The Rest of the 1/72 Prussians

I have had these figures set up on the table for the past few weeks, and it occurred to me that I had never photographed them!

Frederick the Great is a simple conversion from an Italeri Napoleon figure. I just swapped Napoleon's bicorne for a Prussian tricorne.

I had trouble finding Seven Years War artillery sets in 1/72 plastic. I thought American Revolutionary War crews would do, but the figures I saw were all very uninspiring. Instead I reached back to the army of Charles XII of Sweden. Zvezda does a beautiful set, and these looked like proper SYW guns to me. I know the uniform is not exactly right, but the spirit of this whole project was "good enough."

More HaT Industries figures provided the two battalions of grenadier garde for my army. All the HaT figures come without hats, leaving the gamer to choose between musketeer tricorns, fusilier caps, and grenadier miters. 40 of each are provided in the box.

Seven Years War cavalry is also very hard to come by. Revell did a couple of sets, but they are long out of print. I thought HaT's 1806 Prussian hussars could easily go back in time 50 years. These are the Zieten and Seydlitz Hussars.

The Prussian dragoons also required me to find Napoleonic figures and dragoon them into service in the previous century. These are 1806 Prussian Dragoons from HaT. I cut off their bicorns and replaced them with extra tricornes from the infantry packs. These are the Meinicke Dragoons.

I did another hat switch for the Baron von Schönaich and Prinz von Preußen Cuirassiers, starting with HaT's Napoleonic Austrian cuirassiers.

And that, my friends, is that. I have enough Prussian figures painted to play the Kolin scenario for Sam Mustafa's "Maurice." I will probably add to the army at some point, but for now I am calling this project complete.

All told, this army contains 257 foot, 48 horse, and 5 guns. I spent $103 on the figures and another $25 on Litko bases. Now I just need my buddies to venture over for a game!

1/72 SYW Prussian Infantry

I have been working on this project for almost two years. On a whim, I bought a few boxes of HaT Industries' 8280 "7YW Prussians Marching" and a box of 8282 "7YW Prussian Command." Each figure has the option of a tricorne, miter, or peaked cap. The marching figures come in only two poses, which is actually perfect for well ordered infantry.

I painted these with a simple block painting job, applied the dip, and based them up. Although each figure is not a masterpiece of painting, I do like their look on the table.

IR7

IR17

IR21

IR30

I painted these as a trial to see if I liked the range enough to commit to some armies. Well, I do like them enough, and I have ordered some boxes to supplement this starter force. This is just the kind of simple painting I can do while supervising my children's schoolwork.

1/72 Austrian Grenadiers

I will have some pictures of my daughters' figures in the near future, but for now, here are some of my own figures I painted with them. These 1/72 soft plastic figures are from HaT Industries.

 

I primed these white, then put a basic block paint job on them. I used Minwax as a dip.

If boxes such as this had been available 25 years ago, I doubt I ever would have moved to metal gaming figures! It was very nice to be able to make a good looking wargaming unit.

1/72 WWI Highland Infantry

I'm still trying out some World War I figures. Like the early war Germans, these mid-war highlanders are from HaT Industries.

I have a couple more sets to try out, but so far I do like the soft plastic figures.

1/72 Plastic American Civil War

My daughters' abbreviated school schedule has allowed us plenty of time to paint. I started the girls on 1/32 soft plastic figures, which they did enjoy. Now we have moved on (down?) to 1/72 scale. These figures are all from HaT Industries.

 

I am very glad to see that one manufacturer is making figures suitable for wargaming!

1/72 Napoleonic British Infantry

Blogger is getting tougher and tougher to use on my desktop PC. I don't know if the aces at blogger are trying to optimize their product for cell phones or if they are trying to push me to use Chrome as my browser. Neither of those are acceptable for me.

That is only by way of explaining why my updates have ceased. I have still been painting. Today I photographed these plastic 1/72 British infantry in stovepipe shako by HaT Industries. 

Testing WWI Figures

I am continuing to experiment with some WWI projects. This batch of figures are 1/72 soft plastics from HaT Industries. 

I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. I think I could field an army of these fellows pretty easily.

First 2026 Figures: 1/72 Plastic Napoleonics

As a fun little diversion over Christmas break, I have put a quick paintjob on two boxes of HaT Industries figures.

1805 French Line Infantry in greatcoats

8219 French Light Infantry Chasseurs (Marching)

Had the soft plastic soldier manufacturers produced packs like this from the beginning, I doubt we would ever have moved to metal. These are great little gaming figures.

My prep and sealing process for these is pretty foolproof. I've not had any flake since I started this. I wash the figures in liquid dish soap to remove the grease from them. I prime with a rattle-can grey or white plastic primer from Rustoleum. Once they are painted, I brush on Varathane "Ultimate Polyurethane" clear gloss interior and let it cure for three days. After all the basing is done, I seal with Testor's Dullcote from a rattle-can.

Now they need to start producing good cavalry figures too. I cannot find anything in soft plastic that looks great ranked up for gaming.

1/72 SYW Austrian Infantry

 These figures are all soft plastics from HaT Industries. I wanted a quick project that I could work on while my kids did their schoolwork, and these fit the bill. I gave everything a "good enough" block paint job, stained them with Minwax Polyshades Tudor Satin, and based them up.

IR Erzherzog Karl

IR Leopold Daun

IR Harrach

IR Arenberg

 

IR Mercy-Argenteau

IR Moltke

IR Puebla

IR Türheim

I wish the soft plastic manufacturers had made packs like this long ago! The marching infantry boxes have just two poses, and the result is useable wargaming figures. I like these figures so much that I will sell off the 15mm and 25mm lead I had collected.