Huzzah Painting Update, a Request for Assistance, and Assorted Musings. . .

Well, here are the 29 Huzzah miniatures I've been working on so far -- roughly half of the regiment. AS some of you might recall, I was persuaded to paint them in the rather more colorful uniforms of Wurtemburg's Garde zu Fuss rather than the dour dark blue uniform of Prussia's Garrison regiments.

Not much time for blogging the last several days, but I have managed to squeeze in some painting here and there, and I thought is was time for a photo update. So, here we go. I'll say a little something about how I like to paint the faces on my figures in tomorrow's post, honest!

Here is a close up shot of the unit's mounted colonel so far. Still much to do before he and his command are all finished.

Here's one of the unfinished drummers up close. Can anyone supply information on the actual uniform worn by the drummers of Wurtemburg's Garde zu Fuss? The Project Seven Years War (Kronoskaf) website does not shed any light on this part of the unit. What about the drum shell and hoops? I'm guessing brass for the former, but what about the hoops?

Here are a couple of the musketeers in progress. These Huzzah miniatures paint up really fast. I've been amazed at how they almost seem to paint themselves this past week. On the light yellow waistcoats, I'll attempt to leave an even thinner black line between the yellow and the red. So, some very careful touching up is in the cards this weekend.

Finally, here is the regimental standard bearer sans his colors. Does anyone know what color the pole might have been for Wurtemburg's Garde Zu Fuss?

Finally, I have come to a momentous decision. Well, two actually. First, as is suggested near the end of Charge!, I'm going to stay the course and continue developing my mid 18th century armies. I am simply enjoying it too much to dilute my available time and financial resources for a foray into the imaginary 19th Century. Sorry men, but I've thought long and hard about this. All of my recent reading about 18th Century campaigns, commanders, and armies, real and fictitious, has really grabbed me, to the extent that I neither foresee a return to my 15mm Napoleonics, nor a move into another historical era. Nope, it's the mid-1700s all the way for this boy! I guess I'll have to catalog those 15mm armies and put them up for sale on Ebay in the coming months, which should help Stollen's war budget somewhat. Sounds like a good summer project.

On a similar note, I've been thinking about and working out the size of Stollen and Zichenau's imaginary armies that I envision once the Sittangbad-sized orders of battle are filled (by late 2010?). I think I'll aim for a couple of more 60 to 80-strong units of line infantry and cavalry (30 figures) each, a 32-strong battalion of pandours, and maybe another battery of guns with crew for Zichenau, though that county's ruler -- the evil and scheming Princess Antonia along with her consort the French mercenary/adventurer, the dastardly General Phillipe de Latte -- will have a slightly smaller force than Stollen's Irwin-Amadeus II.

Besides a bridging battalion that can double as a unit of freikorps infantry for either army, I'd eventually like to build up a small wagon train of 8-12 wagons, carts, and so forth. Yes, yes. We can place the blame for that squarely on the shoulders of Charles Grant and Phil Olley. . . Darn them! ;-) But their writings on their various tabletop scenarios and encounters in recent publications simply have me all fired up to fight similar scenarios one day here in Zum Stollenkeller, so a wagon train is as necessary as a pontoonier battalion, don't you think?