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)