Command post for the emperor

If Wellington has a tree, then in my opinion Napoleon deserves a windmill at least. So, I’ve knocked up this Dapol kit of a windmill (made from the moulds of the original Airfix one).

This model will feature in a game of Muskets & Marshals I hope to be hosting next month (although not as Napoleon's command post!).

Prussian generals

Having completed the Prussian infantry, I needed another 2 generals to bring the total number of commanders up to 9. In my rules Muskets & Marshals, each unit requires a commander who influences unit morale.

This gives me an excuse to paint up the wonderful range of personality figures produce by Hinton Hunt. Although, obviously, it’s not very realistic to have marshals and generals commanding a battalion of line infantry it does add a splash of colour to the tabletop and helps the players to identify with their units (nobody wants to be the commander who loses marshal Ney in action).

There are only 4 mounted command figures in the Hinton Hunt Prussian range so inevitably there has been some duplication and conversions to get the required number of commanders. The figures here represent Zieten and Pirch, both are PN.64 Prussian General although Pirch has had a head-swop with Gneisenau and his telescope removed.

Prussian Hussars – test figure

Well it’s hard to believe but I am finally on the last unit of my Prussian army. This will be a 12-figure regiment of the 1st Silesian Hussars painted as per the Hinton Hunt painting instruction sheet.

The figures I’m using are not original ones but are reasonably good copies of unknown origin (they came from the US but are not Clayton). Although I say reasonable copies, to be fair, they are at least as good as the same hussar figures I bought direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 70s which were pretty poor quality.

Receiving a package of HH soldiers back then was always something of a mixed experience, excitement that the toy soldiers had actually arrived within the stipulated 28 day period, coupled with the sinking feeling on seeing how many bayonets/sabres were broken and how much flash metal I was going to have to remove.

Happy days though…

Colberg Musketeers

The Colberg infantry are based and ready for action, not that there’s any prospect of action at the moment but it’s nice to know they can be called upon if Blucher finds himself in a tight spot.

The composition of figure types in this unit is the same as the other line infantry units however they are a 50:50 mixture of Clayton and reproduction figures, the command are all vintage ones.

The Clayton figures posed something of a problem when basing as they are orientated differently on their bases to the other figures. This has meant I’ve had to bend and tweak them a bit to get them to rank up.

This takes my total of painted figures for the year to over 100 which is surprising as I’ve hardly painted any for the last month or so.

Prussian progress 3

I’ve finished the final 6 figures of the Colberg Regiment this evening, a month later than I had hoped but at least they’re done. They just need to be varnished and based and then I can declare that the Prussian infantry are officially complete. 

Next I will be turning my attention to a unit of Silesian Hussars who in turn will complete the line up of the Prussian cavalry. I’m looking forward to doing this unit as these were the first Hinton Hunt cavalry figures I ever painted back in the mists of time.

Hopefully I’ll be posting a bit more frequently after what’s turned out to be a very busy summer (busy in a non-wargaming sort of way).