1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 52) Hake´s infantry Brigade and the 2nd and 3rd Landwehr Cavalry brigade

 

The 13th Infantry Brigade was a big one that faced Lobau´s at Northern Plancenoit. The 11th RI is the usual mix of Revell and Waterloo1815 anf the Neumark Landwehr infantry are the also usual Airfix with added bayonets and Hat Industries.

The 3rd Silesian Landwehr cavalry was not part of this 13th infantry brigade. Even so it was one of the fanciest uniforms of the Prussians and I just wanted to make them. The horses are from the Hat Dragoons box as they have a nicer shabraque than the one from Esci that doesn´t fit this unit.

The figures are the eternal Esci lancers with added tuft of Greenstuff supported by thin drilled piece of plastic. The arms were heated for an uprigth position

The 2nd Silesian Landwehr cavalry had only one squadron attached to this brigade but like this one and the previous 3rd Silesian  all cavalry for the four brigades of the IV army Corps are made with one squadron per each. The figures are Hat Prussian Dragoons with bent arms to hold the lance. 

The artillery piece is Hat industries with Russian Zvezda figures with the shako cords trimmed. The usual 4cmX5cm base was extended in order to hold these nice figures. 

Next: Ryssel´s Brigade

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 51) Brause´s infantry Brigade and the 2nd Cavalry brigade

 

The task continues with the building of the Prussian army for Waterloo. This post is about the conclusion of the II army of Von Pirch with the 7th Infantry Brigade of General Von Brause. The majority of the brigade arrived late to the battle, namely two of its infantry regiments and they are not here for that reason. In this post there are also the Hussars of the 2nd cavalry brigade and two Corps command stands. 

The figures are a mix of Hat and Airfix for the Landwehr; Hat guns and Zvezda Russian figures for the artillery; Hat for the Landwehr cavalry; Italeri for the Hussars and a mix of Hat and Zvezda for the Corps command stands. 

The Elbe Landwehr infantry are Airfix figures with the usual plastic broom bayonet to go along with the Hat Landwehr.

The arms of the Hat Dragoons had to be placed in a different position so they can use a lance and become the Elbe Landwehr cavalry. These two squadrons were supporting directly Brause´s brigade. 

Unfortunately these figures are some of Hat´s first with very small shakoes and not the most beautiful design. I think on these days Hat wanted just to complement what others were doing, namely the Prussian Revell infantry, and this before they became the biggest producers of 1/72nd scale figures ever. 

Horse artillery to the left and line artillery to the right. The figures are the beautiful Zvezda Russians with the shakoes and cords heavily trimmed. The guns are the much older Hat guns. 

The two small regiments of Hussars (3rd and 5th) of the 2nd cavalry brigade are all Italeri French with a bit of Greenstuff on the shako for it to look like the Prussian one. 

These two stands represent Von Pirch and Von Dannewitz Corps stands. The standing generals are Hat Opolchenie officers, with a ADC each converted from the Hat British command set and two horse holders from the Zvezda artillery. 

Next: more Prussians or the 1942 Dieppe pier

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 50) Kraft infantry Brigade

 

Kraft Brigade was made of the 9 IR, 26 IR and the 1 Elb Landwehr IR, plus a squadron of the 11 Hussars (made previously and not here) and a field artillery battery. The Brigade was already incomplete when it arrived at Plancenoit and depleted of around 2500 men lost at Ligny. It lost more 400 men on the 18th june. 

The figures are Hat and Airfix for the Landwehr. The line infantry is Revell, Waterloo1815 and a few Esci Russians turned into Prussians for variety. The artillery gun is Hat with Zvezda Russian crew. 

Again the Zvezda Russian artillery gives very nice Russians. 

The drummer in front is also Zvezda but suits the Prussian very well as the Prussian uniform was based on the Russian one. Future history in the XX century (and XXI) will be very different for these two countries...

The mix of the three brands gives lots of energy to the stands. The paintings of those days always shows the Prussians in vigorous actions against the French with bayonet charges and muskets used as clubs. Revell and Waterloo1815 captured those action very well. The figures with one leg in the air were always glued to another one for extra sturdiness. The Esci Russians had plastic bayonets glued. 

The same happened with the Airfix figures which had bayonets added. The rear rank has mostly Hat figures marching. 

The Waterloo1815 box has four very nice officers on horse which became Brigade commanders. The arms of two of them were bent with fire for different poses. 

Next: Brause Infantry Brigade

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 49) The 5th Westphalian Landwehr Regiment and some artillery

 

This Landwehr regiment concludes Tippelskirch brigade whose main line regiments were shown last week.

The figures are all Hat with a few old Airfix mixed in.The Airfix figures blend quite well and only the bayonet was added. 

Most of the Prussian Regiments didn´t carry flags and the 5th West.Ldr. most probably didn´t. Even so what is a Napoleonic unit without a flag? 

The artillery came from several sources: the limbers are Hat French Wurst system with some Evergreen parts for the triangular seats; the drivers got some Greenstuff in the shako for them to look Prussians; the gun is Russian Hat (the Prussian are the same) and the artillerymen are Zvezda Guard artillery with trimmed Kiwers.

Next: Kraft's brigade

The battle of Sekigahara 1600 in 1/72nd scale

Who didn´t go slightly crazy after seeing Ran or Kagemusha from Akira Kurosawa? I was for sure! And when Zvezda and Red Box started to offer the world their beautiful little figures (in fact more Zvezda than Red Box) you could finally play those big battles of the Sengoku period like Nagashino or Kawanakajima that you can also see in the movies Furi Kazan or Ten To Chi To or on the recent 2017 Sekigahara. The problem with Sekigahara is you need over 40 clans and with these 5 you almost fill the table. Its in fact a time consuming task this one of painting the Sengoku armies. Even so there is nowadays plenty of information on the period (just check Samurai Archives on the web) and plenty of miniatures easily available. What I do to speed up a bit the process is to spray the clan in its main color and go from there to smaller details. Its not working but may be one day :).

The figures are based and organised according to Steve Duncan´s Damyo rules.

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 48) Tippelskirch brigade

This brigade was made from 28mm hard plastic Hat miniatures turned into "20s", or kind of it. With the big Italeri figures in the middle, like the officer and drummer they play their part. The brigade included these  IR 2 and IR 25, this one from the famous FreiKorps.

The trick was to cut some 5mm from the legs, another 5mm from the musket and glue the bayonet back as these are hard plastic minis very easy to glue. The "en masse" look help to desguise the origin and the difference to an Italeri French unit is not that big.  Another thing that helps is the fact that these 28mm figures are far from the more widely seen and much bulkier Perry or Warlord being much slimmer and elegant. 

Another aspect that convinced me at having a go at this "downscaling" thing was that I built most of the French around Airfix French (big heads on these) and Italeri figures which in fact are branded 1/72 but are 24mm in height. So if ever they face in battle I hope these new Hat will face Italeri French (if they don´t it will be strange but what is done is done). 

I´ve seen worse... but don´t remember where. 

The IR25 was changed in order to have litewkas as uniform. The officer came from Hat Opolchenie box and goes pretty well with the bunch. 

The change can be made with Greenstuff but for this particular longer coats I found Superfine Milliput  better. 

Also added are these three batteries of Prussian artillery (two horse and one foot). 

The artillerymen are Hat Bavarian with their rolled blankets around the torso with new Esci and Italeri heads as the Hat Prussian artillerymen are some of their first dating from 1997 and a bit on the small side and too tall. But a funny thing that probably happened with these first boxes by Hat was that they tried to complement the existing ones from other brands and the Revell Prussian infantry must have had some influence on its design. 

Also from Hat came these old Prussian dragoons from 1996, again with small heads to go along with the Revell infantry. This is the 5th Dragoons regiment representing the 1st Cavalry Brigade. 

Next: more artillery and the 5th Westphalian Landwehr

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 47) Steinmetz brigade

 

The Prussians for Waterloo are an old love of mine. I´ve always enjoyed the simplicity of their uniforms and their performance in battle, even with Landwehr units making a good part of its force. My first atempt was decades ago while painting Airfix Landwehr and Esci Russians as Prussians. Then Revell brought real line infantry and a lot of boxes were amassed for the future, always afraid of Armaggeddon. Then cheap 28mm plastics from Warlord and Perry came up and many of 20s were given away to friends or the Revell ones became Russians, this time in opposite direction. Recently in my large exchange with TC I got many Prussian boxes that were increased in numbers thanks to Vinted. 

This first group is Steinmetz Brigade made of the IR12 (black reserve short coats) and the IR24 (grey coats). All figures but three are Revell. The flags are made up as most of Prussian units only got flags after Waterloo. 

The Prussian regular figures of almost all brands can give nice reserve infantry with short coats as the Prussian infantryman carried a lot of stuff on its back - bedroll, bread bag, ammo pouch and sabre - hiding the details of the back of the coat, something that maybe Revell thought about that and that may be a nice detail. So really no need for the Hat reserve infantry. 

Only the drummers, officers and flagbearers have the normal dark blue coat. In this stand the drummer is a converted Zvezda artillery Russian, the flagbearer is a Pavlov Italeri figure with new head and the officer is a Hat  artillery Bavarian also with new head. The first two got the bedroll in GreenStuff. 

These Italeri French Hussars became the 11th Prussian Hussar Regiment with GreenStuff added on top of the shako. 

Next: DaveM and Jeffers, two of my most dedicated followers will have round 3 of my failed atempt to convince them of the beauties of downscaling. 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 46) Stubborn as a mule...

 

I´m not still done in trying to convincing you that the 28mm Hat Prussians can give reasonable 20mm figures. The work on shortening the 28mm Prussians continue but now I just saw how huge the muskets still are are they were also shortened. The way is to take around 5mm from the middle and re-glue the bayonet a bit down. Here the Hat figures are next not to the giant Italeri but with much more "1/72" Airfix line French and Hat Middle Guard. 

What I find nice in the Hat 28mm figures is that they have by far the slender bodies and smaller faces of all 28mm figures I had both in plastic and metal even if it was only Victrix, Perry, Irregular and Warlord. Its true that I received these guys by mistake but I on keep on thinking they can give nice 20 mm with these changes. The faces are the same size in all four figures even if the backpacks are bigger (as expected) in the 28mm figures. Of course if the correct 1/72 minis have been sent no (un)convincing propaganda like this would have been used :)

Half of the 60 figures of these 28mm Hat will go to the Freikorps dressed with litewkas. And this detail is important on applying Milliput on these figures as the backpack and particularly the sabre are detached from the body, something that will help as Milliput will be used to extend the bottom of the jacket. I thought about making the Freikorps from the Revell or Waterloo1815 figures but modelling the litewka on the waist of these figures would be complicated as it would tend to cover the sabre. 

Next: Steinmetz brigade now for real. 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 45) Napoleon´s army at Waterloo

Next: more Prussians

 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 44) Prussians have a go with a first and strange option

 

In the last few months I manage to get everything necessary to build Blücher´s army at brigade level. First I got plenty of unpainted boxes from the exchange made with TC, then I found a few more  boxes here and there and finally Vinted helped finding the last few boxes. In total some 30 boxes were gathered, Hat, Airfix, Italeri and Revell. 

Funilly enough I was quick finding all artillery and cavalry, exactly the opposite of what I was able to do in the previous 28mm Prussian army were Perry and Warlord cheap and available plastics filled quicky the ranks of the line infantry and the Landwehr. 

Even so there is a need of 306 figures for the Line infantry for this project (six figures in three ranks per stand) and only 280 were on the stash as I used plenty of the Revell Prussians for 1812 Russians. So a quick order from Aliexpress was meant to solve the issue: in their site there is a shop that sells sprues of 1/72nd Hat Miniatures that I´m used to order from. But sometimes I get the wrong thing as I believe the level of organization of that shop is the same of the friend´s football groups before Whatssapp. And this time it happened again: I got 28mm marching Prussians instead of 1/72nd scale, probably the only ones they have, but, also probably, they can´t distinguish the two sizes. On the positive side I was getting seven sprues instead of the six that were ordered. 

A few years ago I painted some of these marching 28mm Hat figures but with Perry plastic heads and the result was quite nice with these cheaper and slender figures standing pretty well next to the Perry and Warlord. The issue with these figures in terms of 28mm is the small heads (hence the usage of the much bigger Perry´s) which, on the other side are not much bigger then 1/72nd scale heads. So, by burning the feet of these figures you get what you can see on the pictures, figures that go along with some the large (oversized...) 1/72nd scale figures by Italeri and even Hat. Judge it by yourself and comment, please, as I need some (positive) comments in order to overcome this heresy.

Here they are with burned boots next to the Russian Opolchenie Hat officer (left) and the Prussian Line officer by Italeri. Obviously the 28mm are larger bulkier figures but even so, due to their small faces, the difference is not that much comparing to 1/72nd figures sculpted on the fatty and big side.

These conversions will go mostly to the IR25 FreiKorps as they were mostly young (and well fed) people. 

What say you? 

Next: Steinmetz brigade