The other weekend I finished my first Prussian infantry unit in the form of the 3rd Btln. 13th Silesian Landwehr. Last year I wrote a review of Warlord Games Plastic Prussians for Martin Kellys Befreiungskriege Blog. In it, I mentioned, that I felt these could be mixed with Calpe Miniatures. So I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and decided to paint these up as a mixed unit.
Let me say this… they do not stand out too much when mixed within the unit (they are the last three rows on the pictures below). BUT… when painting them you really feel the difference. As I mentioned in my review the level of detail on the back is poor. So I recut some of that when I cleaned them up. But still the general flatness makes it hard to paint them properly, even on the front side. Plus there are a few things that do not make sense, like crossbelts being cast under the backpack straps on a minis chest and over them on their back. After a lot of quite pittoresque cursing while painting them, I decided that these would be the last 6 I would ever paint and sold the rest off. By comparison the Calpe minis were a joy to paint. Nice detail, clean casts… everything one can ask for. Which probably made my suffering even bigger.
3tes Battalion, 13te Schlesische Landwehr
3tes Battalion, 13te Schlesische Landwehr
What else can I say about these. The command base is a bit stuffed. This comes from the fact, that I originally planned this unit out at 1:30 ration, where it would have ended up with an odd number of minis. So I went for a mounted officer. Unfortunately, when I decided to go for 1:20 after all they ended up at 20 minis (easily divided by 4) and I had to find a way to put 3 men and one horsemounted officer (who easily takes up the space of two men) onto one base. I made the base 5mm wider, but still it is a bit tight, although I do not feel it looks bad.
Command base
Im quite happy, that the other two Landwehr Btln.´s I will need for Möckern will a 2nd and 4th Btln.. Painting yellow shoulderboards in addition to yellow facings can get a bit boring.
The skirmishers are not done yet. Those will be done when I tackle the 2/14th Schilesian Landwehr. For one, that unit will only be 14 minis and they are in firing line anyway, so I do not have to get my mind around firing and marching poses in one session! 😉
dhcwargamesblog 
Martin
May 18, 2011 at 21:28
Nice tidy work Burkhard. It just goes to show how a consistent painting style can overcome the differences between figures from more than one manufacturer.
I’m no fan of those Warlord plastics, though!
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Valda Gagan
May 28, 2011 at 18:17
Wonderful site
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Youlanda Rupley
May 28, 2011 at 21:33
Excellent!
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Burkhard
June 9, 2011 at 07:29
Had to make a few corrections to them this week, since I found they were not 100% historically correct.
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Tom Halpin
April 12, 2012 at 12:33
I agree entirely about the Warlord plastic Landwehr, esp their backs, and decided to liven mine up with Calpe figures and some Foundry command. Unfortunately the Foundry figures don’t match and look rather stunted alongside the other 2 manufacturers’ products so my 3 batallions, 1 Westfalien Landwehr will have to be mainly plastic with some Calpe for interest – the price for having all Calpe for my 12.te and 24.te IR. If you don’t mind cleaning the flash, Warlord’s metal Landwehr at trail and the casualies packs add some interest to the plastics, and the mixed pack with muskets and pikes. I converted the latter to NCO’s
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Burkhard
April 12, 2012 at 12:41
Hi Tom,
I agree the metal minis are nicer then the plastics. I still have the command minis and trailamrs (I felt the poses on the casualties looked strange even for wooded or dead men). Still the Calpe minis are much nicer and I suspect I will only use them for some Landwehr I will need less often (like only during the 100 days).
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kaiserbill
July 15, 2015 at 06:29
Some of my favorite troops of all time.
And I will not get into speaking about Warlords figures (a total waste)
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Burkhard
July 15, 2015 at 16:28
The you. I always love Silesians, too. The mix of dark blue and yellow is just great.
Regarding the Warlord minis… Utter waste, but at least their newer Napoleonics are fine. Bad thing is, I bought some 2nd hand Perry Prussians the other year and the seller he not told me, that the box was missing a few minis and that he would simply add some Warlord Landwehr to made up. So I have unpainted ones again (had sold the reminder of mine off). So I will most likely split this unit up. Replace the six Warlord minis with Calpe and do a whole unit of just Warlord ones… Either for sale or as an extra unit, should I ever need one.
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