Sunday, February 01, 2009

First Hesse-Witten Regiment


Today I finished the rank and file of my first Hesse-Witten Freie Stadt regiment. I plan to do two imagi-nations armies for use with The War Game rules by Charles Grant and this is the first milestone in that plan. The establishment for each regiment will be slightly different to that set out in the rules and the changes are mainly to satisfy my aesthetic tastes, and of course the size of my chosen figures from Minden Miniatures. The establishments shall be:

1 Mounted Colonel (worth 2 morale points)
2 Captains (worth 1 morale point each)
2 Ensigns bearing the colours (worth 1 morale point each)
1 Drummer
44 Private soldiers

Currently the captains, ensigns and drummer are still on the painting table for this regiment but should be finished in a day or so. Interestingly, although I thought these large regiments might take an age to paint I finished these 45 models in a little over 1 week of painting (about 2 hours per day).

IR17 of the Hesse-Witten Freie Stadt, the musketeers 'Prinz Hapnick' (click to enlarge)

I really enjoyed painting these figures, Minden's are an absolute joy to deal with and arrived with nearly no pre-undercoating prep required, there was almost zero flash at all. This really surprised me as I am used to having to spend a couple of minutes per figure in preparation when buying from other figure manufacturers. I painted this whole lot as a single batch.

Colonel Proprieter Prinz Dieter Hapnick inspects the troops (click to enlarge)

Colonel Prinz Hapnick is resplendant in plenty of gold lace and detailing, as befits an individual of his station, if perhaps not his current rank. I intend to inject as much character and detail into these regiments and their commanders as I can so that they are not only fun to paint but give me an interesting cast of characters for future campaigns.

A close up of the Prinz, most probably considering retiring to the dubious pleasures of whatever local watering hole he can find (click to enlarge)


I hope to have this regiment done and dusted in another day or so, and am working on the flags now in Photoshop. I shall post up some more pictures when they are all ready. I also plan to write up some background information on my two imagi-nations and perhaps produce a map or two of the opposing states.

A musketeer of IR17 'Prinz Hapnick' (click to enlarge)

9 comments:

tradgardmastare said...

I love the flags and the figures look great- welcome to the world of imaginations...
best wishes
Alan

abdul666 said...

A great debut - compliments and warm welcome to the League of Lace Wars Imagi-Nations!

Nostalgia value: I was 'hooked' to the hobby by 'The War Game' - more decades ago than I care to count.
Gratifying for a retired elderly to watch young people doing what himself no longer does :)

Do you know the 'Emperor vs Elector' collective blog?

Best wishes,
Jean-Louis
aka Louys de Monte-Cristo

ColCampbell50 said...

A very nicely painted unit. The inhaber must be a cousin of my ruler of the Margraviate of Carpania, Markgraf Friedrich Hapnich.

Jim
http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com/

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hello Josh,

Really nice painting on your Mindens there! Have you decided yet how many units will comprise your respective armies?

Best REgards,

Stokes Schwartz

Martin said...

It looks like you're off to a great start! Those troops look excellent!! Can you clue us old duffers on your painting techniques? Welcome to the fold, and if you haven't already, follow Jean-Louis advice.

Yours,

Martin

Bluebear Jeff said...

A VERY nice start. The Mindens are lovely figures, aren't they?

What did you use for the bases for your figures? I love the rounded corners . . . they look like they're just what I want for my armies . . . where did you get them?

Finally, if you'd like to join the "Emperor vs Elector" group blog, email me at . . . bluebear@uniserve.com . . . and I'll see that you get an invitation.


-- Jeff

Fitz-Badger said...

A very nice start to the world of Imagi-Nations!

Josh said...

Many thanks all for the positive comments, I really appreciate them!

@ColCampbell - Indeed cousins they must be!

@Stokes Schwartz - I would love to aim for around 10 line infantry and 6 or 7 cavalry regiments for each army, supported by 2 light infantry regiments and 4 or 5 guns. This is a dream that might take a long time to come to fruition. In the meantime I intend to paint up regiments alternately for each army so I can start gaming with them in the not too distant future.

@Martin - I shall have to include a little more detailing on painting in my next post, but suffice to say I tend to try to do things neatly and with as few layers as possible. I dont mind highlighting and washing on individual figures but at this scale I think that carefully painted bold colours (nicely separated by leaving a black undercoat line showing between them) can look just as good.

@Jeff - We already spoke a little on the e-mail and you added me to the list, though I don't think I gave you a blog to link to!

old-tidders said...

What a super regiment

-- Allan