Back in march I was in 2 minds whether to attempt another busterama,last years one I did was quite a large undertaking for me but I did enjoy it,however after some careful thought I decided to go ahead and begin one.
The subject wasn't going to be too difficult for me,as I had the idea bouncing around in my head last year.
Being a waterloo fanatic I've always been fascinated by the huge effort the Prussian army put into the campaign,especially the later stages,marching from wavre to waterloo to join up with the Anglo Dutch army.
It was this I wanted to portray in some form using 5x busts which were all commercial busts but I converted into Prussian Infantrymen,exactly the same process as last year when I did the imperial Guard busterama.
The pieces I chose for the conversions were as follows :

Frank Miniatures - Continental Infantryman
MMM - Col Robert Shaw
MMM - Iron Brigade officer
Stormtroopers - I have the Cuckoo
Stormtroopers - Old Abe

All these busts were originally sculpted by Carl Reid and had just the right sort of poses I was looking for.

In this first picture,which was the Col Shaw bust,i've removed the headwear and the goatee together with the sash and revolver gun case and rank shoulder boards,the actual body for this looked quite good and very similar in pattern to some Prussian officers tunics,i removed the small collar and sculpted a higher one of the Napoleonic style.
The area where the sash was I decided to shape into coat-tails with the middle piece showing the officers breeches,these I did with magic-sculp.
I added hair in the style of the 19th century artists and looking at paintings and pictures.
Epaulettes were also added with MS and some twisted wire.
View attachment 242727

For the 2nd bust I chose the Iron Brigade officer,i used a spare for the right arm and resculpted the left arm,again the headwear was not used and the beard removed,i sanded down all the torso and sculpted a new tunic as per the osprey books,new headwear was created with plasti-card and MS.
A blanket roll was also added,these were very popular in the Prussian army and I wanted to replicate this on a couple of my pieces,this was also created using MS.
Crossbelts and bread bag were also made from MS,the ammo pouch was from my spares box and shaped to suit.
The blanket roll ends have still to be added at a later stage.
View attachment 242733
For the 3rd bust I am attempting a Prussian flag bearer,this will give the whole finished piece a good focal point,for this I chose the Old Abe bust from Stu at stormtroopers,the positions of the arms I really like,however I sanded the rest of the torso down and resculpted a new tunic,again the facial beard was removed and the hat replaced with the Prussian hat using plasti-card and MS.
I also added a blanket roll and knapsack to this piece,again all this was done using MS and reference photos,crossbelts and breast straps were added with MS as were the shoulder straps,i als added a moustache to this bust with MS.
in the following photos,you will see how I construct the Prussian hat,the peak and hat band are plasti-card

For bust number 4 I used the frank miniatures Continental infantryman,i used this piece last year on my Guard busterama and its a bust with great conversion potential.
Folowing on from the previous texts,it was the same process for creating the hat and resculpting the uniform detail.
View attachment 242744
For the final bust,i again went for a stormtrooper piece,i have the cuckoo,instead of the kit arms,i sculpted new ones onto wire armatures,this piece I wanted him raising his musket into the air,the lower arm and hand will be holding an axe,the axe was part of the Prussian infantrymans make up so that's why I opted for the axe,this will come later,again the bread bag,crossbelts and starps plus knapsack were done using MS,the cartridge pouch was again from my spares box.
The musket still needs to be modified to represent the Prussian type of 1815,many thanks to Graham Scollick at CGS for providing me with the muskets.


Hope to have some more updates next week.

Brian

many thanks kev,glad you like it mate

I take it you have been certified.
Joking apart, fantastic vision and good luck with this one Brian.

I'm looking forward to following this Brian, that's a very good idea to portray the Prussians.

yes bob,i have all my faculties about me,i know I can do it because I did one last year as well

many thanks roger for your coments

Another piece of Smith magic-really looking forward to seeing this progress.

Claude

cannot wait to see this. it will make a change to see prussians as they seem to be the poor relations with anything to do with waterloo. Have to agree with other people though and think you must be slightly bonkers to start a task like this

Many thanks Claude

Many thanks my friend I remember many people telling me this last year but I came through it and I will with this one as well

That is looking a fantastic start. Good luck with getting this done in time for euro. I look forward to seeing it .

Cheers
Tommi

Many thanks Tommi

Well you did it again mate another winner if every their was one. looking forward to more pics. keep it up mate loving it.

Ian

www.elliesminiatures.com

This is going to be fun. Will this be related to the cuirassier project somehow?

Cheers

Huw

Another inspirational piece, looking forward to the progress. Brilliant.

Another fantastic prohect Brian.
Gordon

Many thanks Ian for your kind words

Hi Huw,I had to put the cuirassier trio on hold mate due to some complications I had,it will be finished though perhaps later in the year

Many thanks Gordon