"5th Prussian Dragoons for the Waterloo project" Topic

A small start to the 5th Prussian Dragoons for ThomasPicton's massive Waterloo project, often seen here. Some folk are painting thousands of figures, well I have done 23!. They are Art Miniaturen, but I had to try simple conversions on the Jaegers and the Uhlans to add some variety. They only have four dragoon poses to work with, alas. As a result some may look just a little bit "Light Cavalry", but, en masse should get away with it.

Calpe suggested using Vallejo 70.963 Medium Blue but could I get it to dry matt, however much I shook the damn bottle? I used Vallejo Flat Blue 962 for the saddlecloth, but resorted to Games Workshop "Caledor Sky for the Litewkas and Kollets, with a dark blue wash and then highlights. As in all my photography, I have to promise that the figures are nothing like the shiny surfaces seen here. Extremes of lighting are needed for close-ups with this depth of focus.

So, a bit of artistic licence about these dragoons, but I hope James, plus you all, will like them!

Beautiful.

Thanks for that. I must confess that, for a bunch of Prussians, with black facings, they did surprise me with the end result. For facing colour I only had the choice of white or black for Waterloo…..and anything but trying to paint white!

Deadhead's cavalry for the southern flank at Plancenoit are shaping up to be a stunning aspect of the diorama. Thank you Liam!!

Look great!
I had a problem with some acrylics that would turn out glossy. I found a product by "Instar Paints" from England called "Matte +". You put a couple of drops on your pallet, mix it with your naughty paint, and viola! Nice and flat.
Prices are decent, but shipping to the U.S. is a killer.

Well I have an advantage then! Thanks for that.

Vallejo paints baffle me. Some will come out well mixed every time, but some will never give a matt finish. This one beat me.

Ivory is just brilliant. Black-Grey ditto. Olive Drab is unbeatable and beats Humbrol any day for realism on WWII tanks. Silver is awful. Matt Varnish belongs in the bin. So many other colours I have dumped.

Shipping costs are a killer. Then add import duty, then the postal system handling charge, then you must travel to collect, as they will not deliver. Doubled the cost of my Altama desert boots from US. Brexit will probably make it even worse for us in UK, with same applying to EU

Color looks fine, good job and love the horses.

Try white glue mixed 50-50 with water for a fine mat finish. Cheap as dirt and completely effective.

Your unit is very fine, but I don't think Prussian trumpeters rode greys. I could be wrong, but that would mean greys would be mixed in with the browns, chestnuts and bays of the rank and file.

They certainly did not ride greys as a distinction. That seems pretty much a French feature. Indeed Osprey says in this regt they rode dun coloured horses, I later read.

There is a second trumpeter in the ranks correctly mounted. The grey was just a chance to try out the finish in 20mm and I doubt there was a rule forbidding greys (as there was in the British cavalry!)

nice blue, what do you use for it?

As to artistical license, yes indeed, mixing parade dress shakos with covered ones in the field – unlikely.

In case you do other dragoons as well, a good choice would be to paint the belt for carrying the standard in the facing colour, in this case black and not blue.

To get a more matt finish, you could also mix one or two drops of AK interactive ultra matt varnish into the colour on your palette.

Nice unit but you should also opt a volunteer Jäger squadron for them, in case they did have them in 1815.

Thanks for that! The Litewkas or Kollets were from Games workshop "Caledor Sky". (I have no idea where the name comes from). I added a blue wash and the same blue with white as a highlight. Hardly shows in the photos, but does in reality.

The Calpe recommendation was Vallejo 70.963 "Medium Blue" but I found it very dark and shiny. I did use 70962 "Flat Blue" for the saddlecloth, again with highlights.

The headgear? Oh, how I agree. Covered shakos are much easier too. The snag for me is that there are only four poses in "true" dragoons in the Art Min range and some come without a cap cover.

Well I then included uhlans, jaegers etc hoping to make then look like dragoons in Kollets. As a result they have too much ornamentation eg caplines and flounders or crossbelt brass chains and they ride horses with light cavalry fittings.

The belt for the flag was white originally, but then I found a picture of the individual, provenance unknown to me. He has white (maybe silver) cap lace and a gold trimmed collar;

Finally, the volunteers? I did one Jager, the Mt St Jean website says there were only 11 men. He is in the the front rank, right at the end. I do like to see the volunteers added for variety and meant to do one for the Landwehr.

Great to get such feedback. Much appreciated from everyone. The grey trumpeter's horse? First time I have ever done that for a non French unit! I imagined I would now be doing another 30 or so (the project does need big numbers) but instead I have two dozen Hussars on order. I think 1st squadron 8th Hussars. But after that the 3rd Silesian landwehr……just found them and they look sensational. Plus they were actually there too!

What my wife loves about these is that, as soon as they are done, they are gone in the post and not filling our attic!

I stand corrected, the image is from Herbert Knötel, as depicted for this regiment the belt for carrying the standard was in dragoon uniform colour, as you did on your miniature, only regiments 1 – 3 had them in facing colour, I checked Pietsch on this.

And for the Freiwilligen Jäger, well done, I missed this as well, just realizing again that we only see what we ant to see.

Well I will bow to the expert here and again thank you for your input. It was Knotel then? This I searched through a website claiming to have all his work as I did suspect….but did not find.

I wish we could always have feedback like this. I much prefer to read what might be right or wrong when I post something. It gives "added value" and I will learn for next time. I never understand when folk react badly to criticism.

The Freiwilligen Jagers (how do I do an umlaut here?) make a great contrast, but I think they were a very small component, even if so often illustrated. I think here one out of 23 is probably excessive, which is a shame!

In the liberation wars the Freiwillige Jäger component was much larger, usually an additional squadron per regiment, but for 1815 they were much smaller – as you show.

The image is from Herbert Knötel (son of Richard Knötel the founder of the Uniformkunde) from his images he painted for Sturm cigarettes.

No I did not actually know there had been a much larger component. I knew small numbers in 1815 but I thought that always the case. After all, these were a wealthier elite. Now I also know why I could not find the standard bearer under (Richard) Knotel's work. Again thanks for your help here

Really nice work, the figures look fantastic! I love those sculpts too…

Well the best news is they did survive our postal system and got to James intact. Wish I had the Hussars to work on. It is a rainy Saturday and there is only so much junk I can clear from the attic and garage. Mind you, I did find my Landwehr cavalry from the 1970s today. I thought I had only done one figure…..an Elbe.