miniatures figures that are specifically sculpted to the uniform details of the guards battalions.

I really had to power through the project at first, but eventually momentum kicked in and I started to make progress on the final 20 figures that I needed. The early stages of my painting method gets very tedious, especially when it comes around to painting all of the black bits on the figure. Here is step by step list of how I paint my figures:

1. prime the figures with a light grey color of spray primer. The Vallejo "Wolf Grey" is my favorite.

2. paint the skin areas an undercoating of red brown

3. paint the uniform coat a dark navy blue

4. paint the small clothes next (waistcoat and breeches) a dark yellow

5. paint the red facings (cuffs, lapels, turnbacks and collars)

Now comes the hard part, painting the equipment a black undercoat

6. paint black to all of the equipment such as cross belts, bread bags, knap sacks, water bottles, muskets, scabbards, gaitors, and headgear. This stage takes about 5 minutes per figure, but it becomes extremely tedious after the first couple of figures. I use black as an undercoat for anything that I paint brown or white.

At this point, most of the major colors are "blocked in" and cover the entire figure with various paint colors. Now I advance to applying highlights and details such as buttons and facial features .

7. paint a tan skin or ruddy flesh color over the red brown skin areas, leaving the red brown undercoat showing in the eye sockets and mustache.

8. paint the knapsack and musket dark brown.

9. block in the cross belts and bread bag with a light grey color

10. apply highlight colors on the blue coat, red facings and yellow small clothes.

11. apply white to the cross belts and bread bag.

12. paint the mitre plate on the grenadier mitre silver, paint the cartridge box emblem silver and paint the buttons and lace silver. Anything that has a metallic color must always have a black undercoat in order to make the metallic color be noticeable and have a "pop".

13. paint the musket barrel and water bottle a pewter color. I really do not like painting musket barrels and bayonets for some reason, so this stage is rather tedious for me.

14. paint the buckles, musket butt, sword hilts and scabbard tips Old Gold or brass.

15. (optional) paint all of the leg gaitor buttons with the Old Gold color. Again, this is a tedious step.

16. Add a skin color highlight, touching a small dot on the chin, bridge of the nose and cheeks. Hands get two stripes of highlight on the broad part of the hand. I generally do not paint knuckles. That is borderline ridiculous. 

17. (optional) add another highlight red color. This is generally not necessary but it sometimes provides a color "pop" to the lapels.

18. paint the base dark green

The figure is finished at this point. Note that I do not paint eyes anymore, other than to put a black dot in the eye socket sometimes, nor do I highlight anything that I've painted black. I mean, black is black and it doesn't really lend itself to highlighting. My one exception to the "no black highlighting" rule is horse manes/tails and black horses. I mix a bit of flesh color to a basic black which produces a very dark grey color, which I use sparingly.

And that's how I paint my wargame figures. Once I have passed Step 12 then things seem to speed up and the feeling of tedium passes. I like painting the details on my figures because these seem to bring the figures alive.

Once all of the painting is completed then I move on to basing the figures. I use either MDF bases or buy thin plywood bases from Litko Bases. I glue the figures to the wood using white "Elmer's Glue" and let the glue dry overnight.

Next, I trowel in the "mud", which is a goop made of premixed wallboard paste (get the light paste and not the heavy paste - you can tell the difference just by picking up the quart container by hand). I like the Red Devil Pre-mixed Spackle Compound brand the best. I stir in a dark brown acrylic paint to the Spackle and stir it up until all of the white Spackle color is gone, with the final mix looking like chocolate pudding (but don't eat it!). I use a tiny artists' palette knife or scalpel to trowel the goop between the figures. Sometimes a toothpick or an old paint brush are used to get the goop between the feet of the figures.

While the goop is still wet, I dunk the base into a tray of extra fine railroad ballast made by Woodland Scenics. Then I let the base dry over night.

The next day I stir up some highlight colors and dry brush the paint over the bases. I might use two or three different highlight colors until I get something that looks right to my eye.

Now comes the foliage. I glue on pieces of tufts, which are long clumps of grass. Army Painter makes a nice variety of tuft colors. I use Swamp Grass tufts for the most part. I let the white glue dry for about an hour and then add static grass to the base. Let the tufts dry before you glue on the static grass, otherwise some of the static grass will adhere to the glue on the tufts and, well you won't like how that looks so it's better to let the tufts dry for a short while. You can also add flowers tufts and bits of ground clutter at this stage, if you like.

Now I paint white glue randomly on the base of the figures and dip the base into a tray of static grass, or I sprinkle the static grass onto the base. Then I turn the base sideways and tap the back of the base to remove excess static grass. Then I blow on the top of the base to make the static grass stand up.

The bases are now finished and the final step is to give everything a spritz spray of matte finish (Dull Kote or similar brands). Actually, oftentimes I spray the figures before I start adding the goop to the bases. One note of caution - if you are using GMB Designs flags or similar brands of pre-printed flags, I'd recommend spraying the flag bearer(s) separately, then all of the other figures get sprayed, and then you glue your flags to the flag poles. Then you glue the figures to the bases and then trowel on the goop. Some people like to spray the matte finish to the grassed bases but I don't find this to be a necessary step. Do be careful though to NOT SPRAY YOUR FLAGS with matte or gloss spray because the sprays make the ink colors run.

With the completion of the third battalion of the guards I now have seven units for my War of Austrian Succession Prussian army consisting of the following units:

IR1 Winterfeldt musketeers - 2 battalions

IR18 Prinz von Preussen musketeers - 2 battalions

IR15/II second battalion of the Guards - 1 battalion

IR15/III third battalion of the Guards - 1 battalion

Bornstadt Grenadier Battalion (5/20) - battalion

Plus the 36-figure Bayreuth Dragoons in white coats cavalry regiment.

Next on the painting table: Austrian Grenadier Battalion with 32 to 36 figures.

Minden Miniatures Prussian Guards

IR15/II - musketeers of the second battalion of the Prussian Guard

I recently finished painting and basing a battalion of the second battalion of the Prussian Guard (musketeers in tricorn hats). The actual figures had been painted several months ago, but I was awaiting the arrival of the GMB Designs flags to finish the unit and do the basing and terraining. Flags arrived and were immediately affixed to their staffs and are now ready for service.

The figures are the Prussian Guard Musketeers that were added to the Minden SYW figure range in late 2019. I decided to change my basing system from 2 ranks on a 60mm wide by 40mm deep base to three ranks on a 60mm wide by 80mm deep base. The third rank consists of the officer, NCOs and drummers. The end stands have the drummer on the outside flank standing next to an NCO. The other stands have one officer or one NCO.

The figure configuration per stand is:

8/9/8/9/8 = 42 figures

The old system has six figures per stand on five stands = 30 figures.

View of the third rank of officers, NCOs and drummers.

I kind of stumbled into this basing concept when I decided to paint some AWI Hessians (in a firing line) as Austrian musketeers. I added Minden SYW drummers, officers, standard bearers and NCOs to the Hessian figures to make the unit look more "Minden-like". I used the conversion by paint method to turn the Hessians into Austrians.

Because the front rank of my firing line has the muskets in firing poses, I was a bit concerned about having the musket and bayonet extending over the front edge of the stand, thus making it susceptible to breakage from rough handling. So I decided to keep the same 60mm frontage, but double the depth from 40mm to 80mm. in order to provide the base depth that would protect the muskets and bayonets.

I immediately noticed that I had lots of extra real estate on the bigger stands, so this allowed me to do two new things to the battalion: cram at least 8 figures onto the stand instead of 6, and add a third rank of file closers. Each stand has a third rank of either drummers (only on the two end stands), NCOs or officers. Bigger stands and more figures means that the size of the battalion would suddenly increase from 30 figures to as much as 42 figures. I have the flexibility to remove one of the stands (8 or 9 figures) to reduce the size of the unit more in keeping with my existing battalions of 30 figures. If I removed an 8-figure stand, that reduces the strength from 42 figures to 34 figures. Using a 1:20 ratio, this results in a battalion of 680 men, which is closer to the theoretical strength of 720 men in a typical Prussian infantry battalion.

However, removing one stand leaves me with four stands, of which the command stand flags are now slightly off-center when the battalion is deployed into a line formation. My solution was to add a stand representing the 3-pound battalion gun and crew and place it on one of the flanks. This would give me a configuration of:

8/9/8F/9/battalion gun. 8F represents the command stand with the battalion's flags.

I prefer the symmetry of a battalion that has its flags in the center of the battalion frontage.

I like the new look and this will likely lead me to paint a whole new Prussian and Austrian army for the infantry service branch. I don't have to change the cavalry basing, but I will have to increase cavalry strengths from 24 to 36 figures, by adding 12 more figures per regiment.

And so I will end up with two Prussian infantry contingents and two Austrian infantry contingents; however I will likely sell off the old 30-figure battalions as I paint more 3-rank battalions. I have the one Prussian Guard battalion compared to six Austrian battalions already painted.

Here are several pictures that compare the new (three ranks) basing system versus my original (two ranks) basing system

New basing system (top) versus the original basing system (bottom).

The battalion frontages are the same, but the new system has the files much closer. There are 30 figures in the original battalion and 42 figures in the new battalion.

New system (left) has three ranks compared to two ranks for the original system (right).

Return of the Painting Mojo & A Painting Tutorial

Prussian Guard IR15/II battalion.
Minden Miniatures.

Yesterday I finished 22 figures - Minden Miniatures SYW Prussian Guards in tricorn hats (hence the 2nd battalion of the IR15 Guard Regiment). There was a point during the afternoon painting session where I could really feel the painting mojo coming back. The paint was flying off of my brushes.

Close up view of the figures painted so far.

The figures are being painted as part of a painting challenge, set up by Major General Pettygree, for the month of January. I have to finish the total 32-figure unit by the end of this month. Participating in a painting challenge is a good way to get back into the painting groove.

I had a spare Prussian Zimmerman on hand, already primed, so I painted him as one of the Guards and will place him on the command stand when I get around to basing all of the figures.

The Color Palette Used

Here is a list of the paint colors that I have used on my Prussian Guards. The first color shown is the shade color and the second color is usually my highlight color. Sometimes I will use a third color in a triad, so where three colors are listed, the first color is the shade, the second color is the base, and the third color is the highlight.

Flesh tones:  

Red Brown   IWM   77-713

Rosy Shade  Reaper  09067

Rosy Skin    Reaper  09068

Yellow Breeches and Waistcoat:

Rucksack Tan  P3 Paint   93062

Moldy Ochre   P3            93063

Blue Coat:

Breonne Blue    Reaper    09055

True Blue          IWM      77-720

Red Facings:

Blood Red        Reaper      09003

Fire Red           Reaper      09004

Phoenix Red     Reaper     09005

Black

I use various craft paints for the black and brown bits. Any item of equipment (gaitors, musket, hair, rucksack, etc) gets an undercoat of black paint. Then I paint the brown color over the black. I sometimes highlight brown colors, but recently I have decided that the musket barrel and fur pack look better without the highlights.  I generally do not do highlights for black paint.

And it goes without saying that EVERY METALLIC COLOR should have a black undercoat or else the metal doesn't pop visually. For example, when you paint a button, paint it black first, and then dot the gold or silver or brass color on top of the black button.

Whites and Greys

I use craft paints for most of my grey tones and any pure white will look good. I use one of the P3 white colors. For cross belts, use a light grey undercoat and then apply the white paint over the grey. White on top of a darker grey doesn't look very good because the color contrast is too great.

If I want a dirty white color, such as for haversacks and waistcoats/breeches, I use a mid tone of grey as the base and then use the light grey as the highlight color.

Shading and Highlighting

I use a two-color shade & Highlight system for most of my colors (uniforms and brown equipment). Sometimes I will go with the now-traditional shade/base color/highlight triad system, but in my experience, add the third color doesn't give you much of a payback in the look of the finished figure.

Mixing Your Own Highlight Colors

Sometimes you just can't find a suitable second color or highlight for one of your colors. In this case, you will have to mix up your own paint forumula. Start with your base color, not the shade, and add in a lighter color for the highlight. I don't use white for everything though. I have found that a light tan is a good color to use for the highlight mixer. Regular white will turn your red into a pink and you don't want that to happen. Brown and orange make for a good looking brown highlight, as does the light tan. The red leather apron on the Prussian zimmerman figure was my own mix of the base red brown color with a small drop of light tan.

New Minden IR15 Prussian Guards Greens

Following up on my posting of pictures of the Bosniaken greens, we also have a nice batch of new figures for the Prussian Guard, second and third battalions of the Lieb Guard (also later designated as IR15/2 and IR15/3, respectively). The first battalion was the ceremonial unit that did all of the fancy marching at Potsdam (although their one SYW battle at Kolin featured an amazing performance that day).

The first and second battalions of the Guard wore tricorn hats and the third battalion wore grenadier mitres. However, all three battalions were considered to be "grenadiers". The new figures represent the second and third battalions. Note that officers always wore tricorn hats, so the officer and standard bearer figures in tricorn hats can be used as command figures in the third battalion. Even though the third battalion soldiers wore mitres, they carried the regimentfahn.

Second Battalion of the Guard (wearing tricorn hats)

Second Battalion (L-R) musketeer, NCO, drummer and ensign.
The ensign can be used for both battalions.

Rear view of the 2nd Battalion figures.

Third Battalion of the Guard (wearing mitres)

Third Battalion (L-R) grenadier, NCO, drummer and officer.
he officer can be used for both battalions.

Rear view of the grenadiers.

Subsequent to receiving these pictures, we decided to add an NCO carrying a pole arm - there were three senior NCOs in each battalion that carried pole arms. The other NCOs carried rifles or muskets.

As you might guess, I am really happy to add Prussian Guards to the Minden figure range and I look forward to painting a battalion of each once the figures are cast. Perhaps in the future, we might add the first battalion figures, dressed in their parade ground uniforms.