The Army of Frederick the Great (1 Viewer)

[johnnybach]

Nice litle conversion too Brad - looks as if he was made that way - a nice addition. jb

 

[Obee]

Here are my latest painting project for figures from Frederick's Army ....





Prussian Hussars finished as N05 von Ruesch or Black Hussar and No 8 von Seydlitz or Red Hussar

They are both Andrea Miniature kits, recently puchasesd from Victor, (vicnic123)who had the listed for sale in the Forum in March.

The Black Hussar was assembled by me, and the red came part assembled using the additional arm without the jacket.

Other figures still to come from Victor are Napoleonic and one from the Crimea, but I'll place them in another thread.

John

 

[beating retreat]

Hi, all, here's another Prussian for my collection:

This is a musketier from the Duke of Brunswick's regiment ("Brunswick-senior", or "Alt-Braunschweig", since his younger cousin also had a regiment at the same time). Another casting from the Rylit catalog, and another example of the great, everyday poses of so many of the figures in that catalog.

Our friend refreshes himself after a long march, with a lunch of a chicken drumstick and a mug of beer. He's taken off one of his shoes, in the meantime, to air out those barking dogs.

I read that the soldiers used to cut the bottoms off their wool socks and wrap their feet in strips of cloth impregnated with tallow. You can imagine what that smelled like on campaign in high summer!

The casting had some sort of round metal bottle in his right hand, kind of like the old crown-top beer cans, but nothing like that existed in 1756. The Prussians carried a square metal flask, and the Austrians and others had round canteens made of wood or metal. So I modifed it into a stoneware mug by filing the cap and drilling out the center, and adding a handle. I have a similar mug in my collection, which served as a model.

As always, thanks for looking!

Hi Brad

I love this piece very nicely painted and posed, great job.Reminds me of a piece of Dresden china lovely.

Regards John

 

[theBaron]

As usual Brad another interesting figure painted to your usual high standard. :salute::

Btw, just how many Prussians etc do you have now?

Jeff

Nice litle conversion too Brad - looks as if he was made that way - a nice addition. jb

Hi Brad

I love this piece very nicely painted and posed, great job.Reminds me of a piece of Dresden china lovely.

Regards John

Thank you all, very much!

Jeff, to answer your question, not quite sure but maybe 100. Many are still not painted, and I have a lot more kits, too.

Johnny, thanks, I'm glad you like it.

And John, thank you, especially! I'm trying to follow your example, in the style you paint your glossies. I have a long way to go, but that comment means a lot, thank you.

Thank you, all three, because I know the quality of your work!

And to John number 3--Obee--very nicely done on the Andrea hussar kits, too. I have a Stadden hussar earlier in the thread, that I painted as a Red Hussar. The regiment was part of the Maxen debacle, and Frederick disbanded it after war's end.

Prost!
Brad

 

[kogu]

Great figure, Brad.
It's a wonderful pose and your paint finish is a very nice gloss :wink2:
Good work on the Beer Stein too {bravo}}
Konrad

 

[Obee]

I hope I don't get 'put on a Charge' for posting this image.

1. Its Matte

2. Its the enemy of Frederick the Great

but here it is......

FRENCH ROAYLE ARTILLERIE 1759



Castings by ROSE MINIATURES and from John Eden Studios.

I have another 5 French Infantry to paint, and plan on making the Regiments who fought at the Battle on Minden.

John

 

[theBaron]

Nicely done, John! Though I do plan eventually to create a separate thread for my collections of each army from the Seven Years War. I have an album created for Maria Theresia's army but haven't started a thread. And so far, I don't have enough French, just some Staddens, some finished and others not, and a stash of Tradition kits.

I'm working on the same kind of a project, the Battle of Minden. I'm working towards a diorama or dioramas of some kind. Tradition cooperated when they introduced their line of Brits and French a couple of years ago, and Imrie/Risley Hessians stand in very well for, well, for the Hessians! Hannoverians are a little harder to come by, though. Tradition British can be converted, but not too easily, since the Hannoverian uniform cut was decidedly more "German" than British, and they wore the queue, too. Rose cavalry fit in quite nicely, too.

Prost!
Brad

 

[blaster]

Hello Brad,

That hussar from Natzmer Regt and Musketeer sitting are superb little studies! They bring out the nostalgic thrill of earlier figures made by specialist makers for discerning collectors.

Rgds Victor

 

[theBaron]

Thanks, Vic, very kind of you to say! In the queue are a standard-bearer of dragoons, and the cuirassiers I started 3 years ago as an SBS

Prost!
Brad

 

[Obee]

I thought it as time to give this thread another outing....

Here are my 2 latest figures from the Army of Frederick the Great:



Rose Miniatures that I found on EBay recently painted as 1st (green) and 5th (brown Hussars)

Hope you like them,

John

 

[theBaron]

Very nice, John! John Eden apparently has the molds for these figures, too, though their not pictured on his website. The Rose castings have such great poses.

You remind me that I need to sit myself back down at the bench and finish some things that have been in progress for too long. I've also got some new acquisitions, awaiting finishing.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Hazebrouck]

My Schaumburg Karabinier by Grifo models. I deviated from the painting guide by painting the cuirass a mixture of gunmetal and black.

An unusual uniform!

Scott

 

[theBaron]

My Schaumburg Karabinier by Grifo models. I deviated from the painting guide by painting the cuirass a mixture of gunmetal and black.

An unusual uniform!

Scott

Nice finish, Scott! This was a great find, too. I've never seen this kit before. I'm going to track another one down for my collection of Frederick's allies.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

Finally getting things off my bench. Here's the latest finished piece for my collection, a Fahnenjunker or ensign, of the Prince of Württemberg's regiment of dragoons (Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 12). Yet another Stadden casting and eBay find.





The casting is of quality typical for Stadden. The figure has decently sculpted details, accurate enough, but the standard is the generic one used on castings that weren't custom-ordered. It was originally a square piece of tin sheet, which, along with the cast cravat tied at the staff's head, was not accurate for Prussian dragoon standards. They were swallow-tailed in shape, and had silver-and-black cords attached, for furling the color. I cut the swallowtail into the trailing edge, but removing the cravat would have been too messy, so I left it in place and just painted it silver.

Prost!
Brad

 

[aujj65]

Good to see you are keeping this thread going Brad. {sm3}

Jeff

 

[Martin Tabony]

My German is really pour (my English isn't that good ) but I always thought the word was "Fahnentrager" for a standard bearer whereas "Fahnenjunker" was an equivalent rank to an "Ensign". Was a cavalry standard bearer an officer then? If so when did he become a senior NCO?

Martin

P.s I just realised that he's a dragoon,so did they use infantry ranks? Sorry about all the questions!

 

[Wolfgang_UK]

My German is really pour (my English isn't that good ) but I always thought the word was "Fahnentrager" for a standard bearer whereas "Fahnenjunker" was an equivalent rank to an "Ensign". Was a cavalry standard bearer an officer then? If so when did he become a senior NCO?

Martin

P.s I just realised that he's a dragoon,so did they use infantry ranks? Sorry about all the questions!

Hello Martin,
I am not an expert but in trying to answer your questions:
Fahnenjunker is a military rank whereas Fahnenträger ("military position") is standard bearer.
Equivillant terms to Fahnenjunker in the Prussian Army is "Junker" and "Avantageur" all standig for the same military position of an officers candidate = Offiziersanwärter or -aspirant.
Up to 1812(!) officer aspirants where called Junker. From 1816 to 1900 Avantageure. Since 1918 (to the present day) their military rank is "Fahnenjunker".
To my knowledge the correct discription of the figures military position is Kornett (or Cornett) and the military rank mostlikely that of a Junker.
Hope this does help ... -adding to what you wrote concerning your German I would like to add ... well you know.....^&grin{sm3}
kind regards
Wolfgang

@Brad
Really a nice figure and a brilliant paint-job

 

[theBaron]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments! I'm trying to work through my toy soldier backlog.

Regarding the rank, in Frederick's army, "ensign" translated into different things, between the infantry and the cavalry, and between the types of cavalry.

In the infantry, the flag, or Fahne, was carried by a Fähnrich, a term which evolved in the previous century, almost as a nickname, or by a Freikorporal. As Martin has discussed, the ensign was considered a candidate for officer's rank, but was ranked with the non-commissioned officers. "Freikorporal" also indicates this status as a non-commissioned rank. As a candidate for commission, the ensign was expected to associate with the officers when off duty; in theory, he was learning the ropes, so to say, till a commission came available.

Instead of a flag, the cavalry carried a standard, or Standarte. Since the cavalry was considered nobler than the ground-pounders--many troopers were sons of well-to-do peasants, who took their mounts home with them between exercises--their ensigns were referred to as Junker, a term that emerged in the Middle Ages, as a contraction of "jung(er) Herr", a "young lord" or "young sir", if you will. With the dragoons, although they carried a standard, the ensign was a Fahnenjunker, an allusion to the dragoons' origins as mounted infantry (they also retained the drum for signalling commands). In the cuirassiers, the ensign was known as a Standartenjunker. I'm not quite sure about the hussars; their regiments were granted standards, but they were ordered to lay them up in the regimental cantons at the outset of the Seven Years' War. As a result, there are practically no references to the colors, in any of the sources I have access to. However, I've seen references to the use of the term Kornett among hussars (Seydlitz was one, when he entered the service as a hussar; Frederick awarded the honorary rank of cornet to Ziethen's newborn son), so that may have been the practice.

Hopefully I'll get some more things finished over the rest of the winter. Cold weather means staying indoors, which means...bench time!

Prost!
Brad

 

[Martin Tabony]

Hello Martin,
I am not an expert but in trying to answer your questions:
Fahnenjunker is a military rank whereas Fahnenträger ("military position") is standard bearer.
Equivillant terms to Fahnenjunker in the Prussian Army is "Junker" and "Avantageur" all standig for the same military position of an officers candidate = Offiziersanwärter or -aspirant.
Up to 1812(!) officer aspirants where called Junker. From 1816 to 1900 Avantageure. Since 1918 (to the present day) their military rank is "Fahnenjunker".
To my knowledge the correct discription of the figures military position is Kornett (or Cornett) and the military rank mostlikely that of a Junker.
Hope this does help ... -adding to what you wrote concerning your German I would like to add ... well you know.....^&grin{sm3}
kind regards
Wolfgang

@Brad
Really a nice figure and a brilliant paint-job

My main interest in the German armies is during the Imperial period but I do like to know where names come from. Thanks.

Martin

 

[Martin Tabony]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments! I'm trying to work through my toy soldier backlog.

Regarding the rank, in Frederick's army, "ensign" translated into different things, between the infantry and the cavalry, and between the types of cavalry.

In the infantry, the flag, or Fahne, was carried by a Fähnrich, a term which evolved in the previous century, almost as a nickname, or by a Freikorporal. As Martin has discussed, the ensign was considered a candidate for officer's rank, but was ranked with the non-commissioned officers. "Freikorporal" also indicates this status as a non-commissioned rank. As a candidate for commission, the ensign was expected to associate with the officers when off duty; in theory, he was learning the ropes, so to say, till a commission came available.

Instead of a flag, the cavalry carried a standard, or Standarte. Since the cavalry was considered nobler than the ground-pounders--many troopers were sons of well-to-do peasants, who took their mounts home with them between exercises--their ensigns were referred to as Junker, a term that emerged in the Middle Ages, as a contraction of "jung(er) Herr", a "young lord" or "young sir", if you will. With the dragoons, although they carried a standard, the ensign was a Fahnenjunker, an allusion to the dragoons' origins as mounted infantry (they also retained the drum for signalling commands). In the cuirassiers, the ensign was known as a Standartenjunker. I'm not quite sure about the hussars; their regiments were granted standards, but they were ordered to lay them up in the regimental cantons at the outset of the Seven Years' War. As a result, there are practically no references to the colors, in any of the sources I have access to. However, I've seen references to the use of the term Kornett among hussars (Seydlitz was one, when he entered the service as a hussar; Frederick awarded the honorary rank of cornet to Ziethen's newborn son), so that may have been the practice.

Hopefully I'll get some more things finished over the rest of the winter. Cold weather means staying indoors, which means...bench time!

Prost!
Brad

Thanks for the explanation, it's a period I'm beginning to have more interest in. I believe "Junker" was also a term meaning "aristcrat" or "upper class".
By the way it may interest you to know that the Blues and Royals (RHG/D) still use the name "Cornet" for a newly comisioned officer rather than second lieutenant (pronounced leftenant)

Martin