Thursday 24 March 2016

Prussian Special Reserve 2

The 2nd/21st, trying not to look embarrassed!
The first two companies of the 21st Infantry Regiment/9th Reserve Infantry Regiment are finished.

I've painted them to represent the second battalion of the regiment, who were dressed in blue, British-made uniforms with white lace and red facings.

The new British uniforms issued to many of the reserve regiments attracted public ridicule and so there were efforts to "Prussianise" them by removing the lace. The 21st made themselves even more sombre-looking by blackening their belts. However, when I painted a test figure with white tunic lace and cross belts to see what this would look like, I thought the effect was so striking that I decided to paint all of them this way!

The rank and file figures are DK 243: Portuguese Line Infantry, charging. They were beautiful, crisp castings in mint condition and in their original packaging when I found them. I like their poses too, which are quite far down the "air guitar" end of the spectrum!

The officer is another of Don's Prussian command figures, Hinton Hunt PN 1: Prussian Line Infantry Officer, charging. I think he looks quite dashing with his red facings.

Last is the drummer, which is from the DK 154: British Light Infantry Command set. He's clearly a conversion from a Hinton Hunt BN 12: British Line Infantry Drummer.

With rain forecast over Easter, I'm hoping to get the other half of the battalion completed over the long weekend. I'll keep you posted!

WM

19 comments :

  1. Superb, they look superb!

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    1. Merci, encore, Phil. Vous etes trop gentil, comme d'habitude.

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  2. I think that was the right decision with the lace - they look great. How many Prussian units do you have now?

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    1. This will be the fifth battalion, which is something approaching progress. Only one more battery needed to complete phase one when these are done.

      They didn't work anything like as well with black belts, so I decided to depict them as they might have appeared in the earlies!

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  3. Haven't seen the HH/DK Portuguese used for this job - very nice - convincing. The British LI drummer is an interesting figure - I saw an unpainted one some years ago, but have never seen or heard of another.

    The drum itself is superb, too. These little guys are like jewels (hope that isn't the wrong thing to say?).

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    1. Foy, if you look on 'Lee's "Therapy" blog you'll see that that he used some proper HH Portuguese for just this purpose.

      White undercoat and gloss varnish does sometimes give them a bit of a "jewel-like" quality! Reds and yellows in particular become fluorescent when painted over a white base coat. Not the wrong thing to say at all. It's the effect I was after!

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  4. You seem to be cranking them out now Matt, but quality remains absolutely top notch. The flag is a beauty, so well done by hand.

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    1. I'm rushing a bit as I'll be going on an extended trip quite soon. I'm trying to get the phase-one Prussians completed before I set off. Fortunately the current batch are not too complex!

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  5. Something old something new, something borrowed, something blue, these chaps are off to a wedding.

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  6. In Trumpton, by the looks of them!

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  7. Very nice. If I remember correctly, a unit of Prussian horse artillery was supplied with RHA Tarletons, dolmans etc. Have you considered doing them?

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  8. Battery number 15

    http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/Despeche/Issue3/c_PrussianHorseArtillery1815.html

    I'm sure there is more information on TMP but it's closed for maintenance.

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    1. Thanks for the reference. Intriguing!

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    2. I understand that one of the Prussian Horse Batteries (no.13?) was partly equipped with RHA kit in April 1815, but the King of Prussia had a hairy fit when he saw them in the victory parade, so they were re-equipped. If that's what the Napoleon Series reference says, here it is again!

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  9. Here are some more references. You have to do it now!
    http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/forum/archive2006_config.pl?md=read;id=59524

    http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=253981&page=1

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    1. Doubly intriguing. However, if the uniform was as complete as they say, how'd they be distinguishable from the RHA?

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  10. I was thinking that HH RHA shouldn't be too(relatively)difficult to find.

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    1. You are right! An RHA Battery that could double up as Prussians would be rather useful!

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