Prussian architecture: Kartoffelbefehl in a village

Preparing for the summer warfare, when my nephew arrives from the US, we plan to enrich the gameboard with some new buildings and civilians. As a difference to the Silesian farmhouses in stone, the West-Prussian villages were more rough, smaller and poorer than the Silesian ones. Dued to a hard and sandy soil, Prussian villagers shared a hard destiny with their neighbours in the Eastern countries. The "Kartoffelbefehl"of Frederick the Great in march 1756, the order to plant the potato, was a watershed for the rural population:
„Circulare an sämtliche Landräte und Beamte wegen Anbauung der Tartoffeln“: „Es ist von uns in höchster Person in unseren anderen Provinzen die Anpflanzung der sog. Tartoffeln, als ein sehr nützliches und sowohl für Menschen als Vieh auf sehr vielfache Weise dienliches Erd-Gewächse, ernstlich anbefohlen.(...)"
(source: Wikipedia).
Building this scenarios, I tried to catch the atmosphere of this epoch a little bit. The farmhouses are mostly in cardboard and wooden sticks, the figures are from the marvellous medieval serie of Peipp in 40mm and from Sash+Saber, serie "AWI civilians".

A Sash&Saber-boy with a Peipp-donkey

Peipp-mum with children beside her timbered house in clay and wood...

...and her small garden for vegetables and herbage...

a dusty image

the second building in wood construction. The Milk Maid sitting and milking a cow is a jewel of the Trident villagers serie.

behind the house, the Peipp-girls are playing with the dog...

The "Kartoffelbefehl" by her Majesty, the King

a good source: Bernhard SCHMID; Das Bauernhaus der nördlichen Grenzmark. Bäuerliche Architektur in der ehemaligen deutschen Provinz Grenzmark-Posen-Westpreußen. http://bauernhofarchiv-literatur.blogspot.de/2012/03/das-bauernhaus-der-nordlichen-grenzmark.html 

Das Isergebirge. Bad Flinsberg – Bad Schwarzbach – Marklissa, 1933. source: http://ekologia.yum.pl

Prussia: 1st hussar regiment

 This is the first unit of Prussian hussars No 1, which has the characteristic parrot green for trousers and jacket and a nightgreen for the dolman. Some skirmish tests in the following pictures against Saxon regiment "Queen" shows their attack power.
I am thinking about to create just a few Prussian squadrons of hussars (10-12 figures each) than complete regiments (16-18 figures each) - just because I enjoy the different colours of them and would have a variety on the battlefield.
The figures are Matthias-Manske hussars.

Prussia: supply train

 

Dued to professional things, it was not posssible to produce more this month, since my last post..c as life goes its usual way. Today, I finished two Prussian supply wagons from Matthias-Manske, painted in a dark blue with some brown touch. I long time looked for the exact colour of this kind of carriage and found several sources.

Last week I visited then Dresden again and took the opportunity to go to the Military Museum, which is newly opened after renovation. Daniel Libeskind was the architect, but is concept is not convincing.
What I found, was a Prussian wagon in original, system Gribauval, which inspired me for painting the two wagons:

source: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden; Privataufnahme

source: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden; Privataufnahme

So I decided this colour mix and printed the covers of the wagons in the computer, including the description, as the Prussians usually did: "Pulver Wagen." and "Grenaden Wagen."

I detected also some pearls of the 18. century: an original coat of a Prussian officer, wounded by an French grenade at Minden - following the description, he was 26 years old at this time, but survived the SYW after amputation of his left arm.
It is - nonetheless - a really frightening sight and very emotional to see how close this individual destiny appaers - despite the 260 years difference to the happening:

source: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden; Privataufnahme

Generals, Generals

Generalfeldmarschall Seydlitz mit Flügeladjutant der Kavallerie.

I am so obsessed with reading the fantastic rulebook "Black Powder" and its descriptions of army organisations. They propose for a good wargaming operation different sets of brigades (groups of regiments) with their own brigade generals.
This is the reason why I ordered and painted some figures as generals, giving them different characters and skills (according to the playsheet of "Black Powder").

Above you see General von Seydlitz in his typical field dress, accompanied by a staff officer of the cavalry. The figures are Matthias-Manske miniatures, I dared to change the heads using Frontrank ones - they are unique in expression and detail.

Also the French got a second command staff:

Et voilà les nobles messieurs: The general and his staff officer at the right are Trident miniatures (40mm range of the AWI serie) from the US. Der Alte Fritz recommended me that and it was a good advice. The officer on the horse is a Matthias-Manske miniature, sitting on the new edition of his horse serie.

French seem to have huge balls, isn´t it? :-)

Prussia: Frontrank-Regiment No 25

This is the result of my first order at Frontrank Miniatures in GB. The regiment is composed by the original Hessian AWI 40mm serie and, of course, splendidly suitable to be used as Prussians. My compliments for the accurateness of details and the expressive heads, faces and wigs to the manufacturers. I did the 25th regiment, but, if I am honest, just because of the particular flag colours which I like in particular. I painted the sashs of the standard bearers in golden yellow, because I saw some similar templates at Knoetels Uniformbogen.

A Sash&Saber farmers wife gazing at the soldiers

Russian Horsegrenadiers en bataille

My Russian Cavalry-Regiment "Leibdragoner" of the Tsar grows slowly, but today i am able to present the first 12 figures. I did some battle pictures on my tabletop against Prussian Infantery, deploying some skirmishs of Kunersdorf 1759. I like very much the iuxtaposition of the miniatures of different manufacturers - here some Prince-August Grenadiers against the Matthias-Manske Horsegrenadiers.
Can you smell the biting tang of fire and smoke in this picture??

France: Regiment No 70 "Flandres"

This is a Walloon regiment of the French army, the french speaking part of the Belgian population. I like them very much, especially because my relatives lives there and each visit begins with a warm welcome, a good cuisine and a impressive landscape.
Et voilà: Flanders, called Flandres is newly integrated in the French ranks.
The figures are Sash&Saber troops of the serie "French and Indian War".

Deployment: in front the Swiss Lochmann, Flanders and, in the background, Auvergne.

The French Staff Officers (Matthias-Manske-Miniatures)