Painting Pink Wargame Figures, and all that

 

Marshall Schwerin visits Saxony

I took this picture a long time ago, circa 2010, of a vignette of the Prussian Marshall von Schwerin visiting some little town in Saxony (probably sizing it up for a future invasion, no doubt). Schwerin is an RSM figure and his pet dog comes from a place unknown (hey, it was over 14 years ago - do you really expect me to remember?).

Herb Gundt made all of the buildings in the picture. The inn on the right is modeled after the Alter Fritz Gasthaus in Hochkirch.

The two-wheel wagon was made by Ed Phillips and the team of pioneers in orange waist coat are from the Minden Miniatures set of Pioneers (CIV-004 product code). These are really useful figures to have and can be painted as either civilians or soldiers in waistcoats from any European army in the 18th Century. 

Here is a link to the Minden web page (civilians) where you can find the pioneers. The first person to buy a pack will get some extra free figures.

Minden Pioneers at Minden web store

Prussian Dragoon Regiment Meinicke (DR3)
Minden Miniatures

One doesn't get many opportunities to use pink colors when it comes to painting war game figures. However, the Prussians have a few blue coats with pink facings in their army, notably the dragoon regiment Meinicke (DR3) DR3 dragoons and the fusilier regiment von Kreytzen (IR40). Kronoskaf link takes you to the history of the regiments. I would imagine that many table top Prussian generals have one or both of these regiments in their armies.

The image of the uniform for the Kreytzen fusiliers comes from Kronoskaf.

I don't have the Kreytzen Fusiliers in my Minden Prussian army so I had better get on to it and start painted a 32-figure regiment.

A Peaceful Village In Silesia, Circa 1758

 

The Prussian Red Hussars (H7) come marching into Frobeldorf.
Is the captain's name Ned and is he the pride of the regiment?
 Minden Prussian hussars and some Blue Moon and Minden civilians

Another view of the March of the Red Hussars.
Buildings by HG Walls.

Click on all pictures to enlarge

I have been working on my terrain for the SYW era group of German villages located somewhere in Silesia. The pictures in this post depict the little hamlet of Frobeldorf, which has suffered from the depredations of marauding Russian light cavalry and Cossacks. They have made an appeal to King Frederick II of Prussia to protect them and save them from the bad guys: the Russians. Boo, hiss!

When I set up the four villages on my game table, I realized that I needed to have more civilians on the table, so I painted 20 Minden civilians and converted the pioneers into civilians by painting the latter in civilian clothing colors. I am also working on some of the Ratnik civilians, but I find these to be more difficult to paint due to all of the extra nic-nacs and accouterments that they have. I also found a box of Venture/Suren Miniatures civilians that I forgot that I had and I will be placing an order for some more Old Glory 18th Century civilians to add into the mix. The more the merrier I say.

Minden agricultural workers cutting down the grain.

The grain fields were made for my Pickett's Charge project, but I had 28mm vignettes in mind when I made them. I used a coir material door mat for the grain and sprinkled it with coir cuttings that I clipped off of the door mat.

I find that if I stoop over and crank my aged knees into the down position, then I can view the various villages and vignettes from "the ground level". This point of view almost makes the little men come alive and if you squint your eyes just a little bit then a sense of realism is seen. Good stuff. Good idea.

Here are some ground level pictures that I recently snapped:

Minden Bosniaks and Black Hussars on the march.

Looking down the main street of Gross Kammin. Buildings by HG Walls. Roads by Der Alte Fritz
and some Foundry, Perry and Minden civilians.

The Heroic Zeiten personality from the Minden Miniatures figure range.
This is one of the best figure sculpts every made by Richard Ansell.

Prussian camp scene. John Ray made the officer and servant vignette and 
the two camp followers are Foundry figures.

Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick vignette from the Minden Miniatures figure range.

My next terrain project will be to make some green agricultural fields for my 18th Century villages. I also want to make some "backyard" terrain pieces, such as the ones that Troop of Shew (Alan Steward) made for his Normandy WW2 terrain. He includes things like flower and vegetable gardens, an out house and general yard clutter. Each small terrain vignette tells its own story.

This picture shows some of Alan's work. This is THE ULTIMATE in war game terrain modeling.

Normandy terrain vignettes by Alan Sheward.

Very inspirational to say the least.

Next up on my painting table are another 8 Prussian Yellow Hussars that I need to finish in order to complete a squadron of 12 such figures. These figures are the newer hussars with shouldered swords pose that can be used for hussars at rest or trotting into position or prior to a charge. While I like the Minden charging hussar poses, I prefer the shouldered sword pose for its durability.

I am starting to get adjusted to painting smaller 28mm figures as compared to the large 54mm figures that I had been painting over the past twelve months. Once you get the hang of it, Minden Miniatures are a joy to paint.

I hope you agree.

And finally, Bella the Golden Retriever asks that you leave some comments in the comment section of this blog post. Bella says, "My favorite human is much happier when people leave comments, so please do so. He will give me some liver treats if you do."

Prussians on the march

 

Prussian musketeer regiment Alt Braunschweig marches across the chasm.

I made these "end cap" mountain modules to decorate the ends of my game table for the Sudan. However a little bit of greenery here and there easily transports the scenery into central Europe for my SYW battles.

The bridges over the gorges are natural places to park some marching infantry so that they can mug for the camera. In these pictures the Prussian musketeer regiment IR5 Alt Braunschweig regiment is marching across the bridge. These are, of course, Minden Miniatures Prussian figures.

A small piquet post of Prussian dragoons guards the road.

Prussian Guard Grenadiers (painted unit)

 

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

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

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

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.

My Minden Mojo Is Back!

 

My newly painted Prussian regiment IR18 Prinz von Preussen

Getting Back to the 18th Century

I am taking a break from painting 54mm Punic Wars figures and getting back to my touchstone, which is painting Minden Seven Years War figures. It's been awhile since I have painted any of the 1/56 scale Minden figures and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to adjust to painting smaller miniatures. It turns out that it did not take me much time at all. Once I applied my brushes to the smaller figures, the joy of painting my Minden Prussians took over and I am now cranking them off of the assembly line at a rapid clip.

Today's fox is a return to my War of Austrian Succession ("WAS") "three ranks" project. I paint a battalion of 32 figures and the bulk of the rank and file are glued to their bases in two ranks. However, I then place the "file closers" ( NCOs, officers and drummers) behind the two ranks of soldiers and this creates the illusion of a three rank formation.

IR18 Prinz von Preussen regiment of two battalions deploys in front of a village.

The two pictures below show how the file closers form a third rank of war game figures.

Side view shows the placement of the third rank of command figures.

Note the placement of the 3-pound battalion gun on the flank of the battalion.

My New 3-Rank basing system

This newly painted Prussian regiment is IR18 Prinz von Preussen modeled in a firing line formation. My regiments consist of two battalions, each of 32 figures plus a 3-pound battalion gun with three crewmen for each battalion.

I am using MDF bases measuring 60mm frontage by 80mm depth. The size of the base provides sufficient depth to deploy figures firing their muskets without the muskets/bayonets hanging over the edge of the base. This provides a little extra protection for the firing figures from any handling damage. Plus, the extra depth of the base allows me to place the file closers in a third rank of figures.

I  used Hessian musketeers from the Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI figure range because they look "close enough" to SYW Prussians and I do not have Prussian firing poses in the Minden range. I used product codes  HP-002 Hessian Musketeer Command - Firing Line and HP-004 Hessian Musketeer Firing Line. The firing line packs come with 8 figures, four each of leveled muskets firing and a second rank with their muskets in a "get ready for firing" pose.

I do have the ability to augment the Hessian figures with some individual Prussian figures from the Minden figure range, such as Zimmerman with axe, NCO with pole arm or with musket, standard bearers, and musicians. Since the Minden and Fife & Drum figure ranges are compatible in size, I can employ command figures from both figure ranges.

Battalion Gun Solution

I think that I have finally developed a solution to the problem of how to use battalion guns in war games. Rather than having the gun and artillery crew acting as a separate unit, they are incorporated into the battalion as the fifth stand and are kind of there "just for looks." They do serve a purpose though: in my rules a unit fires with a D10 for every four figures in the battalion. For example, if the battalion strength has fallen from 32 figures down to 24 figures, the number of dice has also fallen from 8 dice at full strength to 6 dice. Thus the more casualty attrition during the game, the fewer the dice that the battalion can use when it fires its muskets. 

Where the battalion gun comes in is that the cannon stand gets one D10 added to the total number of dice that are being used to fire. For example, a battalion has 28 figures, so it gets seven D10 plus one extra D10 for having a battalion gun attached to the unit. Once a complete stand of infantry figures has been put out of action, the battalion gun stand is removed so that the battalion no longer gets the benefit of the extra D10 in combat. In other words, the battalion gun firing has nothing to do with the regular artillery firing table.

Musket range is 8-inches in my rules and 3-pound light artillery has a range of 20-inches. I will allow the battalion to fire the 3-pounder using the artillery firing table provided that the battalion has not moved on that turn. So the gun is always moving with the battalion and does not stop to fire unless the battalion has not moved during the turn.

I never knew what to do with the battalion guns in the past, but I think that this solution works nicely while also enhancing the visual look of the battalion.

Next Up In the Painting Queue

I have a 42-figure battalion of the Prussian Garde IR15-III that have been sitting on my painting table, partially painted, for at least a year. I plan on finishing this unit next.

This will then give me six battalions of infantry for my Three Rank Army on the Prussian side. The Austrians currently have seven battalions of infantry in the Three Rank Army system.

Both armies will have 10 to 12 battalions of infantry at the completion of the project. I do not have to change the unit size or basing of light infantry battalions such as Croats and Jagers. The cavalry basing does not need any changing either, other than to increase the unit size from 24 riders to 32 riders (but these additions will be painted slowly over time).

This afternoon I primed 32 Hessian Grenadiers in firing line poses to join my Prussian army as the Bornstadt Grenadier Battalion (5/20). These will get painted shortly, perhaps slipping in ahead of the Prussian Guards.

Battle of Leuthen December 5, 1757

 

Battle of Leuthen in flats. 
Bavarian Army Museum

Today is the anniversary of Frederick the Great's greatest tactical battle, the Battle of Leuthen, fought on December 5, 1757.

I refer you to the excellent article on the battle found on the Obscure Battles web site.

Leuthen - Obscure Battles

Here are some pictures of past war game battles of Leuthen that I have organized.  The buildings and trees were all made by Herb Gundt and the table mat was made by The Terrain Guy. Sadly, both sources have retired and are no longer in the business of making war gaming terrain.

One of my Leuthen games on my home pitch, using Minden Miniatures.

Leuthen fought at General Pettygree's barracks on his huge 6ft by 30ft tables.

Leuthen village and its iconic church, defended by the Rot Wurzburg regiment.
This game was played with the B.A.R rules using a 1:10 figure ratio.

I have probably gamed Leuthen nearly ten times so I am not going to stage a refight of the battle today. The Austrians usually lose because it is too difficult a task to recover from the initial flank attack of the Prussians. The couple of times that the Austrians have won, they mounted a stout defense in the town of Leuthen, centered around the famous walled church.

I hope that you enjoy this little trip back in time.

New Ferdinand of Brunswick & Croat Mounted Officer Pictures

Croat Officer (left) and Ferdinand of Brunswick (right)

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

The latest batch of new Minden Miniatures SYW figures includes two personality figures: Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick (commander of the Allied army fighting the French in western Germany) and a dashing looking Croat officer. The new product codes for each figure are PER-017 for Ferdinand and PER-018 for Mr. Croat. The links to the figures in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store are given below:

Austrians

Prussians

The inspiration for the mounted Croat officer came from a picture in one of the Osprey books that had an image of the Croat wearing his fancy, fur-lined cape. I knew that I really wanted to add this figure to the Minden range. I also felt that I needed a figure to command my Austrian light infantry forces. I could have painted him in the regimental uniform of one of the Croat regiments (red coat, blue coat, brown coat or white coat), but I felt that his station as a brigadier in my army merited the coat of a general Austrian officer.

Rear view showing the Croat's cape.

Ferdinand of Brunswick was already available as a dismounted figure in the Minden figure range (PER-001 Prussian Staff Officers). However, as the commander of the Allied army of Hanoverian, Hessian, British and Brunswick troops, I felt that Ferdinand should be available as a mounted figure too. I painted Ferdinand in his regimental uniform of the IR5 Prussian regiment.

Next Up: Russian Horse Grenadiers. I will post painted samples of the Russian Horse Grenadiers within the next couple of days. Here is a taster:

Left to Right: trooper in Summer waistcoat, trooper in regular coat, musician, officer, and  standard bearer.

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.

Prussian Jagers - Painted Pix

Prussian Jagers - both the command and jager packs shown.

I am working my way through the Minden Miniatures web store catalog and picking out the product codes (or "SKUs" - Stock Keeping Units) that do not have pictures of the figures associated with the SKU. Afterall, if you want to buy something, you want to have an idea of what it looks like, so having pictures is a must.

The Prussian dismounted hussars were finished a few days ago and so now it is time to get the Prussian jagers painted.

MP-015 Prussian Jager Command (3 figures: officer, trumpeter, and NCO)

MP-015 Prussian Jager Command.

MP-015 rear view.

MP-016 Prussian Jagers (2 each of 5 different poses = 10 figures)

MP-016 Prussian Jagers.
There are two each of five different poses in the pack.

The five different jager rank and file poses.

Same as above, only the rear view.

I really am having a lot of fun painting these light troop figures (jagers and dismounted hussars), painting one of each, and really like the action and movement in the figures.

As stated in my previous post, this has inspired me to start planning some small forces for a skirmish style of wargame that I can take to conventions. While I enjoy the big battles, I think that convention goers largely prefer to play in a skirmish level game. These are generally very fun to play because there is a little bit of role-playing involved, there are fewer figures to move around, and the games are finished in a shorter amount of time. 

When I look around at the games at a convention, it seems like the gamers playing in a small skirmish game are having more fun than those who are engaged in a larger battalion/regiment type of game.

With that in mind, I have dusted off my copy of my own "Croat Terror" rules for skirmish wargames and have taken a look at the play sheets to make sure that all of the rules are up to date. The rules are basically ready to publish, so this is a project that I might work on this year so as to have the rules and figures ready for the SYW Association convention in March 2020.