Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 2 (1. Westpreußisches Dragoner-Regiment)

The Soon Dragoons are ready to make their entrance, so without further ado, here they are:

And here they are again brigaded with the Garde du Corps. You can see why I thought they'd need a flag.

The figures are Hinton Hunt PN81: Dragoon, charging, x12. Nine of them are vintage castings (of which one, whose sword had broken off entirely, is now the trumpeter), and three (the officer, standard bearer and one of the troopers) are recasts.

I think I'm going to need at least one more Prussian heavy cavalry regiment to round off Phase 2. The question is: should they be line cuirassiers, or more dragoons? I think either would look rather dashing

I have a wee backlog of generals and whatnot to work through first, however, so I'll have plenty of time to think about it.

Regards

WM

Lützow Heavy Weapons

I've been terribly busy with various work projects these last few weeks, but as they've finally slackened off a bit I've managed to get some painting done.

Readers of this blog may dimly recall that Mr A. Gentleman very kindly supplied me with a set of wonderful Hinton Hunt Lützower infantry conversions a few years ago. "If you can bung me a few more," I said, "I'll turn them into gunners". I'm somewhat mortified by how long it's taken me to paint them, but here they are at last.

Depicted below are the other ranks. The first two figures, I believe, are conversions of a Hinton Hunt PN 21: Prussian Landwehr infantryman, marching. The third is a charging variant who I think started life as a BN 72: British Fusilier charging. All I needed to do with them was to pare off their muskets and substitute various artillery implements.

I think the the superb Lützower officer conversion which follows was made from an  AN 50: Austrian Artillery Officer. The only change I made to him was to solder on a new scabbard as the original had broken off. I may have overdone the length a bit.

Their gun is still in the works but when it's finished I'll show them all off properly along with the rest of the Prussian gun line.

While I was about these I decided to have a go at a Garrison Russian grenadier who was very generously supplied to me by Rob Young. Like the Garrison Prussian Landwehr Rob also sent to me, he's a wee bit bigger than a standard Hinton Hunt, but not disastrously so.

He's the first of what is to be a little Austro-Russian side project, which will be matched with a few Bavarians and other satellite units on the French side. I've been dying to do this for ages, so despite the fact that Phase 2 of my main project is not quite complete, a battalion of Garrison Russians is what's up next after the Lützowers are finished.

I can't quite articulate what it is that attracts me so much about Garrisons, but every time I get hold of them I find them absolutely irresistible.

Yours

WM

Prussian Discussion

I have hinted now and then that I'm a bit of a fan of Lamming 20mm Napoleonics. I've tried to hide this, of course, but that regiment of Lamming British Line infantry, and my tentative experiments with some of the French part of the range, I fear, may have let the cat out of the bag.

What I've really been yearning for all along is a battalion of Lamming 20mm Prussians. I knew these existed because I already had one - a charming little drummer who I conscripted into the Prussian 10th Infantry Regiment. Here's a reminder of what he looks like:

Lamming PI/6: Prussian Line Infantry Drummer

I identified him from his looks and from the fact that he has 'PI/6' inscribed underneath his base, which is listed as a Prussian Line Infantry drummer in the Lamming 20mm range. The only other things I had to go on were a few glimpses in the wargaming literature of what I believe were Lamming Prussians in the Peter Gilder collection, and an intriguing post about the same collection by Clive over on his Hinton Hunter site.

Imagine my delight, therefore, when a number of Lamming Prussians, or what looked like them, popped up in three different lots, from three different vendors, on ebay. Pictured below is the haul. Lot 1 included the figure stripped to the metal in the second row; Lot 2 are all those painted light blue; and Lot 3 are the chaps in dark blue in the front row.

Once I'd got them altogether, however, it became clear that there were several weird things about them. The first question was: why is the officer so much larger than the rest of them? Did Bill intend him to be like this (Bill's officers do seem to be a bit bigger, on the whole), or was he part of a later, remodelled set of Lamming Prussians?

Lamming 20mm PI/6 Prussian Line infantry drummer, PI/1 Prussian line infantry advancing,

and a somewhat oversized PI/3 Line infantry officer

This is where Lot 4 comes into the picture, which I bought from a fellow living here in New Zealand. Lot 4 consists of an identical officer and half a dozen advancing infantryman who are really very different and altogether taller than the other lots. They are not, however, examples of the final range Bill Lamming produced in 1974/5. These, as shown in an earlier post, were a great deal beefier. Pictured below are two of the Lot 4s added to the line up.

An intriguing Lamming line up: a PI/6, two  PI/1s (first variant), a PI/1 (second variant) and two PI/3s (second variant?)

The next shot shows what's underneath the bases. As you can see, the two advancing infantry variants have PI/1 inscribed on them, while the officer sports a PI/3.

As if this wasn't confusing enough, two of the Lot 3 men were also noticeably different to the men in Lots 1 and 2. The next two pictures should show what I mean.

Lot 2 and Lot 3

The Lot 3s are slightly taller than the Lot 2s, and have slightly thicker and taller hats, different arms and legs, and larger, slightly misshapen bases. The torsos and blanket rolls are very similar, however.

Also different are the swords and muskets. The Lot 2s have a very simple sword moulded to the side of their left legs, while the Lot 3s have hanging swords. The packs are very similar though.

What to make of it? When I first saw them I thought the Lot 3s looked remarkably as if someone had grafted a Lamming head onto the body of a Hinton Hunt Prussian infantryman. The following, I hope, will illustrate what I mean.

Lamming PI/1, Unknown and Hinton Hunt PN 3: Prussian Infantry of the Line, charging

This initially made me think the Lot 3 chaps must be Alberkens. Peter Gilder, the Alberken designer, often appears to have used Hinton Hunts as the basis for the figures in the Alberken range. I'm not completely convinced about this, however.

The question I'm asking myself is: which came first? My feeling at the moment is that the date order is probably right to left: Hinton Hunt, Lot 3 and then Lamming.

The Lot 3 looks like a Hinton Hunt, but with a new head and a lightly modified pack, blanket roll and sword. The Lamming looks like a further modification of the Lot 3, if anything, with new arms, legs, sword and musket, but retaining the torso. This may also account for the slight shrinkage in the hat and other details, which is not an unusual result of the recasting process.

My conclusion is that the Lot 3s, which I initially thought were Alberkens, may actually be a very early iteration of the Lamming Prussian range. It looks to me that Bill may have started out by modifying a Hinton Hunt or two.

Clive and I have already had a lively email debate about all this. As can be seen on the wonderful Old Metal Detector Blog here, Clive is far from convinced, but for what it's worth, my theory about Lammings is that there were more than just two versions of the range, which is to say a 20mm range and a more or less completely resculpted 25mm range. If the evidence presented above is anything to go by, Bill seems to have tinkered quite a lot with the 20mm figures, including completely remodelling some of them, before tossing the lot in favour of 25mm figures. More than a few vintage Prussians, however, will be needed to prove this, so if anyone else has examples of these figures or any tales to tell about them, please get in touch!

Yours, as ever
WM

P.S. Evidence of 'tinkering', although of a very modest variety, can also be found in the French part of the Lamming 20mm range, which I will illustrate in a later post.

Edit:
Some really splendid early Lamming British Royal Horse Artillery can be seen on Rob Y's site here.

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

Prussian Posse

New Zealand goes into lockdown for four weeks in 24 hours, so to cheer myself up (and anyone else who might be watching), I've gathered together my German generals. Blücher will know what to do!

To all my friends, stay safe old chaps. I'll see you all again one day, no doubt, if you don't see me first.

All the best
WM

Doing things by halves

I've been hard at it on the 5th Westphalians this weekend and have finished the first half of the battalion. I suppose this makes them the 2.5th Westphalians.

I've been painting my infantry in half battalions like this since I started this project nigh on five years ago, but I still haven't found the secret of making the second half nearly as enjoyable as doing the first half. There is a rather interesting late substitute for my officer and my converted drummer to do in this case, however, so I'm hoping this will keep me keen.

Yours, shining on

WM

Gott Mit Uns

We all have our crosses to bear, and Prussian Landwehr in particular. I was hoping to get the first half-battalion of the 5th Westphalians finished today, but all my time was used up painting their fiddly little hats!

Never mind, I've done the hard yards with this lot and they stand a very good chance of being finished by the end of next weekend.

Cheers

WM

Black Banner

Painting time was a bit more plentiful this week, thanks to a cold, so I made a start on Rob's Westphalians and even managed to paint up a flag for them.

It's another one of those tricky Prussian cross jobs. Something black and menacing seemed to be called for, I thought. Just the ticket for storming Plancenoit.

I made a slightly better job of it this time, I reckon, by making a paper template. This was used to create an impression on my fizzy can metal by placing the template onto the flag and pressing onto it with a ballpoint. It sort of worked.....

Auf wiedersehen,

WM

Garrison Duty

Today was supposed to be spent finishing off the horses on my cuirassiers, but I started fiddling about with the Garrisons again and no horses were painted. I don't know what it is about the G-men, but I just adore them. Exactly the same thing happened when I was painting my French Garrison battalion, who threatened to elbow aside my Prussian reservists at one point.

Pictured below are the day's results:

The standard bearer was dead easy, of course, as all I had to do was cut away his musket and drill a couple of holes. The Silesian Landwehr flag he's carrying, needless to say, is not what he'll be carrying when he's finished, but it's shown here to give an impression of what the final result ought to look like.

The drummer was a much bigger challenge. I spent hours carefully paring back his arms with the intention of repositioning them, but when I tried to re-attach them they disintegrated. To make matters worse, I'd changed the solder I've been using recently and it really wasn't working very well. In the end I had to revert to my earlier supply and chop off a new pair of arms from a surplus Lamming Guard Grenadier. He still needs a little bit of work, but he's basically all there now. There's now a very high probability that the Garrisons will queue jump my cuirassiers, although I'm still fighting it.

In other news, my friend Rob G has sent me the attached, demonstrating once again his extraordinary painting accomplishments. Those have got to be among the best Poniatowski' and Ponsonby figures ever painted. Rifleman Plunkett, Rob tells me, is the chap they are about to tread on.

Last but not least is a selection of the absolutely stunning flags Rob has been gradually adding to 'Lee's wonderful Hinchliffe ECW army. These make me weep for my teenage self. My own attempts back in those days were absolutely abysmal.

That's it for now. It'll be either more Garrisons, cuirassiers or a general or two in the next post, although I also have some gunners on the go so anything could happen really.

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

Lützowers Let Loose

The Lützow Lancers have been let loose behind enemy lines.

Leaving nothing but scorched earth in their wake....

…..the Lützowers  were ordered to show no mercy to isolated enemy detachments.

Napoleon: nous serons vengés!

The figures are:

Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques set # 139: Prussian Cavalry 1813-1815, Landwehr Lancers x 8

Recast Hinton Hunt Prussian Cavalry 1810-1815, PN 39: Landwehr Lancer, charging x 2, converted into an officer and a trumpeter.

These were supposed to be a quick and easy regiment, but to my dismay I see that I actually started painting them in February. Oh dear. I'll try to do better in future.

Next week: the Action at Blasthof Bridge.

WM

Edit: As Rob has pointed out, there are clearly Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques set # 139: Prussian Cavalry 1813-1815, Landwehr Lancers x 10.

Testing Times

Painting time has been a bit hard to come by lately, so there isn't a great deal to show apart from the test figure I finished this afternoon.

He's the first of my Lützow Lancers, which will complete the cavalry component of Wallmoden's Corps.

The figure is a Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques  from set no.139: Prussian Landwehr Lancers. The rest of the regiment will also be DKs, apart from the two command figures which will be conversions of Hinton Hunt recasts.

I'm hoping these won't take too long as I've just found out that I'm to be on my travels again before too long. I'd really like to get another infantry battalion under my belt before I set off. My work stress is mounting rapidly, however, which is usually quite good for my painting rate....We'll see how we go.


WM