Prussian Presents!

I arrived home from work yesterday to find the most delightful surprise - a small parcel of Prussian command figures from Don in the USA. Readers of Ian's amazing Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures blog will recognise Don as Ian's friend and correspondent on all things related to Hinton Hunt, David Clayton and Der Kriegspielers. Don had enquired about my Prussian progress and has, at a stroke, completely solved my command crisis!

The commanders arrive!

The figures (I believe) are (from left to right):

PN 20:Prussian Landwehr Officer, Marching;

PN 23: Prussian Landwehr Colour Bearer;

PN 22: Prussian Landwehr Drummer;

3 x PN 5: Prussian Line Infantry (separate musket);

PN 1: Prussian Line Infantry Officier, Charging; and

PN 6 (although probably actually DK 120): Prussian Line Infantry Drummer.

The three landwehr figures are all David Clayton figures, judging by their rather thick bases, while the line infantry all look like they could be original Hinton Hunts, with the exception of the line infantry drummer, who bears all the signs of being a Der Kriegspieler

They have arrived in the nick of time. The landwehr drummer and colour bearer will be drafted straight into my 2nd Neumark Landwehr Infantry Regiment. As for the others...well they will require more Prussian line and reserve infantry battalions of course!

More posts to follow as the 2nd Neumarks develop. The flag will be a particular challenge: with edges varying from 18 to 20mm, it's quite a bit smaller than my other flags, which are 23mm square. I also have to decide how to paint it. There seem to be any number of highly speculative examples in other people's Prussian Landwehr units. If anyone has any particular suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks Don

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