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Friday, July 3, 2015

Reitenden Artillerie - Prussian Horse Artillery 1808 - 1815

As a calculated part of my massive Old Glory Prussian Napoleonic purchase earlier this year, I had enough spare artillery crew and Dragoons (whose style of uniform is essentially the same as the Horse Artillery men) to both add another Horse Artillery battery, and also re-base all my existing Prussian Horse Artillery batteries in a consistent fashion.


Here's all five of the Prussian HA units after re-basing. 


My usual preferred basing for Horse Artillery in the past has been 2 mounted artillerymen and one on foot per base. However, this can get rather expensive, and for the Prussians, the numbers worked out so that I could do one mounted crewman and two on foot per base. Ordinarily, 2 bases make up a battery, so I placed the mounted crewman on the opposite edges of the two component bases of each battery. 


The uniform of the Prussian Horse Artillery was identical to that of the Foot Artillery, except that the turnbacks were dark blue piped in red pipped black, and the leather work was white instead of the black used by the Foot Artillery. The Guard HA had gold litzen on the collars and cuffs. The guard battery has a  white flower clump on each base, and I've painted the wood of the implements light blue for them only, all to help it stand out better. 

The bit of green in the corner of the shot is from our outdoor Hydroponic garden - Lettuce, Kale, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Cilantro, Basil, and Tomatoes are all growing like crazy!


I almost think that I prefer this look. Since my guns aren't glued to the bases, "limbered" is indicated by reversing the gun off the back of the stand. 


I also added a flower clump the bases of  my old 6# Guard foot battery.


Light Blue paint for their implements again as a Guard unit.


The Litzen is all but invisible.  Hmm, maybe I forgot to paint it?!


The flower clumps do help them stand out a bit as Guard units.


Finally a few shots of the 12lber battery with the guns post "Magic Wash". The light on these shots is different, and the change in color is quite subtle, so I'm not sure you can really see the effect. 


Still Mark (Chasseur) asked for them so here they are!


As I said, I think the subtle change is overwhelmed bu the different (natural) lighting.


Finishing up the Hussars this weekend, and that's it for Historicon painting. Let the packing begin!

13 comments:

  1. Nice units. Good luck at H'Con.

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  2. Congratulations on meeting your Historicon painting goal! Never have I seen so much Prussian lead painted in so few days.

    Prussian HA looks terrific but I do not notice any difference post-magic wash..

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    1. Just about to start basing the Hussars, so painting is indeed done on schedule.

      Thee effect of the Wash is much more subtle than "the dip", and I agree that you really can't tell much difference by the photos, particularly as the lighting was quite different. It is there - a slight shift towards a more grey hue, and some enhancement of the wood grain effect on the carriages.

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  3. Stop, Peter, that's enough already, don't you think?! You do realize that it makes it very hard for guys like me to catch up to such a collection when you keep painting, while already having thousands of napoleonics done. :-P

    I haven't even started prussians yet, and here you are, expanding yours even further...

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  4. LOL, Mateus! I'd say you've been painting at least as quickly as I have the last 6 months. I do have a substantial lead, though - current count is at about 6,400 Napoleonics, and it looks likley to top out around 7,.00 when I am "done", if there is such a thing as being done with Napoleonics ever!

    I painted my first troops circa 1970 (Napoleonics, of course), but didn't do my first Prussians until 2002. I am almost ready to go back to British again, then it is on to some Spanish!

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  5. Fantastic looking details. I've never seen mounted on horse artillery bases before. What a great idea!

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    1. Thanks, David. I forget who I took the idea from - it may even have been in one of Jack Scruby's puiblications, LOL, because I've been doing my HA with mounted and dismounted figures since my very first units in the early 1970's!

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  6. Really impressive Peter, and that surely must be enough horse artillery for just about any scenario. I don't think you can ever beat home-grown tomatoes by the way.

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    1. It should be more than enough,. although my Russian Army has six Horse Artillery batteries, and my French Army has 8 (2 are guard)!

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  7. They look superb and most imposing massed together for the photo. Only one lot to go and you are ready with a week to spare. Now *that's* impressive!! :)

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    1. Thanks, James. The Hussars are now complete, and just awaiting their turn on the blog whilst I finalize my OOB's and scenarios for Historicon, so that I can do the packing this weekend.

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  8. Finally catching up on a very busy few weeks, lovely artillery Peter!

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    1. Thanks Paul. A sight to warm a "True Prussian Heart"!

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