Saturday 9 June 2018

1866 Prussian Allies finally start to mobilise - more S range conversions

After a foray into the world of 15mm, I have finally come back to my 1866 Minifigs S range project.

On the one any only outing on the wargame table it became apparent that the Austrians and allies outweighed the Prussians and their allies.  The call went out for more troops but some delay in supplies of new figures and a slump in my converting of figures held thing up.

However in the background I have been working away slowly – very slowly.  Here are the latest recruitments.

Waldeck Infantry

A straight repaint of the Prussian Infantry figures from my spares box. With a green coat and rather fetching white gaiters and armband the Waldeck Infantry cut a smart unit. 





The Lippe (Detmold) Infantry  

Basically the same as painting the Jagers except they have a brown backpack and a yellow and red cockade.  


They are awaiting their flag which is proving to be a bit of a challenge at the moment.  I could just give them a Napoleonic flag but the standard in the background is quite different.




Oldenburg Dragoons
I thought I could just paint up some ACW cavalry as the pictures I had seen looked like the dragoons wore an ACW type kepi. Unfortunately, the S range ACW figure’s kepi is very ‘slouched’ if that’s a word – high at the back and low at the front – and looked wrong.  I therefore filled down the kepi to make it ‘flatter’.  They also have crossed belts and I didn’t realise until I started painting them that I should have removed one of these.  They sort of look okay.



Mecklenburgh-Schewein Dragoons

Having not been happy with the kepi and the fact that the ACW figures were sword armed, I decided that these dragoons should be based on the Prussian Dragoon with a Wurttemberg kepi.  Rummaging through my spares box, I found a couple of 2 Prussian Dragoons, an ACW cavalry officer with a pistol, an ACW sword waving figure who became the standard bearer and 2 French dragoons.  Since everyone was going to get a head swap life was a little simpler.  Some quick work with a scalpel sorted out cross belts and epaulettes to give me 6 figures that looked reasonably similar.  I use a light blue as in the illustration above which looks grey in these photos – although I did notice that in Uniformology they used the same blue as the Oldenburg figure.



So the Prussians now have some more allied cavalry but still need more infantry! 

Next up the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Infantry shown in the picture above.   I am going to use ACW23 as the basic figure without any head swap (same figure as I used for the Hungarian Infantryman).  No packback on this figure so changing it is more simple.  


CORRECTION: This is ACW25 NOT ACW23 - not listed in the S range list on the Vintage Wargamer's blog and Not the ACW25 in the current Minifigs catalogue. But the absence of a backpack makes this a really usefully figure for all sorts of conversions.
He could just be painted as he is minus the back pack, but I will give him the Jacklex 20mm WW1 backpack as that is a rolled blanket similar to the one on the picture which I will just superglue in position after painting.



16 comments:

  1. Some great painting and info!

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    1. Thanks Ray, glad you enjoyed the article and thanks for taking the time to post.

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    1. Hi, many thanks for taking the time to pass on your comments, it encourages me to get on with some more figures knowing that people are interested.

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  3. Love the S Range and your work. Conversions look great. Very inspiring Sir.

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    1. Hi Hal, Some simple paint jobs here and a couple more to come. Another simple job will be a unit of Brunswickers in the Prussian style uniform but painted in black uniforms for my 1870 Prussian army. According to Uniformology they had black uniforms until after the end of the FPW. Change from the blue and a job for my spray can!.

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  4. Agreed! Always meant to have a stab at 1866 myself, so it is fun reading about your own project and perusing your work. Very enjoyable. Keep it up.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. HI Stokes, the 1866 period lends itself to some interesting but simple conversions and paint jobs. I have also made a couple of Danes and Italians as they can go against the Austrians, with the French against the Prussians - really flexible period and armies. No need to start from scratch every time.

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  5. Good to see even the horses in the Waldeck Infantry wore those white gaiters

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    1. Hadn't spotted that as I just have a habit of painting all my horses with 3 white socks - except the white ones! Just a question you might know the answer to, the ACW23 figure in this article doesn't appear on any lists I have been able to find. There is also a really nice ACW Zouave in the same pose. They are both better sculpted than the normal S range but don't have the bulky look of later Minfigs. Was there something between S range and the current lot?

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    2. Just because they aren’t listed doesn’t mean they can’t exist. All the lists (Vintage 20 mil, and mine on the Lone S Ranger) are based on information from a number of old catalogues but quite possibly not a complete set, I will have a look at those catalogues i have in case it looks to appear anywhere.

      There were some transitional figures between S Range and current range - these would have the code number embossed on the upper side of the base. If your figure has a legible code ACW 23s scratched on the base it will be S Range. The other possibility sometimes is that a figure may be from the earlier Minifigs 20mm Range, but this one clearly is not. The key to identification tends to be the base - size, shape, thickness and of course any legible code number.

      It is also clear that sometimes there were unrecorded variants of some figures. I don’t know if this helps at all, but clearly not having a pack makes this figure more versatile for conversions etc

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    3. Hi and thanks for clarification. This figure has the ACW23 embossed on the base so must come from that 'transitional range'. John also has ACW22 again the 'mid range'. Both fit very well with the S range figures - unlike the later Minifigs. Odd that having come up with what you might consider the 'right scale' and body proportions they moved to the more chunky style. They are really useful figures. The possibilities are many and varied and some I am doing!

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    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    5. Bit of a typing gaff just not. Correction. This is ACW25 NOT ACW23

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  6. Glad to see this period played, beautiful minis!

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    1. Hi Phil, thanks for looking and posting. Need to get them on the table and play a game or just a Sunday parade to see what I have got.

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