Form Battalions!

An update on the Prussians!

I've gotten all of my Landwehr together and placed in their proper battalions. This is about half of General von Horn's 7th Brigade. This is the first time I've managed to get all of the figures together in one place (though some still need assembling as you can probably tell). I decided to increase the unit size to 30 figures based on some things I was reading about historical battalion sizes.

Right before the above photo was taken, however, disaster very nearly struck. I had these figures on the second shelf of my display case when the first shelf (with my X-Wing Miniatures Game ships) decided to fail and fall right into them.

After a few terrifying moments and numerous curse words, I was relieved to find that the damage was minimal. Only three figures had broken off their bases, and they weren't even finished so it was an easy fix. A few others had some chipped paint and slightly bent bayonets, but these also proved to be quick repairs. 

After all the commotion subsided, Jimmy came down to see what was going on.

All told, I have 150 figures here representing the Landwehr. Needed still are 96 or so more to represent the regular army troops. And I have at least 100 more Landwehr figures sitting in boxes (think I got a little overzealous in collecting them over the years). So I may decide at some point to create another brigade from Yorck's Prussian 1st Army Corps....likely the 1st Brigade which was also heavily engaged in the assault on Möckern.

Prussian Landwehr: 2016 to Today

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I've been working on some Napoleonic Prussian Landwehr since mid-2016. I'd gotten some sprues of the Warlord figures on sale in 2013 but had neglected them until I decided that one day I wanted to paint them up. I decided to follow this awesome tutorial by Laurens Vannijvel (with a few minor modifications in paint colors) as it seemed pretty quick and straightforward.

I settled on Silesian Landwehr at Leipzig in 1813, since I knew there were a ton of them there. I've been fascinated with the battle since I took a French history class in college and it seemed like a good opportunity to eventually build forces for some of the other nations involved. But first, the Prussians!

The following images were taken at various times between 2016 and today. Hopefully they capture some of the evolution and progression they've gone through.

First step, of course, was to prime these guys in black gesso!

These figures' bayonets broke off, so they became test figures. The guy in the middle is wearing a brown coat that some Landwehr were reported to have worn in 1813. Sources say these troops would have been lumped together in the regiment's 4th Battalion.

Painting like a madman late into the evening.

Painting Prussians and watching Zulu!

A mostly-finished Zug (squad) awaiting grass for their bases. As my last blog post mentioned, this would later come back to bite me.

Reinforcements are on the way! All of these guys are now finished and make up my 3rd Battalion. As you can see, I ended up picking up a few more boxes of models to bolster the force.

Their numbers have grown from this:

A cleaner shot of my finished Landwehr troops from about October 2016.

To this:

Here are the Landwehr as of tonight! All it's missing is the drummer (who was primed last night). 

So after having done all these figures, I've decided to do more. A lot more. I'm planning to recreate General von Horn's 7th Brigade, which war part of General Yorck's Prussian 1st Army Corps and heavily engaged at Leipzig. These guys represent the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Silesian Landwehr Regiment. 

This battalion is primarily made up of the original Warlord Landwehr figures, with a few of their metal versions thrown in for variety (as the plastic set only has three poses). The sergeant in the back is from Front Rank, and the officer is from Perry.  

I also made a few distress markers a few months back. Since Warlord released some new Landwehr models that include shakos (which some Silesian units wore as late as Waterloo), I had to pick up a few boxes. They'll be incorporated into my brigade and will represent the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 15th Silesian Landwehr Regiment. 

These are bits of Warlord and Victrix gear on some 25mm GW bases I had laying about.

Finished markers! Looks like they were discarded in a bit of panic, don't they?

I'll post a photo of the drummer once he's finished. Then it's off to the 2nd Battalion!