In addition to figures I bought from the late Eric Knowles collection ( and indeed the reason I was interested to buy them ), I have my small collection of 'vintage' Minifgs 25mm 7YW Prussians; they have been enjoying a long-awaited bath in Bird Brand 'Eco Spirit' for the last several weeks. It looks a bit noxious ( I keep thinking of Kenneth Williams shouting 'Frying Tonight!' ), but it's doing the job of removing a dodgy 40-year-old coating of Humbrol Enamels.
Prussians in the noxious swamp |
Unpacking them ,we have :
48 Line Muskeeters ( Minfigs PSW1 )
3 Line Musketeer Officers (PSW2 )
1 Line Infantry Standard Bearer ( PSW12 )
and one rather splendid mounted officer - not sure which he might be. Maybe Frederick himself?! Though I'm pretty sure he was intended for the Colonel of the regiment.
out of the bath and on parade |
This collection was indeed a regiment, bought from teenage 'birthday money' I suspect, as a result of earlier acquiring, reading and being enthralled by Charles Grant's 'The War Game'. How I ever imagined I would recruit a full army, with my very limited resources then, I have no idea! I think in the interim, they were pitched against a motley collection of Airfix plastic Napoleonics and AWI figures, all pretty badly painted. I reconciled the eclecticism of the figures by creating 'imagi-nations', which was of of course in keeping with Charles Grant's ideas, and was probably also fuelled by the serialisation of Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign in 'Battle for Wargamers' at around the same time.
In the end, I think the advent of WRG 1685-1845 rules with their 1:50 figure ratio, and battalions of 12 or 16 figures, was much more budget-friendly and space-efficient, and these chaps probably made 3 or 4 battalions under those rules. Now, I hope they will finally wear their proper colours as Musketeers of the Prussian Line Infantry, and should provide material for several units - they could perhaps make up to six battalions under Bob Cordery's 'Portable Wargame' system as adapted by me, and certainly a couple of battalions for Keith Flint's 'Honours of War', for example. I hope they will go nicely alongside the figures from Eric Knowles collection - indeed, when those became available, my thought was exactly this - I could finally make use of my Prussians after all these years!
But still, this is not to forget the original inspiration of Charles Grant's lovely book, that made the much younger me dream of grandiose armies. As another inspiring chap, who lived and is buried not so far from here, said:
Admittedly, he probably wasn't thinking of toy soldiers! (it's hard to believe, Peel would have been 81 next month) .
Keep well, everyone.