Sunday 4 April 2021

25th Prussian Line - Lutzow Freikorps

 In this age of plenty there are still the occasional units that are badly catered for in 1/72.  The Lutzow Freikorps is one such.  While the Fusilier battalion wore a conventional line uniform, the two musketeer battalions were dressed in black - not dissimilar from the Peninsular Brunswickers, who by 1815 had dispensed with their litewkas.

The only plastic firm to make some Lutzows is Hat, and it's only half a set with four rather limited poses.  

Why does this matter?  We are now building the row of houses on the high road at the southern end of Plancenoit.  If anywhere was the inspiration for Adolf North's famous painting of the battle it is here:



Close up images of the Siborne model (courtesy of the National Army Museum) mean that it is easy enough to plot out the buildings:





Plotting them out is one thing, but building them was an all together greater challenge and my father has done an heroic job in constructing so many.  Not only has he perfected his building technique, he has now added electrically initiated smoke and light.  Because this will be the edge of the diorama, we have built a slimmer strip of scenery to accommodate this road:











Down this road will come the Lutzow Freikorps.  





So what figures could be used to create this unit? I've ordered some of these and will get going with the necessary head swaps.  








This could take a while!



8 comments:

  1. ACW conversions! You're a genius, GP!
    Best regards
    WM

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  2. Thanks WM, I think the star of this show is the building site!

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  3. If you're happy to do the conversions, I'll volunteer to paint one of these battalions for you. I'm well over half way to completing Symphers KGL battery and they will probably/hopefully be with you at the end of April so I'll be ready for another challenge.
    David

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  4. The building models are perfected indeed! Great idea to use the Union troops for conversions.

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  5. The time, effort and ingenuity that you put in will be 'rewarded' many times over with a wonderful result, as you have shown us time and again.
    Regards, James

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  6. Dear All, many thanks for your kind comments. I've approached Speira (positive reply) and Strelets (no reply yet) and am ready to convert existing figures. Three battalions each of 400 plus the French is quite a lot to do!

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  7. amazing. Just amazing. I'm currently browsing this post for almost an half hour, and i'm still amazed :D

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  8. Thank you, Charlobaude, it's always nice to get comments like this!

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