Sunday, 27 July 2025

A New Napoleonic Army - The Prussians

 

With a decent sized Russian army you can always give the French and their allies a good run for their money, but for 1813-14 (my favourite campaigns), you really need a healthy Prussian contingent to help with the heavy lifting. Once again I have gone for Foundry figures for the infantry and again I really like the variety and quality of these admittedly ageing sculpts. So far I have managed 5 units of line infantry (1 fusilier and 4 musketeer), plus a command base, with the intention of doing another fusilier and probably 1 or maybe 2 grenadiers. In the last Foundry Christmas offer, I stocked up on reserve infantry (6 units) and landwehr (6 units), for a grand total of 19. This should be enough!

                                       First up is the 2nd Silesian Regiment


                                             The 4th East Prussian Regiment

                                                    
                                                      The 1st Silesian Regiment


                                                            Silesian Fusiliers


                                    And finally the 2nd Pomeranian Regiment


As you can see, the units have a definite campaign feel, with a sprinkling of different colours on trousers,rolled greatcoats and shako covers, plus the odd forage cap. As all I have are regulars at the moment, they will do for the early spring campaign of Lutzen and Bautzen. If I want to go beyond that, I will need to get cracking on the reservists and Landwehr. I also have a couple of boxes of Perry plastic Prussian dragoons, a regiment of metal hussars and half a dozen artillery batteries to make a start on so slowly slowly.


12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Neil. The Prussian army has a bit of a reputation for "functional" uniforms, but I think they can look really nice on the table.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you, quite pleased with them. Looking forward to fielding the whole army, but might take a while.

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  3. Lovely work, they look great and the campaign look works well, you are off to a great start with your Prussian army.

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    1. Thanks Donnie. Long way to go but a decent start. The reserve and landwehr units will offer some nice and interesting variation. I won't go mad on them, but I do like some variety in trouser colour and blanket roll/slung greatcoat. Maybe even the odd variation in coat colour to scruffy them up a bit.

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  4. WOW, quite a force already! The nice part is the variety in the reserve regiments and the scruffiness of the Landwehr are your province now.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, they are enjoyable and quite easy to paint. Agree about the reserve and landwehr units - can really get some interesting variations there. Long term project but one I am looking forward to.

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  5. Steve, look great. Calpe Miniatures (now under Gripping Beast) are very good but bigger than Foundry. Retirement is obviously suiting you!

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    1. It certainly is suiting me - what's not to like?!! The variation in Calpe is astonishing but I do like the old Foundry sculpts for the infantry particularly. Tend to use Perrys for the cavalry and some of the artillery though.

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  6. Lovely looking Prussians! :)

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