Thursday 30 July 2015

Russian Napoleonic Army for sale


I'm here in France and doing some rationalization.
I've decided to sell my Russian Napoleonic army. For pictures, go to the LABELS on the right hand side and click on Napoleonics. There you will see pictures of what I have. I'm looking for these (if possible) to go to a single buyer.

2 battalions of the 9th Jaegers (each battalion 32 figures)
2 battalions of Tchernigov (each 32)
2 battalions of Kaporski (each 32)
2 battalions of Narva (each 32)
2 battalions of Revel (each 32)
Total 10 battalions of 32 = 320 figures
They are mostly plastics, a mix of Perry and Warlord Games.

I want $5 each so 320 x $5 = $1600
I will throw in free of charge -
1) Free postage anywhere in the world
2) 4 painted and based Generals (Front Rank)
3) One mounted officer half-painted. (Front Rank)

There is no artillery or cavalry but I'm happy to do this for you. Prices are found on www.paintedsoldier.net

I also have the figures for two more battalions (which were planned to be another 2 Jaeger battalions). I will send these to you free of charge if you wish or you can commision me to paint them.

If you are interested, please reply via www.paintedsoldier.net
If they are to be posted, I need to pack them within the next two weeks.

You can write to me in Russian or Ukrainian, no problem!


Sunday 19 July 2015

Baron Karl Sigismond Friedrick Wilhelm Leutrum





Here is the second Piedmontese General from the pack of Perry AWI French Colonels. The AWI uniform has some late features for my mid 18th century officers but it was the fantastic pose that caught my attention. The changes (enlarging the cuffs, removing epaulettes and adding a sash) were easily achieved with green-stuff. Here you can see him inspiring a couple of battalions from his brigade. He is wearing his Rehbinder uniform.

Recently I received in the post Stephen Manley’s WAS guide for Italian uniforms and I’m very pleased I ordered it. I have made some changes already to what I had previously painted. Firstly, the gun colour has changed to mid/light blue. Secondly, but not visible, is the flame of some of the Grenadier bearskins. I have further changes to make at some stage as the drummers all wore a House livery as I had suspected but had not been able to research. New battalions will get this livery but I’m not re-painting (yet) the four battalions that have been finished.

Baron Karl Sigismond Friedrick Wilhelm Leutrum (1692-1755)

Born at Karlhausen, Baden. Sent to Piedmont at 14 as part of the escort of Prinz Eugene. Deciding to join the Sabaudian army, he was made Captain of Infantry (c.1706), then in 1725 Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment Rehbinder (one of the German regiments in Piedmontese service). Became Colonel of Rehbinder in 1732 and distinguished himself in the War of the Polish Succession, making Brigadier in 1735.

At the start of the War of the Austrian Succession he was still a Brigadier, and in 1743 accompanied his regiment when it was sent to assist the Austrians. Fighting at Campo Santo, he and General Aspremont-Linden led a counterattack with three regiments, including his own, that stabilised a Spanish breakthrough. Aspremont-Linden was killed; Leutrum badly wounded. But they had compelled a Spanish regiment to surrender, and Leutrum was promoted to Major General on the battlefield.

Later that year he helped defend the Susa valley, while his regiment was sent south to counter the main Bourbon effort on the Varaita. In 1744 he fought at Villefranche, leading a counterattack that temporarily recaptured several positions. Evacuated to Oneille by sea, he found himself appointed Governor of Cuneo, under imminent threat of siege. Leutrum energised the defence, restoring morale, organising the citizens, laying-in enough stores for a five-months siege, and building outworks and redoubts – he preferred to defend as far forward as possible. The siege of Cuneo is recognised as his greatest moment and he became a hero to both the Sabaudian army, and the townspeople.

In 1745 he twice defeated French attacks against the key position of Ceva, south of Asti and Alessandria, and in early 1746, he led the counteroffensive against the French at Asti with an army of 30,000 men. Leutrum remained in Lombardy that year, finally concluding the siege of Tortona in November. In the Bourbon offensive of 1747 he held, with inferior forces, a defensive position covering the Tende Pass to the sea against 50 battalions. At war’s end, Leutrum returned to Cuneo as its Governor.


He was further honoured by the renaming of Regiment Burgsdorf, “Regiment Leutrum”. But he refused the collar of the Ordine della Santissima Annunziata, Piedmont’s greatest decoration, because only Catholics could qualify; Leutrum was a Protestant, and chose to remain so. Before he died of dropsy in 1755, he asked to be buried in the Waldesian Valley, home of the Protestant Vaudois.

Saturday 18 July 2015

Start of the new terrain





Just to let you know that I'm going off on my holiday soon so there will be very few posts in August.
And, just to show you how 'French' I have become, I am taking the whole month off. Actually, the French, bless them, are beginning to work in August and it is becoming increasingly rare to find a business that closes for the whole month.

We have been tiring of the terrain as well. Countless photographs of boring green and the same backdrop! So here is the first of the 4' x 2' new tiles and there will be a total of nine by the time I have finished. Not only are the woods all moveable but that backdrop can also be moved to any part as well. When I return I will bring some new titbits - teddy-bear fur, new trees and possibly a new backdrop. Oh, and new buildings.

So meanwhile, see three squadrons of the 40mm SYW Prussian Hussars Regiment 6 - the Fleischhackers. There will be one more post in a few days time.

Tuesday 14 July 2015

A few Austrians from the SYW





Fourteen battalion of Austrian infantry massed in lines with a similar number of Grenadier companies at the front.  A lovely target for artillery, but impressive none the less.

Sunday 12 July 2015

40mm IR40: An overdose in pink








Here are the two battalions of SYW Prussian Fusilier Regiment 40 in 40mm from Trident. As I have said before, pink is a tricky colour to paint as it can come out pale and insipid. I followed the Menzel illustrations shown above to get this more vibrant shade.


(Bottom picture) In the hills of Silesia Frederick has more to worry about than just the Austrians. The sky is about to fall in, football-sized  hail-stones have crushed all the plants, and a giant predator searches for lunch.

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Saxon Karabiniergarde




This is the last cavalry regiment stuck in Poland at the start of the SYW. Oddly it's a Guard cuirassier unit so I'm not sure why it was stationed there. Also Kronoskaf has a number of uniform contradictions and I've made my own interpretation - they show white hat lace with white buttons but yellow lace on the shabraque. But the illustrated officer has gold lace and the description says yellow hat lace. I've gone with yellow hat lace and yellow buttons. Furthermore this may be a cuirassier regiment but it wore the cuirasse under the coat so I've used a dragoon figure and painted a black wedge where the cuirasse would have been, if worn at all.

Next week, back to Austrians and then there will be a pause as I will be in France.

Saturday 4 July 2015

WAS in Italy (10): Piedmontese La Marine Regiment




In 1701Duke Victor Amadeus II gave orders to raise a battalion of militia from the county of Nice and the princedom of Oneglia. A Regiment of National Ordinance of 10 companies with the name of ‘Nice’ was raised. Only in 1714 did it become La Marine. It’s main duty, it would appear, was to service the galley fleet. It’s numbers fluctuated but by 1734 it consisted of two battalions.  The 1st had 10 companies but the 2nd only had five companies.  In 1738 La Marine dropped to one battalion, and then by 1741 was again up to two battalions. By 1747 it had dropped to one battalion and thereafter stayed at this establishment until 1798.

The War of the Polish Succession.
La Marine,during the War of Polish Succession, had a total strength of two battalions. The 1st battalion fought in the land theatre with the rest of the Sabaudian army, while the 2nd served as marines on the Sabaudian Royal Navy. After garrison and escort duties, the first battalion of La Marine saw its first action in the battle of Guastalla (19 September 1734). The battalion spent the follow year campaigning in the Po Valley and on the Adige  until the end of the hostilities. The second battalion served on the Galley fleet during the war patrolling the Ligurian Sea between the harbours of Nice, Villafranca, Oneglia and the Sardinian cities.

The War of the Austrian Succession.
In 1742 La Marine was campaigning in north-east Italy on the Po plains. In October La Marine marched on the Alps to face the mounting Spanish offensive. From the camp at Bussoleno in Piedmont the Regiment's second battalion united with the first battalion for the counter-offensive against the invading Spanish army. On the 3 January 1743 La Marine returned again to Piedmont. After the debacle in Savoy the operational theatre for La Marine was now the Varaita Valley where the main Franco-Spanish army had chosen to invade Piedmont. The whole regiment fought at the battle of Casteldelfino (8 October 1743), when Charles Emmanuel's army stopped the first offensive against Piedmont. The follow year the whole regiment was present at the hard combat around the entrenched camp of Villafranca (20-21 April 1744) in the Mediterranean theatre. During the defence of Mount Alban, the Regiment  faced and beat off an attack by the dismounted troopers of the French Regiment of Dragons ‘La Reine’. Elements of the first battalion held the Citadel of S. Elm to cover the retreating garrison.
After the bloody defeat in Varaita Valley, the fortress city of Cuneo was under siege. The Regiment La Marine marched with the Piedmontese army in order to break the siege and during the battle near Madonna dell'Olmo (30 September 1744) its battalions were situated in the centre of the first line. After the maelstrom of 1745, the Sabaudian army was able to retake the initiative.Then the two battalions fought in the south-west in the Mediterranean theatre.



Regimental Colonels


Jacob D'Alerthon -From 25- 4- 1728

Giuseppe Federico Canale di Cumiana -From 15- 1- 1734

Bartolomeo Sforza Pallavicino -From 1- 3- 1735

Camille du Thaon - From 11- 4-1739


Friday 3 July 2015

Prinz Albrecht Chevauxlegers



The penultimate of the Saxon cavalry units which missed the debacle at Pirna because they started the war in Poland, this one had a spirited reputation.

An interesting question (which I cannot answer definitively) is whether these units in Poland were mounted on smaller (and cheaper) Polish horses. My guess would be that the Uhlanen were but that these Chevauxlegers were not - despite their title of 'light horse'. In wargaming I would rate these as classy dragoons!