Prussian Guard 2

Probably there are quite a few wargamers trawling ebay and wargames shows bring and buy stands for those little bargains and these figures for the most part fit this bill. So when you get them all finished off ready to join your army then they mean a wee bit more to you than the figures you buy brand new. Somehow you feel justified in your bargain hunting?

When I started getting back into Napoleonics again I wasn't sure if I would stick to it so I went for the cheaper option in 15mm Prussians, Old Glory (little did I know that AB figures would be a good investment and their prices would go through the roof! 50p to 83p for a single figure in 2 years!).


So 2 years on and I have managed to maintain my interest with the help of the internet and wargaming friends.

Last year I picked up a good amount of AB figures from the various sources noted above, enough that with a few Old Glory figures thrown in I could fill a full guard regiment plus their jagers. With my main force being OG I decided that the AB figures would form my Prussian guard battalions.

I have been trying to find a blue I am happy with for the rest of my Prussians and I think I have finally found it. I started with a black undercoat then the Foundry Prussian blue light shade and for the highlight I added a little of the Foundry Bavarian blue shade. It gives a really rich and interesting tone of blue that I am very happy with.

Most of the figures had been painted, but thankfully not too heavily so it was no problem to repaint them to my own style. I managed to get the 2nd battalion finished off pretty fast but with the arrival of a mass of Russian figures I put the other battalions to the back of my list.

This guy is my favourite as I picked him up in a seperate lot quite unexpectedly on ebay and he fitted the bill of the 1st battalions mounted commander perfectly. I went a little light on the uniform so maybe it was cut from some captured French cloth?

And here is my jager element for the guard. 1 of the figures is OG but the rest are AB.

You will see that the jagers are wearing Hungarian style blue trousers as I read this somewhere and thought it would be a nice change from all the grey trousers. (I'm not sure how universal this was or at what point they were worn?).

So that's 2 battalions down and just the guard fusilier battalion to go (I recently picked up 3 AB guns so all I need is an AB howitzer and 4 crews and i'll have a guard artillery battery too!).