Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Pomeranian Landwehr Cavalry, 1813 -1815

As seen here recently, last month I renewed my Old Glory Army Card , and placed a large order of Napoleonic Prussians, intended to bolster my Prussian forces in preparation for running the battle of Ligny at Historicon in July. The first of those figures trot off the painting table now.


This is the 1st Pomeranian Landwehr Cavalry regiment. It wears pretty much the regulation pattern Landwehr Cavalry uniform, but with the Litewka in grey instead of the usual dark blue. This variation was often seen in the Pomeranian Landwehr Infantry as well. I used Delta Ceramcoat "Hippo Grey" stained with Delta CC "Charcoal" for the Litewkas. I have previously covered the uniforms of the Landwehr Cavalry here as well.


The shako should have a white Landwehr cross on the front, and a Prussian black within white cockade, but the Old Glory Dragoon figures I used for this regiment wear the usual Prussian covered shako - I did do one figure with the cross painted onto his shako cover, as seen above.


The collars and cuffs are the provincial color, white for Pomerania (Pommern). I used full cuffs in white instead of just white piping on the cuffs. The trumpeter has red and white "wings" on his jacket, and the trumpet cords are white mixed with red. (The Cent Jours site  belopw shows grey and white for the wings and trumpet cords).


The stripe down the seam of the grey pants and the edging on the sheepskin saddles could be in the provincial color (white), or, as was common in the Prussian Line cavalry, red. The Cent-Jours site shows this unit still wearing grey coats in 1815, with the saddle edging in white. That seemed a bit too severe for my tastes, so I went with red, and for good measure threw in the  red shoulder straps of the 2nd squadron. 


The Landwehr Cavalry were all equipped with a lance; these fellows have sensibly discarded their and pulled their swords instead. Like their infantry brethren, they were not supposed to carry flags or standards. I have given them one, though, based on en enlarged version of a variant lance pennon for Pomeranian units, a black Landwehr cross on white.


Riding Dun horses (the trumpeter rides a white), I think they make quite an attractive unit. It remains to be seen how they will fight!


With a total of 30 (!) Dragoon figures, even with adding 2 more units of Dragoons (appearing here shortly), I had six figures left over. I could have gotten 40 figures and made 5 units total, but that seemed like a bit much. Sop these spare figures were painted as Horse Artillerymen zu Pferde, and will be used to expand my Prussian Artillery arm. 


Here is the famous "shot in the face" figure once again! There seems to be one of these chaps in every OG Prussian "Cavalry Command" bag. 



Der Alte Dessauer; a German military march dating back to 1705.

16 comments:

  1. The grey uniforms look good. I have a big pile of Prussians that I was considering not painting. But looking through your pics I'm warming back to them.

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    1. I have to say that starting out the later Prussians were probably my least favorite Napoleonic Army to paint (the 1806 version that got trounced is much more colorful, and I would have done them had figures been available. Having done a lot of them, though, I've warmed u[p to the possibilities offered by the many variations in the Reserve and Landwehr infantry, the Landwehr Cavalry, and the National Cavalry regiments. They don't *have* to all be dull and drab!

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    2. Actually it was more that I have a large pile of Russians waiting to be painted too. :P

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    3. I love the Russian cavalry, but the infantry gets a bit monotonous - once again, much more colorful pre 1809!

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  2. I think this is some of your best work on the Prussians yet. They really do look very sharp, and I especially like the choice of horse colour.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. I am very happy with how they came out. I did them and the upcoming Dragoons together, and did the troopers horse as Duns, Light Chestnuts, and Dark Bays... and matched the horse colors to the riders once they were all done and I saw what color combinations looked best to my eyes!

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  3. Splendid, they are splendid...love the diversity of the poses (with this courageous wounded man!) and your paint job...

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    1. Thanks, Mark. I love classical music and Marches!

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  5. With the Army Card, OG figures are the best value on the market. Well animated Prussian cav and good looking duns. How is your schedule looking for meeting your planned Historicon game?

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    1. Thanks, Jon.

      I have April, May, June, and a few weeks in to paint. The Dragoons are all but done, so that leaves 2 more Lancashire Landwehr (in progress), 2 OG Hussars, 4 OG Line Infantry, 4 weak OG Landwehr, and 3 foot batteries. I expect to have them all done on time!

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    2. My money would certainly be on you to make it to the finish line in time.

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    3. Baring the ever present potential for interference by ":real life", of course!

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