How to Paint A Prussian Musketeer 1812 - 1815

by Ringo Simpkins/Friday, 27 March, 2015

Those of you familiar with my You Tube channel will no doubt know I have started to paint the Prussians Mrs Simpkins got me for Christmas. As ever, starting to paint a new troop type, and one in an army of a nation you have never tried to paint before, is an exciting prospect. I hit the internet and my limited collection of books and soon discovered there was not the level of information readily available on the Prussian Musketeers in a format that I would be needing.

So I decided to ask via You Tube and was rewarded with a host of information on all aspects on how to paint a Prussian Musketeer Battalion. The Video at the bottom of this article goes through the result of my researches and colours in a basic, war-games standard, Prussian Musketeer. Obviously, for wargaming we tend not to have the high level of detail required of a display model, but the Calpe figures are so well researched, the miniature does give a high level of accuracy to the subject which does make painting them really straightforward if you know what colour goes where (which at the outset of this project I did not).

So it is my hope that if ever someone, like me a mere few weeks ago, is wanting to find information on how to paint a Musketeer to a reasonable level of accuracy, then combined with the links below to good sources of knowledge and this video, they should have an easier time of it.

You Tube offers a host of good and useful information, there a few great channels whose owners really did give me great advice, not just in my comments but via email and Skype.

To name but a handful:

If you look through the comments on my previous two videos on the subject you will find links and comments that will be really useful to your quest.

Additionally, Peter Fitzgerald (the man behind Calpe Miniatures ) on his Calpe Veterans store has a whole host of information about uniforms and colours and helped me out quite a bit. That's customer service for you! If you go to the Veteran site, choose a troop type and have a scroll about the page that arrives, he gives detailed information about the units listed on the page. Absolute gold in my view.


Since doing this video I have come across some further information, apparently sword scabbards would be a leather brown colour (same as the - what I now know is the musket sling around the greatcoat roll over the shoulder), rather than black. I think my kollets are a bit too blue, the jackets were a really dark blue, so I might not use the light blue all over in future, just as a fleck of highlight. The officer's sheath was of red leather, not black and I am still hunting out the colours of the epaulettes of the officers greatcoat as I am not certain if they were just grey or of the same colours as the regimental distinction (in this case white) or rank. I did not paint the NCO's collar or cuffs with the gold lace, not through ignorance, I was just being lazy.

I hope this article and video helps someone out, the Prussian army of 1812 - 1815 is a fantastic army to collect and paint, I am sure it and I will be companions on the painting table and games table for many years to come.