Prussian Artillery 1806

My first battery of Prussian artillery is now complete. This one represents an eight-gun 6pdr foot battery. The figures are again old Foundry/Casting Room and the cannon are Elite. I have two further batteries, one of 12pdrs and one horse battery of 6pdrs, plus a few battalion guns (in theory one for each brigade).

Andy Copestake made a comment on his blog regarding people moaning about painting horses. I agree  with him; horses are easy but cannon and the assorted paraphernalia are what I hate the most. I will not be buying limbers for this battery or indeed any of the others as I plan to press gang my Seven Years War Prussian limbers into service.

What they would have looked like in 1806 if photography had been invented.

I'm presently working on the basing of my Fusilier Brigade of three battalions and expect to have them finished sometime tomorrow. 

Prussian Infantry 1806

The Prussian army of 1806 wore very stylish and colourful uniforms, which did little to add to their performance on the battlefield. Here is the first regiment of two battalions straight off the basing dock. These are old Foundry/Casting Room Miniatures. They're actually quite nice but only affordable when Foundry/CRM have one of their too infrequent 20% off sales. The flags are by Adolfo Ramos.

I.R. No. 3 Renuard

New Scots for Flanders and Holland

The latest troops to be completed and have their bases done before marching off to barracks are my replacement Scots Highlander battalions for Flanders in 1793/4 and Holland in 1799. The Highland regiments replaced their kilts with plain white trousers and gaiters in both these campaigns and I believe did the same in West Indies. These figures are by Victorious Miniatures and are very nice castings. Both these battalions are of 32 figures so under Black Powder I shall class them as 'large'.

HM 79th Highlanders

HM 92nd Highlanders

 Now its back to doing the bases for my Prussians. Urgh!

1806 Campaign Prussian Cavalry

Saturday and Sunday saw me complete the basing of three more Prussian cavalry regiments for my 1806 Campaign army (but also for use in earlier French Revolutionary Wars scenarios).

The three regiments I based up today joined by a fourth which I did some time ago.

HR No. 8 von Blucher. These are maybe one of the best hussar castings I have come across, by Forgotten and Glorious Miniz of Paris.

Dragoon Regt No 3. Casting Room Miniatures(Foundry) purchased in one of their 20% off sales. 

KR No 2. More Casting Room Miniatures.

HR No 7 von Koeller. More FGMiniz figures, painted and based a few months ago but now joined by a little more muscle.

Tomorrow I shall start the bases on a few battalions of Prussian Infantry but only after I've done those for His Majesty's 79th and 92nd Foot. My original battalions were in kilts etc which isn't correct for Flanders or the Helder Campaign (so pedantic Colin!) so I sold them on eBay (they are now well on their way to sunny Australia) and replaced them with Victorious Miniatures 1793/94 Scots infantry in plain white overalls. Of course I COULD have used my AWI Highlanders in gaiter trousers but couldn't do it in the end.

More photos tomorrow I hope.

Following on from yesterday’s theme, today is Towarzysze Friday.

I have to say I love this regiment and it’s antecedents the Bosniaks of Frederick the Great’s army. I have a unit of the latter which has rarely seen action to date, and my somewhat impetuous decision to start building in secret an1806 Prussian army a couple of years ago meant it was a no brainier to include at least a ‘squadron’ of the Towarzysze (or however one spell or pronounces it) regiment. (In my little men world my cavalry is organised into battlefield ‘squadrons’ of 12 figures, although perhaps a squadron should be represented by just six?) There are some smaller ones of just six figures; mainly historically small units of (normally) light cavalry or ones which might find themselves split up into penny packets. (Or I only had six figures left in the box and didn’t fancy buying another six....or eighteen?)

So here they are, the riders (Elite Miniatures)painted by my friend Barry of the Like a Stonewall Group, the horses and basing by me. The latter are from Elite Miniatures Collectors’ range but I have misplaced (lost) the separate reins so couldn’t make what may have been a half-hearted attempt to stick them on. Many of the reins on similar units have already fallen off due to even only moderate handling during games so maybe I have saved myself some time. I just need to do some lance pennons; I have some in the flag drawer that'll do nicely.

Its 'Emigre Thursday!'

Two more French Revolutionary War Emigre units marched out of training and on to their barracks today. These were painted for me by my mate Barry and I did all the basing.

The Salm-Kirburg and Choiseul's Hussars.

The Choiseul Hussars were raised in 1794 and fought in Holland before being withdrawn to Hannover then the Isle of Wight. Some squadrons took part in the ill-fated Quiberon expedition and the remainder were shipwrecked off the coast of France en route to India and made prisoner. They were released as the British argued successfully that they were part of the Indian army. The regiment was disbanded in 1796.

The Salm-Kirburg Hussars were raised in 1791 and originally campaigned with the Army of the Conde until being taken into British service in 1794, joining the Duke of York's army in Flanders. When the Duke withdrew to Hannover the next year the regiment was disbanded.

All the figures are Elite Miniatures Austrian Hussars from the FRW Collector's range.

Production targets are being met. FRW Emigres

The basing department has been busy today and three new Emigre regiments have been based up and sent on their separate one-way trips to either Germany, Quiberon or the West Indies. With one exception these are ‘Small’ units in Black Powder. The Salm-Kirchberg Light Infantry are just big enough to be a ‘Standard unit’. The figures are all from Trent Miniatures. I need to make flags for two of the units still.

Perigord Infantry

Rohan Light Infantry

Salm-Kirburg Light Infantry

I've been working on some more Prussian Schutzen bases today and will start basing up two small regiments of Emigre hussars this evening if I get a chance.