Tuesday 23 September 2014

Prussian Battalions x3

I've put in a good few days of figure painting over the last couple of weeks since my last post and have some how managed to finish off 3 battalions from the workbench that have been a stone around my neck for quite a while. You may remember that I picked up a large number of painted Prussians from my buddy Darren almost 2 years ago that were painted similar to my old style with black undercoat showing through. I quickly debased all the figures and split them into new battalions with characters added in where I usually do. I then cleaned up with files and scalpel any areas I felt needed it. I decided to use Darren's paintwork as my base coat however I still had a long, long way to go to match them in with my own troops. 

1st up are the Pomeranian grenadiers. There were a lot of grenadiers with white facings so I decided to keep them as Pomeranian and will look to build a regiment each of Colberg and Pomeranian in time. I hope!

The mounted officer was a little bit of conversion fun with a mounted uhlan officer, his belt was removed and an overcoat added with buttons up the front. The red lining of the cape is possibly a bit over the top or perhaps he is a wealthy landowner? 

As required there are 2 companies with white shoulder straps and 2 with red. The finish is a little harsher than I would have liked with the black showing through, however they are still very neat and will fight just fine.
  
Next up is the 2nd battalion of the Lieb regiment. There were a good few figures in skirmishing poses amongst the figures I received from Darren and my thinking is to have my 2 battalions of hard fighting Lieb musketeers in firing lines with casualties to make them stand out from my other regiments. My Lieb fusiliers will also hopefully take the form of a heavily engaged battalion.
  
I plan to do a command base from the famous painting with Yorck lowering his cap to the Lieb regiment as they march past after heavy fighting (I think after Wartenburg?). 

Again it was a case of me using Darren's painting as a base coat although I used my own blues and added a good lot of extra details and colours.
  
You can't really beat the AB Prussians and I did wish at times I was painting them from scratch. Still they look very good to me now that they are all based and finished.
   
The firing line doesn't even look that bad in column and I can also tick them off my Katzbach OOB.

The 3rd battalion I finished is the 2nd battalion of the 1st East Prussian regiment, these guys can be ticked off my Katzbach OOB as well!

I have 1 final battalion to do from the figures I received from Darren, they will be guard fusiliers however I have changed them to my new style and they are pretty much all repaints. Once they are done I will be painting everything from bare metal. 

And this is pretty much how I would like all my Prussian infantry to look from now on. 

These guys are from the East Prussian grenadier battalion and since taking these pics I have 2 companies complete and I have enjoyed every minute of painting them.

Also recently I went out and purchased a good number of Vallejo paints and have been working out my combinations for trousers etc.
  
An officer from the 3 company with face and sash still to be highlighted. I'll post picks when they are done.

Happy Painting
Paul 

39 comments:

Jonathan Freitag said...

Outstanding work! Your Prussian collection is a sight to behold.

Phil C said...

Marvelous work on great figures.. two thumbs up!

Sun of York said...

Stunning work on the Prussians. You have really brought the AB figures to life.

Sgt Steiner said...

Green with envy........

John (VonBlucher) said...

You've been busy!! Great looking additions and I love the advancing poses. I'm glad you went back to your old style of painting.

My unpainted early French without greatcoats are also in advancing poses, this might be the push I need to get back into some full blown painting again.

Anonymous said...

Perfect!
Only highlights on trousers seems little too rough.

Sho

Paulalba said...

Thanks Jonathan, however they are still a wee bit of a mixed bag of styles. Hopefully over the coming couple if years I can rectify that.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Phil!

Paulalba said...

Thanks SoY, hopefully I can continue to add to them.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Sgt. S!

Paulalba said...

Thanks John, not quite there 100% yet but getting there on using the Vallejo. Hope to see you finish off done of your troops soon!

Darren Ashton said...

Nice to see the miniatures receiving another lease of life Paul. Stunning work mate. Great stuff.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Sho, yeah I agree on the trousers. I'm trying out the Vallejo greys trying to get a nice triad. Maybe better just using white mixed in with the base shade? Only bother I have us at times I can be to subtle with my shading. I cut out the mid tone in the blue as I feel it's unnecessary. We will see as I want to see the shade more but without it being to harsh. I was having a look at Rafa's 18mm and in areas he leaves the black Showing through and in other areas uses 3-4 shades of the base coat.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Darren,
Hope your 28's are coming together!

Phil said...

As always, excellent job Paul...a great pleasure for our eyes!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Phil, that's really kind of you!

carojon said...

Great work Paul, well done

Gonsalvo said...

Good to see you back in the painting saddle, and producing such fine Figures as these!

Stryker said...

Hi Paul - I think that they look absolutely fantastic! I have some figures in my collection that I acquired aleady painted and I have found that I can easily spend just as much time touching them up us as if I'd stripped them and started again from scratch. In the end I've decided that either I completely repaint or just accept the figures as they are!

Great to see you working on Prussians as my own unit of fusiliers are nearly finished!

Craig said...

They look great Paul! I'm a little intrigued by your decision to leave the Pommeranians as such, when they do not feature in the Katzbach orbat. Are you planning to expand into another theatre? Will they substitute for the Silesian or West Prussian grenadiers? They do look great, either way. I especially like your East Prussians.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Jonathan, the army grows and grows.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Peter, luckily I had done a good deal of the prep work with them and just needed that final push on each battalion to carry them through.

Paulalba said...

Hi Craig, well may you ask! I considered this myself but felt the collars could take no more paint so Pomeranian the stayed.

To be honest I have everything now except yorck and the EPNK if I were to swap in say west Prussians for 2nd east prussian etc. however I will continue ticking the correct boxes as I go. I guess I just enjoy painting all Prussians. I have 2 kurassier regiments that don't feature on the katzbach OOB.

I occasionally look through other 1813 OOB to see where I stand. Maybe end up painting them all by the time I drop??? Done some more work on my Von Lutzow! Looking nice.

Scotsgrey said...

Wunderbar!

Scotsgrey said...

Wunderbar!

Seb Palmer said...

Beautiful miniatures beautifully painted... wonderful work!

Paulalba said...

Hi Ian,
Good to hear from you and I'm glad you like the Prussians.

I totally agree with you. The best laid plans of rebasing and adding a few brush strokes here and there and you end up almost repaintin each figure and spending more time if you cleaned up unpainted figures and painted them, it's a funny experience! Still they are done now.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Des, I have there have been more sparks flying of a Napoleonic Saturday afternoon at the club!!! And with black powder. It's all good clean fun

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much Seb, glad you like them!

James Fisher said...

Always great to finally finish a project isn't it? These look great Paul.

Paulalba said...

Hi James, yeah it's good to see these 3 all based up and off the workbench!

Still got a lot of prussian lead to paint. However I'm having fun at the moment with my projects to can't complain.

Craig said...

Hey Paul, what paint colours are you using for your Prussian backpack, scabbard, and the cuff on the greatcoat? They look good.

DavidH said...

Hello Paul. Your blog is a real inspiration. Long may it continue.

What brand/make of gaming mat and static grass to you use, they're a very good match . David

Paulalba said...

Hi Craig, sorry for the delay in my reply! The backpack is base coat d arms dark brown (can't remember the exact shade as it's rubbed off) highlight Vallejo mahogany. The scabbard is a dark brown from a discontinued range highlighted with the coat d arms paint above. The bedroll leather part is done with Vallejo red leather base and Vallejo orange leather highlight if I remember. A bit bright the lat one but works well for me.

If your interested in them I can be more specific with a search and match. Just let me know.

Paulalba said...

Hi David thanks very much, glad you like the blog.ive moved onto ancients for a wee break at moment. The mat is a basic games workshop battke mat. I kept the static grass simple to match it. Summer mix. May move to a terrain mat at some point is I find a supplier in the uk

Craig said...

Thanks Paul, no need for further research. I am already using red leather, mahogany, and leather brown from Vallejo. Not quite achieving the same effect as you, but I've come to accept that ;)

Paulalba said...

No bother Craig, your troops always look great and plentiful!!!

Craig said...

A quick question Paul, on basing... What size base did you use for the 2nd Lieb battalion (the ones in firing line)?

Paulalba said...

Same size as usual Craig, 40mm x 30mm