Tuesday 31 October 2017

Hessian Leib Regiment













Regular readers of this blog will know that I am slightly obsessed with 18th century Hessians. I even have another blog, if a bit redundant at the moment, that focuses on early SYW Hessians. What I like about them is that they are a Prussian looking army but much smaller and feasible given that I have to paint both sides if I embark on a project. Add to that the fact that my second favourite army of this bewigged century is the French. Who could possible manufacture both sides? Well I am teasing you because my favourite manufacturer is Black Hussar who, incidentally, produce both Prussians and French for the SYW. The imminent arrival of Prussian Cuirassiers is most welcome too.

So here is the start of a small project (Hessians v French) for late SYW. When I say small, I mean similar sized to the WAS in Italy project which consists of about 12 battalions and 12 squadrons each side.

The other thing I like about Hessians are their bewilderingly colourful AWI flags. In 1760 the old Landgraf passed away and his son Friedrich II came to the throne. He was a Prussian General and inhaber of a Prussian Infantry regiment too. Already quite Prussian in it's look, he tinkered with the organisation and flags to make the army a mini-replica of his big neighbour to the East. The early flags, prior to 1760, I find a little bit dull. The post 1760 flags are much more Prussian in look but many details of what they looked like are unknown. With the AWI you would have thought that the fog of what the flags looked like might have lifted but sadly not. Many of the articles on the AWI flags captured are inconsistent with Prussian practice. A good article is here at

So what I am doing is a late SYW Hessian army with AWI flags. Some are conjectural as the Hessians only sent single battalions to North America whereas I will field double battalion regiments. Some questions remain as to what exactly was the colour combination of the Leibfahne and what was the colour combination of the Regimentfahne? I will try to follow the logic of the Prussian system but I admit there are many opposing views so this is just my interpretation. But you also have to just love the vibrant colour of the flags which came from http://FlagsofWar.com
Iain there is a great chap and he has resized the flags slightly for me so that they fit on the Black Hussar flagpoles. I think the artwork is even better than GMB's, which is saying something.


In terms of the uniforms, most will be based on the SYW late version but with this first regiment, I have gone with the AWI uniform. The late SYW version had pink facings which looked wrong with these flags whereas the sand/mustard yellow facings compliment the flags. And in the unlikely event that I ever do armies for the AWI, then these two battalions can be combined into one, less one set of flags.

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Piedmontese WAS Queen's Dragoons





Three squadrons of the Queen's Dragoons. There were four Piedmontese dragoon regiments, all had red coats in common and assorted different facings. The King's Regiment had dark blue facings, the Piedmont Regiment had white, the Queen's Regiment had sky blue and the Crown Prince's had apple green.

Russian SYW: Nizegorodskiy Infantry Regiment




Number eleven finished with rather smart flags.

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Wednesday 11 October 2017

WAS Italian War - Piedmontese Regiment Baden (recruited in that south German state)




This is the last of the Piedmontese Line regiments I have planned for this army although I still have to paint a light infantry unit. So this army is almost complete. Just a few generals to do as well as some dragoons.

Russian SYW: Kievskiy Infantry Regiment




The ninth regiment finished.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

WAS Italian War - Piedmontese Regiment Keller




I really am pleased with this unit that is a mix of Foundry and Black Hussar figures. This is also the penultimate line unit for the Piedmontese so I am getting there. This is a Swiss unit.


Russian SYW: Chernigovskiy Infantry Regiment




The eighth regiment is finished. 
Also a couple of eBay sales from my collection:



TAG Ottoman Janissaries and TAG Russian Jiltsi.