Prussian Napoleonic Grenadiers, 1808 - 1814: Part 2

    In June 1813 IR #8 Garde zu Fuss (whose Grenadier companies were not detached) was taken out of the numbered sequence, and re-designated as the 1st Footguards, with a 2nd Footguard regiment being raised at the same time. The remaining regiments moved down a number to fill the gap and a new 12th IR was raised. In late 1814, the six Grenadier battalions were formed into two new Guard Grenadier regiments. #1 Czar Alexander and #2 Kaiser Franz; this was accompanied by new uniforms, at least theoretically! Thus the Prussian Grenadiers per se no longer existed by the time of the Waterloo Campaign (which probably won't stop me from using some of them at Ligny, to represent the best of the Line units). Here's the rest of the Lancashire games Prussian Grenadiers painted up...

The Pommersches Grenadier battalion. In this picture you can see that half the men have the white shoulder straps of the Erstes Pommersches IR #2, and the other half the red shoulder straps of the Colbergsches IR #10, the two Line regiments contributing their two Grenadier companies each to create the unit.

These are once again 28mm Lancashire games figures; ordering using their Battalion packs is definitely the way to go whenever possible! The white facings are those of the parent Pommeranian regiments.

The figures in this unit has a much more uniform appearance than the earlier ones; that is not an accident - about half of the "Advancing" pack figures are in this pose, so I consolidated the bulk of them into this one unit to give it a more classic, "toy soldier" look. 

For this unit, even the secondary equipment is uniform, unlike the others!

I am very pleased to field these guys, having been on the hunt for Prussian grenadiers post 1807 wearing their plumes for quite some time; I am told that Elite and Hinchliffe also make Grenadiers (Guards) in the Busch as well. 

Until now, my only Prussian Grenadiers were the nine Minifigs seen above, part of the 100 or so such figures that Jamie sold me at Historicon back in 2003, very nicely and neatly painted as seen, for $1/figure. The obvious difference in size between the "true 25mm" Minifigs and the "heroic" 28mm Lancashire is apparent, although they don';t look as badly together as I might have thought. 

Jamie had painted them as the Silesian Battalion, but as I wanted to use the yellow facings for an all Lancashire unit, I repainted them with the crimson (Knoetel says "karmesin", or carmine) facings of the Westpreussisches Grenadier Battalion, opting for the more purplish interpretation of that color.

I hadn't even planned to ever *do* a Prussian Napolonic army until Jamie's troops jump started me. That was followed by another lot of Minifigs from Joe, then some new Old Glory figures. My Prussians underwent a significant expansion for 2013 (1813 - Dresden, etc), adding some Reeserve Infantry regiments, Landwehr cavalry, and Uhlans. 

With the shift to doing Ligny at Historicon this year, these Grenadiers are the first of the push to expand my Prussians once again. After this, I'll have 4 units of Lancashire Landwehr Infantry to paint, then a bumper crop of Old Glory Prussians - 4 Landwehr Infantry, 4 Line Infantry, 4 Regular Infantry, 2 Dragoons, 2 Hussars, 1 Landwehr Cavalry, and 4 Artillery batteries. 

Just like the actual Prussians of 1813, I'll be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel to field them all. Enough typing - back to the painting table!

Although written following the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, this is a very famous march, and the video has great images from the 7 Years War, Napoleonic Wars, Austro Prussian War, and concluding with the Franco Prussian War. (Ignore the comments, as usual)