Armies on Parade - Napoleonic Prussians

Taking advantage of a rare sunny gap between the rain I took the opportunity of parading my Prussian Army in the garden under the sun. This has been an on and off project for the past two years. It was inspired at the 2011 Historicon with the release of the Perry plastic Prussian Infantry.

The army is based off the Waterloo campaign under FM Blucher. It is a mix of Perry, Warlord and Foundry miniatures. Still work in progress, more Landwher to paint then reservists and Cavalry. Looking for suitable flags/colours as Flagdude I believe is stopping up shop so and recommendations on suppliers would be useful.

Getting all the toys out was an opportunity to see where the gaps are. One more Landwher unit is on the work bench based off a Knotel print of East Prussians. An order has gone into messrs Perry for some more artillery and some command for the Jager stands. Fathers day gave a rare chance to do all the basing for the whole Army so thank you to the Domestic Chief of Staff (DCOS) for allowing it.

Perry Miniatures, Prussian high command

Perry Miniatures Russians as the Russian Legion followed by a battalion of Foundry Prussian infantry

Two battalions of Perry plastic Prussian infantry and a battalion of metal Foundry infantry.

Two types of Warlord plastic Landwher, the newer type is the front battalion.

Perry plastic Jagers from the Prussian infantry sprue. A shortfall of the sprue is no Jager command.

More Prussian command from Perry and the Landwher from Warlord.

Perry cannon on the left and Foundry on the right.

28mm Prussian or Russian infantry

It has been a while since posting as the speed of painting has reduced to a snails pace since I have taken over the care of my son, Sunray Minor.

The Napolepnic Prussian project has moved on though with the completion of the 31st Infantry Regiment of the Russian Legion from the III Corps which fought in the 1815 Waterloo campaign at Wavre. The figures are the plastic Perry Russian infantry box which are of a high quality and a joy to assemble. Sadly I found these a bit tedious to paint and I clearly need to work on the recipe for Russian uniforms.

Thankfully this regiment is out of the way so back to more damilsr grey and blue uniforms! My focus now turns to more Landwher regiments, in parts thanks to Warlords recent sprue sale.

Salute 2019

Once again the annual pilgrimage was made to E16 at the Excel Centre. This year I met up with some wargamers from Romford and had a chilled walk around the exhibition.

Some of the stand out demo games photos are presented below. Dave Thomas was regretfully absent which meant the metal Perry Miniatures line was not available as well as Wargames Foundry not carrying their sizable Napoleonic line either, that said their stand is massive and good to see them continuing on the show circuit. Thankfully there were other traders in abundance too. Another good year from the South London Warlords.

The mandatory stash photo!

Notable purchases: Gangs of Rome, Bread & Circuses, Sarrisa precision's Ornate Trelis, Osprey Publishing's Rebels and Patriots, Urban Constructs Churchill Ark tank,Rubicons 20mm Okerlion cannons, TT Games Venice MDF buildings and Empress Miniatures late war Britiah infantry packs.

 Gringo 40s Gulf of Tonkin table

Friends of General Haig, Lutzen

 The Battle of Ligny

 WW2 Far East

 The Longbow Society, Hundred Years War

 To the Strongest, Romans vs Celts

Blimey it's been a while!

Wow, it is amazing how long it takes to update a blog. The usual reasons, lack of personal discipline, the awful blogger app that will not allow photos to publish, a loss of painting mojo lasting three months and the attrition of real life.

So what have I been up to? The above does not sound constructive, however I have been chipping away at many projects. Here are the highlights below:

1. Went to SELWG 2017. A great little show, more hobby focused with some great table games. More intimate than Salute.

2. Built the Sherman Firefly VC plastic kit by Warlord and discovered the joy of Testors dullcoat.

3. Rediscovered OO gauge railway modelling  and resurrected a project from a decade ago. Above is a kit of BR 07 shunter converted into an MoD Barclay 275hp shunting loco. Below is a rake of Parkside Vanwide and Palvans with a Horny VGA painted up as internal user wagons for the MoD. Painted and weathered acrylics. 

4. Paint a clutch of 1/56th scale 'B Vehicles'. Top photos shows the radio truck from Corgi, Anyscale models CMP 30Cwt truck, Perry 5'5'' Howitzer and Warlord K2 Ambulance in prep in the background.

Corgi Diecast Diamond T tank transporter and Warlord Firefly being varnished in dullcoat.

Richard Humbles scratch built Matador truck being base coated. A good spot of the Facebook sales pages!

5. George Washington in 28mm from the Wargames Illustrated 'Giants in Miniature' range. Also painted is a Regiment of Eureka's Marbleheaders and Perry Miniatures Lee's Legion.

6. Defrocking the M7 Priest. Model from the Priest SPG by Warlord games modified to become a 'Kangeroo APC' by blanking off the gun mounting, removing the shell racks and adding some plastic card armour to the fighting compartment. Added to this has been two RAM Kangeroos and some more Universal Carriers.

7. Prussians Et Gloria. Eat, Sleep, Paint, Repeat...  bulking out the 28mm Napoleonic Prussian regiments with the 19th, 24th and 25th Prussian regiments. Photos show the Perry plastics. Two metal regiments of Foundry Prussians were also painting with a start on the new Warlord Landwher. 

Armies on Parade 2 - The Continental Army

Part 2 of Armies on Parade is the other major protagonist of the American War of Independence, the Continental Army and Militia.

The collection as with the British/Loyalist force was started on the release of the Perry Twins AWI range whilst at the Foundry. These figures offered a respite from the endless regiments of scarlet being churned out with a proliferation of many uniform styles and color combinations. As you can see from the photo above, the army is much smaller that the British collection, this is now a focus to build up line Regiments as well as skirmishers to match.

The Spirit of '76 by Fife & Drum miniatures

Philadelphia Light horseman vignette converted from Eureka Miniatures French Revolutionary Range.

Continental Artillery, a mixture of Perry and Foundry miniatures.

24 Pdr Cannon siege train by Perry Miniatures. These can also be used with the British forces dependent on the scenario thankfully as the uniforms are 'undress' and generic. 

The Philadelphia Light Horse, possibly my most favorite unit for a number of reasons; chiefly due to ancestral founder member of the unit who served in the AWI and the fact the unit still survives and maintains its elite qualities and traditions to this present day as part of the National Guard. Figures by Foundry.

George Washington himself, alongside the Colours of the Continental Army. Figures by Foundry and Wargames Illustrated from the 'Moments in History' range. The beagles are based on a pair that a good friend of mine maintains!

New York Regiment, figures by Foundry.

The Pennsylvania Line.

 Webbs Additional Regiment. Built from a chance find from the flea market at Historicon in 2011. Figures by Old Glory and Foundry.

Militia Minutemen, by Foundry.

Armies on Parade 1 - AWI British Army

Despite a very tough time in the day job, recent weeks have been very productive:

1. Basing of a colossal cohort of 28mm miniatures.

2. Painting of the 24th Prussian infantry Regiment for Waterloo, Foundry.

3. Molly Pitcher and Cannon with crew, Eureka Miniatures

4. The A Team, Foundry.

A rare rest day with a light hangover proved a great opportunity to dust off the boxes of completed troops and hold a review of the Armies. 

The first article for Armies on Parade, is my 28mm British Army for the American War of Independence. 

This Army has been in the collecting since Wargames Foundry released the first packs of the Perrys AWI range back in 2000. I believe this range alongside their Napoleonic Russians to the be their finest works whilst at Foundry. Back then I was an impoverished student living in Nottingham and regularly squandered by student loan at the St Marks street factory in particularly on this range.

This range was responsible for me getting into the AWI, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of the earlier part of the war with the British Army's more formal style of uniform and first experimental steps to the employment of Light Troops, preceding the way later in the war for formed units of Light Infantry, loose ranks of soldiers and more spartan uniforms without lace and equipment. Over the years I have continued to collect and add new units to this collection. Focus is now on getting colors for several units, and fleshing out the Cavalry, Hessian contingent and building up Loyalist forces to compliment larger regular army contingent. I have also made some inroads into starting on troops with the later types of uniforms as seen in the Sarratoga and Southern Campaigns. 

For the best part the Army is Wargames Foundry with later additions from Perry Miniatures and some Kings Mountain Miniatures.

17th Regiment followed by the 44th. Giles Allison's 'Tarleton's Quarter' blog has been an inspiration for the painting of this army during its long life! Figures by Foundry, Colours by Flag Dude.

33rd Foot, red facings. A mixed bunch of leftover figures saved to become a unit! Foundry and Flag Dude.

The Fusiliers, converted from Foundry Grenadiers with green stuff sculpted black knee gaiters. Colour party by Front Rank. This Regiment has to be my favorite of the British Units from the early part of the war purely due to the Grenadier style head dress. 

17th Light Dragroons from Perry Miniatures. Shown here in their red coatees, prior to the deprivations of the Southern Campaign. 

The Royal Artillery with 6 Pdr Cannon with block trails and a Howitzer. Figures by Foundry. 

Royal Artillery siege mortar. Figures by Foundry and mortar by Front Rank. This model was something whimsical, having not noted the use of a British siege train during the AWI. 

5th Regiment Light Infantry. This basing style was inspired by Dave Taylor's basing of his Napoleonic Rifles. Figures by Foundry. 

A loyalist Regiment. Depicted here in the earlier green coats and laced hats. Still requiring some colors. Figures by Foundry and Perry Plastics. 

Queens Rangers, again awaiting some Colours. Figures by Perry Miniatures.

Regiment Von Ditfurth, these figures are actually the Foundry SYW Prussian Range sculpted by Mark Copplestone if memory serves. 

Fusilier Regiment Erbrinz, again Foundry SYW Prussian Range.

Hessian Jaegars by Perry Miniatures. This is my favorite unit in the whole army, as woodsmen and hunters these light troops look like they are stalking their way through tough going woodland terrain.