25mm S Range Franco Prussians Force nearly there!

In amongst doing a number of conversions of various S range figures and posting on our sister blog 'All Things Jacklex', I have been busy painting my Prussians and allies for our  Franco Prussian War game.

I thought I would share my progress as I think there is something worth seeing.  The 'army' includes a number of the conversions which I have posted on the blog to date, including mounted officers, drummers, standard bearers and gunners which weren't available in the original range.  With the exception of the guns, these are all 25mm  S Range Recasts available from John Cunningham.

The whole army laid out together for the first time

Infantry
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Prussian Infantry with their mounted officers, standards and drummers.

Prussian Allies  - The Wurttemburgers

Silesian Rifles - probably should have a trumpet not a drum, but haven't worked out that conversion yet!

Bavarians

The Artillery

Prussian Gunners.  The guns are Krupp Guns from Old Glory's Sudan Range/British (CSG-002). They are very nice, but at £10 for 2 guns, I won't have many.

Wurttemburg Gunners - the original range which provided the basis for the conversions.  The guns were an ebay purchase

Bavarian Gunners  again the guns were another ebay purchase, they are a bit odd, but I can't work out whose models they are - Hinchcliffe?

Cavalry

I still have some one unit of Hussars, Dragoons and Cuirassiers to paint! The French opposition have a lot of cavalry!

Prussian Cavalry - with Cuirassier General

Uhlans in the background

Prussian Dragoons

Prussian Hussars with General

Bavarian Light Horse

Well that's it for now.  Back to finishing off the cavalry and converting a Wurtemburg standard bearer and drummer and changing the 'eyes' of the Wurttembergs white horse which look a bit startling!

Another Cantiniere conversion

To be boring, yet another conversion.  A head swap using the usual technique and some 'green stuff' to make hair.

I have to say the basic figure itself is really very nice and would make an excellent Napoleonic cantiniere.

I guess now I will have to make a small wagon!

Yet more S range conversions - Crimean War

Following on from my previous posts, some more conversions this time a couple of Crimean War figures.  I wanted to make a Cossack Line Lancer and a mounted Highland Officer.

Russian Line Cossack

I thought that if the conversion worked, the Line Cossack could also be a standard bearer for my Russian Light Dragoons, although there are easier ways if you just want a standard bearer!. This also meant that Russian Light Dragoon with a sword could double up as a Line Cossack Officer.

These are the original figures, a Napoleonic Prussian Landwehr Lancer and a Crimean Russian Light Dragoon.

I tried just changing heads, but didn't like the result preferring the great coat look.









I had to be a bit more adventurous and change arms.  For the first time I used my usual 'twist and pin' method described in last months blog, to change heads to change arms.  

The first thing was to separate the bottom of the lance from where it joined the riders leg. This was fairly simple with a Stanley (craft) knife.  Next a twist of the arm and it came off, needed a quick file, but nothing disastrous.  As usual I drilled both the body and arm, inserted a piece of wire to help secure the joint, a dab of superglue and a very small amount of 'green stuff' and job done. 

I needed the 'green stuff just to 'widen the sleeve' where the two arms joined, but I think it works okay. To keep in with the theme of recycling, I put the Light Dragoon sword arm onto the Landwehr donor using the same method. to make an 'officer'.   He now commands the rest of the Landwehr cavalry.  The whole thing only took a few minutes at the most.

Mounted Highland Officer

The mounted Highland Officer is another head swap, between the Highland Standard bearer and the British Crimean Mounted Officer.

I added a bit of green stuff as I thought he ought to have a tartan sash.  

It was then pointed out to me that he should have 'trews' and a great coat and blanket roll. So I cut and filed away the boot line and the saddle holster detail and added a blanket roll in 'green stuff'.

I should point out that I am not a 'model maker'.  The great thing about the S Range is that the figures give the feel for the period without too much detail, making simple conversions which may not be entirely accurate possible and in keeping with the style.

English crusaders meet the Rus in the Balkans

When Bob saw my WOTR armies he reminded me (this implies I knew in the first place!) that there were 1,000 English knights  at the battle of Nicopolis in1396. That was about 50 years earlier than my figures but Bob pointed out that there was a crusade in Hungary and the Balkans in the 1440/50s. Historically the Turks would have outnumbered any European crusaders but since we had not tried the rules we decided to try a smaller action.

So English crusaders moving through the Balkans came across a small village which they intended to loot. A small Balkan force tries to stop them. These are Bob’s Rus figures but he tells me that he has seen illustrations of this armour and helmets accompanying Sigismund’s army. All of the Rus figures are by Irregular Miniatures.

 The Houses of York and Lancaster join forces to take on the Rus rearguard.

The Rus forces occupy the village and surrounding countryside

The English heralds sound the advance

.... they also draw the attention of 'the Duke' the other half of Kitten Force

Clearly with a name like 'Duke' it was necessary to inspect the English forces to ensure all is in order before the advance.

A quick inspection of the enemy forces before being evicted!

My archers screened the advance of my infantry.  

My knights and light horse advance to drive away the Rus heavy cavalry and horse archers on the right flank.

The Rus heavy cavalry in the village decided to try to drive off my archers by charging down the road.

My archers fall back behind the infantry who do serious damage to the cavalry but lose the melee and then to top it all fail a morale test and rout!

Better luck on the wing were my cavalry best the Rus cavalry and their dog!

The engagement of the cavalry on the flank and the defeat of the Rus cavalry in the village provides the excuse for a general advance on the village and the remaining Rus infantry.

This assault draws out the final unit of Rus Horse archers,  my archers retire behind the pikes and the horse archers fire a volley and decide discretion is the better part of valour and turn tail.

With my cavalry having broken the Rus Heavy Cavalry and their best infantry engaged, the Rus light infantry retire and leave the village in my hands.

A cause for more trumpets!!

I got terribly excited and bought lots of these Perry figures when they first came out and lovely they are too. In fact I double ordered and wound up with more figures figures than I had intended.  WOTR in 28mm was a 'new period' for me. Once I had finished gluing, painting and basing, it struck me that I didn't have any rules.  Somewhere in my loft I have  couple of hundred 30 year old Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham airfix figures and the same problem, never really used.

In the olden days I had used the WRG rules which spanned Sumerians to Medievals and so got them out and realised I couldn't make 'head nor tails of them', so all the figures went into boxes.  I then moved them around the loft to the point where I was going to get rid of them having never used them. I got all of them out on the table, more to show, as you do, and to remind myself what I had, Bob was just coming for a chat and a coffee but brought some of his Rus with him so we turned it into the game above. This explains the unequal size of the armies.  

Bob suggested we try a set of free rules he found on line called 'Metalsmashing' (available from www.milihistriot.com).  They are simple, quick and sort of give a feel for the period. 
Some of the ranges are a bit short and the melee could be a little clearer, nothing that a Biro can't sort out, but they gave an enjoyable game in a couple of hours without too much brain power.  What more can you ask?