Having discovered three parts of the way through painting the Prussian Line battalion that this would not fit in with Ians intended Prussian army I was faced the prospect of another 28mm battlaion in the form of a Landwehr battalion. These were the one piece plastic offerings from Warlord games. A bit of additional modelling went on to create undercuts to blankets, and sharpen up some of the shoulderstraps, not too onerous so far. With a few distractions (such as preparing for the SMS painting clinic at WMMS) it got to 8 days before his birthday and these lay undercoated (AP Ultramarine Blue) and washed. The challenge was set. These must be easier to paint then their line counterparts……
Well I have to say that if I was not painting to a tight schedule these would probably have sat on my painting board for several months waiting for me to find the mojo to crack on with them. Yes I am pleased at the finished article, but I found it at least as labourious as I did the Prussian Line (in the end they took 11 days to paint with at least 3-4 hours painting a night! – the snow kept Ian away so had a few extra days to get them finished). If I had the prospect of collecting an entire army of these I should probably be investing in a sturdy rope and a long drop. Often 3-4 hours of painting would see a single colour done on the battalion – in 6mm in particular that would be approaching two finished units! Perhaps the 28mm fraternity are content with a unit every 2-3 weeks, having done 6mm I have to say one of the most pleasing aspects is the productivity you see with it being not difficult to paint a unit in a short painting session. It would seem that in the time it takes to do a 28mm Battalion I could do a significant proportion of a Prussian force. This opens itself to a painting challenge in preparation for the new French sculpts that are threatening to be available soon at Baccus.
So one of my challenges in the comming months is to see how many 6mm Prussian units I can paint in 50 hours (the estimated time input to complete a 28mm battalion). I will probably look to this after Tripples as I have been accepted to put on the SMS clinic there and I want to focus on getting some 6mm Impetus armies painted up.
Anyway here are some pictures of the offending finished article – basing has been left to Ian so they will tie in with his other forces.
… and this evening I have painted a unit of Persian Light cavalry which I will use in a step-by-step guide to basing using ‘Mikey Mud’, so hope to get that posted before the end of the bank holiday weekend.
Dr Mike aka Cranium27 
Nice paint job nonetheless, interested in seeing your basing technique
I would be interested to see what colours you used for these? They look awesome, I have had a go myself on these same figures and not gotten the right colour balance…a less natural looking blue. It would be great if you can offer some assistance!
As with most of my stuff nowadays I work from a grey undercoat (Halfords car primer) which is first washed in a slightly thinned down valejo black wash. These chaps got a coat of Valejo Prussian Blue which is wetbrushed/overbrushed on to the tunic. At the end an all over figure wash of Devlan Mud or Argrax Earthshade is liberally applied. The painting was covered in more detail with the Prussian Line infnatry I did initially.
One thing to remember is that ‘uniform’ provision was not a mass production. Right through to WWII we see geographic areas being tasked with the production of say 1,000 Prussian Blue coats. This ultimtely led to villiage A being responsible for the production of 20 coats, Village B 50 coats, villiage C 10 coats, etc. All will have a different idea what colour Prussian blue is and accordingly when the ‘uniforms’ are collected and pooled a host of different shades of blue with be evident….. and thats before weathering.
Ultimately don’t get hung up on what shade or tone fo blue yours are as if anything a variety would be historically more accurate.