A flattering review...

I'm sure the old Prussian officer corps would disapprove of my mentioning it (didn't Ferdinand of Brunswick refuse to nominate a single officer for an award in the SYW on the grounds that it was simply their duty to behave heroically?) but Russell Gregory's interesting 6mm SYW wargaming site, with photographs of beautifully painted 6mm figures and tutorials on how to do it, has a very favourable review of NBA here: http://syw6mm.googlepages.com/july.htm It's certainly good to see people liking what I'm doing... :-)

I have hundreds of SYW Austrian and Prussian 6mm figures which I bought 20 years ago and I still haven't painted a single figure! I just don't get on with figure painting, I'm afraid. Perhaps I should have offered to swap templates for painted figures. ;-)

David.

SYW Austrian Croat Template 3

And here is the last and simplest of the Croat template variants, worn by the Broder and Peterwardeiner Regiments.

SYW Austrian Croat Template 2

The second Croat template is the simpler uniform of the Creutzer and St Georger Regiments.

SYW Austrian Croat Template 1

Here's the first of a few possible variants of the Croat uniform - this one was worn by the Carlstädter Likaner and others. It stands out as nowhere near as elegant as the usual SYW infantry uniform!

A slow few days...

Certainly on the finished template front it has been slow but "real life" has been busy, and made more frustrating by a bad cold, back trouble (must be carrying all the heavy kit round the template shop in Tippelbruder), bad sleep and consequent tiredness. Ho hum. Some progress has been made on the Prussian cuirassier template, though, which has proved tricky as the cuirass would not fit any of the current cavalrymen and one has had to be redrafted to fit into it. He's still not finished. Then I've been fiddling with making a detailed Hanoverian mitre cap, with all the heraldic trimmings - again, a time-consuming job, not yet finished, as well as Prussian monograms for cuirassiers' shabraques and sabretaches. So things are moving behind the scenes... even if from the imaginary country point of view, most of these things are not terribly applicable! I just like the authentic detail and it has been less strenuous than doing complete templates.

SYW Prussian Dragoon Template 2

And here's the second Prussian dragoon template, without lapels.

SYW Prussian Dragoon Template

Here's the first of the Prussian heavy cavalry, a dragoon (with lapels ).

Hidden in the drawing cupboard 3

And finally the Prussian grenadiers with the Prussian cuff...

Hidden in the drawing cupboard 2

The Prussian fusiliers with the Prussian cuff...

And hidden in the drawing cupboard are...

Prussian musketeers, fusiliers and grenadiers with the Prussian cuff. I'd done these some days ago but hesitated to put them on the blog, thinking no-one was especially likely to want this particular variant. Well, as luck would have it, Hesse-Fedora today sent a courier saying they were desperate for these templates and the courier was under orders not to leave the premises until he had them in his eager (if somewhat grubby) hands. A little arcane magic on the infernal machine to convert them into useable items and he has now gone off a very happy man who had to wait far less time than he imagined. No doubt en route he will tarry for far too long with a few jugs of ale and a waiting wench in some tavern, and yet he'll still arrive earlier than expected. Everyone will be happy! The fine reputation of the Tippelbruder Template Shop will spread yet wider - oh joy... ;-)