Mit Gott fűr König und Vaterland

PN 23, doing the National Union of Railwaymen proud

Although in the last post I said there was going to be a pause in Prussian production, I just couldn't resist having a go at a couple of Don's splendid Prussian Landwehr command figures.

There was always a strong chance that I was going to do a red flag for the 2nd Neumarks, as this was the colour of the flag carried by those Peter Gilder landwehr that inspired me all those years ago. Any doubt about the matter, however, was removed by a remark from Wellington Girl (aged 9). She wanted to know why I was painting a whole lot of Postman Pats. "Postmen?", I replied, "surely anyone can see that these are British Rail employees!". Having invoked the National Union of Railwaymen, anything other than a red flag would have been a disappointment.

It took two attempts to get it right. It was fiendishly difficult to get anything resembling a symmetrical cross on to the flag as it is anything but square and far from securely attached by that perilously thin lead flag pole.

PN 22: Prussian Landwehr Drummer

The other figure is Don's PN 22: Prussian Landwehr Drummer. This is a David Clayton figure (for more on the David Clayton range, see Ian's splendid blog here), which seems to have been made by grafting a Prussian landwehr head onto a French line infantry drummer, complete with the latter's fringed epaulettes and French imperial lace all over the the arms and chest. However, a little bit of work with a craft knife and a file soon made him a little more Prussiany.

Many thanks again to Don for this very generous donation.

These are positively the last Prussians for the next wee while. The next post, I promise, will be about something completely different.....

WM