Saturday 11 December 2010

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!).

8 comments:

Andy McMaster said...

Nice job on those. And a nice Prussian blue. It's a difficult colour to get right.

Paulalba said...

Cheers Andy,
For 15mm I felt the Foundry Prussian blue shade and mid tone were too dark so I tried out other mixes and I'm happy with the final result.

Scotsgrey said...

The command group with the hat raiser in the background is superb, with this kind of casting they are worth the price increase

Paulalba said...

That's all fine and dandy for you rich oil baron types up north D-Man but for us lessor investors it's getting pretty hard to stump up the cash. I've had to cut right back on my champagne and black caviar lately to afford them ;-)

Good to see your getting into your Napoleonics again Des and hope to see you down the club more often in 2011.
Best regards
Paul

Ken said...

A nicely composed unit, the officers and enthusiastic infantry do lend a lot of character to a unit.

I just use the vallejo prussian blue even for the french.

Cheers

Ken

Schrumpfkopf said...

I really like the blue - I tried the foundry-palette but there's not enough distance between the steps and they turn out really dark.

Also I like the parade-dress of the miniatures. (mostly because im sick of painting all these oil-skin-covers)

Paulalba said...

Hi Ken,
I figured because I bought the Foundry napoleonic set I better learn to use it! I had been using my trusty for years and just mixing black and different greys to it for highlights. I try to add 2 drummers and an extra officer, Nco to try and make them a little more interesting.

Hi Schrumpfkopf
I agree with you re the Foundry paints, I know that Prussian blue was almost black but for my wee figures I like to see the tone and same with my Russians. Also I wanted my Prussians to look a little smarter than the main troops.

Cheers
Paul

Sgt Steiner said...

Hi

Oh my those are lovely making my feeble efforts seem...well....... feeble :-)

Cheers
Sgt Steiner