Calpe Miniatures Prussian

Landwehr Cavalry

The figures in the lists below are designed to represent Landwehr cavalry in the «regulation» uniform. Those of you who know something of this arm of the Prussian cavalry will be aware that this uniform was not standard throughout the landwehr cavalry regiments. Two regiments, one Silesian, the other from Brandenberg, must have had a wealthy benefactor as they were provided with the full Polish lancer uniform. Several other regiments adopted versions of the regulation uniform but gave it regimental distinctions. One Brandenberg regiment used the Landwehr cap; two others from the same province were issued with the British stovepipe shako and were provided with a very distinctive saddlecloth (more later). Another common variation was to make the regulation uniform in a different coloured cloth. One regiment from East Prussia had light blue litewkas, a Pommeranian regiment made theirs out of dark grey cloth. Having said this, the regulation uniform was worn by most regiments. I have made a rough estimate of the ratio of regiments which wore the regulation uniform to those that did not. Across most provinces it is 3:1 in favour of the regulation uniform. This means that approximately 75 % of the landwehr cavalry regiments wore this uniform.

Most regiments had Prussian blue litewkas with grey cavalry overalls, usually without the red stripe down the outside seam. The litewkas had collars in the provincial colour but cuffs were mostly left in the coat colour. Shoulder straps seem to have denoted the seniority of the regiment within the province and were usually white or red. All leather equipment and belting was made of black leather. The saddle cloth was usually a sheepskin with a scalloped edging (not dog-toothed) in the provincial colour. These sheepskin saddle cloths were generally black but some provinces (e.g. Silesia) seem to have issued white sheepskins. The sword scabbard was white metal. The equipment attached to the saddle was coloured as follows: canteen and roll covered in grey cloth with black straps; forage bags canvas coloured; the pouch was black leather. After the 1813 campaign the white over black lance pennon became standard, before this many regiments had the white over black but others had provincial pennons (e.g. several Brandenberg regiments had red over white pennons). When on campaign, shakos were generally covered in the weather-proof cover common in the Prussian army. Some regiments painted the Landwehr cross on the shako covers.

Preparing the Figures

I do not provide lances with these figures. Almost 25 years of painting and gaming has taught me that white metal lances cannot take the strain of a good game. There is nothing more annoying than flaking paint on a bent lance! I recommend that you make the lances out of brass or steel wire. This is available in most good hobby stores. Cut the wire into 5.5cm lengths and grind the ends to a point, sharp at one end and rounded on the other. Electric bench grinders are cheap and readily available in most DIY stores. I recently bought myself a new bench grinder for less than Ј20. Lance pennons can be made out of pewter sheet (available from Sylmasta Ltd. PO Box 262, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3FR, tel. +44 (0)1444 415027, or you can wait until Graham at GMB designs finishes his sheets of Prussian pennons.

Advancing (Lances Upright)

Code	Description
PCL1	Trooper looking forward
PCL2	Trooper looking down slightly, lower hold on lance
PCL3	Trooper looking forward, slight turn of the body to the right
PCL3b	As PCL3 but looking left
PCL4	Trumpeter, holding trumpet
PCL5	Regimental officer, sword arm upright, looking right
PCL6	Squadron officer. Two arm variants
PCL7	Version of PCL2 bareheaded
PCL8	Version of PCL1, bandaged head