AWI Dragoon Greens - Sneak Peak

Here are a couple of teaser photos of the greens that Richard sent to me this morning. The first batch of Fife & Drum dragoons will include 8 poses each of the British 16th Light Dragoons and the 1st Continental Light Dragoons.  I will post more pictures over the next several days.

16th Light Dragoons skirmishing or on piquet duty.

16th Light Dragoon Command (above)

1st Continental Light Dragoons skirmishing (above)

Standard Bearer and trooper with shouldered sword (below)

Knyphausen, Marion & Tarleton Castings Are Here

Fife & Drum Personalities (left to right): Knyphausen, Francis Marion, and Tarleton. Click to enlarge view.

I received a package of castings from Griffin Moulds today. Talk about fast service, it only took two days for the package to ship door to door. I'm impressed. The box contained a resupply of some of the Minden Miniatures figures, so if you have any items on back order, I will be shipping your figures within the next several days.

The most exciting part however, was the inclusion of the first of the Kickstarter AWI Dragoons figures, of which we have the three personality figures for Knyphausen, Francis Marion and Banastre Tarleton. The figures won't be available until all of the Kickstarter backers receive their rewards in January 2014. After that time, anyone can buy the figures. If you are one of our Kickstarter backers and you happen to place an order for additional or other AWI and SYW figures, I will add your personality reward figures with your purchase.

Another view of the same figures, with picture scaled closer to their actual size. Knyphausen and Tarleton sit on 2 of the 6 new horses added to the AWI range. We have 27 horses in the range as of today.

I can see some multiple uses for the Knyphausen figure: perhaps use him as Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick or the Duke of Bevern for your SYW armies. I will attempt to paint these three samples over the weekend so that you can get a better idea of how they look. Please forgive my poor attempts at black washing the figures for photographic purposes.  They do no justice to the actual figures, which to my eye, are quite stunning.

Richard informs me that he is nearly finished with the rest of the Kickstarter Dragoons and so I expect that I should have some pictures of the greens within the next several days. We are making good progress and it looks like we will be able to deliver the dragoons on time in January.

I have also had some equipment pieces cast up to sell as weapons packs: swords, carbines, muskets and drum castings. Richard also made the Prussian Garde du Corps vexillum flag so that I could have a proper flag for my own Minden Guard du Corps.

Frederick's Leib Guard - 3rd Battalion (IR15/III)

IR15/III - Third Battalion of the Leib Guard - Minden Miniatures

Today is the 256th anniversary of Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757. Many would say that Leuthen was the battle that gave Frederick the title of "the Great".

What better way to celebrate Leuthen than to post my first pictures of the 3rd Battalion of the Leib Guard (IR15/III). The rank and file all wore mitres with yellow mitre bag and silver front plate. The 2nd Battalion (IR15/II) wore tricorns, edged in silver. Both battalions of the Leib Guard were considered to be "grenadiers".

Close up view of three of the five stands plus the regimental officer. click pix to enlarge.

The figures are from the Minden Miniatures range of SYW era figures, sculpted by Richard Ansell. I used the grenadier figures with the "Swedish" cuffs and painted the aigulettes (shoulder knots) that would have been on the right shoulder. One of these days, we shall add the proper dressed Leib Guard figures to the Minden range, but for now, these will do just fine, thank you.

3rd Btn (front) and 2nd Btn (rear) form a brigade of the Leib Guard . Minden Miniatures. Click all pix to enlarge.

We have a SYW game scheduled at Chez Protz in Brown Deer, WI on Saturday December 14th, and as you might imagine, I have been busy building up my Minden Prussian forces for the game. To be fair, I have worked equally hard at adding Austrian units (primarily 2 cuirassier regiments and one Hungarian musketeer regiment) to the opposing side. We will use Bill's "Batailles de l'Ancien Regime" or BAR for short, using a 1 to 20 figure ratio (about 30 figures per battalion of infantry and 24-32 cavalry regiments). We normally play our BAR games using our 1 to 10 ratio Big Battalions, but every once in awhile, we pull out the smaller units and have a go with the rules. They work just fine at either ratio of figures to actual men.

Some viewers have asked how I organize my infantry for my own Fife & Drum rules. I paint both battalions of a regiment plus a mounted officer to command the whole regiment. Since I am using a 1:20 ratio in my Minden Armies, I have 30 figure battalions based on an assumption of 600 men in the battalion. It then follows that the regiment of two battalions would have 60 figures plus the one mounted officer. For basing, I use a 20mm frontage per figure and so I use MDF bases measuring 60mm by 40mm for my 6-figure infantry stands. There are five stands in each battalion.

I currently have four Prussian regiments completed: IR5 Alte Braunschweig, IR1 Winterfeld, IR13 Itzenplitz and IR49 Diericke fusilier regiment. There is also one battalion of grenadiers, the Wedell Grenadier Battalion (1/23) comprised of the two grenadier companies from both the IR1 and the IR23 regiments of musketeers. The recently completed 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Leib Guard and a battalion of jagers complete the infantry portion of my Minden Prussian army.

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18th Century Traveling Coaches

There is a distinct lack of suitable 18th Century traveling coaches  in the 28mm market. Many of us have to resort to the out of date 17th Century (ECW) coach made by Redoubt. I have seen some other "fantasy coaches " here and there, but none are truly suitable for our period.

I did stumble upon a likely candidate in the American coach reposited in the Beekman Collection. This is the real thing, not a scale model.

IR15/II Second Battalion of the Leib Guard - Minden Prussians

2nd Battalion of the Guard - IR15/II with Minden Miniatures

I seem to be on a painting roll of late as I get ready for our next SYW game on December 14, 2013. We are going to use the Batailles de l'Ancien Regime ("BAR") rules using a figure ratio of 20 to 1. This translates into infantry battalions of approximately 30 figures and cavalry regiments of 24 to 32 figures.

The incentive of an upcoming game seeems to have my brushes flying at full speed: last week I completed the 2nd battalion of the von Diericke Fusiliers (IR49) and this week finds me completing the 2nd Battalion of the Leib Guard (designated as "IR15/II). The second battalion of the Guard all wore tricorn hats (save for its grenadier company - silver front plates and red mitre bags) and the third battalion all wore grenadier mitres (silver front plate with yellow mitre bag). Regardless of what head gear they wore, all three battalions of the Leib Guard were considered to be grenadiers. 

The first battalion was largely a ceremonial unit, having only fought at the Battle of Kolin in 1757. It remained in Potsdam for the remainder of the war and it had a rather ornate, gaudy uniform with tons of silver metallic lace. One of these days I might commission Richard Ansell to make the first battalion of the Guard.

A close up view of the 2nd Battalion of the Lieb Guard.

Minden Miniatures does not yet have a specific "Guard" figure in the range, however, the figures with the large Swedish style cuffs are perfectly suitable for the job. Really the only thing that is missing, that would make them Guard uniforms, is the aigulette (shoulder knot) on the right shoulder. I found that I could render a suitable substitute by "converting with paint", i.e. painting the aigulette onto the figure.

Another view of the Guard down at eye level. Click all pix to enlarge the view.

Next on the painting docket: the third battalion of the Leib Guard. I will use the Minden grenadier figure with Swedish cuffs and do the same aigulette conversion. I should have enough time to get the third battalion done in time for the December 14th game.

Why are you painting guards, you might ask. Because it is my own Prussian army and I like the way that the Guards look, and I can paint whatever I please for my own army.  It is my hobby, my diversion from the hectic pace of Life and it brings me enjoyment and happiness to paint the Prussian units that I want in my wargame army. Isn't that reason enough?

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Prussian IR49 Fusilier Regiment - Minden Miniatures

IR49 Von Diericke Fusilier Regiment in Frederick the Great's Prussian army.

Over the weekend, I finished painting the second battalion of the IR49 von Diericke Fusilier Regiment in Frederick the Great's Prussian army. The organization of my Minden Miniatures armies is to paint two battalions of each regiment that I have in my army. I painted the first battalion of the regiment several years ago and only got around to adding the second battalion. The flags are from GMB Designs and the figures, of course, are Minden Miniatures. Each regiment of two battalions also has a mounted regimental officer. I use 30 figures per battalion or approximately a ratio of 1:20 figures to actual men.

IR49 - second battalion, Minden Miniatures painted by Der Alte Fritz.

Closeup view of the battalion, note the carpenter/pioneer/zimmerman standing to the right of the colour bearers.

I am working towards painting enough Minden Austrians and Prussians to run a Lobositz wargame at the next Seven Years War Association Convention in South Bend, Indiana at the end of March 2014. I may also bring the same game/scenario with me to Historicon in 2014.

I currently have 10 battalions of infantry in each army (Austrian and Prussian) and will need about 4 regiments of cuirassiers and dragoons for the cavalry contingent. I will be using the scenario that Charles S. Grant wrote of in his book, "The Wargame Companion".

Important Announcement! Minden Miniatures are now available in the United States!

The shipping department of Fife & Drum/Minden Miniatures has been very busy packing orders for customers all over the world including Australia, Austria, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Canada. In fact the sales have been so brisk that I had to reorder a lot of stock, so the shelves are currently brimming with inventory ready to ship.

Oddly enough though, there have been very few Minden orders from customers in the United States. So I thought that I would re-announce the fact that we now stock both ranges here in the United States and that in most cases, I can ship US orders the next day.

I have been experimenting with a flat rate shipping charge of $4.00 for all domestic US orders and $10.00 for all International orders, regardless of weight and cost. I am now extending this offer through the end of 2013, having previously indicated that this program would only run through November. So flat rate shipping will continue through at least December 31, 2013.

Hesse Seewald Garde du Corps

Prussian cuirassiers painted as an Imaginary Hesse Seewald Garde du Corps.

I have been experimenting with a Garde du Corps cuirassier regiment for the Kingdom of Hesse Seewald. I have always thought that they Prussian Garde du Corps would look pretty nifty if they sported a red kollet (coat) rather thant the tradition buff colored kollet. You can see the results in the picture above. click the picture(s) to enlarge the view.

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Hesse Seewald Garde du Corps

I have been painting the odd figure here and there of my proposed Hesse Seewald Garde du Corps whenever I want to take a little break from other painting projects. The idea is to paint the figures as Prussian Garde du Corps wearing their red galarock coats instead of the buff kollet. I rather like the way that they turned out. Eventually, there will be a single squadron of 12 figures in the unit.