Austrian Firing Line & Other Things

Austrian Regiment Lacy Firing Line

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I completed the basing of the Austrian firing line that I posted HERE several days ago and thought that I would show off the unit with its finished bases. I think that the battalion Lacy turned out rather nicely.

As you may recall, I used the Fife & Drum AWI Hessian musketeers in firing line poses for the figures and simply painted them with Austrian white coats and red facings. Then I finished them off with flags from GMB Designs.

Side view of the battalion

Prussian Gohr (11/14) Grenadiers Work in Progress

Grenadiers from the IR11 von Below Prussian regiment.

More of the von Below grenadiers

My next project on the painting table is one of the Prussian grenadier battalions that served in the East Prussia and Pommerian areas of the Prussian realm. I have completed the 16 grenadiers for half of the battalion - IR11 von Below. I have started the grenadiers from IR14 von Lehwaldt which comprise the other half of the battalion.

I should have these done by next week.

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Types of the SYW Russian Army

Russians (left) versus Prussians (right) at the Battle of Zorndorf.
This scenario was fought at the Seven Years War Association convention in March 2018.

Click on all pictures to enlarge the view.

I
 suppose that a number of my blog readers are getting tired of me posting pictures of SYW Russians on the blog, but because they are a new figure range under the Minden Miniatures umbrella, I am going to be "Russia Oriented" for quite awhile. So please bear with me.

Why I like the Russian Army

I can think of a number of reasons to like the Russian army, starting with the fact that the Russians were one of Frederick the Great's primary opponents - and Frederick never defeated the Russians. That in its own right should be enough to have a Russian army in your SYW figure collection.

Second, the battles versus the Russians generate some very good wargaming scenarios: Gross Jagersdorf in 1757, Zorndorf in 1758, and Kunersdorf in 1759. Paltzig (or Kay) does not make for a very even scenario unless you simply enjoy slaughtering the Prussians. As an added bonus, you could even have the Russians switching sides and joining the Prussian army in a Silesian scenario. For a brief period of time, during the reign of Peter III, Prussia and Russia were allies.

Third, the great variety and diversity of troop types that were in the Russian army. And might I add, they had some colorful, if not downright gorgeous, uniforms that are fun to paint. You can have an army that includes grenadiers and musketeers wearing either their green coats or their summer uniforms that consisted of the long sleeved red waistcoat. You can add the Observation Corps - infantry that wear cavalry boots. The Russian cavalry establishment has cuirassiers, horse grenadiers, dragoons, hussars and COSSACKS! My favorite cavalry are the horse grenadiers with their grenadier mitres. And of course, anytime you think about a Russian army, you have to include the exotic Cossacks into the equation.

Fourth, in a word: artillery, artillery, artillery and even more artillery. I really like the variety of cannon in the Russian artillery establishment. You have the Shuvulov ("Secret") howitzers with thei rconical bore, you have the unicorns in various sizes and weights, common variety smooth bore 3/6/12 pounders, and finally, a wide variety of huge howitzers of the regular variety. If you like artillery, then you've got to have a SYW Russian army.

Russian Musketeers

Russian Musketeers in regulation green coats.

Russian Musketeers in Summer Waistcoats

Russian mounted infantry officer

Russian line grenadiers and musketeers in summer waistcoats

Note that the Russian officers, NCOs and musicians wore their green coat in all seasons. So in the Summer, a battalion of musketeers would have the rank and file wearing red waistcoats, but the officers, standard bearers, NCOs and drummers would be wearing green coats.

Russian Grenadiers

The Russian army had both regular standing grenadier regiments and sometimes there were ad hoc grenadier battalions created by drawing off the grenadier companies of the line musketeer regiments and converging them into battalions.

Russian Grenadiers in regulation green coats

Russian Grenadiers in Summer waistcoats.

Russian grenadiers are particularly spectacular to look at with their brass-copper miter plates and the unusual rear flap that covered their necks. Think of them as the first people to turn their caps around in hip hop style, well ahead of their time.

Russian Observation Corps

Peter Shuvulov created his own personal army called the Observation Corps, whose original function was to provide a guard for the artillery. The rank and file were recruited from the garrison regiments, supposedly the best of the worst troops. The OC grew into an establishment of 4 musketeer regiments and one grenadier regiment, so it was quite large. The OC battalions were often supported by the exotic Shuvulov howitzers, which were employed as battalion guns.

Like the regular line infantry, the Observation Corps rank and file fought all of their battles during the Summer campaign season, so they discarded their heavy green coats, leaving them at the baggage park, and then fighting in their red long sleeved waistcoats.

Observation Corps Grenadiers

Observation Corps musketeers

Russian Artillery

Russian artillery battery with limbers and munitions wagons.

Russian 6-lb (left) and 12-pd (right) cannon with artillery crew in either firing or loading poses.

Russian howitzers: 10-pd unicorn (left) and Shuvulov Howitzer (right)

Russian Line Cavalry

The Russian regular cavalry was probably the weak link in the army, able to mount only 7,000 men across 14 regiments ( 5 cuirassier, 5 horse grenadier, and 4 dragoon ). While the regiments in theory had 5 squadrons, the number of squadrons per regiment was usually 2 or 3 squadrons. The cavalry was further handicapped by its lack of suitable horses. Indeed, three of the five cuirassier regiments were not issued with cuirasses and the dragoon regiments were generally just bad. The hussar regiments were considered "irregular cavalry" but they were deemed to be superior to the regular cavalry regiments.

Russian Horse Grenadiers
(RSM heads on Minden torsos, with Minden horses)

Russian Cuirassiers (Minden conversions)

Russian Dragoons (Minden conversions)

Russian Hussars (using Minden Austrian hussars)
Horvath Hussars (left) and Gruzinski Hussars (right)

Cossacks

Russian Cossacks (RSM miniatures on Minden horses)

Russian/Cossack supply wagon (Perry Miniatures)

Russian Generals

Russian General Fermor and his division officers.

Russian officer vignette
(various Minden figures simply painted green to convert into Russians)

Conclusion

I hope that reading this blog post will encourage SYW wargamers to take another look at the Russian army and give due consideration to painting and collecting their own armies. I have included pictures of some of the Minden Russian army figures so as to give readers a visual idea of what the Russian soldiers looked like.

Austrian Firing Line

Austrian infantry regiment "Lacy" comprised of Fife & Drum Hessians and Minden Austrian command figures.

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I bet that you did not know that Minden Miniatures has SYW Austrians in firing line poses.

Well, you would be right, because there are no firing line poses in the Minden SYW range (yet). However, I decided that I needed a new Austrian battalion of infantry to use in my Kunersdorf game next year - there were some 18,000 Austrian commanded by Loudan that were at the battle. I wanted to do something different for my Austrians so I decided to paint a battalion in a firing line.

Austrian regiment Lacy with 3 stands.

Austrian regiment Lacy with 4 stands

Since Minden does not have regular infantry in firing line poses, I decided to select some of the Fife & Drum AWI Hessians and "convert them with paint." In other words, I would use the Hessian musketeers in firing poses and turn them into SYW Austrians by the simple mechanism of painting the figures white. I also added in some Minden Austrian command figures such as drummers, NCOs and officers to give the battalion a bit more of an "Austrian" look to it.

I think that the miniatures really look like Austrians at first glance, and perhaps at second, third and fourth glance.

Side view of the battalion.

The Austrians are based to my new organizational method with 32 figures instead of 30 figures. I use 4 stands instead of the old 5 stands. I put 8 figures on each stand and on the two flank stands I offset the drummer in the second rank and also place an NCO on the stand.

Austrian Command Stand.

This Austrian unit needed a deeper base than my usual 40mm to provide extra room on the base to protect the extended muskets from possible breakage. So I used a stand that was 80mm deep and 40mm wide. Thus the total frontage of the battalion is 240mm compared to the 280mm that I normally use for my Russians and Pommeranian corps Prussians.

Russian 4th Grenadiers - Newly Painted

Minden Miniatures Russian Grenadiers in coats.

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A few days ago I finished a new battalion of Russian grenadiers wearing their green coat. These are the new Minden SYW Russian figures that Richard Ansell recently sculpted. A big thank you to Richard and to Griffin Moulds, the latter having turned the greens into production moulds in record time for me.

I think that these figures, the Russian grenadiers in coats, might be one of the most gorgeous units of Minden figures that I have ever painted. The fine details on the figure, the wonderful faces, the body proportions and last but not least, the colorful combination of red and green colors and gold-copper miters make for a beautiful wargame figure.

Russian 4th Grenadiers with view of the Ordanance flag.

In the picture below, the flags were hand-painted using Kronoskaf images as a painting template. Note that the Russian army had organized standing grenadier regiments that carried their own regimental standards.

Russian 4th Grenadiers - Minden Miniatures.

I wanted to pitch in and paint these grenadiers right away, but some recent "life events" kept me away from the painting table. Notably, painting figures is very relaxing for me and helps me to deal with some of the life stresses related to the recent passing of my mother. But I digress and am not looking for sympathies...

I use 32-figure battalions in my Russian units and base them on four stands. This is done so that I can place the drummers at the end of the line, where they should be, and the NCO is also at the end of the battalion line, again, where he should be.

However, four bases creates an imbalance in the symmetrical look of the battalion, noting that the flags are offset from the center of the unit due to having an even number of stands rather than an odd number of stands. My "fix" for this visual problem had been to add a stand of a battalion gun on the flank of the battalion. I use two Russian artillerymen and a Prussian 3-pounder for the actual gun (one of these days, in the future, I will add an actual Russian 3-pounder to the Minden figure range).

Two of the four stands shown with the battalion gun stand on the flank.
The picture also depicts how I place the drummer on the flank plus an NCO
at the end of the front rank (right-most figure in the first row).

Russian 3-pound battalion guns stands. I had to use the Minden Prussian 3-pound
cannon as a substitute for an actual Russian 3-pounder model.

4th Grenadiers with a pair of battalion guns - not my normal set up.

If you are interested in adding a Russian grenadier battalion to your wargame army, then you will need the following product codes for Minden Russian grenadiers wearing their green coats:

MR-007  Russian grenadier command (officer, ensign, drummer and NCO)

MR-008  Russian grenadiers, rank and file figures (8 figures)

It looks like I will need to either add a second standard bearer to the command pack or add a new product code for a pair of grenadier standard bearers.

I hope that you enjoy looking at these pictures (I apologize for some of them being a little fuzzy and dark) and that they convey the grandeur of the Russian grenadier uniforms.

Russian Flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment

My hand-painted flags for the Russian 4th Grenadier Regiment.
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I finished painting a battalion of Russian grenadiers in their green coats and needed a pair of flags to finish off the unit. Unfortunately GMB Designs does not make the grenadier flags (yet?) so I decided that I would have to make my own flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment.

Per my usual method for hand-painting SYW era flags, outline Here, I went to Kronoskaf to find images of the Colonel's and Ordannance flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment.

Kronoskaf - 4th Grenadier Regiment

You can view the history of the regiment, its uniforms and its flags on Kronoskaf.

Der Alte Fritz is on Twitter now -YIKES!

Against my better judgement I decided to open a Twitter account @DerAlteFritz3 to have another outlet for showing pictures of my Minden Miniatures and Fife & Drum Miniatures figures and to talk about upcoming figures to the product ranges.

I can also post updates on new figures, battalions and regiments that I am painting.

There will probably be other wargame related content that I will post every now and then such as a picture of a game that I played in, etc.

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, then great, otherwise don't feel any pressure to do so. I'm just doing Twitter for the fun of it.

Russian Musketeers in Coats - Newly Painted

The new Minden Russian Musketeers in regular coats plus GMB Designs flags.



CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE THE VIEW

The other day I completed the basing and flagging of a new regiment of Minden Russian musketeers wearing their regular green coats.

The product codes used to make this musketeer battalion of 32 figures include:

MR-001 Russian Musketeer Command (officer, drummer, std bearer and NCO)

MR-002 Russian Musketeers in regular coats (pack of 8 figures)

MR-003 Russian Musketeer Standard Bearer pack (2 figures)

Minden Russian Musketeers

For my own wargame army organization I use 32-figure battalions based on four stands, with 8 figures per stand. The two end stands have the drummer set out further from the rest of the battalion and there is an NCO on each flank base. My command stands consist of 2 standard bearers, one officer and 5 rank and file musketeers. In my Prussian battalions I replace one of the musketeers with a Zimmerman figure (wearing grenadier mitre and leather apron and carrying an axe).

So my units have two each of officers, standard bearers, drummers and NCOs for a total of 8 figures. There are also 24 rank and file musketeers (or grenadiers or fusiliers as required). Thus in the case of my Russians, the following packs of figures are needed:

2 packs of MR-001 Musketeer Command (4 figures per pack x 2 packs = 8 figures)

3 packs of MR-002 Musketeers

I really like the way that the Russian musketeers in coats turned out once I had painted them. I am sure that I will be painting more of them. Next in the painting queue: a battalion of Russian grenadiers in regular coats.