The Army of Frederick the Great

[the Baron]

Hi, all! I know it's been a while since I've added any figures to the collection. As you may have seen, I've been busier in the scale modeling side of the hobby for a couple of months.

But this morning, I bring you a recent addition to the collection, another dragoon:



The casting is another Stadden 54mm. I've painted him as a dragoon of the 1st Regiment, the Zastrow Dragoons, at the time of the Seven Years War. We see him returning home, having "requisitioned" his dinner ("organized", the Germans say).

From another angle:



What makes this figure different is the goose. It represents my first completed sculpting effort. I got this figure off eBay, and the pose suggested to me a hunter returning with his catch. So I decided that this would be a good place to start working with proper sculpting techniques.

It was a toss-up between flesh or fowl for his catch. I thought of a rabbit or a brace of rabbits, or an Auerhahn, a ground fowl similar to a grouse. In the end, I settled on a goose.
A view from the rear:



I know that in my previous post, I mentioned two dragoons, and I do have the other one, but as I got to work on him, I noticed that the casting is of an Austrian dragoon, so he got a new uniform, but I have to add some finishing touches, before I can post a picture of him.

Till the next time, I hope you enjoy the pics!

YbiC
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all! Here are a couple more figures that I finished so I could get them off the bench. This time, I bring you two pewter figures from the Franklin Mint, a Totenkopf-Husar, left, and a dragoon of the Bayreuth Dragoons:



These were issued in a set in 1985, and were finished with a sort of antiqued patina. I decided to paint them, and to make another foray into matte colors, instead of my usual gloss toy soldier finish.

Here they are, from the back:



I didn't do very much in the way of shading, except to drybrush some of the highlights, and to apply some washes. It is a fun change of pace to paint with mattes, but my first love is still the glossy finish.

I have some more figures in progress, which I hope to have done in a few days, and I'll add them to the thread.

Thanks for looking!
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Well, it's been a while, but I have some more toy soldiers that I'm finishing now. Here is one of my recent eBay finds, a Stadden casting of a hussar of the regiment of Gersdorff, also known as the Red Hussars:



The regiment fought with distinction in the early years of the Seven Years War, but in November 1759, it had the bad luck to have most of its squadrons in General Finck's corps at Maxen in Saxony, which was surrounded on an isolated plateau by the Austrians and forced to surrender. Though it was ultimately Frederick's fault for placing Finck there in the first place, the King disbanded the units that were part of the corps, the Red Hussars among them. Here is a shot of the figure from the back:



Stadded correctly sculpted this figure as a member of Gersdorff's regiment; note the cartridge pouch tucked under the carbine belt, which was a detail unique to the Red Hussars.

I have some more figures almost finished, which I hope to post in the next couple of days. Thanks for looking!

 

[the Baron]

While I'm waiting for the paint to dry on my Monogram F6F, here are a couple more toy soldier figures I've finished for my collection.

These are castings I got off eBay. They caught my eye, and I wasn't sure of their origin at first, but I contacted the seller and confirmed that they are from the catalog of the German maker Rylit, from the early '80s. Her figures have a distinct style that really appeals to me, not quite connoisseur detail but almost caricature, and with wonderful lively and interesting poses.

Here's the first, a dragoon seated on a keg, enjoying a pipe with a bit of an amused look on his face:



I've painted him as another dragoon of the Zastrow Regiment, to go with some of the other dragoons in my collection.

The next figure is a fusilier of Regiment Nr. 40, Gabelentz, in 1759:



The animation of this figure's expression caught my eye and made me bid for it. I need to find an appropriate figure to pair with him, in hand-to-hand combat. Here's a view of the detail on the back:



which illustrates what I mean about the style of these figures. It's well-sculpted and crisp detail, but stylized rather than a photographic portayal of the detail.

I have a couple more of these on the bench right now, and I expect to finish them over the next week or so, and if I do, I'll have more updates to post.

As always, thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy seeing them.

YbiC
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all! I've finally gotten back to some of the figures on the bench, and finished a pair that I'll share with you now, a little vignette by Rylit in Germany:



Eva Nuschke, a Marketenderin or sutleress in the train with Frederick's army, offers her wares to Adam Zeschwitz of von Platen's Dragoon Regiment (Nr. 11).

Such a great little pair...of figures When I saw this on eBay, I was determined to win the auction. Here are some other angles on the vignette:



I was tempted to finish this in a matte finish, and I also used some art store acrylics for colors like Eva's skirt and apron. In the end, I used flat and gloss acrylics, enamels, and even oils for her lips, and gloss-coated with Future:



I also experimented with some washing techniques. I like redheads, so I decided to paint Eva as one. But just plain red by itself would have looked too cartoon-y. So the base color is red, with successive thin washes of brown in the shadows. I used some washing to pick up the very fine relief on the weave of her basket, too. Here's one last shot:



Eva wears on her hat the light blue cockade that was the sole indentification for all sutlers to the Prussian army. They often wore other bits of uniform, like the coat (for the men), or a variant of a hussar's dolman (for the ladies).

I'm very happy with the way it turned out; because the figures were already attached to the base, it was tough to reach some places. The base itself has molded relief to look like grass and some trampled flowers, which you can't really see here. The off-white pieces reminded me of large mushrooms, so I painted those white with a little burnt siena wash to try and capture that look.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed painting it. Thanks for looking, and there are more in the pipeline.

Prost!
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all! I have a couple more figures for this collection finished. I also finished some Austrians and others, but they'll get their own threads, eventually.

First, here is another Stadden casting of a Prussian hussar, which I've painted as another hussar of Kleist's regiment, the Green Hussars:



Much as I like the Stadden castings, I find myself gradually becoming less satisfied with the soft details of many of them. Still, for variety, no contemporary figure kit maker has come close to Stadden's catalog, both for the sheer number of subjects and the nearly infinite number of poses.

To follow that comment, here is another figure by Rylit, of a sergeant, or Feldwebel, of Frederick's Regiment Garde, his regiment of Foot Guards:



Rylit's catalog is not nearly as extensive as the old Stadden/Tradition catalog, but the figures she does have, are extremely animated or well-posed.

This old campaigner has a great attitude, especially seen from another angle:



The Garde was the most prestigious regiment in the army, naturally, and had the most elaborate and the costliest dress uniforms. The ordinary rank and file received the same pay as non-coms in other regiments, and the non-coms received pay commensurate with that of junior officers.

I have some more Prussians in the queue, and hope to finish them over the next couple of days, so keep checking back!

As always, thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy these!

 

[PANZERMAN]

WOW, great job Baron! Very nice collection. Love the colorful uniforms of the
Historical figures. Terrific job on the goose sculpture.
Thanks for sharing................Bill.

 

[ShutterAce]

Great stuff Brad! Great little figs! ;D

 

[Jelly]

Oh, Baron... this thread went unnoticed to me until very now...

And how to avoid looking at the distinctive & notable attributes of the fraulain !!! Oh, man! I suppose her name is "Gretchen" or so

I´m sure you´ve enjoyed some parts of "Barry Lyndon" classic movie.

There goes a video that I suppose you´ll appreciate, Baron !

I volunteer

 

[the Baron]

Thanks for the kind words, guys, glad you enjoy them!

Jelly, yes, I've got "Barry Lyndon" on VHS, eventually getting around to replacing it with DVD. The author of some of my uniform references, John Mollo, was a historical advisor to the film. The uniforms are pretty accurate, compared to illustrations of the day.

 

[panzerace007]

BARON,

Lookin through this thread again .. It reminds ME of th lil' Toy Soldiers that My GrandMother would bring me .... I still got'em some where. But Smokin job on these. Yeah Dude !! Rock-It !!

I like your take on gettin these, to look like th Ol'School Toy Soldiers. Great Job. !

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all, here's another pair that I've gotten off my bench ;D Trying to clean up projects in progress, like my Pennsy and my MaK Raptor.

Anyway, a pair of hussars, more castings from the Rylit catalog, which I've painted as hussars from Natzmer's regiment. They were also known as the White Hussars, from the color of their Pelze (outer jackets). First, a trumpeter:



There was little uniformity, surprisingly, in the musicians' uniforms. The regiment's commander or even the squadron commanders exercised wide latitude in the details. In this case, our trumpeter has the regimental colors of blue and white repeated in the plume on his cap. The one detail that was common across all units was the swallow's nests of lace on the shoulders.

The other figure is a Wachtmeister or sergeant, of the White Hussars:



His rank is indicated by the rosette on the front of his cap, and he has extra silver lace on his collar and cuffs.

The figure is intended to be assembled with both hands on the bundle of straw or hay; the same figure was sold by Germany's Archive Publishing, and it was assembled that way. But this was an eBay find, already assembled, so I left him as he is.

As always, thanks for looking!

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all, here's another Prussian for my collection:



This is a musketier from the Duke of Brunswick's regiment ("Brunswick-senior", or "Alt-Braunschweig", since his younger cousin also had a regiment at the same time). Another casting from the Rylit catalog, and another example of the great, everyday poses of so many of the figures in that catalog.

Our friend refreshes himself after a long march, with a lunch of a chicken drumstick and a mug of beer. He's taken off one of his shoes, in the meantime, to air out those barking dogs.

I read that the soldiers used to cut the bottoms off their wool socks and wrap their feet in strips of cloth impregnated with tallow. You can imagine what that smelled like on campaign in high summer!

The casting had some sort of round metal bottle in his right hand, kind of like the old crown-top beer cans, but nothing like that existed in 1756. The Prussians carried a square metal flask, and the Austrians and others had round canteens made of wood or metal. So I modifed it into a stoneware mug by filing the cap and drilling out the center, and adding a handle. I have a similar mug in my collection, which served as a model.

As always, thanks for looking!

 

[the Baron]

I finally finished one of the toy soldiers that have been sitting on my bench for a long time. Here is an ensign, or Fahnenjunker, of the Prince of Württemberg's regiment of dragoons (Nr. 12), another casting by Stadden, and found on eBay:





Casting is of the usual quality for Stadden's mass-produced custom figures, but the flag was not quite accurate for a Prussian dragoon standard. The flag is a generic flag Stadden used for figures not made to order, a square piece of tin soldered to the staff, with an Imperial German cravat attached. I cut a swallow-tail into the trailing edge of the standard, which is the pattern for the Prussian dragoons. But I decided to leave the cravat; removing it would have been too messy.

Thanks again for looking!

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all!

I'm trying to work through the backlog on my bench, including some of the toy soldiers. Here are a couple of figures I've finished, as I dig down through the layers.

It's a pair of hussars. First is a hussar from Warnery's regiment (Regt. 3):



The figure was sold by Archiv-Verlag in their series on the Army of Frederick the Great. It's marked under the base as "Officer of the Ziethen-Hussars", but since he wears a cartridge pouch, he cannot be an officer. They didn't carry carbines, so they didn't carry cartridge pouches. Since the uniform details were otherwise similar between the two regiments, I painted him as a Warnery hussar. He has his Pelz buttoned like a jacket in cold weather.

I painted the other figure also as a hussar from Warnery's regiment, in a non-combat pose:



The figure is from Rylit's catalog. He wears a Lagermütze (fatigue cap), though usually they were without the fur trim that is molded here. I can't find any reference that shows this variant, but it looked pretty cool, so I wasn't about to file it off.

And here is another photo, along with our friend the musketeer from the regiment of the Duke of Brunswick:



Eventually I'll get around to building a diorama to display many of these figures, and these two will go together in that scene.

Thanks for looking, best regards,
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Hi, everyone, here's the next one off my bench, a Fähnrich from the regiment of Markgraf Carl (IR 19):



The regiment was raised by Frederick's grandfather, Frederick I, for his step-brother, the Margrave (Markgraf) of Brandenburg-Schwedt. As the master of the Order of the Knights of St. John, the Margrave displayed the Maltese cross of the order on his regiment's flags and livery. In Frederick's reign, the Margrave's son (Frederick's uncle) was the colonel-in-chief; he was also followed his father as Master of the Johanniter, and the cross was maintained as the regiment's insignia.

This is another figure from Rylit. Sculpting is very well-done, and the flag's details are sculpted on, which made it relatively easier to paint. The flag is well done, but it's also solid white metal, and as you may imagine, it tended to fall over. I added a 2"x2" base of copper flashing, to provide stability.

As always, thanks for looking!

Prost!
Brad

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all, here's the latest one I've finished, to get off my bench. A grenadier of the regiment of General-major Finck (IR 12):



The grenadiers of Finck's regiment had a distinctive decoration on their cap plates, a large, black enamel eagle painted on the brass fronts. This was practically unique among Frederick's grenadiers; nearly all the regiments had plates of stamped tin or brass.

This is yet another casting by Stadden, and he captured the look of a soldier on the march, and the gear that the Prussians carried:



Besides his knapsack, bread bag, water bottle and cartridge box, our friend carries tent pegs and a spade in its leather cover. In camp, the Prussians divided their troops into Kameradschaften of 5 or 6 men to a tent, and they all carried bits of the communal gear. Besides the tent pegs, they carried a cooking pot with a canvas or leather cover, a large communal water bottle and tools including spades and an axe. The tents were carried on pack horses.

As always, thanks for looking! The next piece will be a mounted figure, in the next couple of days...

 

[the Baron]

And here is the latest figure off my bench, the great Seydlitz himself, as he appeared at the Battle of Rossbach (5. November 1757):



Seydlitz is said to have given the signal for the Prussian cavalry to charge the French and Reichsarmee, by tossing his pipe into the air.



This casting is from Peipp, and it's massive, with the horse cast solid. It's quality is a little disappointing, compared to other offerings from Peipp. The surface was pebbled and bumpy, and there really was no way to clean all of it. Also, some of the detail is a little soft, such as the crests on his shabraque and holster covers. I would rather have just had those details left off, and I'd have painted them from scratch. But I couldn't pass it up, and I also got Peipp's Ziethen figure, which is much better.

Of the man himself, contemporaries wrote of him that he embodied martial virtues and conduct, and his talents as a commander of men and as a tactician were such that he was promoted from captain to colonel, to major general then lieutenant general, in the space of 5 years. Seydlitz deserves most of the credit for developing the Prussian line cavalry into a fine fighting force, whose pride it was to charge and attack first, never to be attacked, with a high standard of performance. Seydlitz himself was a excellent rider. He was also a notorious womanizer, and eventually succumbed to venereal disease, passing at the relatively young age of 52.

Now I just need to get some cuirassiers to go with him....

 

[the Baron]

Now that the forum is back, I have to see where I left off. I've finished a number of figures since my last post. Here are some personality figures, depicting generals in Frederick's army. They are all castings by Rylit in Germany.

The first is General Henri Auguste de la Motte Fouque:



Fouque's family were Hugenots who fled France after the Edict of Nantes was revoked. As a young man, he befriended Frederick when the latter was still Crown Prince, and remained one of his closest friends. From 1744, he commanded a regiment of fusiliers, Nr 33, whose uniform this figure depicts. He was an able and tenacious commander, though he was defeated and captured by the Austrians at Landeshut in 1760. He spent the last two years of the war as a prisoner, harassing his captors with an endless stream of legal petitions which forced them to tie up resources to address. After the war, he retired from active service and remained a friend and confidante of the King.

Next is General is Robert Scipio von Lentulus:



Lentulus belonged to an old Swiss military family-he claimed descent from Ancient Rome-and served first in the Austrian army, before seeking out the Prussian service before the Seven Years War. He commanded a regiment of cuirassiers, the "Leib-Regiment" (KR 3). This figure depicts him wearing the cavalry officer's white gala coat, instead of the field uniform.

This figure depicts General Tauenzien in the uniform of the King's own bodyguard regiment, the Garde zu Fuss (IR 15):



Tauenzien was an able commander, and served most notably as commander of the Breslau garrison, which successfully resisted an Austrian siege in 1760. A story from that siege describes how the Austrians taunted the garrison, saying that they would sack the city and "pluck the babes from their mothers' wombs." Tauenzien is said to have stood on the battlements and replied, "I am not pregnant, neither are my soldiers."

This figure is General Hans Kaspar von Krockow, Chef of the 1st Cuirassier regiment:



Krockow commanded his regiment ably from 1745 until his death in 1759. He succumbed to wounds he received several months before in the Battle of Hochkirch.

And the last figure is General Georg Wilhelm von Driesen, commander of the 7th Cuirassiers:



His greatest achievement as a commander was to lead the Prussian cavalry charge at the Battle of Leuthen, scattering the Austrian cavalry which had threatened to outflank Frederick's infantry. Oddly, his fate was not to die in battle, but of complications from severe gout.

 

[the Baron]

Another one finished, a Hauptmann of the Grenadier-Garde-Battalion, casting from Tradtion...



Here is perhaps the most exotic of soldiers in Frederick's army, a Bosniak officer, in the uniform introduced at or after the end of the war:



The Bosniaks were lancers, and they had unusual origins. In 1744, Saxon King August III authorized recruiting cavalry from southeast and eastern Europe, thinking to capitalize on the common fear in Germany of anything remotely "Turkish". An Albanian jeweler-turned-recruiter, Stephan Serkis, recruited about 50 riders and took them to Warsaw to enter August's service. When he found that the court official who had held the money to pay the men had gambled it away, Serkis turned to the Prussians and offered his services to Frederick. The Bosniaks were attached to the Black Hussars, and their ranks increased by recruiting Germans, Poles, and Hungarians alongside the original Tartars and other types. Their service record during the Seven Years War is debated, and the unit was nearly wiped out several times and re-raised. But it would be another generation and the emergence of the Uhlan, before lancers would take a permanent place among the cavalry.

This casting is from the Franklin Mint, and has pretty good, crisp detail. It was originally issued in a pewter finish. I primed it with Tamiya surface primer and painted it with matte acrylics, then gave it a couple of coats of Future. I've been experimenting with using the clear acrylic to make glazes, taking John Firth's work as an example. I used the technique a little bit on this next batch, four Bayreuth Dragoons, also from Franklin Mint: