Prussian Guard Infantry, 1813

    As related in "Singin' the Prussian Blues", I have these 16 Minifigs casting of the Prussian Foot Guards in Full Dress for almost 10 years. With the Battle of Dresden  on tap for next month at Historicon being one of the actions where they took the field, it was finally time to put some paint to the lead! For some reason, the Krylon white spray primer that I always use went on rather granular (it was the end of the can, maybe that was a factor?),and that plus the clean line of the castings made me decide that I would not use the "magic wash" on these figures, and that shading would be limited to the plumes, faces, and hands. I also decide for these "parade ground" uniforms, I would apply the Prussian Blue full strength and un-thinned; indeed, due to the somewhat granular  priming, many parts of the jackets got TWO coats of Prussian Blue. This is a much darker looking shade than the thinned version I have used on my other Prussians.

Although not worn in the field, who can resist the magnificent Busch plumes that the Guard wore for Parade dress? Surely not an aficionado of military bling such as I! The stand on the far right of the picture has black belting, thus representing the Fusiliers of the Regiment. 

The standard (from Warflag) is that of the 1st battalion, with the rather unique blue grey background to the central Prussian Eagle motif (usually seen in orange). The base of the officers plumes is black, with the iother 80-90% white. The Drummers have a red Busch, as well as red and white shioulder wings. 

2 spots are left for future additional acquisitions to bring the unit to a full 18 figures!  Only 12 figures per unit  are needed for my convention Field of Battle games, however. 

I under coated the red collars, cuffs, and turnbacks with white so that the bright red would really "pop" out. In this picture you cab see the guard lace on the collars and cuffs; with out the plumes and with the Guard stars on the shako covered, the Litzen would be one of the few ways to tell that a Prussian unit belonged to the Guard.

    In the reorganization of the Prussian Army that followed the debacle of 1806 and the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the Garde Regiment zu Fuss was originally numbered as the 8th Infantry regiment.  A Garde-Jager battalion was also part of the post 18108 establishment. To make things confusing, in June 1813, this regiment was taken out of the Line sequence, and re-designated the Erstes (First) Garde-Regiment zu Fuss. Simultaneously, the Zweites Garde Regiment zu Fuss was created from the Normal Infantry Battalion, the 1 st Battalion of the Colberg Regiment, and the Leib-Fusilier Battalion. The second regiment wore the same uniform as the first, except that the style of the cuffs was different, and yellow metal buttons and Litzen replaced the white of the 1st regiment.  As a results, the old Line Regiments 9 - 11 were all moved down one number and a new 12th (Brandenburg) Regiment was raised from reservists. In 1814, a new Garde-Schuetzen battalion was raised. Also in 1814, the six independent Grenadier battalions were regrouped inr the newly designated Guard Grenadier Regiments, which were #1 "Czar Alexander" and #2 "Kaiser Franz". 

Wer eine wahre Preußischen Herz hat , folgen Sie mir!

Peter