New Minden Figures - Painted Samples Pix

Austrian Horse Grenadiers and a Prussian mounted Jager courrier.

CLICK ALL PIX TO ENLARGE

I have been working my through the painting of samples for each of the 16 new figures that have recently been added to the Minden Miniatures range, which include:

Austrian Horse Grenadiers (4 poses)

French heavy Cavalrie wearing bearskin hats

French foot grenadiers wearing bearskin hats

NB. no Bears were harmed in the sculpting of the above new figures.

So far I have painted two of the Austrian Horse Grenadier figures and an amazing rendition of a Prussian Jager zu Pferde courier deliverying an important message. This latter figure was a special commission piece by one of our Minden Miniatures customers.

(L-R) Austrian Horse Grenadier Trooper, Austrian Horse Grenadier Officer, and Prussian mounted  Jager courrier.

Side view of the Austrian Horse Grenadiers and Prussian Jager

I have also completed the painting of the four new French foot grenadiers wearing bearskin hats. Originally, only the foreign regiments of Swiss and German troops equipped their grenadiers in bearskins, but within a couple of years of the start of the SYW (1758-59) the bearskin hat began to appear on grenadiers in the ranks of the Metropolitan French line regiments as well. They are so stylish, can you blame them?

Thus, if you are painting German or Swiss troops then you will definitely need some of these new figures in your painted regiments. You can also add them to your regular ("Metropolitan") French regiments and know that this could be correct by the midpoint of the war.

French Grenadiers wearing bearskin hats.

(L-R) Officer - Picardie Regt., Drummer in Royal Livery, Swiss NCO, and Fusilier - Piemont.

Rear view of the same French Grenadier figures.

Other new additions to the Minden range include:

French Kettle Drummer

Prussian mounted Jager postman

French Marshal de Broglie

French Lt. General Chevert

I have nearly completed the French Kettle Drummer figure, but I don't want to post a picture until I have finished painting its horse.

Next on the painting list: the Austrian Horse Grenadier drummer and standard bearer, Marshal de Broglie and Chevert, and then finally the four French Cavalrie in bearskins figures.

Watch this blog for updates and new pictures as I complete the painting of each new figure.

By the way, all of these figures are now available for sale on the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store.

Fife and Drum web store

Starting a New Minden French Army

Regiment Orleans - click to enlarge the picture.

I have decided that it is time for me to begin building French and British/Hanoverian armies with the Minden Miniatures range of figures. I have enough Austrians and Prussians to suit most of my needs so I need a new project and the SYW in Western Germany is it.

For my French army, I think that I will be able to use all of the RSM French cavalry that is already in my collection and concentrate my build on the infantry and artillery, using Minden French figures and equipment.

I thought that I would treat myself to some special figures, so I commissioned Leuthen Studios to paint the two battalions, Orleans and Diesbach, that you see on this page. The German regiment Royal Pologne will be the next addition to my French army.

Independently of this, I plan on painting the Grenadiers de France and a couple white-coated regiments so that I ultimately have 8 battalions organized into brigades of four battalions.

I had the Orleans flags from GMB Designs on hand so I was able to flag that regiment. I don't have the Diesbach Swiss flag so that unit will have to wait for its flags and basing. I want to attach the Diesbach flags to the poles before I glue the figures onto the base and start terraining it with Spackle compound. Otherwise it would be very difficult to attach the flag into a confined space without being able to shift and move the standard bearer.

Swiss Regiment Diesbach

My French and British battalions will use the 32-figure, closely spaced, basing system from the start so I will not have to change the basing in the future. Check the blog link  Here for a description of the basing system that I will be using.

On the Painting Table

Here are a few quick hit, rapid fire topics on my mind today:

Minden SYW Russian Artillery Crew: I am currently working on 8 of the new Minden SYW Russian artillery crew figures: four in loading poses and four in firing poses. These are fairly simple to paint as you only need red and black paint (plus some flesh color) for the figure. I started on them last evening, just a few minutes before midnight and made good progress over the next hour. I should be able to complete them tonight.

Austrian Cuirassier Regiment Anhalt Zerbst: Also on the painting table: a 12-figure squadron of Austrian cuirassiers - the Anhalt Zerbst Regiment, are nearly done save for a little bit of black highlighting (doesn't "black highlighting" seem like an oxymoron?). Alas, the second squadron will not be completed in time for our big Kolin refight next Saturday June 20th. Anhalt Zerbst Cuirassiers will eventually be 2 x 12 = 24 figures strong, but not this week.

An Interesting Blog Worth Checking Out: I stumbled across an interesting blog for a gentleman that has painted a few Minden SYW figures in his time. Click on the link and scroll through the archives to find other Minden painted figures.  .

Raven Painting Blog

One of the things that I liked in particular, was the method of basing shown in the blog photos. The figures are allocated over five bases, but on several of the bases, a virtual third rank of command figures has been set back from the second rank of marching figures. One extra figure marching behind each stand seems to produce an authentic looking infantry battalion on the march. All of this leads to the key question...

Is It Time to Rebase All of My Minden Infantry?  None of us like to rebase figures, particularly when the basing system already in use is pretty good looking in its own right. However, Raven's Minden pictures have really got me to think about doing the unthinkable, which is to rebase all of my infantry. I already have 30 figures in my battalions, similar to the Raven pictures, so I would not have to paint any additional figures to implement the rebasing program. I would keep the same 5 base battalion, but instead of having six figures on each base, I would have something like this:

Right flank base: 6 rank and file marching in two ranks plus a drummer in the third rank. Total = 7 figures.

Right of the command stand base: 4 rank and file figures in two ranks and an officer or NCO in the third rank acting as a file closer of sorts. Total = 5 figures.

Centre Command Stand: 4 rank and file figures in two ranks, two figures per rank, plus two standard bearers forming the third rank. Total = 6 figures.

Left of the command stand base: 5 figures deployed in the same manner as its righthand counterpart.

Left flank base: same as the right flank base with one drummer in the third row. Total = 7 figures.

At the moment I have 11 Prussian battalions and 10 Austrian battalions that would have to be rebased. So while the idea is rather daunting, I have not progressed so far in my army buildup so as to rule the idea out completely. Someone please talk me out of this nonsense.

I should probably do one test battalion first to see if I really like the idea enough to go through with the rebasing. One benefit is that I could squeeze the figures closer together and perhaps reduce the unit frontage, freeing up a little more game table space.

Next Game: Saturday June 20th - Battle of Kolin - we have five players for this version of Kolin that will focus mainly on the Prussian assault on Krechor village and the Oak Wood versus the Austrian divisions of Wied, Sincere and Starhemberg, plus lots and lots of cavalry. I might have to resort to playing the unfamiliar role of an Austrian commander so that I can have some control (as game master) over the release of Austrian infantry and cavalry units that are force marching from left to right. More on this later this week as we get closer to the game day.

New Minden Grenadiers de France

Grenadiers de France Command Set (MF-014)

Grenadiers de France rank and file (pack of 8 figures) (MF-016

Here are some pictures of the new Minden French Grenadiers de France figures. The command set includes an officer with short fusil, standard bearer, drummer, and sargeant with musket. Stock number MF-014.

The rank and file marching grenadier comes in a pack of 8 figures (MF-016).

Grenadiers de France Greens and Much More

Grenadiers de France

I received the latest pictures of Richard Ansell's work on the Minden SYW range today including the Grenadiers de France, shown at the top of the page, three SYW Personality figures (Fermor, von Browne, and Prinz Moritz) and 8 different Russian artillery crew (4 loading poses and 4 firing poses). The Zieten personality figure is a work in progress and he should be ready for viewing within a week, I would imagine.

I run out of words and superlatives to describe each new batch of figures that we get from Richard. The facial expressions on the personality figures are wonderful and the Fermor figure is one of the most amazing mounted general figures that I have ever seen. The Russian artillery crew really look the business and they give me a great sense of anticipation for how the eventual Russian range will look.

Take a look at the figures (click on the pictures to enlarge the view) and enjoy!

Russian General Fermor

Prussian General Prinz Moritz

Austrian Marshal von Browne

Russian artillery crew firing.

Russian artillery crew loading.

I might as well show you pictures of the Russian artillery pieces that Robi Baker created. These pieces are now in production and will be available after the Kickstarter backers get their cannon models. Actually, I have pix of the actually castings to show. I will fix this later today.

Russian artillery casting (L-R) 12-pd Unicorn, Shuvalov Howitzer, 6-pd and 12 pd cannon. Two-wheel ammo cart in the background . There is also a 4-wheel model that will soon be added.