Hot Cross Huns

Marshal Blücher has arrived to inspect elements of a new division being formed by General Pirch.

Pirch: My new Westphalians are burning to get at the enemy, Herr Marshal.

The newly-raised 5th Westphalian Landwehr Infantry Regiment, under the veteran Baron von Klaptowt, are put through their paces.

Klaptowt: Westphalians....March!

Drilled to perfection in the best Prussian style under Old Fritz's expert tutelage, Klaptowt's men wheel, march and countermarch flawlessly.

Blücher is impressed!

Blücher: A fine body of men, Herr General! Ve must send you some Regulars to make up ze numbers.

The figures are:

from the 1973 Garrison 25mm Napoleonics range:

PN 12: Prussian Landwehr, marching x 21

PN 12: Prussian Landwehr, marching x 1, converted into a standard bearer
PN 12: Prussian Landwehr, marching x 1, converted into a drummer with a Musket Miniatures drum;

and

Hinton Hunt, PN 10: Prussian Garde Officer, charging x 1, converted into a Frederickan dugout with a mystery head.

Happy Easter everyone.

With special thanks to Rob Young and Lewis Gunner.

WM

Der Alte Fritz

My painting session today seemed to go like a dream with the result that my Westphalians are nearly finished.

Pictured below is the command group, featuring a delightful Hinton Hunt Conversion given to me a couple of years ago by the ever dependable Mr Lewis Gunner. He's a conversion of a Hinton Hunt PN 10: Prussian Garde Grenadiers, Officer charging, if I'm not mistaken, but with his aiguillettes removed and a new head. I've no idea where the head came from!

Baron von Klaptowt (for it is he): Take heart, my fine lads, und  give

 zose damned Kaiserlicks,.er, I mean, Frenchmen a good kicking!

He's a bit of a late entrant because I only rather belatedly remembered that I'd stashed him somewhere in a 'box of special things'. When I  eventually fished him out I thought he'd be just the chap to command my Westphalians. Not only does he look like some sort of late-Frederickan dugout, which is amusingly plausible for a Landwehr battalion, but his enormous hat gives him just the extra bit of stature needed to stand in line with those beefy Garrisons.

I just need to base them up now, which should only take a day or two.

Yours, locked down for the duration

WM

Von Lützow at Last

Colonel Von Lützow has arrived at last to lead his famous Schwarzen Jäger.

And very dapper he looks too in his black duds, which match his black heart!

How I made him

As explained in the last post, von Lützow is actually a converted Hinton Hunt PN 10: Prussian Foot Guards Officer, charging. The tools I used for this conversion are pictured below.

The first job was to cut him off his base and then bend, cut and file his legs until he could sit  comfortably on his horse. Greatly aiding this process was the 'D'-section shaped microfile, which was just the thing for hollowing out his...er...undercarriage.

To make his litewka I tried out something new which was to create a very basic frame for it using 5-amp fuse wire. This was bent into shape with pliers and then glued into place. I hoped it would give a well-defined edge to the litewka once I started smearing solder around, and it worked a treat. The only major thing needed after that was to drill off any excess solder with my rotary tool.

I also repositioned his sword arm and added a couple of epaulettes. The latter were made by attaching small blobs of solder onto his shoulders, filing them flat and then shaping them with a small hand drill.

The final touch was achieved using the tool shown below. It's known as a "Diamond Poger", apparently, and is normally used for setting gemstones in jewelry. The little concave cups at the end of each point, each of a slightly different size, also happen to be excellent for making buttons!

My sincere thanks to Lewis Gunner for sending me this device when I couldn't find one in New Zealand.

Should be gunners next.

WM

Horsing Around

I was supposed to be painting gunners today, but it didn't quite work out that way. Before getting down to the job on hand I thought I'd do a simple conversion and things sort of escalated after that. The upshot is that no gunners were painted, but I've ended up with a couple of new Prussian generals, so it wasn't all bad.

The simple conversion was a quick head swap on another of my Der Kriegspielers #50 mounted officers. The new head I gave him was left over from the recast Hinton Hunt PN 64 I used to make General Zieten.

This didn't take very long at all and since the soldering iron was all nicely warmed up I started fossicking about in my might-do-a-conversion-but-haven't-quite-decided-yet box. What I came up with was a  Hinton Hunt PN 10: Prussian Guard Grenadier officer, charging. "I wonder if he could be made to sit on a horse", I said to myself. The answer was "yes, he can", although it took several hours to find out.

He still needs a little cleaning up, and perhaps a bit more work on his sword arm, but he's mostly complete. He is to be Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow, of course. The horse, by the way, is a recast Hinton Hunt FNH 13.

I should be getting back to my gunners now, but I suspect they're going to have to wait a little longer....

Yours, soldering on,
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

Guards! Guards!

Next up are the Prussian Foot Guards.

Before repainting. A sturdy looking set of PN 13: Prussian Guard Grenadiers, Charging.

PN 13 from the rear

Stripping off the paint revealed that all was not quite as it seemed! About half a dozen of them were clearly not original Hinton Hunts.

Mystery figure on the left, Hinton Hunt on the right. The mystery figure has slightly less detail and is made of a darker, less dense alloy. His stance is also slightly set back, as if balancing on his right foot.

HH on the right. Definitely a bit beefier.

There are also slight differences in the thickness of the bases and the mold lines. The mold line variation is clearest on the boots.

I'm almost certain that the mystery figures were made by Der Kriegspielers (DK), an American company that produced a range of 25mm Napoleonics in the early 1970s. Marketed as "Napoleoniques", the DK range closely resembles those made by Hinton Hunt. According to the DK 1970 and 1973 catalogues (here), the DK equivalent to my HH Prussian guardsmen are "Napoleoniques" set 121: Prussian Guard Battalion 1812 Advancing.

(Many thanks to Chuck for the catalogue information).

Another discovery was that the drummer I had selected  was a conversion. So much became clear when his head fell off as I was cleaning him! However, a pin and a bit of superglue soon put him right again. I suspect he is a PN 6 (Prussian Line Infantry Drummer), with a Guardsman's head.

PN 6 with a new head. Not an easy figure to paint. Much of the detail is paint rather than sculpting, and the drum was anything but symmetrical.

Side view, looking very spiffy with his poppy red facings and plume.

To finish the battalion I made another conversion to make the standard bearer: PN 5 Private, Prussian Line Infantry, advancing (Separate Musket), but with another Guardsman's head. I thought it would also be fun to have a go at hand-painting the flag. The final result, representing the First Battalion/First Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, is shown below.

PN 13; PN 10: Guard Officer Charging; converted PN 6: Line Drummer; and converted PN 5: Line Infantryman.

I've yet to decide whether or not to stick with this basing scheme, but we'll see how it goes. It certainly makes it a lot easier to pick them up and move them around.

WM