Raise high ze black flags my children! – The Prussian Army of 1813-1815

Progress on this project has slowed somewhat over the last month, alongside summer I also decided to do something a bit different and started a small War of the Roses project.

Over the weekend I managed to clip, clean mould lines and assemble enough Prussian Reservists from Wargames Atlantic for the 6th Prussian Reserve Regiment. I’m using Perry Miniatures Prussian Reserve Command, alongside a few Mounted officers from both the Perry’s and Calpe. I’m just waiting on some additional command figures from the Perrys to arrive to round out the regiment.

After painting several units as part of this project so far I wanted to narrow down my focus and work on a historical formation.

This is a pretty big chunk of miniatures, and quite ambitious trying to complete a full regiment in a go. I’m looking forward to the end result and I’m staying positive about the challenge of painting this many miniatures.

There are several somewhat unique elements to this regiment that resulted in me selecting it. I’d previously picked up several Uniform Plates by Peter Bunde as you can see earlier in this project, somewhat randomly. The low-resolution previews give you a rough outline but the physical plates are much clearer and include a very handy history sheet as well, with the 6th notably taking part in the Battle of Leipzig and stormed Plancenoit at Waterloo (by which time it was renamed the 18th Infantry Regiment).

It appears to be one of the few regiments to mostly wear variations of the reservist uniform, with all three battalions issued it. This handily means I can maximize the use of the Wargames Atlantic kits.

The 6th was an amalgamation of 2 west Prussian and a Silesian reserve battalion, hence the mixed facing colors of pink and yellow. All three battalions participated in engagements, there being no “depot” battalion as seen in other armies.

The 3rd battalion would be the fusilier/light battalion, in this case, distinguished by the full blue uniform, generally, these wore black belts but in this case, it’s the standard white.

From what I understand the cap was often quite quickly replaced with the shako in quite a few of the reserve units so this probably isn’t the most accurate but I think wearing all caps will give the regiment a somewhat unique feel on the tabletop.

If anyone knows where I can get some additional command figures in a size that roughly fit in with the wargames Atlantic/Perrys that would be amazing. I’m using Perry’s Prussian reserve command, and have one or two Calpe NCOs I may mix in that scale about the same.

I’d quite like a drummer wearing a cap in the reservist uniform, I’m also struggling for the hornist of the 3rd Battalion, I might have to fall back to a standard fusilier one.

I showed a seek preview of these in progress a few weeks ago and completed them shortly afterward, having thoroughly enjoyed painted them much to my own surprise.

These can be used to represent a number of Prussian Hussar regiments, several wore the dark Prussian blue and had red facings. I’ve used the illustrations in Osprey Publishings Prussian Cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars (2) as a guide and imagine these being played mostly as one of the Brandenburg Hussar Regiments.

My love/hate relationship with Warlord “resin” continues, thankfully I picked this set up (and another) off eBay for about £15 each, which makes it much more palatable. At £27 RRP, these are getting too close to the price of metals for what I class as an inferior material.

Sculpting wise these are actually rather good once completed, the detail is quite defined, and although the riders are all single piece as a unit there’s enough variety to make it interesting.

The horses are still on the skinny side compared to the likes of the Perry’s but they don’t stand out too much and I’ll mainly be using this with other Warlord Prussian Cavalry until the Perry’s release the Plastic Dragoon kit!

I continued with my contrast method when painting the horses but changed over the paint triad system for the riders and I think it really shows.

Overall I think these are by far the best-painted miniatures I’ve done to date and it’s nice to look back and see the progress.

Here’s a closer look at the Wargames Atlantic Prussian Reserve, I’ve now started the process of basing them up and it really brings the miniatures to life.

This is the second video I’ve edited up, now with glorious 60 frames a second after I found the right export setting. Think I’m finally getting back into the flow of video editing after many years away, I’m actually quite enjoying it. I’ve got a few more units lined up for these showcase style videos out of the Prussians that I’ve completed previously then I’m going to have to start painting things again

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and I finally cracked, got my camera gear out, picked up a greenstuff world photo booth and one of those cheap turntables.

The end result I think is pretty effective and a process I really enjoyed, despite spending the best part of the evening getting used to video editing again. Its also been a great chance to get some much better quality photos.

I’ll be using these videos to add something extra to the project posts but I’m also planning on adding other content to the channel as time allows.

As for the minature, this is the same as in previous updates but with the addition of basing, I’m really happy with the results and will have a full update in a future post on how I based this and other minis. Its a simple scheme that looks effective maybe one or two addtions will make their way in.

This project’s been a bit quite over the last month but updates are inbound.

My main hobby update will be a completed unit of Prussian Hussars by Warlord Games, quite possibly the best looking unit ive yet painted and very enjoyable after a bit of a hobby break.

Alongside that I’ve started basing up the completed units, this was suprisingly quick and I think I’ve got a nice and simple process, minus drying times its pretty time efficient. I just need a few more finishing touches but its really tying the force together and gives them that finished look.

I’ve finally cracked out my camera gear and decided to take some good quality photos of the end results, I’ve even taken a few videos which will be going up onto youtube.

Here’s what I’ve got planned as project updates for the next few weeks (hopefully with time permitting)

• A Wargames Guide to Prussian Reserve Infantry
  This will be similar to the previous guide to Landwehr Cavalry, its about 60% complete.
• Warlord Games Prussian Hussars
  This unit is painted up and based, photos have been taken and im in the process of writing my process up.
• A Wargames Guide to Prussian Hussars
  This thankfully is simplier than the previous guides and I hope to have this together quite quickly
• Basing Update
  I’ve finally started looking at basing some of my painted units, I’m really happy with the results so far.

I’d also like to say a big thankyou for everyone who’s been following the project along, and the beasts of war team for both the Golden Button and the nomination for the spring clean tutorial. Its rewarding enough to share my hobby with others, its extremley satisfying to know that others are both intrested in it and have found it valuable, its a huge motivation to keep this project going.

Been having a bit of a break from the hobby and the wider community for the last few weeks, actually probably last few months. Only really chiping in on OTT news articles and occasionally checking discord. Partly as I needed a break and also due to work, and that sun thing outdoors. I actually feel better for it in all honesty.

One of the things I did was this quick project, a wooden frame attached to side of concrete garage for storing bikes vertically to free up space. Made a bit more interesting and tricky as the concrete is impossible to drill so some clever use of existing holes was required.

Anyway I had last Thursday afternoon off and did a quick couple of hours hobby and after having that break I thoroughly enjoyed it for a change. A bit of an important reminder that is easy to get drawn into something too much and its good to sometimes take a step back.

Recently I thought I would give this streaming thing a go and did a short test stream over on twitch mainly to try the format out.

It was quite fun chatting away while doing some hobby enough so that I’ve got the bug. Area’s for improvement aplenty.

This includes’s quite a bit of rambling on about Prussians, and some comparisons of sprue’s and minatures from various manufacturers.

This is the first battalion of Prussian Reserve by Wargames Atlantic that I have completed and I’m very happy with the results.

In its current form (24 figures) this battalion is missing command figures which i’m currently working on using the metal Reserve Command from Perry Miniatures.

I’ll be following up with a more detailed post on the history and organisation of the reserve battalions/regiments. The red facings on these should allow them to be used for a range of regiments, im yet to decide on which at this point in time, worth noting is the reserve battalions were not issued flags (as far as i can tell) which makes these very flexible in terms of representing a wide range of regiments on the tabletop.

In terms of research these are very interesting, a wide range of uniforms were issued and changed over the course of the Napoleonic Wars, the provisional grey uniform being issued, alongside the standard prussian line uniform, british/portuguese uniforms and even salvaged french equipment in cases.

The reserves were later “converted” to full line regiments in 1815, by that point being issued the full Prussian Uniform but this hadn’t come into full effect by the 100 days campaign.

These figures are sculpted wearing the provisional grey uniform, in some cases this was dyed the more traditional prussian blue which I shall be doing for some battalions.

The miniatures as previously stated are fantastic, both in terms of sculpting and value. I’ve actually ordered a second box from my FLGS.

For this unit I took the “speed” painting approach using very simple techniques which I think has been very effective.

1. Prime
   Scale 75 Instant Colours Primer Ice Charm (or Vallejo Gray Surface Primer)
2. Boots, shakos, cap peaks, cartridge box
   Citadel Black Templar Contrast
3. Trousers and Jackets
   Citadel Space Wolves Grey
4. Packs – Mixed
   Citadel Black Templar Contrast
   Citadel Gore Grunta Fur Contrast
   Citadel Skeleton Horde Contrast
   Citadel Snakebite Leather Contrast
5. Flesh
   Citadel Gulliman Flesh Contrast
6. White Belts
   VallejoModel Colour Off-White
7. Pack Belts
   Scale 75 Gobi Brown
8. Coats and Rolls
   Vallejo London Grey, followed by a Wash of Citadel Nuln Oil
9. Unit Facings (in this case Red)
   Vallejo Game Colour Gory Red
10. Musket
    Citadel Wildwood Contrast
11. Metalwork
    Scale 75 Thrash metal
12. Buttons
    Citadel Retributor Armour
13. Wash (All areas except flesh)
    2-1 of Army Painter Quickshade mixing medium / Army Painter Dark Tone

This is actually a pretty quick step by step painting guide, the final wash really ties the scheme together.