A Herd of Horses Arrives for AWI

Richard Ansell sent me some pictures of his work in process on the AWI dragoons for the Fife & Drum range. For starters, we have six new horses to add to the range to go along with the dragoons .

Next, Richard has been working on the basic "dollies" for the British and Continental dragoons. These will serve as the starting point for each casting. The point is that by creating some torso pieces, heads, and equipment, Richard will not have to keep making these parts over and over again for each individual figure. The parts are on their way to Griffin Moulds for casting. Once the metal components are cast, then Richard can start turning them into finished dragoons by adding arms, heads, coats, belts and equipment, etc.

Cuirassier Progress Report

Von Seydlitz Cuirassier Regiment (KR8) - Minden Miniatures.

As of Monday evening I have completed the first 12 figures in the von Seydlitz cuirassier regiment for my Minden Miniatures project. I have another five figures in primer so I can start working on those tomorrow evening. Then I plan to primer another 8 figures to bring the regiment up to 25 figures. Eventually, it may be as large as 32 figures.

I am trying to figure out what to do with the Minden kettledrummer that I painted. One option is to base the figure on a 2-inch round base and use it as a sort of vignette that can follow the regiment around on the tabletop. The other option is to make the kettledrummer an integral part of the wargame unit, i.e. base the kettledrummer with another figure (probably the standard) on a 2-inch square base.

I don't know, what do you readers think I should do?

Minden Miniatures Prussian Kettledrummer, painted in KR8 livery.

These figures will be a part of my "Minden Project" of armies using a 1:20 figure to man ratio. They will have approximately 30-32 figures per regiment or battalion, as opposed to the BAR units which use a 1:10 figure to man ratio. One of my regular opponents was getting a bit worried that I was building up more cuirassiers for my BAR army. That is not the case, so let not your heart be troubled my dear friend. The same player regularly command the Russian army, which has defeated my Prussian army something on the order of 3 out of 4 games that we have played. The Russians are armed to the teeth with cannon and I don't particularly like doing battle with them for that reason. A cannon ball doesn't care if it is striking down a guard grenadier or the lowliest freikorps soldier. It is all flesh and bone in the end.

Um, moving on to other more pleasant topics, it seems that Fritz is back in full SYW-painting mode as he uses the time between now and the release of the Kickstarter AWI figures to do some recreational painting. In this case, we are talking about Minden SYW figures, which are a real joy to paint. I had a lot of fun painting the Prussian kettledrummer and I have one more such figure, which I might paint as a member of the KR13 Guard du Corps or the KR10 Gens d'Armes.

It's Cuirassier Week!

Von Seydlitz Cuirassier Regiment (KR8) by Knotel.

The other evening, I broke out the unpainted Minden SYW Prussian cuirassiers from their storage box and resolved to finally paint them. I have probably had them for at least a couple of years, but my "Minden Project" kind of got derailed by Fife & Drum and the development of our BAR Napoleon rules for 1:10 ratio units.

I completed some Minden Austrian cuirassiers several weeks ago, so I figured that I should return the favor and paint a Prussian cavalry regiment next. If they are Prussian cuirassiers, then they can be none other than KR8 - the von Seydlitz regiment.  The regiment was considered one of the finest cavalry units in the Prussian army, due in large part to the strict training of its inhaber, von Seydlitz.

The regiment was very active during the Seven Years War, participating in the battles of Lobositz, Prague, Kolin, Rossbach, Leuthen, Zorndorf, Hochkirch, Hoyerswerda, Liegnitz, Torgau, Langensalza, Kloster Wahlstadt, Leutmannsdorf (also known as Burkersdorf) and Reichenbach.

So I have started work on the first 16 figures and should get those completed by the end of this coming week and then I will pitch into the second 16 figures to complete the 32 figure unit. I like to break the figures down into smaller batches so as to trick myself into thinking that I am getting something done.

I always begin by painting one figure completely, from start to finish, so that I can get a better sense of the order in which all of the pieces should be painted. This also alerts me to any difficult parts of the figure, which might be easier to paint if done earlier or later in the painting process. The figure also serves as a painting template for the rest of the regiment as I start to paint the other figures.

The test figure was fairly easy to paint - no tricky bits to worry about. I have recently changed my painting process a little bit so that I paint the basic colors of the horse first, and then work on the riders to completion, then finish off the tack on the horse and add any finishing features such as socks, blazes, etc. I used to paint the horse last, which can be a bit complicated if you use the dry brushing technique, for you might get some of the paint on the rider's horse furniture. It seems to work well for me.

I will provide more updates on the von Seydlitz Cuirassiers throughout this coming week.

Wilhelm zu Inn und Knyphausen

Lt. General von Knyphausen

I have been hunting down information about Lt. General Baron von Knyphausen, the commander of the Hessian forces in North America during the American Revolution. I happened to stumble across this picture of the general in what looks like the uniform of the Hessian Lieb Garde, although it could well be his own regimental uniform of the von Knyphausen fusilier regiment. Maybe senior offiers had more gold or silver lace on their lapels.  I found the picture in Christopher Duffy's book, The Best of Enemies, Germans Against Jacobites, 1746 published by The Emperor's Press (Chicago) in 2013.

So far, this is the only picture that I could find of the Baron in uniform. The other pictures depict him in what I call "studio armour", i.e. he is posing in a cuirasse and a white kollet instead of his regimental officer's coat, as shown below (thanks to Pete Lamb for finding this picture). It appears that Knyphausen is wearing the Prussian Pour-le-Merit medal and accompanying sash. He was a general in the Prussian army before serving in America, so I am assuming that he received a Prussian award for his service. On the other hand, it could be a Hessian Order or Medallion that he is wearing as the Landgraf Friedrich II of Hesse Kassel is wearing the same order in his portrait.

Wilhelm von Knyphausen, at at younger age than shown in the first picture at the top of the page.

Prussian Order of St. John

UPDATE:
One of our readers suggested that Knyphausen might be wearing the Prussian Order of St. John medal, which is shown above. This looks very similar to the medal on his cuirasse studio armour. Another reader suggest that Landgraf Friedrich II is wearing the Order of the Garter, rather than the Black Eagle and I think that he might be correct.

A little more pictorial research provides this picture of the Landgraf Friedrich II of Hesse Kassel wearing his Lieb Garde uniform and the same award as Knyphausen has. Friedrich also wears the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle over  his heart.

Frederick II of Hesse Kassel

Thus the picture of the Landgraf provides us with the clue to the color of Knyphausen's sash (blue) as they both wear the same order.

Here is a brief biograph of Knyphausen, copied from Wikipedia:

His father was colonel in a German regiment under the Duke of Marlborough. Knyphausen was educated in Berlin, entered the Prussian military service in 1734, and in 1775 became a general officer in the army of Frederick the Great. In the army of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Knyphausen was a lieutenant general. In 1776, with 42 years of military experience, he came to the Thirteen Colonies of North America as second in command of an army of 12,000 so-called “Hessians” under General von Heister.

I tried searching on -line to see if I could determine which Orders Knyphausen had received, but I did not find his name in the limited lists of Pour-le-Merit or Order of the Black Eagle recipients that I found on-line. Perhaps someone has a book that would list this information for the 18th Century and could confirm or disprove the Orders for our general.

Oh, by the way, the information that I am collecting is going to Richard Ansell so that he can sculpt the von Knyphausen personality figure that is one of the rewards in the Fife & Drum Kickstarter project that closed in July 2013. We want to tie down some of the information on Knyphausen before the sculpting begins.

A Format Change

I decided to really get wacky and add a picture that I scanned into the header of my blog page. Technical things like scanning pictures and uploading images into Blogger are not easy tasks for this old wargamer. So I am quite pleased with myself this evening for having accomplished the format change.

So every time you look at the page, there you will see the header picture of Frederick being greeted by the Bernberg Regiment after the Battle of Lignitz. The regiment had been disgraced in an earlier battle for its poor performance, but after its heroics at Lignitz, Frederick restored their colours and other honours and the regiment was back in his good graces. That did not happen very often, for if you got on the wrong side of Frederick, the consequences were usually dire for you.

The picture is a scan of a Richard Knotel drawing found in the book "Der Alte Fritz in 50 Bildern". I must say, aren't those Prussian uniforms magnificent?

All right then, I am going to retire to Fritz's Man Cave (how would you say Fritz's Cave in German?) and sort out some of my Minden Prussian and Austrian cuirassiers. Enough of this Napoleonic jazz, it is time to get down with the 18th Century again!

I think that I will top off the evening by reading a little bit of Charles S. Grant's "Wargaming In History, Volume 2" and see if I can figure out a way for the Good Guys to finally win the battle of Fontenoy in 1745.

British 45th Foot - 1809

British 45th Regiment (Nottinghamshire) added to my Peninsula Brigade.

I have been working on another British Napoleonic regiment to add to my brigade for our Iberian Campaign with Major General Pettygree. The figures are all from Elite Miniatures and the flags are my usual choice - GMB Designs. Through the Labor Day weekend, I have built the regiment up to 60 figures (or 600 men at our 1:10 ratio) and I have another company of 12 figures nearly completed. The regiment will eventually be 84 figures strong (or 840 men). 

I have decided that the regiment is of sufficient strength to have the finished component board ships and sail to Portugal, where they will be temporarily assigned to the Lisbon garrison. Eventually, they will join Alexander Sinclair's brigade which includes the 83rd and 94th Regiments and three companies of the 5/60th Rifles. The latter two regiments are part of Pettygree's army, currently deployed near Aveiro, south of the Duoro River. Once I paint the other 24 figures, the regiment will be completed, as will be the brigade. Three regiments in a brigade seems like enough figures to me.

While I have many more unpainted British figures (enough to add one British and one Highland regiment and one Portuguese regiment), I will probably leave them alone for awhile and wait to see how the campaign carries on. For one thing, I do not want to paint an endless number of redcoats. My original plan was to keep my force at one brigade and I would like to stick to that plan. Mind you, painting 90 Connoisseur Highlanders as the 42nd Regiment is a very tempting prospect as I love Highland regiments.

You might have noticed that I terrained the bases on the 45th, whereas my other two regiments have metal bases painted green, in a kind of Old School theme. However, it was always my intention to terrain all of my troops so I thought that I would break the ice by finishing off the bases on the 45th as I complete the painting of the same. This is better than putting off the task for another day -- that usually leads to nothing happening. I also applied the spackle compound and grit to the 83rd and the next step will be to dab brown ink onto the base, let it dry, then dry brush flesh color, and finally, add the static grass. I have chosen a dried out looking grass since the troops will be in the Peninsula, and I think that the effect is very pleasing to the eye.

This post is my 108th post of the year: a new record for this blog. The previous annual high posts was 107. I have surpassed that level with four months remaining in the year, so undoubtedly the records will continue to be broken.

The Mess Is Addressed

Fritz's Man Cave is looking a little bit better today.

The state of Potsdam parade ground was really starting to annoy me, so last night I was faced with the choice of painting more figures or picking up the basement. I chose the latter and you can see a general improvement in the room in the accompanying pictures when compared to the pix post yesterday.

The next step is to tidy things up a bit beneath the table ( akin to the warehouse archives building in the first Indiana Jones movie) where what goes in is never to be found again. However, that is a job for another day. I still need to hook up the old Compaq PC in the back corner -- I still use this to print out name tags on my figure bases or print orders of battle. The laser printer is still much better than the inkjet printer on our main iMac computer and while the PC is probably 12 years old, the word processing function works just fine, so I keep the old beast for Wargame purposes.

My painting table is still a wreck, but I can't do much about that. An artist needs his work space, don't you know.

The painting table in its usual state of appearance.

I have been working on the 45th Regiment for my British Peninsula army and now have it up to 60 figures of the eventual 84 figure regiment. I use 12- figure companies but only field 7 of the 10 companies as I don't want to have a hundred figure regiment. I could do it, but I'd rather not.

I will post some pictures of the 45th later this evening.