August Painting - Highlanders and Prussians

August was a particularly busy month for wargaming as I spent most of it getting forces organized for our monster Franco-Prussian War game on Labor Day.  We had to meld the troops of four different gamers (one of whom is deceased) into coherent organizations and plan the terrain for three separate battlefields.  But everything came out mostly OK in the end as 10 players enjoyed themselves (I hope) pushing "little lead soldiers" around.  You can see pictures of the game at our club's blog - Jackson Gamers.

Please click on the photographs for a larger image.

In partial preparation for that game I completed three different Prussian units.  The first was an almost complete repaint of a battalion of 24 old Frontier Prussian infantry.  These became the 1st Battalion of the Schleswig Infantry Regiment, nr. 84, of the 18th Division, IX Corps.  The other two battalions are in the painting queue now to complete before we do this game again at the Colonial Barracks convention in November.

The 1st Battalion, Schleswig Infantry Regiment, nr. 84, led by the regimental commander

The second unit was part of my portion of an old 1" Scruby Franco-Prussian War collection that Lord Sterling, my gaming buddy, and I purchased.  These are real "old school" figures cast by one of the dean's of American wargaming back on the day.  Their sculpting is rather rudimentary by today's standard but once massed into a battalion, they hold their own.  I didn't do any repainting of these, just removed them from their old bases and glued them to Litko bases.  They are, right now, the 1st Battalion, 2nd Silesian Grenadier Regiment, nr. 11, of the 18th Division, IX Corps.  The flag is conjectural based on some internet research and the flag the Napoleonic Silesian regiments carried.  It may not be accurate but it is good enough for my purposes.

1st Battalion, 2nd Silesian Grenadier Regiment, nr. 11

The final Prussian unit is two of the three sections of a battery of Prussian heavy field artillery equipped with the 6-lb Krup breechloading, rifled cannon.  The gunners are old 1" Scruby figures.  But I have no idea who manufactured the guns.  They may not even be FPW era Krupps.  If anyone knows who manufactured these gun models, please leave a comment.  These were also part of my portion of the Scruby purchase.  I repainted the guns to give them more of an 1870s Prussian look.  We use Larry Brom's Chassepot and Needlegun rules for our FPW gaming.  In these rules a battery is presented by three gun models and six gunners portraying the six guns in the battery.

Two sections of a Prussian heavy artillery battery.

The final unit I prepared in August was a rescue from the "melting pot" bag maintained by Lord Sterling for one of our members who home casts 40mm Prince August SYW era figures.  We collect trimmings and old broken figures for him.  Lord Sterling had replaced one of his American Revolution Highland regiments with newer figures and had consigned the old, but still perfectly serviceable, figures to the "melting pot" bag.  I rescued them and combined them with a RalPartha FIW Highland officer and a MiniFig ECW bagpiper to make the 2nd Battalion, 71st Highland Regiment for my AMR forces.  They'll join the 1st Battalion, 84th Highlanders (Royal Highalnd Emigrants) in my British army.  Since Lord Sterling originally had them as the 42nd Black Watch, I had to repaint the lapels, collars, and cuffs from blue to white.  I also printed and mounted a "white-facings" regimental flag for them.  I think the figures are old Musket Miniatures, now no longer produced (only at present, I hope).

2nd Battalion, 71st Highland Regiment

Well, that's all for now.  I hope that you enjoyed looking at these recent additions to my toy soldier collection.