Artillery Train Drivers amd Limber Horses

Prussian (left) and Austrian (right) artillery train drivers

Here are some quick pictures of the Austrian and Prussian artillery train drivers that we added to the Minden range of SYW figures. We have also reworked and replaced all of the existing limber horses and civilian riders so that they are all sculpted by Richard Ansell.

Updated Code Numbers as of midnight October 1, 2014

New product codes are:

AE-027  Pair of civilian limber drivers (hat and tricorn) w/o horse. -- $4.00

AE-028  Pair of Prussian artillery train riders  w/o horses  -- $4.00

AE-029 Prussian artillery train rider & horse (1 of each) -- $6.00

AE-030  Pair of Austrian artillery train riders  w/o horses  -- $4.00

AE-031  Austrian artillery train rider & horse (1 of each) -- $6.00

AE-008 Pair of Limber Horses   -- $8.00

Prussian (left) and Austrian (right) artillery train drivers.

A picture of the two new limber horses that replaced the old horses.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette Part II

Maurice de Saxe in his chariot at the Battle of Fontenoy and some of his personal escort of Volontaires de Saxe. Minden Miniatures figures (click to enlarge)

I was able to finish the grassing and basing of Maurice de Saxe and his wicker wagon at Fontenoy. And for good measure, I also finished one each of the other four Volontaires de Saxe cavalry. I really like the way the cavalry turned out. It makes me want to paint more.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette Painted

Maurice de Saxe at Fontenoy Vignette (click to enlarge)

Kickstarter Update:

Pledges as of today:   $6,102

Next Stretch Goal:     $7,000  (unlocks the Russian artillery)

Amount Needed:        $898

Second Stretch Goal: $11,000 (unlocks the Russian artillery crew and free Lt. General Fermor figure)

Days Left In The Campaign:  14 days

How to back this project: click the link below:

Minden SYW Artillery Kickstarter

Backers:  33 (thank you everyone! You are true heroes)

We are sooooo close to unlocking the Russian artillery equipment and I am sure that we can make the final push to $7,000 this week. After that, we will need the artillery crew to man the guns, but the goal here is $11,000 as it costs a lot of money to get 16 new individual figures sculpted, master moulds made, production moulds metal even before we start spinning the metal and making the product. So we need your help to get the Russian artillery crew into the production cycle. 

I have probably had more requests for Russians than I have for any ten other nationalities combined. Several of you have been quite vocal, but your names are not among our backers so far. Now is the time to help the campaign so that we can all see Russians added to the Minden range.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette

I spent quite a bit of time Saturday painting the Maurice de Saxe vignette that Minden Miniatures and Crann Tara Miniatures are offering soon (I'm waiting for the wagons from the caster, but I have Maurice and all of the figures that go with the wagon. Crann Tara has everything in stock).

Maurice reviewing the  troops

I stayed up until 3 AM Sunday morning getting the basing done, to this point, grass to come later today. Hooking up the metal traces was a bit tricky. I might use wire or black thread in lieu of the traces were I to assemble and paint another one of these models.

The Volontaires de Saxe uhlan driver looks very nice as well. I also painted the officer and have a few of the lancers on my painting table. These uhlans are the goods! Relly nice looking figures and easy to paint since they do not have a lot of equipment on them.

Inspiration for the Maurice de Saxe vignette was drawn from the following pictures:

Final Thoughts

You may have noticed that I have been picking up the pace of my blogging lately. It will continue as I want to hit the 100 posts goal for 2014. At 53 posts, I have a way to go, but I think that I can make it. So please stop by and visit more often because there will be a lot of new content going up several days each week. And do feel free to leave any comments. We like to read your comments.

The Brummers Are Coming, the Brummers Are Coming!

Kickstarter Update:

Pledges made:        $6,002

Next Stretch Goal:  $7,000 (unlocks the Russian artillery equipment)

Amount needed:      $998

This morning, one person pledged  a very generous $500 to push us past the $6,000 stretch goal that will unlock the Prussian 12-pound Brummer. Thank you very much to this gentleman and to all of the backers who are making the launch of SYW artillery in the Minden range possible.

The fine picture of the Brummer was taken by Christian Rogge at the Musee des Armes in Paris. Christian reports that the cannon show is actually a version of the Brummer that was produced after the SYW, but the SYW version is very similar .

Now we get down to the real nitty gritty of this campaign -- the Russian artillery! I am very excited about the prospect of adding the Russian cannon to the range. Although we are starting with four cannon, there are so many varieties of Russian ordnance that I am sure that we will add more than four cannon.

If you want to see Russians in the Minden range and you have been meaning to back the Kickstarter campaign, then please visit our KS site and get more of the details:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1937253848/fife-and-drum-syw-austrian-artillery

Maurice de Saxe, Your Table Is Ready

Kickstarter Update:

Amount Pledged:        $5,317

Stretch Goal:               $6,000. ( unlocks the Prussian Brummer )

Pledges Needed:           $683

Next Stretch Goal:      $7,000 Unlocks the Russian artillery models

Pledges Needed:        $1,683

SYW Artillery Kickstarter

Ever since I first read the story about the Battle of Leuthen and Frederick's use of the giant fortress guns from Glogau, called Brummers ( because of the loud noise that they made when fired), I have wanted to have such a model in my SYW Prussian army. Now with this Kickstarter stretch goal of $6,000 so tantalizingly close, my imagination may finally become a reality. As of this morning, we only need $683 of new pledges to hit this stretch goal. I feel like this is definitely an achievable goal, so with one final push over the weekend I think that we can make it. So if you are planning on backing this project, but you just haven't gotten around to doing so, then please click on the link below to visit our KS site and make your pledge. We have seven pledge levels of $100 or less so if you can only make a small contribution ( $25 is the smallest pledge amount), then we can accomodation your needs. Every pledge, no matter what size, is important.

Maurice de Saxe Vignette:

I finally got around to assembling my wicker coach model for the Maurice de Saxe vignette last night and I must say that the prospect of assembling the model was more difficult than the actual assembly process. Sometimes you just have to just pitch in and start working on it. The only difficult part was figuring out how or attach the rear bracket to the rear axle of the model. However, a look at one of the pictures provided by Niels Rullkotter, the designer, soon made things clear (see the third picture below):

I plan to prime the model Friday evening and start painting on Saturday in anticipation of completing the project over the weekend.

Cuirassiers du Roi - Painted Samples

Kickstarter Update:

Current Pledge Level = $5,207

Next Stretch Goal =      $6,000  (unlocks 12-pd Prussian Brummer )

Pledges Needed.       =   $793

Minden Artillery Kickstarter Link

This evening I painted the officer and trooper of the new Minden Cuirassiers du Roi as I was eager to see how they looked when painted. These may be some of Richard Ansell's best work yet ( I am admittedly biased). Both figures were a joy to paint and they painted fairly quickly. 

I am not a Francophile when it comes to the SYW, but these cavalry figures have me rethinking my stance on the French army. I have come to the conclusion that I need to start painting and building a French army if for no other reason that their cavalry look gorgeous and I've simply got to find a reason to get a unit of the Cuirassiers du Roi on the table top.

I will take some better pictures tomorrow. These were taken with my iPad and the Blogger Ap is Gawd Awful in what it will let you do with layout and editing and working with pictures .

Volontaires de Saxe

Note: all orders received for Cuirassiers du Roi  and Uhlans have been packed and invoiced so they will ship within the next day or two.

Here is one of the Knoetel uniform plates that provides a very nice painting guide for those who are contemplating painting a unit of the uhlans from Minden Miniatures. Below is another plate by Petard that shows some variations of the uniform.