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.

Looking Forward in 2015

First, I hope everyone had nice Christmas and New Year's celebrations.

For 2015, my gaming will involve both old favorites - Napoleonics, Seven Years War imagi-nations, Very British Civil War, and American War of Independence - as well as a couple of new game systems - Pulp Alley and Lion Rampant.

I'll be running a Napoleonic game at our regional gaming convention, Bayou Wars, in June.  The game will be a what-if rearguard action between Marshall Grouchy's retreating wing of the Grand Armee and  Generalleutnant von Thielmann's III Korps of the Prussian Army after the Battle of Wavre.  I'll have a test of the scenario in May.  I still have some more French infantry to paint for the test and the convention game.

Between now and then, I'll be running a SYW game pitting the forces of the Elector against those of the Emperor and King.  This will be another of the semi-linked campaign between the Electorische Armee Thüringen (Germanians and Britannians) and the Reichsarmee Oberer-Sachsen (Imperialist and Gallians).  I have some Gallian (French) troops to paint, specifically the Royal Ecossais Regiment.  I'll also be running a Very British Civil War game in my ongoing campaigning between the Royalist/BUF forces and the Anglican/Socialist forces along the border between Essex and Suffolk, northeast of London.  I think all the troops I'll need for this are already painted.

Later this month I'll introduce our group to Dave and Mila Phipps' excellent Pulp Alley rules.  We'll pit a menagerie of various Leagues in a hunt for the magical Dingus.  And probably in April, if not sooner, I'll introduce our group to Daniel Mersey's new Lion Rampant medieval rules.  They remind me a lot of the venerable Rules by Ral which our group uses already so I'm hoping for an easy transition to these rules.

And to begin 2015, I introduce a unit of British Loyalists for our American War of Independence armies.  The Royal Highland Emigrants were raised in 1775 from discharged veterans of several French and Indian War Highland regiments as well as new recruits from Highland emigrants to Canada and the American colonies.  There were two battalions raised, with the second being employed primarily in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and then the southern American Colonies.  The regiment was taken onto the British establishment as the 84th Foot.  My battalion is the Second Battalion and consists of a mix of Dixon and Old Glory figures that I acquired via eBay.  They originally were to be additional companies for my SYW imagi-nation Campbell's Highland Legion but the figures just didn't fit well with the original figures I used in the Legion.  They are mounted in six 3-figure stands per our standard organization.

This battalion will get its baptism of fire when our friend Tim C journeys from North Carolina to Mississippi to run a Carnage and Glory computer-driven game on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19.  We've never used this computer based rule system but we are looking forward to seeing how it works with our style of play.

More later!



Campbell's Highlanders

I finally finished painting the second grand division of my Campbell's Highlanders. These 12 figures seemed to take forever to finish, but I think it was just not wanting to face trying to replicate the plaid on the kilts. I got a smaller "spotter" brush and it made painting the stripes much easier. So at last they are complete!

Both grand divisions in all their satorial Highland glory!

They are all Front Rank Jacobite Rebellion figures, from their "Government Highlanders" line. The officer waving his hat is one of the special figures (John Campbell, Earl of Loudon) while the other officer (on the left of the image with the red sash) is the line officer.

This unit will join the army of the Margraviate of Carpania and will be brigaded with the converged Carpanian grenadier corps.

Campbell's Highlanders

As the Markgraf and his entourage watch, the first wing of Campbell's Highlander Battalion marches onto the army drill field just outside the walls of Potzdorf. They have been raised as part of Major General Seamus Campbell's contract for service with the Margraviate of Carpania.

Parading past the royal party outside their marquee.

The Highlanders will be brigaded with the Carpanian converged grenadiers, a battalion of which is drawn up to receive them.

General Baron von Stuppe, the army commander, and Major General Campbell watch as the Highlanders make a complicated maneuver that puts them in front of the Markgraf.

A close-up of the 1st wing of Campbell's Highlander Battalion. They carry the simple St. Andrew's flag and are accompanied wherever they go by the stirring pipes.

The Highlanders are from the Front Rank Jacobite line. The second wing is still being equipped (i.e., being painted).

Highlanders in Progress

For several weeks, I have been slowly painting the next unit for my imagi-nations. This will be the mercenary Campbell's Highland Battalion, currently in the service of the Markgraf of Carpania.


Composed of 24 Front Rank Highlanders from their Jacobite line, they will be uniformed in a mid-smokey blue with buff facings. The kilts are a representation of the Campbell tartan of blue and green. This picture shows the first company carrying the inhaber's color, a white St. Andrew's cross saltire on a blue field. In the background is the second company. It may take a little longer to finish them (the tartans are time consuming!), especially since our group's theme for 2009 is Colonial Adventuring and I will be adding to my Colonial armies, starting with some Beja tribesmen (AKA Fuzzy-Wuzzies) for a mini-campaign in the Sudan.

My First Painted Unit

This is part of the first wargame unit I painted, back in the Spring of 1971, while I was a junior in college. They are the old Airfix Waterloo Highlanders. I used Pactra enamels and painted with a large craft brush and toothpicks for detail. Until they became too brittle for use, they were a mainstay of my British Napoleonic army.