Prussian Musketeer Regiment Mustered Into Service

 I'm very happy that this large Prussian regiment for my SYW project is complete and now mustered into service.   These are Foundry 28mm figures, and since they are sculpted wearing jackets without lapels, I painted them as Musketeer Regiment No 3, Anhalt Dessau.  This regiment had a mixed war record, but redeemed some earlier fumbles and won back Frederick's regard for its performance at the Battle of Liegnitz.

Here we see the entire regiment drawn up and practicing its musketry drill, under the watchful eye of Der Alte Fritz.  That parade ground looks quite idyllic!

The uniform for this regiment was fairly utilitarian:  dark blue coat with red collar, cuffs and turn backs, white waistcoat and breeches, and black gaiters.   As usual, I used Foundry tritone paints over a black undercoat.  There are 36 figures in this unit, so I developed a kind of zen-like detachment to the painting.  It helped that the core of the unit is in two poses, so that broke the monotony a bit.  I think I started this project in September, or possible earlier this summer.  It's been a while.

I'm of two minds about firing poses.  They add some variety to the army, and look good in game photos (the thin blue line making an heroic stand) but the bases look a bit strange when in march column formation.   I wanted the second rank to look like they were ready to step forward and fire once the order was given.

Command stand,  the poor drummer getting that fife right in the ear!  The flags are by Adolfo Ramos in Spain,  I think he's the best in the business.

Two hard bitten NCOs.

A closeup of the firing line.  The entire unit is 6 stands of six figures each, plus the two single mounted NCOs.   I wanted to see what a smaller unit of only two or three stands would look like for larger scale games such as Sam Mustafa's Might and Empire, and it doesn't look too bad at all!  Of course, not every two base regiment can  have it's own standards, but the command stand would perhaps serve as the centre regiment of a brigade in the larger scale battles.

Hard bitten NCO training his troops to fire three rounds to the Austrian's one.  His can will be liberally applied.

Rear view.  I like the look of six figures to a base, it conveys the closely packed formations of the period, but I sometimes wish if they were four to a base, it would be easier to play SYW Sharpe Practice games, as the SP size for a group is eight figures.   I have tried playing Sharpe Practice with six figure groups and it works, but troops are more fragile.

Well, thanks for looking.  Next in the SYW queue is a regiment of Foundry Russians in their distinctive red vests, which is a good look.  Prussian reinforcements in 2025 will include a grenadier regiment (I should make it a colourful one), von Kleist's Freikorps lancers, and some Friekorps or garrison infantry.  Hopefully I can master the same zen like detachment to paint more of these large units.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+