Merry Christmas From Hesse Seewald

The Erbprinz Friedrich, Princezin Katherine, and the Hesse Seewald General Staff wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 1761. (click or double click picture to enlarge)

The Erbprinz Friedrich of Hesse Seewald assembled his general staff for a portrait drawing to celebrate Christmas and the coming new year. The Erbprinz thanks all of the visitors to his realm, over the past year, and wishes all of his friends and followers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year in 1761.

The ducal terrain was constructed by that renowned architect, Herb "Capability" Gundt. The Erbprinz and Princezin were outfitted by Mr. Suren, the hussar general von Zieten by Mr. Stadden, and everyone else by Mr. Morbey (save for the splendid ADC in the red coat, via the Foundry). The Bosniaks in the background, on escort duty, are Crusader figures on Ebob horses.

Der Other Fritz's Birthday

The Erbprinz von Hesse Seewald greets his troops on his birthday.

Yesterday, December 18th, I celebrated the passing of another birthday, my 58th one on this planet. I had hoped to get in a little bit of painting time, but with errands, Christmas shopping and waiting for the heating repairman to put in a new humidifier in the basement (lots of banging of sheet metal just a few feet away from my painting table), events seemed to conspire against me and I didn't get much time at the painting table.

I did finish off two more stands of Minden Austrian grenadiers, bringing my converged battalion up to 24 figures (2 stands of red-facing figures, 2-stands of blue-facing figures). I am working on two more stands of 6 figures in pink or rose facings to represent the Regiment de Ligne. I hope to have them completed within a couple more days.

Deliveries from the UK to the USA seem to be all discombobulated lately. I have three different orders posted to me in November and 3-4 weeks later there have been no pleasant surprises in my mail box, much to my regret. My understanding is that the Royal Mail got all backed up with the snow-related delays, and then add in the usual deluge of Christmas mail, and you have a recipe for extremely slow delivery. I am resigned to not seeing anything for a couple more weeks - if we get into mid January with nothing, then I might start to get concerned.

The weather has been very cold here in Hesse Seewald, staying between 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, versus the average temperature of about 35 degrees F for this time of year. We decided to make lemonade out of lemons, weather wise, and headed down the street to a steep slope, where we (the Princess and Mrs. Fritz) did a little bit of downhill sledding. It was more like getting on a luge run, with our little sled and icy surface, but we had fun, and then afterwards, made some hot cocoa and sat by a roaring fire in the fireplace. Not a bad way to tackle a cold winter day.

Some Progress Is Made

Minden Austrians painted in 2009. Not the grenadiers, but close enough.

What does one do on a cold dreary winter day when the weather outside is frightful, and one's football team is decidedly not delightful? Why you retreat to the painting table in the basement, put a Mozart CD on the player, and break out some Minden SYW figures to paint.

I had hoped to settle in on my cosy sofa, next to the warm fire in the fireplace, and watch the Chicago Bears play the evil New England Patriots. Alas, it was not to be as the score was 33-0 in favor of the Bad Guys at halftime. Now Der Alte Fritz didn't get to be Alte without learning a thing or two, so he gave up on the football game and pitched into 12 Austrian grenadiers that he needed to complete a 24-figure battalion of converged grenadiers. I think that I might also prime another 6 or 12 grenadiers this evening so that I can increase the grenadier battalion to at least 30 figures, which would be on par with the size of my other battalions.

It occurred to me that I am running out of time if I wish to have my Minden Project Austrian and Prussian armies ready for their debut at this coming year's Seven Years War Association convention, circa March 28-30, 2011 in South Bend, Indiana. The Prussians are ready for battle with 9 battalions of infantry, four spendid Berlin Zinnfiguren 12-pounders and crew, and a regiment of dragoons and hussars.

The Austrians, so far, only have 3 battalions of Mindens (but I have 2 of my old RSM battalions available if I rebase them) and 4 BZ artillery pieces and crew. I will have to use my old RSM Austrian cavalry as stand ins until I can get some Minden Austrian cavalry painted, later in 2011. Assuming that I can paint 60 infantry figures per month, that would two battalions of 30 (or one regiment) that I have to finish in January and another two battalions to complete in February. YIKES! That is cutting the time line a little too close for comfort.

Hmm, I can see that there is still much work to be done and no doubt I will be distracted and diverted from the SYW project once the Fife & Drum AWI figures start coming out of the production moulds in January.

AWI British Light Company Officer

Light infantry company officer. (click pix to enlarge)

I forgot to post these pictures of the British Light Company officer from our new Fife & Drum Miniatures range of AWI figures. I'm afraid that he got lost in all of the excitement last week with the arrival of the American Militia greens.

Leuthen Day - December 5, 1757

Frederick the Great addresses his general before the Battle of Leuthen

I nearly forgot that today marks the anniversary of Frederick the Great's signature victory at the Battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757 (Bless him!).

More later -- I have to put up the family Christmas tree right now.

More American Militia Greens

Militia man in tricorne hat and blanket roll on back, at the ready

Here are pictures of four more of the American Militia greens that Richard Ansell sent to me the other day. As before, there is a nice mix of tricorne and floppy hats and blanket roll styles (tumpline on the back or worn across the shoulder).

250,000 Visitors!

Probably some time on Saturday or Sunday, we will have passed the 250,000 visitor milestone on the Der Alte Fritz Journal. We were about 500 hits short of that number at 7PM this evening. Thank you to everyone for your support of my blog - your comments and enthusiasm for what I do keeps me going.



Militia man walking - I like the rakish upturn of the brim of the hat




Militia man standing firing




Militia man cocking his firelock

AWI American Militia - Fife & Drum Miniatures

American Militia Officer in tricorne hat

I received photos of the first eight American Militia poses from Richard Ansell today and I have to say that once again, his work continues to amaze me. I love the facial expression on the officer in the picture above and his pose is very handy to use in a number of vignettes that have popped into my mind. Today's posting will feature four of the greens and then I will post the next four on friday evening, so that no one gets the vapors from all of the excitement. I know that they have that effect on me.

We also decided on a name for our venture: Fife & Drum Miniatures. The name evokes the American Revolution (think about the famous "Spirit of '76" painting) as well as "horse and musket" historical periods in general. I would imagine that one day, after we get the AWI range completed, we might be interested in adding other historical eras to the range.

The fellow in the next picture below is shown in a floppy brimmed hat, but at the last minute, I asked Richard to change his headgear to a tricorne hat so that we would have four greens in tricornes and four in floppy hats. After looking at these militia figures, I have to say that I am tempted to add some Butler's Rangers and Iroquois warriors so that our figures could be used for skirmish games on the New York frontier.

American Militia at the ready - we changed his headgear to a tricorne though




American Militia in tricorne hats - standing firing



American Militia in hats - kneeling firing

The final two sets of pictures depict a militia man standing firing and kneeling firing. I think that Richard does an excellent job of providing such a natural looking pose for both of the firing figures. In fact, his firing figure poses are often my favorites in his other ranges.

Tomorrow's posting of pictures will include militia advancing (tricorne), militia advancing (hat, but a different pose than the tricorne version), another standing firing (but in hat) and a fellow cocking the musket (wearing hat). I also have two more British light infantry men to show you.

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