Lovely Lützowers and the Mysteries of the Ancients

I have two things to talk about this week. They are: "what to do when hiding from hussars"; and an honest-to-goodness ancient mystery.

Estorff Evasion

There are still no hussars to parade, I'm afraid to say, and a large part of the reason for this is depicted below.

As Rob G instantly guessed, the other reason I'd been fooling about with litewka conversions was my secret plan to paint the Königlich Preußisches Freikorps von Lützow. Well, you couldn't really paint Wallmoden's Corps and then leave them out, could you?

My converted DK 125 Prussian Foot Guards officer reveals his true colours

What made this possible was the arrival of a battalion of recast Hinton Hunt Lützower infantry conversions. These absolutely splendid bespoke castings were supplied by a Mr A. Gentleman, who wishes to remain anonymous, so if you can guess who he is please don't say so in the comments!

A recast Hinton Hunt Lützower conversion. PN 21, anyone?

My guess it that he was converted from a Hinton Hunt PN 21: Prussian Landwehr Infantry 1812-15, Landwehr Private (marching).

My own conversions of the conversions are depicted below. I've broken with precendent a bit here in that I've converted and painted the standard bearer before making the flag. I just couldn't resist painting them up to see what they'd look like.

Wellington Man recast Hinton Hunt Lützower conversion conversions.

The drummer is carrying an example of the really lovely 20mm drums made by Musket Miniatures. This is the only one I have at the moment, but I've been in touch with Kris K, the proprietor, and he's promised to send me a few more. Once again I've had a go at soldering the drum to the figure and I'm starting to get quite confident with this technique. The secret is to create the two ends of a solder "bridge" on each of the parts to be joined, and then heating them up again until they melt and fuse.

I will, I promise, get back to the Estorff Hussars eventually, but they may have to stay on the back burner for a while yet.

An Ancient Mystery

Not content with exposing my ludicrously feeble attempts to maintain an air of mystery about what I was planning to do next, Rob G has also sent me a proper mystery, and an ancient one at that:

Rob told me they are vintage "small" 25mm figures of some description, and asked me if I could indentify the make. I didn't have a clue, but if you do, please say so in the comments.

Toodle Pip

WM

Conversion Therapy

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the first squadron of the Estorff Hussars have traumatised me or anything, but I've decided to spend a little time away from them and work on some conversions instead.

I've just the one to show at the moment. He's the charging Prussian Foot Guards officer figure from the Der Kriegspielers set # 125: Prussian Infantry 1813-15, Command Group (Landwehr, Jaeger, Guard). I've removed his greatcoat roll and given him a Litewka.

The original was clearly based on the Hinton Hunt figure PN 10: Prussian Garde Grenadiers (in plumed shakos and jack-boots), officer (charging). The example I painted for my Prussian Foot Guards battalion way back in 2014 is pictured below.

I think my painting has improved a bit since then!

I may post a few more conversions over the coming weeks. It will depend on how well I'm doing with the hussars.

Best regards

WM

Easter Prunny

DK 125: Prussian Guard Standard Bearer

My other Easter project was this wee chappy.

Having run out of Prussian line infantry I was getting a bit worried that my army would be lacking a "proper" Prussian flag with a big black cross on it! It was then I remembered that there was nothing to prevent me from using some of the original Prussian foot guards that had got me started on this project. These would make a fine line grenadier battalion. I also happened to have just the figure for it - what I think may be part of the DK 125 set, Prussian Landwehr, Jaeger and Guard Command. However, he may equally be a David Clayton figure.

Although I should really be working on my Neumark Landwehr battalion, I just couldn't resist the challenge. So, it looks like I'm now committed to doing the 2nd East Prussian Grenadiers. More discipline needed in this army!

A toute a l'heure,

WM