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Monday 27 April 2020

Prussian Reserve Infantry

To make a bit of a change from painting infantry in blue and grey I decided to have a go at depicting some of the many reserve battalions.  In the period 1813 - 1815 the Prussian army suffered from severe equipment shortages at a time when the army was expanding rapidly through the creation of reserve and militia units.  The result was a variety of uniforms in many forms and colours. As new equipment came in units swapped uniforms creating a mixed bag that was not sorted out before the end of the napoleonic wars. 

One form of dress is a plain grey jacket with matching grey trousers and minimal unit facing colours. My figures reflect two such units, although I have applied a little artistic license. First off, colours were banned from reserve units in 1813 and probably most units were not even issued any; however, there are cases were unofficial colours were reportedly carried by units. In my case the mothers and wives have produced unofficial colours for these two units, in a form commonly attributed to militia regiments.

Additionally, I think the officers should be dressed in blue standard Prussian uniforms - I have dressed my officers to match the men. All that said, I think they look OK, reperesenting the 12th and 18th Regiments:


Saturday 25 April 2020

Prussian Landwehr

Continuing the process of refurbishing and reorganising my Ros Prussian forces, I thought I should try to reflect the Reserve and Landwehr units. The Reserve is quite easy as the Ros line infantry can be painted to represent Reserves; however there is no suitable casting in the Ros range for the Landwehr. I decided to take a look at Warrior Miniatures as a possible alternative and as a test I have painted a single unit.

This unit is painted to represent one of the Silesian Landwehr battalions, with their distinctive yellow facings.  I realise that the flag may not be correct and there is some debate as to which units actually carried colours, which were banned from Reserve and Landwehr units from 1813. That said, there is some evidence that some units defied this directive.

Anyway, here is my Silesian Landwehr unit with colour, looking very smart indeed!


I may paint some more, in facing colours to represent each of the Prussian provinces.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Ros French Imperial Guard Grenadiers

My main effort for the last couple of weeks has been the refurbishment of my Ros Prussian army, however, as I paint with gloss paints there are periods when I am waiting for paint to dry, so I have a number of  'background' projects. 

Over the last week or so I have been dabbing paint on a unit of French Guard grenadiers and have given them a Ros command group. They are now finished. I rather like them as they look very determined:


Regarding the Prussians, I have six units on the work bench; three reserve battalions, two rifle battalions and a Warrior landwehr battlaion. I think that once they are all completed it will be time for a Spring Parade!

Sunday 19 April 2020

Yet more Ros Prussians

Another three battalions take to the field.  That's 11 completed so far. I will produce a picture when I finish the last units with the whole army deployed on the table:


Wednesday 15 April 2020

French Staff Officers

Three French Staff officers survey the field.

The group includes Marshal Ney, a General of Division and an ADC.  They are all 25mm Minifigs and were a delight to paint:

Monday 13 April 2020

Prussian Gunners

Working my way through the piles of Ros figures, the latest lot to be completed are two sets of gunners.  They were quite easy to paint and make a nice addition to my growing 25mm Prussian army:





Friday 10 April 2020

Renovated Ros Prussians

As mentioned before, I continue to work my way through my collection of Ros Prussians, with the aim of refurbishing them and giving them new bases. I am organising them into 12 figure units to match my other units.

Today I finished off another four units. Each consisting of Ros Prussian line infantry, with Warrior command figures:

So far I have completed seven units, with about the same number still to do.

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Crimean War Russian Infantry

I have a few partially painted Russian units that have been sitting in a drawer for many months, and with time on my hands, I thought I would finish some of these off as and when I can.

This lot consists of two units made up from some rather crude castings that I received as a gift from a fellow wargamer. They appear to be home cast versions of the Minifigs S range Russian infantryman in soft hat advancing. There was a pile of around 50. I added some officers, drummers and standard bearers recast by Old John. This is what they looked like upon arrival:

They required quite a lot of work to make them presentable, but like all figures a spot of paint soon transforms them. I decided to paint the first unit as Russian Naval Infantry, which was a bit of an error as the white piping on the hats was a real challenge:

The second unit are painted as ordinary line infantry:

Together they will make a useful addition to my Crimean Russian army:




Monday 6 April 2020

Prussian Jaegers - 25mm Ros Figures

These figures are actually Ros 25mm Prussian line infantry. Way back in 1975 these were painted as Jaegers as the Prussian Jaeger figure by Ros had not been produced and so we had to make do with paint conversions.  I now have some proper Jaegers, but decided to keep these the way they are purely for nostalgic reasons. The command group were added later and were sourced from Warrior Miniatures, again before I could lay my hands on Ros command figures,

I have refurbished them and put them on new bases:



Sunday 5 April 2020

Russian Lifeguard Cossacks

A few months ago I received a surprise package from Alan of ABC Wargamers. Contained within was a variety of Minifigs cavalry, both S Range and current range. One group of figures consisted of these rather splendid Miniature Figurines Russian Cossacks, painted as a guard unit. There are seven figures in the group and the painting is very nice indeed. 

The figures appeared to have dulled over the years and so I set about freshening them up and adding a little more detail. The results were very pleasing:



 Here they are carrying out their duties as escort to the Russian General Staff:





Saturday 4 April 2020

Ros Figures 25mm French Voltigeurs

Another renovation completed, this time a group of Ros French line grenadiers, painted as line voltigeurs:


Friday 3 April 2020

Ros 25mm Prussian Infantry

Continuing to work through the refurbishment of some of my older figures, these Ros Prussians date back to 1975 and were getting a bit worn and shabby:

Only another 200 to go!