Skip to main content

Drumroll, please!!!

Gentlemen, here they are. . . the freshly completed Ermland Garde zu Fuβ – the premier regiment in the army of The Electorate of Zichenau – in all their martial glory. All 80 figures!

These last couple of weeks, it has seemed like I’d never get them finished at times. The Thanksgiving holiday, work commitments, and so on seem like they have conspired against available free time, but I managed to wrap up this particular project before the end of the month. So, I guess things have gone fairly well. At some point in the near future, there are two more 80-figure regiments to do for Zichenau’s army, and it’s reassuring to know that I’ve got the mental stamina to paint units of this size. Whew!

Anyway, here are a few fresh photos of the entire regiment for your viewing pleasure. Wish I had the lovely background items seen at Jim (Alte Fritz) Purky’s Hesse-Seewald blog, which show off his miniatures to their best advantage, but mine look reasonably good even so. They appear remarkably like the old plastic Spencer Smith marching grenadiers, not something that was intentional, but it’s a nice surprise in any case.

Speaking of which. . . Next up, it’s that regiment of metal Spencer Smith/Holger Eriksson cavalry, who have been waiting patiently at stage left for the last several weeks. And now, it’s off to bed. Schlaffen Sie shön meine Herren!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…
Stokes,

A very impressive achievement indeed! They look marvelous.

I suspect that you'll really enjoy the fact that your Spencer Smiths are not infantry. They will certainly make a nice change of pace for you.


-- Jeff
marinergrim said…
Eighty figures - wow!

I'm struggling to get half that number finished right now.

Eighty!!
abdul666 said…
Such a BIG ‘Big Batallion’ was a very ambitious project – and you probably faced a difficult choice at first : only *this* regiment, ‘full time’ to the very end, or two very different units painted by fractions / steps in alternance to avoid oversatiation?

I wish you never felt discouragement before the achievement of this project, but now you surely feel a –very deserved– pride!

Compliments,
Jean-Louis
Gorgeous, Stokes. What an impressive regiment. How much surface area do they take up when set out like that?
A J said…
Eighty figures! Whoo! Well done! As someone who has trouble with 24 figure regiments I admire your stamina for painting so many to such a high standard.
Der Alte Fritz said…
How did you arrive at a tally of 80 figures as the official establishment? Just curious. They look awesome and don't need a backdrop to show off their fine qualities, so don't let that worry you.

I sometimes just set up a card table and lay down some green felt for the ground, an old blue towel for the backdrop (I really need to paint a blue backdrop cloth) and add a tree or two or a house and then start shooting pictures.
Fitz-Badger said…
I am constantly (well, often) amazed at the output of you guys doing these large battalions! I find about a dozen of the same unit at a time about as many as I can handle. And then the storage space, table space, and moving all those little guys around on a tabletop battlefield!
Awesome!
old-tidders said…
Looking fine, all nicely painted - well done Stokes

Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!
To the Zichenau Grenadiers!

I'm sure you'll enjoy painting the cavalry next

-- Allan
Ike said…
Wonderful! A fine BIG battalion of a certainty. How many pints of paint did you say it consumed? *laugh*

Very nice and an excellent uniform and execution thereof.
Bloggerator said…
Stokes how does your completed Stollenian Order of Battle stand now?

Regards,

Greg
Thanks for the kind remarks, men!

Greg, the completed order of battle is now at:

Von Laurenz Musketeers (63)
Grand Duchess Sonja's Regt. (63)
Jaeger zu Fuss (32)
Ermland Garde (80)
Trakehnen dragoons (30)
Princess Waltraud's Artillery (13 crew and 2 guns)
Irwin-Amadeus II and Staff (3)

Total -- 284 Figures

Still a ways to, but I'm enjoying myself, so if the full OOB is delayed a bit, it's ok. I'm working on building the Zichenau forces now, so I can at least enjoy a few smaller battles. That means, another couple of regiments/battalions of foot, the Spencer Smith cavalry, a two-gun battery, and a few generals/ADC's.

Best Regards,

Stokes
Jim (Alte Fritz),

Well, Stollen will eventually have four three-company regiments of 60 figures each, and Zichenau will have three four-company regiments of 80 figures each. Each army will also have a two-company battalion of jaeger/grenzer and another of pioneers/engineers. These will number about 30-32 figures each. My organization closely follows that laid down in Charge! Hope this answers your question. Best Regards,

Stokes
Jim (Alte Fritz),

Well, Stollen will eventually have four three-company regiments of 60 figures each, and Zichenau will have three four-company regiments of 80 figures each. Each army will also have a two-company battalion of jaeger/grenzer and another of pioneers/engineers. These will number about 30-32 figures each. My organization closely follows that laid down in Charge! Hope this answers your question. Best Regards,

Stokes

Popular posts from this blog

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

An Early July Hussar Update. . .

  Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack. W here in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good.  I'm glad we are of a like mind. Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses.  I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place.  Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are. I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit m...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

  S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions.  Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed.  Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red.   They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery.  I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point.  Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...