What Is It?

This picture defies any explanation. It looks circa WW1 or during the inter-war period. It has a sort of Steampunk look to it.

If you have any thoughts, ideas or opinions then please leave a comment.

Tiberius is Back!

Tiberius on the ride home from the hospital.

Our Golden Retriever, Tiberius ( or just Ty for short), is back home today after a major surgery yesterday. The doctors removed a large tumor like mass from his abdominal area. It was near the aorta so the procedure was high risk. Ty came through very well after a three hour surgery.

He's wearing a collar cone - doesn't look very comfortable.

We picked Ty up from the animal hospital this morning and he looked a lot more chipper and spry than I would have thought. His recovery is 10-14 days and he gets to wear the Elizabethan Collar until the stitches are removed. We will get the biopsy report on the tumor in about five days and we are hoping that it is not cancerous. The fact that the surgeons did not find any other tumors is a positive sign.

Artillery Pictures

Prussian 12-pound artillery battery with guns, limbers, ammo wagons and matrosses.

I thought that I would go through my huge catalogue of pictures and pick out some of the best pictures of SYW and AWI artillery in my collection. Click on all pictures to enlarge the view. I hope that you will enjoy looking at these pictures.

One of the things that you may notice is that I like to have limber teams and ammo supply wagons with my artillery batteries. They make for a more realistic view and give one a sense of the depth of the artillery battery when it is deployed.

French 12-pound artillery battery, crew and caison

AWI Continental battery of French light 4-pound "Swedish" cannon.

Austrian artillery battery

Another view of the Austrian battery.
I still needed to paint more limber teams at the time that this picture was taken.

Prussian artillery park

Austrian 2-wheel powder wagon

Russian ceremonial artillery wagon made by Ed Phillips.

The Russian artillerists are on the short end of this fight with Prussian hussars.

Russian artillery battery with caissons and limbers.

Prussian 12-pound Brummers deploy under the watchful eye of der Alte Fritz, himself.

So there you have it.

New Minden Prussian Hussars - Busby Hats

HR1 Green Hussars in Prussian service.

Yesterday I finished the painting and basing of a 12-figure squadron of the new Minden Miniatures Prussian Hussars wearing busbies, in the shouldered sword pose.

The unit is painted as HR1 Green Hussars using the following product codes:

1 x MPC-012  Prussian Hussar Command, Busbies

5 x MPC-013  Prussian Hussars, Busbies

I have been wanting to add a regiment of the Green Hussars (and the Yellow Hussars) to my Prussian armies for quite some time now. My wargame regiments usually have two 12-horse subunits that I call "squadrons" for lack of a better term. I assume a figure to man ratio of about 1:30 so the regiments have 720 horses. An actual squadron would thus be about 4 figures, which I don't consider to be a viable size for a unit in my rules.

The Szekely Hussar regiment was another one of those super larger 10-squadron cavalry regiments in the Prussian cavalry establishment. For a history of the regiment, click the link to Kronoskaf:

Szekely Hussars History

Up Next: the Yellow Hussars wearing mirlitons.

New Minden Prussian Hussars in Mirliton Hats

The new Minden Miniatures Prussian Hussars, shouldered sword pose, wearing mirliton hats.

DOUBLE CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I finished painting samples of the new Minden Miniatures Prussian Hussars wearing mirliton hats. The new figures are all in a more relaxed pose with shouldered sword and on a new walking hussar horse, also added to the range. Now you can have your Prussian hussars in a very animated charging pose, or in the more relaxed shouldered sword pose.

The painted samples represent the Malachowski Hussar Regiment (H7). The regiment was one of those extra large 10-squadron cavalry regiments in the Prussian cavalry establishment. During the SYW, Frederick II loaned three squadrons of H7 to Prince Ferdinand's army in Hanover. Two squadrons of the Black Hussars (H5) were also detached to Prince Ferdinand.

Malachowski Hussars

The new product codes for these figures are:

MPC-012  Prussian Hussars, Mirlitons, Command (2 figures) - $12.00 per pack

MPC-013  Prussian Hussars, Mirlitons, Troopers (2 figures) - $12.00 per pack

Fife & Drum Miniatures Web Store

We also have the same figures, wearing fur busby hats under the following product codes:

MPC-014  Prussian Hussar Command, Busbies (2 figures)  $12.00 per pack

MPC-015  Prussian Hussar Troopers, Busbies (2 figures)  $12.00 per pack

Prussian Hussar in Busbies. The officer on the white horse and the trumpeter on the tan horse comprise the command pack for the hussars in busbies. The figure on the left, times two, comprises the trooper pack of hussars.

Many people feel that painting hussars of any kind is difficult due to the amount of lace on their uniforms. The sculptor, Richard Ansell, has made these hussars easier to paint by including raised detail on the figure's shabraque, dolman and pelisse.

For example, the jagged saw-tooth lace (or "van dyking" pattern) on the shabraque is made easier to paint because the van dyking is a raised detail - you don't have to paint your own van dyke pattern because it is already sculpted onto the shabraque. The sabertache, which hangs off of the waist of the hussar, has the royal cypher of King Frederick Rex engraved on the item. One could lightly dry brush over the surface to pick out the details of the royal cypher. This is much easier than having to freehand paint the "FR" initials and the crown onto the sabertache.

The payback for the amount of time spent on painting these new hussar figures is very high, as you can see from the pictures of the samples that I painted.

New Minden Russian Horse Grenadiers

New Minden Russian Horse Grenadiers Samples

I have been busy painting samples of all of the new Minden Miniatures SYW figures that were recently added to the range. Today I present pictures of the Russian Horse Grenadiers. The new product codes for the figures are as follows:

MRC-006     Russian Horse Grenadier Command (3 figures w/ horses)             $18.00

MRC-007    Russian Horse Grenadiers in Regular Dress (3 figures w/ horses)   $18.00

MRC-008    Russian Horse Grenadiers in Waistcoats (3 figures w/ horses)        $18.00

The three figures on the left comprise the command pack MRC-006, the second figure from the right in waistcoat comprises the MRC-008 pack of three figures, and the figure on the far right is the MRC-007 pack.

Information about the organization and formation of the Russian Horse Grenadiers can be found on the ever-reliable Kronoskaf web site:

Kronoskaf

The horse grenadier regiments were formed in 1756, just before the start of the Seven Years War. Six former dragoon regiments were converted to horse grenadier regiments. Five of the six regiments fought in the SYW. While the regiments had a nominal organization of 5 squadrons, typically only 3 squadrons were "at the front" while the other 2 remained at the depot as garrison troops.

Kronoskaf notes that the horse grenadier regiments had two 3-pound cannon that were served by men from the Russian artillery, but usually fielded one cannon on campaign.

In late 1758 (sometime after the battle of Kunersdorf) the horse grenadiers replaced their helmets for tricorn hats, thus resembling Russian dragoons save for the color of the horse furniture -- fawn yellow or buff for horse grenadiers and blue for dragoon regiments

The first picture, below, shows the command pack for the horse grenadiers. The officers and musicians in the regiment always wore their regulation cornflower blue coats, in Summer as well as the rest of the year. The rank and file horse grenadiers would shed their blue coats during the Summer campaign season and wear the long-sleeved waistcoat.

Russian Horse Grenadier Command Pack - Product Code  MRC-006

The next picture depicts the standard horse grenadier uniform with the cornflower blue coat. There are three figures with horses in the pack (despite there being only one figure in the picture - I haven't painted the others yet, but will soon). The product code for these figures is MRC-007.

The third pack of Russian Horse Grenadiers (MRC-008) contains three rank and file horse grenadiers wearing just their long sleeved waistcoats. The waistcoats were a buff color and were adorned with blue collars and blue cuffs. The waistcoat opened down the center and was secured by eye-hooks rather than buttons.

The horse grenadier figure in just the waistcoat is not commonly seen in other SYW Russian figure ranges. Wargame Foundry is the only range that comes to mind with regard to having the Summer kit figure in its range. I think that the figure is rather handsome and will look very nice in a unit with buff troopers and cornflower blue officer, standard bearer and musician.

I use 12-figure squadrons in my SYW armies, so in the coming weeks I will paint one squadron wearing the regulation blue coat and a second squadron wearing the summer waistcoat.

Cuirassiers and Cossacks are in our plans in the not too distant future.

New Ferdinand of Brunswick & Croat Mounted Officer Pictures

Croat Officer (left) and Ferdinand of Brunswick (right)

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The latest batch of new Minden Miniatures SYW figures includes two personality figures: Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick (commander of the Allied army fighting the French in western Germany) and a dashing looking Croat officer. The new product codes for each figure are PER-017 for Ferdinand and PER-018 for Mr. Croat. The links to the figures in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store are given below:

Austrians

Prussians

The inspiration for the mounted Croat officer came from a picture in one of the Osprey books that had an image of the Croat wearing his fancy, fur-lined cape. I knew that I really wanted to add this figure to the Minden range. I also felt that I needed a figure to command my Austrian light infantry forces. I could have painted him in the regimental uniform of one of the Croat regiments (red coat, blue coat, brown coat or white coat), but I felt that his station as a brigadier in my army merited the coat of a general Austrian officer.

Rear view showing the Croat's cape.

Ferdinand of Brunswick was already available as a dismounted figure in the Minden figure range (PER-001 Prussian Staff Officers). However, as the commander of the Allied army of Hanoverian, Hessian, British and Brunswick troops, I felt that Ferdinand should be available as a mounted figure too. I painted Ferdinand in his regimental uniform of the IR5 Prussian regiment.

Next Up: Russian Horse Grenadiers. I will post painted samples of the Russian Horse Grenadiers within the next couple of days. Here is a taster:

Left to Right: trooper in Summer waistcoat, trooper in regular coat, musician, officer, and  standard bearer.