Großbeeren 1813

The story of Gilbert the Sheppard

2012-01-26T02:06:00.000-08:00

I take part in the painting compettion over at La Bricole. - fine little community btw!

I was writing a little introduction for my project in german, and I was trying to translate it into english.

Feel free to skip, especially if you like Shakespeare.

--

It was the morning of the 24th of August in they year 1813.

Gilbert was at peace with himself. That might come as a surprise since he not only was part of a retreating army, but a man who lost about everything.

Imprisoned in 1811 because he was beating up this tabarnak kind of polish lancier for stabbing Mariette for no other reason than aiming practice. The torn body of Mariette, Gilberts favoured sheep, was the last he ever saw of his herd.

More than 2 years later they were offering him to shorten his life-time sentence if he'd conscribe into l'armee for 8 years of service.

"Oui" he said, "Mais, c'est la liberte n'est ce pas?"

Now it's the 24th of August, he tried to forget about the day before when there were many men running down a hill and straight towards him. It took him a few seconds to understand that these men in their tidy white uniforms weren't trying to attack. They were escaping from something.
Escaping from a solid wave of grey and blue that was now swiping over the hill, burrying bodies and guns.

Gilbert was running for about 1 hour, sometimes behind some other Frenchmen, sometimes behind the white lads with their blood-sprinkled uniforms. Just away from this mass of bayonets and german swearing that he felt behind him.

Nightfall - 16 Frenchmen in a dark corner of the wood. He was the oldest, so he took the lead and the first watch.
On the next day right after leaving the woods they came across a small house. The door was wide open and the hungry Frenchman took that as an invitation.

That was when Gilbert met with Caroline, Manon and Therese.
These 3 beauties were looking at him with shy eyes from behind a little fence. Obviously full with expectations. Gilberts heart made a little jump and he went down to his knees and sunk his face into the warm fluffiness that was the fur of these proud prussian sheeps. The dog came by, looked at Gilbert with his yellow wolf-eyes and totally approved of what he knew could only be a sheppard.

Soon him and his 15 filles de la patrie were on the road to Magdeburgh. Accompanied by 3 Sheeps and a Dog. Gilbert was at peace.

Thank you for reading and please don't mind weaknesses in syntax and spelling.

Coming soon: Gilbert et la fraternite. Calpe French, Foundry Sheeps and dog.

So far so good.

2012-01-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

Krafft's Brigade at Grossbeeren in 1/20. A total of about 360 miniatures and the Jaegers still aren't there yet.

So - what's next on the list? There's some limbers, a great many Saxons, some Bavarians and Wuertembergers and of course some pesky French. I think I'll continue with some 16 man unit for the contest over at La Bricole for now, but all my efforts will still be aimed at the events in late august of 1813.

Note to the readers: Thank you for following my blog. Your suggestions and good wishes are a great motivation and helped me big time with finishing the first chapter of this project.

Wenn der Prophet nicht zum Berg kommt...

2011-12-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

...dann kommt der Berg eben zum Popheten.

The current Brigade is 20 miniatures from being finished and I was thinking about markers and counters and all those things I'll need to spice up the very visual gaming-experience I'm aiming for.

My line of tought started with casualty-markers. Calpe has lots of casualty models for almost any kind of uniform. Yet I wanted something more special.

Compagniechirurgen from mid 1813 to Waterloo sculpted by Mr. Hicks.
There's still some minor-issues like missing webbing-details and the Eskadron-Chirurg having a Degen rather than a Saebel. Anyway please enjoy the photos, I surely did!

Reaching for tools Degen detached.

With saw and apron - admiring his bloody work.

Compagnie Chirurgus Reicherlein (der regelmaessig in die Feuerlinie ging)

And an Eskadrons Chirurgus mit schickem Zweispitz ohne Ueberzug.

I intend to make a mini release of max. 50 sets. The money earned will be donated to victims of war in need of help.

Frohe Weihnachten alle!

Das erste pommersche Kavallerieregiment.

2011-12-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

Another treat for christmas just arrived!

Grey Litwekas? I think they were black to start with...
Enjoy those late night pictures:

new battalion + new silflor = Grossartig!

2011-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

I only recently was buying silflor products for nearly 5o Euros to make myself busy over the upcoming holidays. Obviously I couldn't wait to put them to good use...
First a new Landwehrbattalion aus der Kurmark. They're badly under-strength with just 6 figurines per Compagnie-base, also I was choosing 4.5cm wide x 5.0cm deep to allow for some extra bling. The firing-line Landwehr from Calpe are brilliant and have a few extra details compared to the other stances from the Landwehr range. I was mixing in the Landwehr casualty-pack and I really love the look of this unit. Everything, except the stack with the Flag-combo was painted in a real rush.

Basing got done for the gents from the last post.

And 2 more Compagnies of the 3/9RIR

I'm so going to finish that brigade over the holidays. French and Saxons here I come!

work in progress!

2011-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Finally I got some more painting done,

This time it's the 1st and 2nd battalion of the 9RIR.
I think most Reserve units in english uniforms would've removed their funny pompoms and button-laces by august 1813. Yet it's a nice feature, and I gladly sacrifice some historical accuracy in order to spice up the force!

1st battalion (Green Facings) is painted by moi, the other battalion by Regulator in his incredible wargaming standard.

Also - I was pointed towards the letter of R. Mantle (pubished on Nap-series) regarding the Reserve, and especially officers from the Stammregiment replacing their facings with the colour off their new battalion. Lovely story, and I did paint my officers this way.
I really doubt that however. =)

Basing needs to be finished, but I doubt I'll have time until after Christmas.

And yes - I came across the Belle-Alliance Hat of Napoleon last weekend. I didn't take it like a man as you can see.

homegrown flags

2011-09-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

My painting friday was spend in front of the computer. But not as usual to work work work, but to make a unique set of flags for my Landwehr and Reserves.

First of all - yes, I went overboard, but the flags carried by the Landwehr remain an obscure subject. Enough lack of evidence for me to start adding funny stuff.

The 2 white flags are rather serious while the 2 black ones are a mere product of my fantasy. I took a Hussar-skull and a Humpen Bier and think that fits nicely with the spirit of the Landwehr in 1813.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen!

Krafft and minions.

2011-09-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

I outsourced some of the work on my current projects. Some of it to the very talented Ioannis over at Leuthen and some to the ever so well-painting Stephan Huber aka Regulator of ProGloria.

Yesterday the first bitz from Ioannis arrived and I was basing them in what was maybe to much of a hurry. Still I'm quite pleased with this Calpe-Command set Ioannis was painting up.

Also I'm pretty much done rebasing the readily painted 300 models of the current project. Light infantry and skirmishers will be loosely based and represent a rough 1/40 ratio rather than the usual 1/20 in the brigade. This is purely owed to my taste.

And yes - I do have a new camera and it's magic!

tommy-blue

2011-08-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

I was running a colour-test for the reserve in english-made uniforms.
I know - untraceable sources claim that their webbing was black, but can
anyone out there give me a good reason why?

Anyway - I think the blue came out perfect, while the green might be a bit
to saturated.

holiday painting

2011-07-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

Finally another Battalion done!

Figures are the reworked calpe musketeers and the small adjustments
in the faces, headgear and buttons instead of holes really took those
miniatures to a high-end level.

Please enjoy. the 1st of das Colberg'sche Infanterieregiment heading for that bloody church.

and here the old and new musketeers side by side.

Macht Platz fuer den Adjutanten!

2011-05-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

This time it's a Feldjaeger Oberer chasing over the battlefield. No real gaming-value but certainly a nice addition to any table I'll field my troops on.

Warlord meets Calpe

2010-12-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

I don't like the Warlord plastics really. The new command-set drummer/ensign-combo is great tough. Some card-board under the base really did the trick.

Basing

2010-11-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's a pain and a pleasure really.

I decided to tighten the frontage for my battalions.
I now try and use the rather oldscool 1.5cm per miniature.
That means I have about 200 Figurines I need to rebase - but I think it's worth the effort. Fact is that I rarely play and they just look so much better when based elbow by elbow. Anyway - For the Bases I took some dark valleyo Brown mixed and highlighted with Ivory. Galeforce9 static grass and some german uber-grass to spice things up a bit.

I'm really pleased on how that looks.

Das Colbergsche Infantrieregiment

2010-10-30T03:50:00.001-07:00

Really - I think I need to give up on the Hobby... I hardly have time to do anything, but to browse web-sites and order stuff. No painting no playing.

Up until last week! Wifey decided to lend a hand, and well she almost did these gents herself in the end.

I just painted small applicatons like the drum, the horse and buttons.

Anyway - merci mon cher!

Artillerie Batterie Nr. 16

2010-04-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Finally got some more assets for my Brigade done. This time it's the Foot battery attached to Krafft's brigade. 3 Kanonen 1 Haubitze - 5x8 cm - yay for 1/20!

3rd battalion 9th reserve

2010-03-01T12:30:00.001-08:00

These famous Fuesiliers wore the british "Rifleman" uniform. The Calpe models are nice, even if I doubt they had a prussian-made Tornister back then. I was also planning to cut off the plume wich the men certainly would have considered "zu nichtpreussisch", but in the end I left them there. Mostly because it's a feature that helps to deliver that tiny bit of glam that I miss big time in the rest of the Brigade.

Also: I decided to base them in an irregular fashion even if im sure that they were marching ellbow by ellbow most of their military lifes. So just 4 Miniatures
per base rather than the usual 8.

1st Battalion Neumark Landwehr

2010-01-17T04:59:00.000-08:00

For this battallion I choosed an advancing pose, the first rank has lowered musquets, the 2nd rank has somthing more high-port-ish.
Again, Calpe doesn't fail to impress me with about 24 different and highly animated miniatures I was able to use for this unit.

2nd Battalion Neumark Landwehr

2010-01-14T04:47:00.000-08:00

This one is marching, the flag is still in its oil-cover. more than 22 different models!

Visit at Friedrich's

2009-11-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today i was visiting the "Zitadelle Spandau", an age old citadel in the outskirts of Berlin, that has seen service in the TYW, the 7YW and even the napoleonic wars.

The Entrance to the citadel.

prussian 1809 guns. (note the way the bayonet is attached and off the same colour as the gun)

Enjoyable, innit? :¬)

Hallo :@)

2009-11-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

Aight it's up and running - my public attempt to collect and play Gross Beeren in 28mm.
Krafft's brigade full of famous and obscure troops and uniforms will be my first step on the road to recapture this forgotten east german town.

some extended wishlist:

Pics of the painted units will soon be posted.

=)