Our project for 2018 - Ulundi

In the past I have mentioned that our anual project for the Dioramica in November 2018 is the last battle in the Zulu war.

I just worked over the list and recognized we already have passed the 6600 figures mark of painted figures. So far I have concentrated myself on the Zulus of which I have 2371 I painted now (booring I can tell you).

Here the work of the last three month

So at the moment I am on the 17th lancers and more Frontier light horse to paint something different.

Now Alfred started working on more Zulus. And he is making it the perfect way, not only using existing figures, but giving all the Esci figures a metal head without "parade dress".

As usual he is playing Dr. Frankenstein and I am wondering what comes out in the end:-)

Prussian Generals

After the Egyptian campaign we make a jump 40 years back and come into the SYW.

Holger asked for two personalities of this war. The two great heroes of Prussian cavalry, Seydlitz and Ziethen.

I think these two are a must for each SYW army. Made by Massimo and in four weeks in our shop

A new set of French infantry for Egypt

With Frank and Andy working on the Egyptian project I decided to help and pay for a set of masters myself.

For me as a bloodthursty battlefield dioramabuilder it had to be some different poses to all the marching ones already available:-) So I wanted to have a firing line.

Here the photos from Frank which I got this evening. They are soon available in the shop too.

Beside these poses Frank already sculpted some others too. I nice addition to the commant set.

And I found two more photos on my PC of which I am not sure that I already showed them

You see the range is growing fast:-)

French Infantry 1854-1871 - The Franco-Prussian war and a diorama project of Solferino 1859

The first figures Massimo sculpted for me was a group of Bavarian infantry in the Franco-Prussian war.

From this gift Hagen-Miniatures came to life. In the beginning we concentrated on the Franco-Prussian war which was one of the most interesting subjects for me.

When Hagen grew and a lot of friends joined the group the focus (wishes) of the guys concentrated more on Napoleonics and other subjects we were fond of. I for myself never forgot the subject of 1870/71 and in the meantime I have a collection of over 1000 painted figures for it.

We already got a range of the war in our shop. The French infantry you see there are the masters I bought from HAT at the very beginning of my own production (before the start of Hagen).



When Patrick had his idea of a new diorama for Solferino (all figures sculpted by Massimo) I thought I should continue with the production of Germans units as I have somebody who makes French:-)
About his idea check this link to see what is going on.

Another interesting link to the subject is on Bennos Forum where Wolfgang shows some of the figures Massimo already sculpted.


Solferino is "just" a five hours drive from my home, so I visited the battlefield several times myself and of course saw all museums there. Really a very interesting subject!

Now my friend Thomas came and told me he wants to have figures for this campaigns too.
He was able to buy some figures Massimo sculpted several years ago.

With so many French around it is really time to make some more German units. So I plan to order
2-3 Sets of Prussian infantry and cavalry this year.

And maybe in the next years a diorama project for this war too?  These figures could be used for the Crimea too. So there are several options - and a lot of ideas I have:-)

645 BC - The taking of Babylon

by he Assyrians under Assurbanipal.

One of the flat figure dioramas in the museum at Morges, Switzerland. I use the photos Alfred made as mine are much bigger files:-)

No battle scenes, but nice paintjobs and the building is interesting. You may know the the diorama is some decades old.

Museum of the Republic of Rome 1849

On our trip to Rome we visited a lot of museums as I wrote before. There is one about the Republic of 1849 and the siege of the French army. I hoped for a lot of uniforms, battlepaintings etc.

But in the end this museum is more a shrine for Garibaldi and his family. At least I got some more shots on original redshirt. I guess in the meantime  I have a complete batallion of original redshirts photographed. Even in the Vatican Museum of St. Angelo was one!

But what interested me most in the Republic museum was a diorama about the siege, made with 15mm figures. This is a subject that should be done in 1/72 too!

And in the Risorgimento Museum we found a nice painting with a lot of details. The uniforms in this painting are historically correct.