Der Alte Fritz Journal

I want to bring everyone up to date on my shipping and payment procedures for Minden Miniatures and Fife & Drum orders, as I occasionally get some anxious emails from a few new customers.

1) I receive your order via email.

2) within a couple of days, I will pick your order, pack it and send you a Paypal invoice only when I am ready to ship your order. I don't want to collect your money until the order is ready to ship.

3) your receipt of a Paypal invoice is your acknowledgement that I have received your order.

4) usually, I can only go to the post office on Saturday to mail your package, as I have a full time job during weekday business hours and can't go to the post office.

5) once I have received your payment, I will then mail your package.

6) orders shipped outside the USA usually arrive within 5 to 10 business days, but sometimes it takes 3-4 weeks, not often, but sometime.

7) if your order has not arrived within 4 weeks, then I will send you a replacement order for free and with no extra charge for postage.

8) it is important that you provide me with your shipping address so,that I,can mail your package. I would estimate that close to 50% of orders do not include the shipping address. Paypal provides me with the address that they have on record for you, but sometimes Paypal has the wrong address, so please, please, please include your shipping address with each order.

9) sometimes I make a mistake and provide the wrong number of figures, I.e you got two drummers and one NCO when in fact you ordered the opposite. In that case, I will ship the replacement figures for free and you can keep any extra figures as a result.

10) all international orders ship at a flat rate of $10 per package.

I hope that this clarifies my shipping and payment procedures. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to address your concerns.

Jim

Austrian cuirassiers (left) and Prussian CR1 cuirassiers (right) close into melee. Click pix to enlarge.

I thought that it was about time to show some pictures of the "Other Guys" in the white coats, who serve for She Whose Name Cannot Be Mentioned on this blog.

Charles of Lorrain (leaning over), Hadik (in hussar mufti next to Charles) and von Loudan (in the front next to the grenadiers) as painted by Leuthen Studios.

Charles of Lorraine (center) discusses tactics with his staff. A lot of good that will do him, but at least he is giving it a try. Von Loudan is in the back right waiting for history to tap him on the shoulder.

Austrian artillery battery with a pair of 6-pounders in the right foreground and a pair of 12-pounders in the left background. Minden artillery crew, Berliner Zinfiguren cannon and limbers, RSM limber horses and riders. Von Loudan, in the background, supervises the battery while a battalion of Hungarian grenadiers provides support.

Same battery, but viewed from the rear.

My cleaning, prepping and terraining desk. Before clean up.

When you are in a painting funk, such as the likes that I have not seen in a long while, what can one do to further the hobby and be productive in some fashion? The answer is to look for alternative things to do such as terraining the bases of figures that you have ignored for too long, or cleaning and priming some figures to have on hand for the inevitable day when you break out of your painting funk, work on some terrain pieces, or....

Clean up your work area! The dreaded "before" picture is shown at the top of the page, while the "after" picture is shown below.

The "after" picture. It looks much better.

Actually, the above "after" picture still requires a little more work on the left hand side of the work area, but for all practicle purposes, the table is cleared of the clutter and is ready for some serious work. Note, I paint at a different table, but more on that at another time.

Now I finally feel like actually doing some work, now that my work area is picked up. It is kind of depressing to work in a 12-square inches space, surrounded by mangled castings with arms and heads chopped off, or half assembled cannon and limbers. When Burnham Wood is closing in on you, you don't feel like working, but rather, you feel like running away to hide.

I doubt that I will have much more time over the remainder of this Memorial Day weekend, but the painting area, reading area and game table area will be next on my list of things to clean up.

The painting table, as shown a year or two ago. Things are back to this state again.

It seems like the game table looks nice about 30% of the time and then it looks more like a repository for junk the other 70% of the time. I half expect the crew from the American Pickers television show to show up at my door asking if they can "pick" through all of my junk. When that happens, well... you know that it is a sad day in your wargaming life.

There must be some irrefutible law of physics that says that junk and clutter will always seek to fill the vacuum of an empty game table. You KNOW that this is true.

The gaming area and table are a disaster. Again, an older picture, but this gives you an idea of how things look today. Not a good thing.

This is how it should look, when I am on top of my game.

My reading area, in better times.

Now having looked at the last two pictures above, I feel a little bit of inspiration coming on to clean up the rest of the basement game room. The painting can wait for another day. I suspect that part of my painting funk is due to all of the clutter, so once I clean up the rest of the room, just watch battalion after battalion of figures come flying off of my brushes.

I hope that you are all having a happy Memorial Day weekend. Do pause for a moment and give thanks to all of those who served in any country so that the rest of us can lead peaceful, normal and happy lives.

Frederick II of Prussian and his staff. Minden Miniatures painted by Leuthen Studios.

I figured that it was about time to show pictures of the Minden Prussian personality figures on my blog. The vignettes were painted and based by Leuthen Studios, as I wanted these to look extra special. Click the pictures to enlarge the view.

We used the following Minden figures:

PER-001 Duke of Brunswick and staff on foot - $12.00
PER-002 Frederick (with horse) - $7.00
PER-003 von Seydlitz (with horse) - $7.00
PER-004 von Zieten (with horse) and ADC - $9.00

We used the dismounted figures from set PER-001 to create vignettes on the main personality stands of Frederick, von Seydlitz and von Zieten. Richard Ansell's sculpts really come alive under the brushes of Leuthen Studios, as I am sure that you will agree.

Von Zieten (left) and von Seydlitz (right) personality figures from Minden Miniatures, painted by Leuthen Studios.

And finally, the Garde du Corps (KR13) to provide a little bit of protection for the Sovereign:

Garde du Corps (KR13) from Minden Miniatures, showing its unique vexillum standard that was recently added to the range. Painted by Leuthen Studios.

Tarleton's British Legion at the charge, showing all 7 of the new figures (click to enlarge).

I just received two large boxes full of castings from Griffin Moulds today, and the shipment included the new Fife & Drum AWI Dragoons: British Legion Cavalry (7 poses), the British 17th Light Dragoons (4 charging poses) and the 3rd Continental Dragoons (4 charging poses). I only had time to glue, blackwash and photograph the British Legion figures this evening, so I will do the rest of the figures in a day or two and post the pictures here.

Let's let the pictures tell the story:

Command figures: officer (left) and trumpeter (right)

Two charging variants on two different charging horses.

Shouldered sword trooper on walking horse.

Firing pistol and hacking downward.

I will be sending figures out to the Kickstarter backers first, starting next week, but after that the figures are available to everyone. If you did not participate in the Kickstarter campaign you are probably kicking yourself wondering why you did not back the campaign. Not to worry, feel free to pre-order any of our Continental or British AWI dragoons and I can start shipping in two weeks. There is no payment necessary until I am ready to ship you your figures, but the pre-order ensures that I am able to set aside the figures that you want.

For the time being, we are selling the cavalry as single figures, but eventually the plan is to package them in packs of two or three figures.

British Legion Product Codes ($6.00 each including horse)

BC-003 Banastre Tarleton Personality Figure

BC-025 British Legion Officer, Charging

BC-026 British Legion Trumpeter, Charging

BC-027 British Legion Trooper, Hacking Downwards

BC-028 British Legion Trooper, Charging Variant #1

BC-029 British Legion Trooper, Charging Variant #2

BC-030 British Legion Trooper, Shouldered Sword

BC-031 British Legion Trooper, Firing Pistol

British 16th Light Dragoons ($6.00 each including horse)

BC-010 16th Light Dragoons Officer, Pointing

BC-011 16th Light Dragoons Trumpeter

BC-012 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Shouldered Sword, Uniform Coat

BC-013 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Shouldered Sword, Hunting Shirt

BC-014 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Rested Carbine on Right Thigh

BC-015 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Firing Pistol

BC-016 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Firing Carbine

BC-017 16th Light Dragoons Trooper, Loading Carbine

British 17th Light Dragoons($6.00 each including horse)

BC-018 17th Light Dragoons Officer, Charging

BC-019 17th Light Dragoons Trumpeter, Charging

BC-020 17th Light Dragoons Trooper, Charging Variant #1

BC-021 17th Light Dragoons Trooper, Charging Variant #2

Ottoman cavalry charge into a Thin Green Line somewhere on the Steppes of Russia. Photo copyright by John Ray and printed with his permission.

For those of you who have already purchased a copy of John Ray's book, "A Military Gentleman", you might be interested to know that a related on- line forum has been created for all owners of the book. The forum has been open since approximately March 2014 and there has been a lot of lively conversation about general Wargame topics, painting and basing tips, pictures of various forum members' collections of miniatures and lots and lots of pictures of John Ray's collection of miniatures that were not included in the book. In addition, some of the forum members are participating in a new campaign, circa the mid 1770s in Europe, and the campaign has already generated a number of tabletop battles and even more gorgeous photographs of the John Ray collection.

For more information, click on the following link to the website for "A Military Gentleman" and get a preview of some of the content that is available only to forum members.

http://www.amilitarygentlemanofthe18thcentury.co.uk/home/4582489354

There you will find a nice slide show that provides a further preview of the forum experience.

If you do not already own a copy of the book, then fear not, as a limited number of copies are still available. However, once the book is sold out, then that is it as a reprinting of the book is not likely, given its expense.

I leave you with the words of John Ray, himself, as he describes what the forum is all about. Information on how to join the group is provided at the end of the second paragraph:

*****************************************************

"Given that AMG was not cheap to produce, nor was it cheap to purchase, and I would not wish to devalue the book for those who have invested financially by ‘splashing’ loads of free photographs across the internet. So I have decided to create a forum to answer some, if not all of the above. In addition there will be areas for general hobby discussion for members who are interested in the Horse and Musket period. This will be a forum for model soldier collectors, not just members who wargame. Foremost I am a collector of model soldiers who on occasions display figures on a table; enjoying the company of friends of like persuasion.

The lounge area is available to those that have purchased the book. Here questions can be put and we’ll endeavour to answer them. In addition, more photographs will be included and free downloads of the campaign mentioned above will be made available. These downloads follow the same lines of the layout shown in AMG, including more original unseen artwork. More important than the AMG section of the forum will be areas for general hobby chat with like minded model soldier collectors. This will be an online forum with a difference, where first names will be the norm, no pseudonyms allowed, and a convivial supportive atmosphere will be paramount. If you have purchased the book and would like to join us, please just email me at johnrayAMG@yahoo.co.uk stating the email address you will be using and include your book number and I will respond with your password. "

British Legion (7 poses) from Fife & Drum Miniatures. (Click to enlarge)

Well, here they are. I have finished painting "onesies" of each of the new British Legion cavalry (7 different poses) and the British 17th Light Dragoons (4 different poses). I also have four new 3rd Continental Dragoons that I have yet to paint, but I hope to get them done and posted this week.

I have started mailing out all of the Kickstarter orders to backers. I have to take the packages to the post office in small batches of up to 6 boxes, because Mrs. Fritz broke her left wing and can't carry anything of substantial weight (and she was my mid-week courier). So most of the orders will be mailed on Saturdays, but I should have most of them in the mail by the end of June.

British Legion Command

British Legion charging with swords drawn.

Two charging poses and one hacking.

Shouldered sword and firing pistol.

And here are the British 17th Light Dragoons. They spent the latter part of the war fighting in the Carolinas, attached to Tarleton's British Legion. The men of the 17th refused to don the green coats, but instead, kept their red regimentals (and/or wore smocks in the summer months).

British 17th Light Dragoons - all four poses.

Reverse side of the previous picture.

I was looking at this diagram that I copied from Christopher Duffy's book, "The Army of Marie Therese" and I'm trying to determine if the Liechtenstein System of artillery used during the SYW used a standardized wheel diameter for the 3-pound, 6-pound, 12-pounde and 7-pound howitzer artillery carriages.

In Stephen Summerfield's book, "Austrian Seven Years War Cavalry and Artillery" states that:

Precise standard for carriages, limber, cart and wagon wheels were introduced. Feuerstein was concerned about increasing the operational mobility of the ordnance so two wheel sizes for all artillery transport was used. (Does "transport" mean the artillery wheels as well as the wagons?").

Looking at the diagram above, it looks as if all wheels for the gun carriages are the same size. I am hoping tat someone can confirm or refute this contention or assumption.. Your help will be much appreciated.

UPDATE

I looked a little closer at the Duffy book and he states that:

Liechtenstein established a common axle and just two types of wheel for the whole range of field artillery and supporting vehicles. He thereby ensured that spares were always at hand in the event of a break down. The 36-inch diameter wheel served as the front wheels of the large ammunition cart, and the 51-inch wheel for the field guns and howitzers, for the small two wheel ammunition cart and the rear wheels of the large four-wheeled ammunition cart.

3rd Continental Dragoons (L-R) Trooper, Officer, Std Bearer, and Trumpeter (click to enlarge)

Fife & Drum Miniatures recently added the 3rd Continental Dragoons to its range, along with the previously released 1st Continental Dragoon, the British Legion (Tarleton's) dragoons, and the British 16th and 17th Light Dragoons.

The group of four figures are done in "charging" poses and are shown on some of the new horses that Richard Ansell made exclusively for our AWI range of figures. They can match up against our British Legion and British 17th Light Dragoons in either the Pennsylvania - New Jersey theatre of operations or with General Greene's command in the South.

Regimental History (paraphrased from Troiani)

The 3rd Continental Dragoons were raised on January 9, 1777 (so they will fit right in with the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign) by Colonel George Baylor. While recruits and horses were readily available in his native state of Virginia, the shortage of horse equipment and weapons limited his recruiting to only one troop. The troop was attached to General Washington's headquarters guard and became known as Washington's Bodyguard or Lady Washington's Horse. The troop served in this capacity until 1778.

The regiment was virtually wiped out when it was surprised in an attack on its billets in Tappan, New Jersey on September 19, 1778 by British light troops. Half of the 104 men on hand escaped and attempts to re-raise the regiment were unsuccessful as it never exceeded a squadron in strength after Tappan.

A squadron of the regiment served in the Southern Theatre of Operations, under the command of Lt. Colonel William Washington. They were amalgamated with elements of the 1st Continental Dragoons (also available from Fife & Drum Miniatures). The combined regiment fought at the battles of Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs.

Officer (left) and trooper charging (right)

Standard bearer (left) and trumpeter (right)

The new product codes for the 3rd Continental Dragoons are as follows (sold as single figures including the horse):

AC-018 3rd Continental Dragoon Officer

AC-019 3rd Continental Dragoon Trumpeter

AC-020 3rd Continental Dragoon Standard Bearer

AC-021 3rd Continental Dragoon Trooper, Charging

Figures, including horse, are $6.00

To order, just send me an e-mail at:

fife_drum_minis(at)yahoo(dot)com

Paypal Accepted

Here is a peek at the first batch of French cavalry greens that I received from Richard Ansell today, depicting the Cuirassiers du Roi regiment. The CdR have the distinction of wearing bearskin hats and also of being the only cavalry regiment to wear their cuirasses outside of their coat.

Please take a close look at each figure and let me know what you think. If there is anything that needs to be changed, now is the time to speak up. :)

Cuirassiers du Roi officer (click to enlarge view)

Cuirassiers du Roi officer

Cuirassiers du Roi Standard Bearer

Cuirassiers du Roi Trooper

Cuirassiers du Roi Trumpeter

Here is a teaser photo of the figure that Richard sculpted representing the French marshal Maurice de Saxe as he might have appeared during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. He was riding around the field in a wicker carriage because he was ill. The carriage was created as a joint project with Westphalia Miniatures: Minden made the Maurice figure and Westphalia made the wicker carriage. We will also have the Volontaires de Saxe Uhlans to provide an escort for Maurice - pictures of these will be posted tomorrow.

Maurice de Saxe riding in his wicker carriage during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.

Wicker 4-wheel carriage created by Niels Rulkotter of Westphalia Miniatures as part of a joint project with Minden Miniatures.

Here is a print of Maurice de Saxe and his wicker carriage at Fontenoy. His uhlan escort is also shown in the picture. Minden has also made the carriage driver monted on the horse and of course, the uhlans de Saxe.

Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy, shown with his African bodyguards from his Volontaires de Saxe.

I have long been fascinated by the idea of someone creating a vignette of French Marshal Maurice de Saxe shown riding in a wicker wagon or chariot during the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Maurice was terribly ill prior to the start of the battle and he could not mount his horse, so someone found a small wagon that the marshal could use during the battle. Some say that Maurice was suffering from the effects of Dropsy, probably a result of his life of hard living and drinking. But I digress...

So several months ago, several of us on the "A Military Gentleman" Forum, were discussing the wagon that Maurice used during the battle. Niels indicated that he was interested in creating such a model in 1/56 scale (suitable for 28mm and 30mm figures). I chimed in that if he would make the wagon, I would commission Richard Ansell to sculpt a model of Maurice sitting in the wagon. So quicker than you could say, "Bob's your uncle", Niels set to work on the wagon and had the model completed in record time. Here is a picture of the finished model below:

Marshal de Saxe's wicker chariot used at Fontenoy. Model created by Niels R. at Westphalia Miniatures. Limber horses are from the Minden range.

Once Niels' wagon model was cast in metal, he sent a copy to Richard so that he could sculpt the figure of Maurice de Saxe that is shown below:

Marshal Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745

Now it occured to me that we would need a pair of horses to draw the wagon and a driver to ride on one of the harness horses. Looking at the picture at the top of this page, one can see that the driver had to be one of the Volontaires de Saxe. As a result, we had Richard create the following driver figure:

Marshal de Saxe's wagon driver

The drawing also depicts one of Maurice's African uhlans that comprised his personal bodyguard, which were a part of the Voluntaires de Saxe. So we had Richard sculpt the bodyguard as well, as shown in the picture below:

African trooper - personal escort of Marshal de Saxe

By this time, I was thinking, "in for a penny, in for a pound" so as long as we were adding some of the uhlans to the Minden range, why not make the rest of the figures that one would need to create the whole regiment. Thus we had Richard work on adding another uhlan, an officer and a trumpeter, shown in the following pictures.

Uhlan trooper

Officer

Trumpeter

At the end of the day, this joint project between Westphalia Miniatures and Minden Miniatures came together quite nicely. I think that Niels' work on the chariot is outstanding (you ought to see what one of these vehicles looks like when painted - WOW!) and I think that I am running out of superlatives to use in describing Richard's sculpting work - that Maurice de Saxe personality figure is amazing, as are the rest of the Voluntaries de Saxe.

The greens will be sent to Griffin Moulds next week, along with the French Cuirassiers du Roi and some horse team riders (2 civilian figures, 1 Austrian and 1 Prussian rider, both in uniforms) and hopefully we can get these little master pieces into production very quickly.

The Maurice de Saxe vignette will be sold as a set to include the chariot/wagon, Maurice sitting in the wagon, two harness team horses, and one uhlan harness driver. The rest of the Volontaires de Saxe will be available as individual figures for purchase. Crann Tara Miniatures in the UK will handle all orders in the UK and Euroland while the USA and the rest of the world will be handled from the USA. I'm assuming that Westphalia Miniatures will also have the complete Maurice set added to their product line.

I am really really pleased with how well this project came together and the results are quite impressive. I look forward to collaberating with Westphalia Miniatures on some other projects in the future.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge the view so that you can see all of the details.

Civilian driver in hat and waistcoat (left), shown on a cavalry horse.

We have been busy at Fife & Drum, lately, getting our new civilian artillery limber drivers ready for production. The figures include one civilian driver in hat and waistcoat and another civilian driver wearing a tricorn and coat. While both are designed to use in the Fife & Drum AWI figure range, they would be equally at home in Europe, driving a supply wagon in service of any European army. These two figures replace the existing Fife & Drum civilian riders and horses, which are now out of production and will be retired. They old versions were sculpted by another sculptor and I wanted to replace them with Richard Ansell designed figures so that everything would match up and be consistent.

We have also added an Austrian and a Prussian limber horse driver to use for War of Austrian Succession or Seven Years War - both are wearing uniform coats and tricorn hats. I will post pictures of them in a couple of days as I wanted to focus on the civilians today. I am really excited to add the uniformed drivers to the Minden range - I have been using the RSM limber driver (looking over his shoulder) and I wanted more variety and options. Now we have both.

We have also added four new limber team horses to the range, pictured after the drivers in this blog posting.

Civilian driver in hat and waistcoat (right)

Civilian driver in tricorn and coat (left)

Civilian driver in tricorn and coat (right)

Limber Horse 1 - for rider

Limber Horse 2 - for rider

Limber Horse 3

Limber Horse 4

Eventually, we might add some standing limber horses to the range, but I like what we have now.

All of the above greens have been sent off to Griffin Moulds to have the production moulds made and the new figures cast. (actually, LH 3 and LH4 are already in production and available now; the other two horses are waiting for moulds).

"The 44th Regiment of Foot, Niagara 1758" watercolor by Steve Hezzlewood.

Over on the forum, "A Military Gentleman" or AMG, today the topic of Steve Hezzlewood's biography came up in conversation and in the course of doing a Google search on the fellow, I stumbled across this really nice water color that he painted many years ago. I knew that Steve was an excellent sculptor (in fact his RSM or Pax Britannia figures are responsible for getting me into wargaming in the first place), but I had no idea that he was an artist as well. I suppose that the two talents naturally go together.

The painting depicts the British 44th Regiment of Foot in North America. I found a copy of the picture on line, but it was listed as being in "Nigeria", which I believe to be a typo. The setting is supposed to be "Niagara", of course.

For some reason, the figures in the water color remind me so much of Steve's RSM wargame miniatures. Actually, the answer is quite simple: Steve was an artist by training and he used transferred his ability to draw and paint realistic people into the putty medium to create realistic looking wargame figures.

RSM Prussian Cuirassiers sculpted by Steve Hezzlewood.

By the way, if you have bought a copy of John Ray's book, "A Military Gentlemen in the 18th Century", then you really owe it to yourself to zip over to John's web site and join the forum.

A Military Gentleman Blog

AMG Website

The Erprinz Friedrich of Hesse Seewald welcomes you to his review of the troops. (click all pix to enlarge)

The long three day Labor Day weekend has given me the opportunity to paint some more units for my growing Hesse Seewald Army, so I thought that I would post a few pictures to bring everyone up to date. Even though the HS Army is Germanic in location and character, I have based its uniform colors on those of the Russian army circa 1805. The basic infantry uniform is a green coat with differing facings colors for each regiment. Small clothes are either white waistcoat and breeches or straw colored. The artillery arm is clothed in red, circa the Russian army of the SYW. The cut of the cloth is Minden Prussian, by nature.

Why Green? I want them to look sort of Russian, but also sort of Prussian. I like the uniform distinctions of the 1805 Russian infantry and I figured that if I followed Russian SYW-early Napoleonic color schemes, that the HS could do double duty as a Russian army of the SYW

The army currently has three battalions completed and I added a pair of 3-pound battalion guns and a field battery of 6-pounders painted in the artillery livery of red coats and waistcoats, black facings and white breeches.

Field battery using Minden Prussian crew and Pioneers as the laborers.

Another view of the battery: note the Front Rank ammo wagon and the Minden civilian vignette carrying a wooden case, filling in as ammo runners to the battery.

The Charlottenburg Musketeer Regiment

The Grenadier Company of the Holstein Musketeer Regiment

Overhead view of some of the army. Here you can see one of the 3-pound battalion guns in front of the Charlottenburg Regiment. At the far left, you can see one company of the Von Glasenap Musketeer Regiment (Green coat with red facings) and the Leibgarde Regiment in red coats. King Georg Ludwig II is seen on his horse, waving his hat.

King Georg Ludwig II (left) and the Erbprinz Friedrich (right)

More later, I am on a painting roll of late.

The Leibgarde Regiment of the King of Hesse Seewald

IR1 - von Glasenap Regiment

Here are a couple more pictures of the growing Hesse Seewald Army for your review. At the top of the page is the red-coated Leibgarde Regiment of King Georg Ludwig of Hesse Seewald. The regiment's uniforms are modelled after those of the Saxon Garde of the mid 18th Century. As a rule, only Garde regiments of infantry and cavalry are allowed to wear red coats, the exception being the artillery battalion of the army.

The von Glasenap regiment is the senior regiment of the kingdom's army, having been established in 1669 to defend the kingdom from Swedish incursions through Hesse Seewald in the years following the Thirty Years War. A member of the von Glasenap family has served as inhaber of the regiment since its beginning and on through to the present.

The Leibgarde Regiment was created in 1691 when Duke Karl Albert proclaimed himself "King In Hesse Seewald", thereby skirting the need to be recognized and elevated to royalty by the Holy Roman Emperor.

The standard infantry organization of the army is that each regiment is a single battalion in strength with 600 officers and rank and file. The battalion is divided into four musketeer companies and one grenadier company. At times, the grenadier companies of several regiments will be converged to form a distinct and separate grenadier battalion.

Click on all pictures to enlarge the view.

Your comments and questions are most welcomed.

Minden Austrian Artillery Crew figures are shown with Berlin Zinnfiguren cannon and limbers and RSM limber horses. Minden will be adding its own cannon, limber horses and riders to the range.

Minden Miniatures has just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for SYW AUSTRIAN and RUSSIAN artillery equipment. We seek to raise funding of $3,000 to get the five Austrian models shown below into production by December 2014. If we hit the stretch goal of $8,000 then that will help fund the start of the SYW Russian artillery range. (and yes, we plan on adding lots of Russians in 2015).

The Russian cannon will tentatively include a Shuvulov Secret Howitzer, the 6-pd and 12-pd field guns, and a 12-pound Unicorn howitzer, and maybe a few other unusual Russian equipment pieces.

The Austrian cannon will include the Liechtenstein System 3-pdr, 6-pdr, 7-pd howitzer, 12-pounder and limber. Visit the link to our Kickstarter page and learn more about the funding campaign. The campaign ends in 30 days on October 12, 2014.

Minden Kickstarter Link

As you can see in the pictures below, we already have most of the Austrian equipment sculpting and design completed, so this campaign will get models to you very quickly. We will be starting on the Russian equipment and a couple of other surprises very soon.

Austrian 12- pounder "green" ready to go to Griffin Moulds for master and production moulds.

Austrian 7-pound howitzer :

Austrian 3-pounder:

Austrian 6-pounder:

Austrian 12-pounder shown in the travel position attached to the limber:

The Minden Kickstarter campaign hit the initial funding goal of $3,000 for the Austrian artillery on Day 2 of the campaign, so I am very pleased with the results so far.

Next up: we need to hit the $8,000 pledge level in order to get the Russian artillery equipment kick started.

We have seven different pledge levels of $50 or less to make it easy to back the project with a small contribution as low as $15. There are ten pledge levels of $100 or less and pledges over $150 come with swap privileges that allow you to trade in your Austrian or Russian pledge for anything in the full Fife & Drum and Minden figure ranges.

Minden Russian Infantry - conceptual unit using French infantry figures.

Now I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of people who, in the past, have asked "When are you going to add Russians to the Minden range?" The time is now, but we need to have you step forward and make a pledge to this Kickstarter campaign. If you want Russian infantry, cavalry and artillery, we need your support to get the Russian project rolling.

So click on the link below and visit our Kickstarter page to see how it works.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1937253848/fife-and-drum-syw-austrian-artillery

And if you would make a contribution of any size, I would be most grateful for your support.

Minden Russian Musketeers (click to enlarge)

I just finished the basing on my "Faux Russian" musketeer regiment, the Courland Regiment and thought that everyone would like to see how they look all based up and ready to go.

The flag is a GMB Designs Russian 1797-1806 flag for the Riazan Regiment, but since the battalion is a semi-imaginary unit, it doesn't really matter which flag I use. Eventually when I add the real Russian infantry to the Minden range, I will use the correct GMB flags for the SYW (it's just that I didn't have any on hand to finish the regiment).

Kickstarter Update - Austrians are a go, but Russians too?

The $3,000 goal to get the Austrian artillery into production has been met and now we are seeking to reach the $8,000 pledge level so that the Russian artillery equipment can get unlocked. Now a lot of you Minden fans have been asking me when we are going to add Russians to the range. My answer is "NOW!" However, in order to gauge interest and start the Russian project, I think that it is necessary to hit the first stretch goal. If we can do that, then I will feel like there really is enough interest in the Russians to put them (infantry, cavalry and artillery) into production.

Click on the following link to visit the Fife & Drum Kickstarter page and make a pledge to get the Russians into production:

Minden Russian Kickstarter Page

There are seven pledge levels of $50 or less and go as low as $15, so I've tried to make it easy for anyone to pledge a minimal amount in support of this project. Of course, if you are really gung ho for Russians, there are a number of higher pledge levels too.

Swap privileges that allow you to trade your Austrian or Russian artillery in for any other Minden or Fife & Drum figures is available for anyone pledging more than $100. Pledge $100 or more and receive the same retail value in other figures such as Prussians, British, French or even AWI figures. Think about it, if you were planning on placing a Minden order anyway, consider pledging at the $100 level and you not only get the figures that you want, but you also help unlock the start of the Russian range.

What is the appeal of the Russians for me? Well, several things: they were a tough opponent whom Frederick never really defeated; their green and red uniforms are very colorful and offer a nice change of pace from Austrian white; and finally, they have really cool looking artillery equipment and hoards of Cossacks. When we get around to making Cossacks, we won't have just 4 to 6 Cossacks, we will start with 16 Cossacks and eventually build them up to 32 different figures - now that's variety!

Battalion gun is the Prussian 3-pounder with one of the Pioneer figures and one Prussian artillery crewman dressed as Russian artillerist.

The new Minden French Cuirassiers du Rou and the Volontaires de Saxe figures are in transit from Griffin Moulds and they are scheduled to arrive in the USA next Monday September 22nd, so I am confident enough to post the new product codes and announce that they are ready for sale.

If you want to place an order now, in anticipation of it shipping next week, then contact me at the address below. You will not be invoiced until I actually have the castings in the shipping room and ready to go .

send e-mail orders to:

fife_drum_minis@yahoo.com

Paypal Accepted

Personal checks drawn on US-based banks accepted

The new product codes are (figures per pack) and price:

MFC-007 Cuirassiers du Roi Command (3) $18.00 USD

MFC-008 Cuirassiers du Roi Troopers (3) $18.00 USD

MFC-009 Volontaires de Saxe Command (2) $12.00 USD

MFC-010 Volontaires de Saxe Lancer – African (3) $18.00 USD

MFC-011 Volontaires de Saxe Lancer – European (3) $18.00 USD

We have also added a new French marshall to the range (PER-009 @ $7.00 USDincluding horse) with two head and arm variants (see figure on the left. the RH figure is a Hanoverian officer painted in Hesse Seewald livery):

Fife & Drum Miniatures are now available in the UK and Euroland from our new distributor, Crann Tara Miniatures.

http://www.cranntaraminiatures.co.uk/

Crann Tara will carry the complete Fife & Drum AWI range as well as select parts of the Minden range (all civilians, the SYW Highlanders, the Volontaires de Saxe and some of the equipment range that applies to the AWI plus the French artillery pieces).

Furthermore, Crann Tara will focus on figures for the War of the Austrian Succession in its future figure releases while Minden will retain its focus on the SYW. From time to time, Minden will create figures that are applicable to the WAS and therefore will be distributed by Crann Tara. The Maurice de Saxe vignette, shown below, and the Volontaires de Saxe are an example of this arrangement as both will be distributed by Crann Tara.

Minden & Fife & Drum Shipping Procedures

Minden SYW Austrians

Spring Cleaning, Fritz Style

Minden Prussian Personality Figures

Tarleton's Legion Has Arrived!

A Military Gentleman

Painted Pix: Tarleton's Legion & 17th Light Dragoons

Austrian Artillery - Liechtenstein System

3rd Continental Dragoons - New Fife & Drum Figures

New Minden Greens: Cuirassiers du Roi

Volontaires de Saxe - New Minden Figures

More Fife & Drum Greens - Artillery Train

The Artist Steve Hezzlewood

Hesse Seewald Army - Work In Progress

Hesse Seewald Army - Part II

New Minden Austrian & Russian Kickstart Campaign Begins

The Russians Are Coming?

Minden Russian Musketeers Are Based

Minden Cuirassiers du Roi Have Arrived

Crann Tara is the new UK Distributor for Fife & Drum Miniatures