Breaking up the Line
In my last blog, I mentioned how I’d had to change sides from the French to the Prussians for Project Ligny. I was feeling a little bit like the Kingdom of Saxony, once a staunch French ally, now a semi reluctant Prussian vassal.
My thoughts had naturally turned to which figures to use. I’d had a number of Prussians including some excellent Calpe but had given them all away… So I had to start from scratch. The revolution in plastics naturally turned my mind to the sets from HaT and the Perrys.
I’d reviewed the HaT Prussians in WSS 68 so had a few to hand and so could see firsthand how they measured up to the Perrys. Overall they were pretty good if a tiny bit shorter and thinner. However with a few head swaps, this was soon rectified. Once painted, it became hard to tell which was which (could you tell the HaT conversions from the last blog entry?).
My first big break came via Ebay when a Perry Prussian army went up for grabs at a good price (thanks Steve!). I then took advantage of another Ebay offer selling HaT 28mm Prussians at £4 a box (!). For £28 (post free) I had 7 boxes of HaT (at 32 per box, that’s 224 miniatures!). I went from zero to around 350 Prussians with 3 guns and 12 cavalry!
With the HaT models, I’m doing simple head swaps. Snip off the HaT at the base of the neck above the collar and add a Perry head. Simples! I’ve also used heads from the Warlord Hanoverian plastic set to create Prussian Reserve Infantry. As there is only two spare heads per Perry Prussian sprue, I’m soon going to run short of extra heads… donations of spare Prussian heads will be gratefully accepted!
So some of you may ask why am I bothering to go to such lengths? While lines upon lines of near identical soldiers is fine, I like to break up the ‘look’ of the line with the odd extra pose, just so they look different. One Prussian firing, reloading or advancing every now and then is enough to break up the otherwise regimented line of shouldered arms. I’ll probably add in the odd metal figure as well.
I’m also looking at converting Perry Plastic French Hussars into Prussian Hussars using the inspiration from this blogspot
http://ploughsharestoswords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/converting-prussian-hussars.html.
Next I’ll be looking at converting Prussian volunteer Jägers. The Perrys come in one pose – that’s no good for me. The thought of a dozen identical Jägers advancing simply won’t do… skirmishers would be firing and reloading - but what to do with the resources I have at hand?
