Wednesday 25 March 2015

Prussian Collection 2015

Sorry for the recent dip in posts on my blog, been working a wee bit to much lately however I've still been making a little progress here and there. The last battalion of my 6th Silesian landwehr are well underway now and if I keep plugging away they should be completed mid April. Anyway I thought it was about time I posted an update of where I'm at with my Prussians.

You can see a very low quality video on my YouTube channel here:


And below are some pics of the collection although they don't look so grand photographed on my iPad however you should get the general idea!

So 1st up a pic of the whole lot, they are starting to mount up now at long last!

These are my cavalry elements so far, lights on the left and heavies on the right. I hope to add another landwehr cavalry regiment as well as a uhlan and possibly another couple if hussar regiments in charging poses (I have the figures already tucked away). I have the East Prussian National Kavalry to add as well as 1 more dragoon regiment then maybe the Von Lutzow freicorp mixed unit of black hussars and uhlans, plus commands will be required (we will see!)

A close up of the heavies showing our progress from hand cut bases on the rear OG dragoons to regular cut bases to the final warbases laser cut bases that you really can't beat.

The lights are probably the best troops in my army, especially the uhlans and landwehr cavalry as I started to move away from painting over someone else's paint job. Just to fill you in when I started Naps again and especially when I discovered AB I had just purchased a new home plus I was not long married. I didn't have a great amount of cash to spend on figures so I had to trade my 28mm Naps and picked up groups of troops unpainted and painted where I could.

The artillery and some commands, a mix of old glory and AB, the AB horse battery is on my list of targets to be finished this year!

This is the core of my army and is coming together well. I'll hopefully finish the Silesian landwehr and also the Kurmark landwehr regiments this year (famous last words!)

I'm thinking that blucher could use a little TLC like Napoleon had, his group was done with the AP dip but I'm thinking of spending some more time on their shading.

A close up of the Silesian landwehr. I've learned a lot while painting these battalions. I'll do a post on the regiment when completed explaining the different painting techniques I used.

And my beloved Old Glory Prussians, the figures that reignited my napoleonic passion again!

I think the OG Prussians are a good range to collect on their own however the horses are not the best and require a good deal of cleaning up.

And here are my old Minifigs Prussians, when I 1st started collecting these guys I would buy 4 or maybe 5 packs at a time as that's pretty much what I could afford at the time. I think I bought my 1st packs around about 14 or 15 along with my brother David in Glasgow. A big difference from spending £100 plus on a few regiments of AB cavalry and infantry.

Anyway that's it for the moment, I have a good number of Prussians and other nations to paint over the next few years so I'll see how I get on. I'm not 100% sure but I may have purchased my last AB figures from fighting 15's? There are various bits and pieces I would like to buy but I have enough to go on with for the next few years. 

I'd like to say a massive thanks to my friend Malc who very kindly sent up for goodies he didn't need and a very special item that is very well received. Among the items was a pack of BH Prussian commanders. These I have already made plans to remount on the newer AB horses and will help complete my prussian commands, thanks Malc!!!

Happy wargaming everyone!
Regards Paul 

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why the last purchase from Fighting 15s?

Phil C said...

awesome sight of great figures along with great painting...a lot of hard work..congrats on your fantastic achievement putting these figures/units/armies together!

Carlo said...

Look pretty impressive to me Paul - gorgeous figures expertly painted.

David Cooke said...

Impressive is right!

Paulalba said...

I have enough to keep me busy for a good while now.
Cheers
Paul

Paulalba said...

Thanks phil, very kind of you.
I have a good few units still to add to this lot over the years.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Carlo, I'm happy how they turned out. It's interesting to see how I painted the early minifigs to the later AB.

Paulalba said...

Thanks David!

craig said...

Great stuff Paul. A real inspiration.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Craig, I appreciate that.
Could have been a huge collection by now if I had met folks like yourself and John a good few years back. David and I were a bit late bumping into Robert and Gary from the falkirk club. Such is life lol

Rodger said...

What an awesome sight Paul! Thanks for showing us!

Phil said...

Fantastic and so impressive!

Paulalba said...

Hi Rodger, glad you like them and thanks for taking the time to comment!

Paulalba said...

Thanks phil,
And I have a whole french army waiting in the wings you'll be pleased to hear with plenty of russian and prussian casualties to fill the command bases for a change 😉

Vasiliy Levashov said...

Very impressive work, Paul! Thats looking great.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff there Paul. Theres a lot of lead there now :)

John B

Jonathan Freitag said...

Fantastic to see the collection on parade! That is quite an impressive collection of Prussians. The Old Glory Prussians are one of their best ranges.

Great stuff and well done!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Vasiliy I appreciate that!

Paulalba said...

Yeah it's getting there now john lol 😉
Not a patch on you and Craig's collections but with the other bits and pieces added in it looks like a lot.

Paulalba said...

Thanks jonathan, glad you like them.
Yes the Old Glory prussian foot troops are very nice. I have a soft spot for them. I have a few more battalions of them still to paint at some point.

John (VonBlucher) said...

Paul,
Great looking Prussian Army. Sorry to be out of touch for a while. What's next Russians? Or are you going to work on some French.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Wow! Now that is one awesome sight! Achievements like that are something to be savoured.

Christopher

Ken said...

Thats one hell of a collection Paul. It would be an honour to game at your table.

Chasseur said...

Fabulous collection Paul!! Just what we like to see :) Nice idea with the casualty bases too.

Millsy said...

Most impressive Paul!

Sun of York said...

Magnificent!

Paulalba said...

Thanks John, no worries as I've been up to my eyes at work to. Hope your doing well!

Paulalba said...

Thanks christopher, very much appreciated! Good to see you back painting again!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ken, you are far to kind!

Paulalba said...

Thanks chasseur, the casualty bases were a nice touch but very difficult to use in a game. The guys use roster sheets now. Have me fun to make them though

Paulalba said...

Thanks Millsy, glad you like them!

Paulalba said...

Thanks SoY!

Rulane10@gmail.com said...

Simply glorious. If house purchase goes through this year I will return the favour by laying out my armies...simply not enough room in a tiny London flat! So with the end in sight ... (Is the end ever in sight?!) ... What's the next incredible project? No, don't answer that...focus :-)

Rulane10@gmail.com said...

Paul, do you account for Volunteer Jager attachments at all?

Paulalba said...

Still a good what to go with the prussians but I'm feeling a little more relaxed about them john until we play another game and it becomes evident that I'm short on landwehr, cavalry, commands or artillery lol

Paulalba said...

Hi Ru, best wishes for the move! I'll just keep painting what I have. Saxons need attention as do the french and the rest.

Paulalba said...

Still a long way to go with the prussians john but a bit more relaxed about them now. Until the next game that shows the gaps!

Paulalba said...

For the volunteer jager attached to the line regiments I do 6 figures over 3 bases. For the cavalry unlike Craig I didn't include them as the guys who started us off with the GdB rules don't see to have included them. It would be interesting to see them in dragoon and kuirassier regiments. Have a look at Craig's collection in the labels and you'll see how he has done his Ru, very nice!

Sgt Steiner said...

Extremely impressive indeed !!!

warpaintjj said...

The quantity and quality you produce in this scale never ceases to amaze me. Keep it up and maybe get a game in too?
Best wishes, Jeremy

DidgeH said...

Have to be careful not to electrocute myself while drooling over your collection! How long has it taken you to get to this stage after your restart?
Truly impressive.
ATB

Paulalba said...

Thanks Sgt Steiner, I see your over on youtube to!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Jeremy, you are far to kind! I have to say that the painting isn't the same quality right across units. I would say only maybe 1/4 are finished to what I'm aiming for now.

Paulalba said...

Hi Didge I'm glad you like them!
It's hard to work out how long the prussian have taken as I have been working on and off on russians as well as french, Austrians, saxons and bavarians, some greeks plus fantasy. I also had a bare patch of about a year when the typhoon hit my wife's home town. I'd say around 3-4years maybe less. What I've learned, It's quicker to paint from bare metal, painting over or simply cleaning up figures preprinted really slows you down and can cause painters block. buy laser cut bases and paint figures of the same pose in groups plus either start or finish with the command figures so they are out the way or your inspired to get them finished as drums drilling hands and bling slow you down. Make sure all conversions you plan are complete before you start painting, stopping to switch the odd head can jam a unit in the WIP especially if it goes wrong. The stuff I'm doing now still takes a good while but not nearly as long as it did when I started. When we going to see some of your works Didge?
Cheers
Paul

Paulalba said...

Who's asking by the way?

DeanM said...

Very, very impressive, Paul. What is even more noteworthy is that so many folks do French, you'll have a waiting list of folks to play.

DidgeH said...

Problem is Paul, you have set such a high standard that I would be too embarrassed to show them in such a public arena! 😉
Seriously I'm still not happy with the blues for my Bavarians, trying to get that deep rich blue that will still look true to life and yet disinctive from the deep dark blue of the French. It's hard to describe in words as everyones interpretation of light, deep & dark is different. I'm working on some Warmodelling Austrians to get a decent unbleached natural wool white. I've got an AB order on the way but I want to them justice.
I'll hopefully be putting some vids on my you tube channel (under the same name) about general wargaming stuff, and inspired by you a bit later a dedicated Napoleonic blog.
ATB

Paulalba said...

Yip the Bavarian blue is a pickler, a mid blue, I failed in my 1st attempt on my battalion. Everyone seems to want to see it light. Hopefully when I get back to bavarians I'll resist going to light. Forget about my stuff, get your blog started and post some pics of your troops. You'll find it a great help in getting more painted!

Mark Case said...

Hey, Paul - I just plugged your blog on Facebook (FB group = "Napoleonic Wargamer). Nice to see such good stuff. Hope all is well. I'll try to update my horribly neglected blog. Cheers!

Mark

GaryA said...

Yes, you've been tardy and it's just not good enough. Buck up!
That's a very impressive collection now. Keep going and keep me motivated !

Paulalba said...

Hi mark,
Nice to see you back! I spotted you had left a comment on the basing post just in from work, cold and wet through.

Thanks for the plug, not on FB myself anymore, I'll have a look through mai's account.

Look forward to you cranking uptime blog again!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Gary your to kind lol!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Dean! yeah my brother and nephew have the french to fight.

Ken said...

Awesome! you must be very proud of your efforts over the years!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ken,
Yeah it's good ive managed to keep going with them. Not the same quality right across the board but on a whole it's been good fun and I'm rounding off the areas in not totally chuffed with.

It will sound daft but I repainted the faces and hair of all the AB battalions I own with my final style of painting and even though they still have the black undercoat showing through on the strap work it made a huge difference and gave me a big lift. Still to sort out the hands.

Steve h said...

AWESOME COLLECTION!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Steve,
That's really kind of you!

Mark Case said...

Hi Paul

I think Renaissance Ink is out of business. Where do you get your bases, and what are they made of?

Paulalba said...

Hi mark, our bases are laser cut MDF by warbases here in scotland 2mm deep. Very nice bases they are to.