Bring Me Sunshine

I promised something really special a couple of weeks ago and so here it is. It's the absolutely stunning Neuchatel Battalion painted by Alastair Morrison. The figures are all from the iconic 25mm Napoleonic range produced by Jack Scruby in the early 1960s.

When Aly published these on his Aly's Toy Soldiers blog a wee while ago, he mentioned that he'd decided to replace them. As I've been hankering after some Scrubys for ages, I asked him if I could have them, and he gave them to me.

These particular figures are the remastered 25mm Scrubys available from Historifigs in the United States. They are the most beautifully hard, clear and crisp castings, unlike the very soft and 'leady' figures originally sold by Jack. You can spot vintage Scubys a mile away in wargaming blogs because of all the excessively bent muskets!

Jack's 25mm range was designed to be compatible with Hinton Hunts, which these last two pictures demonstrate very well. The Neuchatels and the 3rd Swiss will make a spectacularly attractive brigade, I think. I'll also need to paint a commander for them, of course, and I've got just the fellow, as it happens. He'll be making an appearance in a week or two, with a bit of luck.

As the last photo shows, however, to make them fully compatible with my army I'll need to rebase them, so right after these photos were taken. off they went into a shallow warm bath to soak them off their bases.

Judging from the Historifigs 'Classic 25mm Armies' of the Napoleonic Wars' catalogue, the figures are:

3053: French Fusilier, advancing to the attack, x 10;
3054: French Voltigeur, advancing to the attack, x 12; and

3064: French Officer, shako, leading, x 2, with one converted by Aly into a standard bearer.

Thank you Aly. They're like a gloriously golden ray of sunshine, and I will treasure them.

WM

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

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

The PEF runs out of puff

Shortly before Christmas I had a bit of good news. This was that although I'd lost all my remaining photos of the battles I fought during my trip to the UK last year, my hosts had kept theirs, so all was not lost after all.

Fans of Stryker's Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures blog will have already seen the Prussian Expeditionary Force (PEF) in action during the Battle of the Four Generals. Although the side I was  playing with was beaten, the PEF under Ian's command performed splendidly. It was a huge pleasure to meet Ian and his wife again, and the lunch was yum! A big hello to Foy and Goya, too, by the way. You were really nice when I charged headlong into Ian's spotlessly-clean French windows. I completely failed to see these when I tried to sneak out into the back garden for a fag. So there you go: smoking is not only very bad for you, dear readers, it also exposes one to ridicule.*

Battered bonce notwithstanding, a few days later the PEF joined up with another beautiful Prussian army painted by the Archduke. This was but one of the Archduke's magnificent Hinton Hunt armies. The photos which follow were all taken by his Grace himself, who sent them to me a couple of months ago.

Opposing me was the Archduke's friend Ken, who fielded a mighty force of French and Poles. Most of the Poles, I believe, were Ken's, but almost everything else was from the Archduke's collection

Ken's indominable Franco-Poles

My plan was to sneak round Ken's flank with most of the PEF while the Archduke's Prussians did the heavy lifting in the centre. This turned out to be a remarkably stupid plan, as it happened.

The PEF went nowhere, as the Leib Hussars who were leading and protecting them were totally destroyed by Ken's elite Gendarmes, or at least I think that's who they were. They were certainly pretty hard.

The Leib Hussars prepare to meet their doom.

With Ken's cavalry now blocking the approaches to the bridge, there was nothing the PEF could do except form square and have a bit of a breather.

Plan B was to storm the village, but things started to go wrong almost immediately when the Garde du Corps were instantly overthrown.

It was nearly all up to the infantry after that. The Lutzowers did quite well at first by soaking up most of  Ken's artillery fire. The masses of French and Polish infantry behind Ken's guns, however, did not augur well.

Within a couple of moves the Prussian mass de manoeuvre had been whittled away to almost nothing.

Copious swearing by Blucher failed to turn the tide, although it did succeed in giving von Lutzow a bit of a shock.

Ken's strategy, on the other hand, was flawless - all my other units were shot to bits by his deadly skirmishers before his other battalions could even get near them.

His Grace, the Archduke, not only umpired with considerable aplomb, but also put me up for a couple for nights. As if this wasn't enough, the Archduchess is a wonderful cook and a supremely witty hostess who knows how to make the perfect G&T.  It was an altogether amazing and very joyful experience. I don't know what else to say, TA. I was very touched and the whole visit was completely glorious. Thank you.

Although this was the last stand of the PEF, it wasn't the last battle. Rob has also sent me pictures of the battle we fought just a couple of days later with his Spencer Smiths, so watch this space.....


Till then

WM

* For those who may be wondering, the doors survived even if my pride did not. If it's any reassurance, Ian, I've given up charging into plate glass, and I've even made a start on giving up the evil weed too.

Over the Hump

The 18th Infantry are sent to guard the river crossing.

Having been banished from the office with a heavy cold, there was nothing else for it but to finish the 18th Infantry Regiment, aka "Wellington Man's Own". An extra incentive was also provided by the arrival by super-extra-speedy post of a pair of superb resin bridges, courtesy of Mr Hind. I've no idea who manufactured them, but they fit my old Napoleonics perfectly.

Herr Major:  "Zey shall not pass!" 

My sincere thanks to everyone for encouraging me to get them done. I'm not sure why my enthusiasm for these chaps began to wane, as they've turned out so much better than I dared hope. I think it must be a combination of the outbreak of good weather (it really has been lovely these last couple of weeks) and a lull in my work stress. I've been floating on a cloud of contentment ever since I came back from Oz. This was not good for productivity, evidently.

However, there was nothing doing so they went back home again.

Christmas, on the other hand, is shaping up to be rather stressful....there have been mutterings about "going to see my sisters" and some sort of vast inter-clan gathering in the South Island. I may have to paint an awful lot of Frenchmen to get over this.

WM

Putting out the Bunting

Ian S, more famously known as Stryker and the primary inspiration for my own gloriously deranged project, has supplied me with all manner of vintage goodies over the years. Pictured below is my latest feeble attempt to reciprocate.

Ian wanted a flag and a drummer for his Russian grenadier battalion (which was the very first to be presented on his famous blog), and the same for the new battalion of French Young Guard Voltigeurs that he announced he was planning to do a month or two ago.

Hinton Bunting

They are my usual fizzy-can flags, which I've started to get a little better at since I discovered how to inscribe designs onto them. If the inscription is done too deeply it will cause the metal to split when it is bent, so it requires a very light touch which is only just visible beneath the undercoat. Ian also asked me to adapt two officer figures to carry them. This was very simple to do for the Russian, but more complex for the Frenchman as I had to remove, remodel and then re-attach his left forearm.

The drummers were a separate challenge. Both started out as charging musketeers and although removing the muskets was simple enough, I had a few dramas before I was happy with them. In the Frenchman's case, his left hand came off and needed to be reattached.

In the Russian case his right arm needed to be almost completely replaced. This was because he had an exceptionally weedy right forearm which disintegrated as soon as I tried to bend it! I've found that Scruby parts are rather good for these sorts of repairs as the metal is soft and has a low melting point. The drums are from Musket Miniatures, which were very generously donated by Monsieur Foy.

Just to prove that I haven't been totally neglecting my own troops, pictured below is the new flag for my Prussian reservists. I'd been dreading this one a bit due to the requirement for white lettering, but was determined to give it a go nonetheless. I think it went about as well as I expected!

I haven't quite decided which regiment I'm painting yet, but as many of the reserve battalions were uniformed identically there's a bit of scope for identity flexibility.

The reservists will start to appear in the next post, I promise, although this may be delayed a little as I'll be travelling overseas again soon. It's a busy life.

WM

Lützowers at Last

Erm....slightly delayed, but got there in the end.

Without further ado, Lützowers for your viewing pleasure:

Now then, back to the hussars and perhaps von Lützow himself, if I can make up my mind how to tackle him.

My sincere thanks to Mr A. Gentleman for these wonderful, wonderful figures.

Salut maintenant

WM

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

Hintonstein's Laboratory

The Estorff Hussars' horses are finally complete and I'm just waiting for the hands and faces of the troopers to dry before moving to the next stage, which will be blocking out the main colours of their uniforms.

In the meantime, as promised, is a brief overview of my conversion equipment, which is a mixture of things I've been dragging about since my teens and some new-fangled technology acquired over the last two years.

The things that get the most use are the microfiles, the craft knife, the soldering iron, the rotary tool and the toothbrush. Coming in close behind them, however, are the hammer and that very solid bit of steel rail in the top left-hand corner. The rail was a present from my next-door neighbour, Richard, who qualifies as one of the world's top blokes. I needed something for forging flagpoles and sword blades and the like and Richard, being Richard, knew just the chap to supply it. He even sent me a picture of it being sliced off a length of railway line. I can barely remember the last time I was so delighted to be given something.

My latest conversion is below, which is based on a Hinton Hunt PN 81: Prussian dragoon (mounted), charging. He was converted at the request of Mr Lewis Gunner, who desired that he be dressed in a litewka. I thought I'd better practice a bit before tackling him, however, which is why I had a go at that DK Prussian foot guards officer featured in the last post.

You can see Ian S's magnificent regiment of the original version of this figure on his Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures blog, here.

John Cunnigham has very kindly agreed to cast him, so if all goes well he'll be available to anybody who wants to buy him before too long. John has a much expanded list these days and I'm hoping to add a few more conversions to it from time to time.

If anyone else would like me to have go at converting one of their figures, I'm open to suggestions. I really enjoy doing them. All I ask in return is that you become a follower of the blog and are lavish in your praises!

A word of warning, mind: I don't always get it right. Pictured below is my only irreparable disaster to date. I was attempting to repair his bayonet and his perilously thin little DK musket just couldn't bear the heat. I don't attempt this sort of thing these days unless the part under repair is properly supported!

Yours, as always

WM

The Battle of Windy Pass - Part 2

Satisfied by the artillery preparation, and the unaccountably feeble Prussian response, the Emperor ordered the resumption of the advance. Two massed infantry columns immediately marched to the assault, while to the south the Swiss also formed column and advanced towards the woods. With drums beating the infantry let out a mighty cheer: "Vive L'Empereur!".

Napoleon: Right lads, now go in there and sweep away that Prussian rubbish!

The crisis of the battle was fast approaching. Blucher remained confident, however, that if any of the French broke through his first line they would be swiftly ejected by his carefully husbanded reserves.

Blucher: Here zey come boys! Ve vill haf zem for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

General Quiestil led the crack 13th Légère against the Prussian right flank, closely supported by the Bavarian 4th Line Infantry.....

while Ney led the 45th against the Prussians regulars lining the heights.

Ney: Forward the 45th!

Behind them marched Cambronne, leading his beloved Chasseurs à Pied.

Cambronne: Courage, mes enfants. La victoire est à nous!

Meanwhile, the 3rd Swiss advanced almost unnoticed towards against the southern flank of the Prussian line.

Decimated by the relentless pounding of the French guns, the Prussian 21st fell back in confusion, leaving the gunners either side of them unsupported. Seeing his chance, Quiestil led a sudden charge which overran one of the Prussian batteries.

The 13th demonstrate the art of "Assault and Battery".

Blucher watched in dismay as his right flank began to collapse.

Blucher: Ooops, zat vasn't supposed to happen. Gneisenau, send in ze Guards!

The crisis was fast approaching, but the Prussians still refused to give way without a fight. The Silesian regulars fired a devastating volley into the 45th, who were also hit by canister shot from the few remaining Prussian guns. The 45th wavered and then stopped, their ranks in hopeless disarray.

Ney: It's nothing lads, barely a scratch. Charge, Goddammit!

Meanwhile the 3rd Swiss, having chased off the Prussian riflemen out the woods, prepared to assault the Landwehr, who wheeled in line to face them.

The Emperor watched intently. Everything seemed to be going more or less according to plan.

Napoleon: You'll see Marbot, it'll be 1806 all over again!

For a moment Prussian hopes were lifted as the 45th, after receiving another devastating volley from the Silesians, turned and fled. These hopes were dashed almost immediately, however, as the Neumark Landwehr broke in turn before the Swiss onslaught.

Soult: Splendid work, men! Shame about poor old Ney though, eh? Ahem.

Blucher's situation continued to deteriorate as the 4th launched an unstoppable charge against the disordered ranks of the 21st, who also broke and ran.

Only the Silesian regulars continued to hold the first line, but were now faced by the French Imperial Guard. A desultory volley failed to stop them and the Silesians braced for impact.

Cambronne: er.....I think it's this way, Chasseurs!

Blucher knew that it was time to throw in his reserves. Surely the cavalry and the Guard could stop the French? The Lieb Hussars led by General Bulow, were the first to charge, hitting the Swiss before they had time to form square. The Silesians, however, were pushed back in disorder by Cambronne's guardsmen.

On the right the Prussian 1st Foot Guards were barely able to fire a few shots before the Bavarians were on top of them. Despite  losing the first round of the melee, however, the guardsmen held their ground.

Sensing that the climax of the battle had arrived, the Prussian Garde du Corps now charged the 13th Légère, who failed in their attempt to form square. Amazingly, however, the 13th not only survived the impact but won the first round of the melee, forcing the Prussian horsemen back in disorder. Quiestil couldn't believe his luck.

Quiestil: Er....we'll just pretend that didn't happen, shall we?

The battle was not going all the way of the French, however. As the Swiss, broken by the Prussian hussars, fled towards the rear, Murat led a counter attack with the 7th Lancers. Having lost a quarter of their strength in the earlier fighting, however, the lancers were too weak for the task and were immediately put to rout, with the hussars in hot pursuit.

Murat: I've received terrible news from Naples and must return immediately!

But it was all to no avail. Although he was able to rally his Landwehr, Blucher watched helplessly as the Prussian Foot Guards were finally driven back in disorder by the Bavarians. The 10th Silesians, after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle with the Chasseurs, broke and ran.

Any prospect of restoring the situation with the much reduced Garde du Corps also began to fade as the 13th formed square and Ornano's Guard Dragoons appeared within charging range on their right flank.

Blucher: I hate to say zis, Gneisenau, but we're going to have to run for it!

And so the battle ended. As his army streamed away from the battlefield, Blucher could at least take comfort from the fact that the French were too disorganised to mount a pursuit.

Blucher: I am 72 and a proud soldier. We'll beat them yet, Gneisenau!

The following morning, the Emperor resumed his march towards Berlin. The events of the previous day troubled him.

Napoleon: The only ones who were any good were the Bavarians!

JC accepted his defeat with gallantry and grace. It could and indeed should have been otherwise but for those accursed Bavarians and his atrocious luck with the dice. 

My sincere thanks to Don, Ian, Steve, Roy, John, Chuck, Nigel, Tony H, Tony F, Rob, Richard and Tom, without whom I could never have got this far, and to all those whose kind words and encouragement kept me going.

Cheers,

WM