The Guards Turn Out for the Queen’s Jubilee

 

The Guards lead the parade, carrying the colours.

Congratulations to Great Britain for its celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 year reign on the throne of the United Kingdom. Regardless of whether one is a monarchist or a republican, you have to admit that the British know how to do pomp and pageantry like no other country. I had wanted to watch the Trooping of the Colours on live TV, but I forgot about it and missed seeing the event. I can probably watch it on You Tube.

So in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee, I had all of my William Britain’s Household Troops turn out on the parade ground on our kitchen table and stage a celebratory parade. The toy soldiers don’t get out of storage very often so they were appreciative of the opportunity to get onto the parade ground.

The figures in these photos are William Britain’s hollow cast toy soldiers that I have saved from my childhood days.

Next comes the band of the Grenadier Guards.

The Greys and the rest of the Household cavalry follow the foot troops (for obvious reasons).

The entire cavalry contingent in my collection.

The mounted band of the Greys.

The Life Guards bring up the rear of the parade.

Here are some more random pictures that I took today.

Bella, our Golden Retriever, seems nonplussed by what is going on above.

All of this reminds me of when I was a little boy and I would set up my Britain’s figures on the floor to have battles and victory parades. Ah yes, I remember it well.

Prussian Dragoons Wearing White Coats

 

I have always wanted to get around to painting some of my Minden Miniatures Prussian dragoons wearing the white coats of the pre-1745 dragoon uniform. I would imagine that King Frederick ordered the uniform change because the white coats looked too much like Austrian uniforms

So I chose the famous Bayreuth Dragoons (DR5) who achieved their fame at the Battle of Hohenfriedburg in 1745. They were a ten squadron dragoon regiment (yes, you read that correctly, ten squadrons!) which made them the size of a normal brigade of cavalry. Prior to the battle DR5 was not assigned to any other Prussian cavalry brigade and the various Prussian generals forgot that the Bayreuth Dragoons were even a part of the army. 

The regimental colonel spied an opportunity to charge into the faltering Austrian musketeer regiments and so he ordered the regiment to advance forward and initiate the charge. The Austrian infantry was caught off guard by the charge and many of them broke and ran. The Bayreuth Dragoons virtually took out a large part of the Austrian army in one charge, sealing the victory for the Prussians.

This is another example of "converting with paint" as all I had to do was paint the figures with white coats, rather than cornflower blue. The uniform was of the same cut before and after the switch from white coat to blue coat, thus no other conversions are required.

Here are some more pictures of my new Bayreuth Dragoon regiment in situ.

The regiment has 36 figures compared to my standard cavalry size of 24 figures.

The Butcher's Bill; A Call For Help

 

A Prussian Grenadier appeals to his mates for help.

This is a close up vignette that I set up on my game table the other day. During the battle, there are several wounded Prussians still alive, but laying on the ground in agony from their wounds. A Prussian grenadier goes out beyond the firing line to help his fallen officer. Behind him another Prussian soldier pleads for help, but the other grenadier coming out to help him has himself become a casualty of war.

And no, the unfortunate soldiers were not shot down by their own Prussian 3-pound cannon, but rather from well aimed Austrian muskets.

Another Prussian officer, on foot, points to his grenadier and brings his plight to the attention of the regimental colonel.

The casualty figures are from the Perry AWI Hessian figure range. The artillery and crew are Fife and Drum artillery pieces and Minden gun crew. The officer pointing is an RSM figure and the mounted officer is a Minden Prussian figure. The table mat is made by Cigar Box Battle Mats. I think that all of the elements fit in quite nicely together.

Playing Around With My Terrain - SYW

 

A view of the Man Cave at Schloss Seewaldt

CLICK ON ALL PIX TO ENLARGE

I have spent a good part of Memorial Day (today) down in the Man Cave where it is nice and cool. Outdoors the temperature is a hot and humid 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit. I took the dogs out for a short walk and they were panting, evidencing that they had had enough and wanted to return home and get some water.

That said, I spent a bit of time rearranging the terrain that I have set up on my wargame table. I wanted to have the same terrain, but from a different perspective, so I shifted the line of troops from a horizontal axis across the table and set the battalions at a diagonal axis from end to end.

Here are the "before" and "after" pictures of the troop deployments showing the effect of the shift. It almost tells a completely different story.

The troops are deployed on a straight horizontal axis on the table.

The troops have shifted slightly to a diagonal axis on the table.

I added some casualty figures and smoke to the tableaux to illustrate an active battle engagement .

The view from the Austrian side of the table.
Note the staff meeting at the center edge of the table.

A closer view of the firefight: Prussian Jagers try to fend off the Croats who 
protect the left flank of the Austrian battle line.

The view from the Prussian side of the table.
Note how the Prussian diagonal positioning results in both flanks 
secured by villages or woods.

Well, it's back to the painting table now. Yesterday I finished the painting and basing of 36 Bayreuth Dragoons wearing the pre-1745 white coats of the Prussian dragoon regiments. Okay, I was going to save the pictures for a separate blog post, but here is a teaser of how the new figures look:

Prussian dragoons wearing the pre-1745 white coats.
This is the Bayreuth Dragoon (DR5) regiment.

I put the regular Minden Prussian dragoon figures on the more dynamic, cantering, horses from the Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI range. The flags are from GMB Designs.

Pictures of the Week: Berlin Zinnfiguren Store

 

Please click on all pictures to enlarge.

Whenever I am in Berlin, Germany the first thing that I do is to make a beeline to the Berlin Zinnfiguren store. The collection of military ministers, flats and SYW books is one of the best that I have ever seen.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures taken while visiting the store in October 2016. I particularly like Baron von Munchhausen. I kind of wish that I had purchased this one.

Baron von Munchhausen flat figure vignette

Prussian Yellow Hussars flat figures. I was tempted to buy them but the price was beyond my budget.

A nice 18th Century coach vignette with flat figures.

The majority of figures on display are painted flats ...

...but they have a few figures "in the round" too.

These figures should give you a good idea of what the store offers in term of military miniatures. They have an extensive stock of new and used military history books as well. There are always a few hidden gems in the book section of the store.

More SYW/WAS Tabletop Pictures

 

Some of the "Swells" taking a carriage ride through the town of Jung Fritzenburg.

Here are a few more of the pictures that I have taken of my growing WAS Project Austrian and Prussian battalions.

The armies are coming together for the minuet of war.

I posted the above picture on my previous blog post, but I like this photo because it shows nearly all of the units that I have painted in the WAS Project. There are seven Austrian line musketeer battalions so far that vary in strength from 32 to 40 figures. The first two units that I painted used standard Austrian yellow regimental and white colonel's flags that were used during the SYW. I believe (someone can check me out on this one) that the yellow flags started to filter into use around 1745, that is, towards the end of the War of the Austrian Succession ("WAS").

The earlier WAS flags have several varieties of flags. I like the red and white horizontal striped flag that you can see on the regiment in the lower righthand side of the picture. Several other flags have red and white rectangular shapes around the edges of the flag, compared to the more common "flames" pattern.

I have been buying my WAS flags from a company called "Pete's Flags", which he sells only on eBay. These are every bit as good as GMB Designs flags and they are available for both 28mm and 15mm armies.

Here is another village, located in the lower righthand corner of my game table. It is not shown in the panorama picture above, but it would be located just to the right of the Austrian battalion with striped flag in the lower righthand corner.

I haven't given this village a name yet, so maybe my readers can leave some suggestions (keep them family-oriented please LOL) for the name.

This village consists of three Ian Weekley buildings that were made circa 1986; one early Herb Gundt house (lower left corner of the first picture) and a blacksmith shop made by Ed Phillips. The cobbled town square is a mat from Lemak, a company that makes little Christmas village buildings and accessories. I bought the cobblestone mats from Michaels' Stores in the United States. I plan on eventually giving the mat a black wash to make the cobblestones more visible. I could dry brush some light colors over the stones, but I'm not sure how well the paint would adhere to a rubbery, unprimed surface that bends. The fountain in the center was also made by Herb Gundt. He used an old ECW Minifig for the statue therein.

Next we have a couple photos of Jung Fritzenburg. I already have a larger Alt Fritzenburg so I used a similar name for this collection of Ian Weekley buildings and Herb Gundt church. The church roof lifts off and I oftentimes place battery powered tiny white lights inside.

In the pictures below, we see the village center with several Ian Weekley buildings and the Herb Gundt church. Some Minden mounted ladies and gentlemen are riding through the village accompanying a four horse carriage (made by Ed Phillips). Facing the camera is the infamous Savage Swann Inn. A number of the locals have gathered in front of the Savage Swann to imbibe the local pilsner beer. It's a bit early in the day for them to be swilling beer, but who am I to judge?

The village is populated by civilians from a variety of figure ranges including Minden, Foundry, Front Rank, Perry and Blue Moon.

That's Jung Fritzenburg. It is a peaceful village for now, but things will heat up soon as the Prussians and Austrians have both set up camps outside of the town. A battle is sure to follow.

The Prussian staff officers gather at the wind mill. A number of them are trying to figure out where they are.
Windmill was made by Ian Weekley. Largely Minden Miniatures figures.

Prussian Field Camp Vignettes

 

SYW Prussian camp scene. The tent modules were made by Herb Gundt
and the figures are from a variety of figure ranges.

CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE

I have a large terrain set up on my 6ft by 12ft game table. I put villages and towns in each of the four corners of the table so that they do not interfere with a potential battle that I might want to have. For now, this is a display that I will leave up for about a month.

Here is a longer view of the game table:

The main village is located in the upper left corner. The Prussian camp is off-photo in the upper right corner. A smaller village and Austrian camp are in the lower right corner. The North German farmhouse is located in the lower left corner. I will be posting pictures of the other corner display areas over the next several days.

The above picture depicts my WAS Prussians and Austrians lined up on the table top. When I am working on building new armies, I like to set them up on the table so that I can watch the armies grow with each additional unit that comes off of my painting table. As the number of units grows, my enthusiasm level climbs, and seeing all of these new figures on the table inspire me to keep on with the War of Austrian Succession Project.

Probably 95% of the figures shown in the above picture are Minden Miniatures or Fife and Drum Miniatures.