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

The Lost Garrison

It's the day after Waitangi Day here in the Land of the Long White Cloud, so I've been taking a bit of time off to paint toy soldiers. This has mostly been devoted to cuirassiers, but while I was about it I also had a crack at one of the wonderful Garrison Prussian Landwehr sent to me by Rob Y. This was a bad idea, as I want a whole battalion of these delightful figures now and they're really not allowed until I've finished Phase 2.

He's a Garrison PN 12: Prussian Landwehr marching, of 1973-design vintage, or thereabouts. The intent, I am assuming, was to expand the existing Garrison Prussian range, which the year before had included guard, line and landwehr in advancing poses. Alas, Rob tells me, the moulds for these are no more, but I've found a picture of some of them.

The image below of troops from Peter Gilder's collection appeared in Charles Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming, published in 1974. The troops in line attacking Plancenoit are Garrison Prussian Guards and Landwehr (codes PN 2 and PN 11, respectively according to the 1972 catalogue). Line infantry (PN 7s) can also be glimpsed in the village. Marching up in column behind them are Lammings, albeit with Hinton Hunt officers by the looks of them.

If anybody has any of these and would like to send me pictures of them, I would be extremely grateful.

There may or may not be another post this weekend. I have a couple of generals on the go and with a bit of luck I may have one of them to show off in a day or two.

WM

Prussian Presents 2

I must apologise for my atrocious posting rate of late. Work stress is the cause of it. Although this usually helps me with my hobby, as I find it so relaxing, it's reached such a level in the last few weeks that I've been spending the evenings and weekends absolutely prostrate. Needless to say, this has been having a very bad effect on my cuirassier production.

There are two things which have happened in the last two days which ought to improve this situation. The first is that I have delivered on the major project which was distracting me so seriously; and the second was the arrival this morning of these splendid chaps:

They are 23 x Garrison PN 12: Prussian Landwehr, marching. Rob Young, the proprietor of Garrison, very generously sent them to me. Followers of Rob's wondrous Eastern Garrison blog will have seen these in recent weeks. I cannot adequately express how grateful and delighted I am, not the least because Rob is not actually open for business these days, so this was a very special favour.

The photos really don't do justice to what is a really nicely proportioned and animated figure with subtle but excellent detailing. I'm going to love painting these.

The vital question. of course, is how compatible are they with Hinton Hunts? The answer is not too badly at all, as I hope the following will demonstrate. Pictured below are the PN 12s next to a battalion of vintage Hinton Hunt PN 8: Prussian Infantry of the Line 1810-15, Private, marching. If you click to embiggen you'll also see a David Clayton version of the Hinton Hunt PN 20: Prussian Landwehr officer, marching, commanding the Garrisons. He's certainly a little shorter, but with his thick Clayton base to give him a bit of a boost, I think he can still do the business.

A close up of the HH PN 8s next to the Garrison PN 12s is shown below. To even things up a bit, the Hinton Hunts are on my standard 2mm-thick bases, while the Garrisons are on 1.5mm-thick bases. As you can see, the Garrisons are still a little taller, but are a fair match nonetheless.

I'd been wondering what to paint for Phase 3 of my project, and for a while was seriously considering leaving Prussians off the list. There's no doubt now that there'll be at least two new Prussian battalions. They'd go rather well with the Lutzowers, I reckon, to recreate Tippelskirch's 5th Brigade of the Army of the Lower Rhine. This will require the Garrisons to be painted as the 5th Westphalian Landwehr, which will suit them very nicely, I think.

Thank you Rob!

All the best

WM