Painting Wargames Figures

Austria WAS/SYW: IR 22 Roth/Sprecher

2012-01-07T12:20:00.009+01:00

This is a splendid regiment and the only one in Austrian service with this double colour scheme. This is certainly a WAS uniform that might well have lingered on into the SYW. For more on this regiment see Christian Rogge's blog at this link http://crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com/2010/04/battle-of-mollwitz-1.html
for inspiration in coupling this unit with these spectacular flags. These flags certainly existed but, as far as I know, there is no reason to assume that they were carried by this particular regiment. On this subject of the flags, I have created a special Leibfahne for them to match up with their Regimentsfahne. Its also worth looking again at the Roechling print of the Battle of Hohenfriedberg that I posted here on the second of this month – this red and white striped flag is shown being presented to Frederick II by the white-coated Prussian dragoons, along with others that have been captured on that day. Note too the great variety of flags supposedly being carried by the Austrians on that day. (NB This red and white flag is illustrated in colour on the back of the Greenwood & Ball Austrian booklet http://www.18thcenturypress.com/syw.html)

I have again given them the white-green cockade (about which I speculated in an earlier post), the old drummer's dress of reversed colours, and these very early WAS flags.

A further eccentricity of this regiment was the fact that both Officers and NCOs did not have red lapels but rather none or white. In summary, this regiment looks perfect for 1743-45. Everyone with an Austrian mid 18th century army needs these guys as they look so un-Austrian!

Austria WAS/SYW: IR 27 Hessen-Cassel

2012-01-07T10:22:00.005+01:00

This regiment was 'Hessen-Cassel' in the WAS but by the SYW was called Baden-Durlach.
I have given them the pale blue turn backs they sported in the earlier period as well as the white/green cockades for officers (see my earlier post on IR 18) and the Green flag (M1744) which was introduced to replace the Imperial ones when those fiendish Wittelsbachs made their dastardly grab at the Imperial dignity. I guess my adjectival use might give a hint as to which side of the fence I rest.

Thus this regiment looks spot on, I think, for about 1755 as the drummer has changed over to a white coat as per the official instructions of that year – i.e. non-reversed coloured coats. This uniform could well (minus the cockades?) have been in use through much of the SYW.

Austria WAS/SYW: IR 18 Marshall

2012-01-07T09:45:00.006+01:00

Two battalions of one of my favourite Austrian regiments. The figures are a mix between Crusader and Front Rank to give variety. (Please note the numbering system was introduced only in 1769 but for convenience I am using it here.)

I have given them red turn backs as was likely in the earlier period. Red and white is the classic look to Austrian infantry, don't you think? In fact this regiment is so popular (with me, anyway) that I have it in 40mm too. They proudly carry the M1745 flags.

One strange thing is that Kronoskaf mentions white/green cockades for Officers. This is very odd as they certainly used the more common black cockades in the SYW, or so I thought. I can only imagine that the white/green ones were possibly used in that tiny non-Imperial phase between 1743 and the summer of 1745 when the Wittelsbachs grabbed the Imperial dignity. This use of green would coincide with the introduction (if ever so briefly) of the new Green flags issued in small numbers to replace the old Imperial ones (see post to follow shortly on IR 27).

The regimental inhaber was Ernst Dietrich Reichsgraf Marshall von Biberstein. This regiment looks right from about 1755 to the beginning of the SYW, although the coloured cockade might mean an earlier start date if my speculation on the cockade colour holds true.
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How I paint spiral flag staffs:

1) Paint two thirds in the lightest colour (in this case yellow) starting at the bottom. The flag itself will cover the top third so don't bother to paint this at all.

2) Once dry, I work on the black starting from the bottom and turning the staff. I'm right handed, so the pole is in the left hand and I'm continually turning it while the right hand, with the brush is giving small brush strokes. If, as in this case, there will be a third colour, make sure the gap between one black line and the next black line is double thickness. The angle of the spiral you will get with practice - if this task has not driven you potty first.

3) Once dry, insert the third colour. In this instance I have put it immediately below the black.
Normally I will now only need to touch up the base colour (yellow in this case) as there is always the odd mistake.

4) Rest! Don't stress about the result – lets face it you have had a good stab (hopefully) at one of the most difficult things to paint!

NB: I assume you have a separate metal rod for this because if the flag pole is attached to the figure I would not even try this. That way lies lunacy.

Through the Keyhole

2012-01-04T10:25:00.005+01:00

This was the title of a TV programme that ran in the UK (and perhaps the USA) in the early '90s, which was hosted by David Frost and the irritatingly mid-Atlantic Loyd Grossman, who went on to make spaghetti sauces! In the programme you had to guess who lived in a particular house and, if you will be good enough to go to the 'Links' section on the right of this blog, you will find a link called 'My House is for Sale'. This is all a very tenuous method of telling you that my house is for sale and while you don't need to guess whose house it is (after all, I have already told you) you could, if you scanned down through the pictures, find yourself having, as the French say, a 'coup de coeur.'

I must apologise to you for such blatant commercialism – it is quite unlike me. But in these days of financial woes in the Euro zone, one has to do whatever one can to sell property. It would make someone a wonderful holiday home and comes complete with a wargames attic with a table that is over 20' x 6'. Furthermore I would, for additional consideration, be prepared to leave almost all the furniture and fittings. Of course I don't expect to sell to a wargamer, but you might know someone who is house-hunting in France and you might, if you were feeling great generosity of spirit, kindly pass these details on to them.

Rest assured that if I sell my home, I will continue with my blog and my wargaming.

Crusader's Rank and File SYW range

2012-01-02T19:32:00.003+01:00

I posted earlier on today and then deleted the post! Mark Sims, of Crusader, had sent me a link to his new Napoleonic rules (called 'March Attack') and I had assumed that he wanted these circulated. That was not the case so my apologies. If you were lucky to download, prior to my deleting that post, then you had a lucky day saving yourself about $10.

More importantly, we discussed his sculpting projects for 2012 and the news is that there is a very good chance that he will be returning to the SYW ranges (Rank and File) in the second half of 2012.

At present there are 5 armies represented:

- Austrians and Prussians - finished armies
-French, British and Russians - partial infantry codes, no cavalry.

So perhaps, if the SYW is of interest to you in 28mm, you might consider letting me know what you would like to see. I think it is his intention to finish the unfinished nationalities rather than starting on new armies.

We certainly need:
British Grenadiers
Highlanders and command
Grenadiers de France and command
Russian Observation Corps and command
Russian Observation Corps Grenadiers
Russian Grenadiers and command

and that is just for the infantry.
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The Roechling print is relevant - I'm painting Austrians at the moment and will show you three regiments, including the ones carrying the red and white striped flags, by the end of the week.

Schaumburg Lippe Artillery battery

2011-12-15T09:54:00.009+01:00

Schaumburg Lippe is a Ruritanian delight and one of the reasons why wargaming the 18th century is such fun.

The County of Schaumburg Lippe (Grafschaft Schaumburg-Lippe in German) was a tiny pin-prick of a place but it's ruler was an artillery fanatic. He had his guns constructed to his specification and established an artillery school on an island in his Grafschaft. The map shows the territory (in 1905) to be 131 square miles in size!

Count Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe was born in London in 1724 and served at the Battle of Dettingen. During the SYW he commanded the Allied artillery at the Battle of Minden. By the end of the war he was in Portugal reforming that state's military establishment.

The army of his tiny Grafschaft consisted on one battalion of infantry (that was often to be be found guarding the artillery), a small cavalry unit, a jaeger unit, and an enormous, proportionately, artillery park of 29 3-pounders, four 8-, two 12-, three 18-pounder cannon, three howitzers and four heavy mortars!!

The colour scheme of the guns is speculative but as the infantry unit was considered to be part of the Hanoverian establishment I have gone with the traditional Hanoverian red.

This is my last post for 2011 so I'd like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and hopes for us all that 2012 is a somewhat better year than the one that went before.

French 4th Hussars

2011-12-12T12:28:00.004+01:00

Twenty four figures (4 squadrons of 6) of the 4th Hussars are done - Perry plastics which are excellent figures and I love the variety one can get with the horses. These chaps need to be brigaded with another light cavalry regiment and I've decided to use Perry metal Chasseurs a cheval but with a twist. The late chasseur uniform is, in my view, a tad dull so I will give them all full dress plumes using the dozens of plastic plumes I have left over from the Hussar boxes.

This will, I hope, make them look rather spectacular.

SYW: Hessian 6pdr battery

2011-12-10T12:21:00.004+01:00

This is a 12 gun battery of 6pdrs painted as a Hessian battery (6 gun models, 12 crew). The guns are by Front Rank and the crews are Foundry's Prussians.

Talking about Foundry, you probably know I used a number of their triad paints - that is paint grouped into 3s by tone. Recently I've noticed that a large number of the plastic tops have started to split, particularly on those that, oddly enough, I don't use very often. This is a disaster as the paint will rapidly start to dry out and these are not cheap paints. I've written to them to ask if I can buy some new caps and I'm awaiting an answer. I'll let you know the results (or lack thereof).

Napoleonic French 6pdr battery

2011-12-09T11:06:00.004+01:00

Phase one of my Napoleonics French project is almost complete - 10 battalions of 36 figs each, cavalry (more on that later this month) and the single foot battery, consisting of 6 x 6pdrs (3 guns) and 2 howitzers (one gun). The figures are a mixture of Foundry, designed by the Perry brothers a long time ago (maybe 15 years ago but I'm not sure) as well as Perry figures from their own more modern range. They kindly provided extra guns and less crew as I had picked up a couple of packs of the Foundry crew at a North Star sale a few months back.

As for the colour of French guns, I have used an old and much valued pot of Humbrol (code is 179 French Artillery Green) which, if you ever see it in a shop, you should grab as it is increasingly hard to find and may not be being made anymore. The other alternative is to buy the Foundry triad called, unappetisingly, "Phlegm Green" 28A,B and C. Personally I have never had phlegm that colour but perhaps creapy-crawlies of some sort do!

Very soon now I'll post pictures of the Hussar regiment as well some SYW Hessian and Schaumburg batteries.

The results of the poll were rather interesting and, after the Russian booklet is printed, I think we will look at doing a Hanoverian booklet. The re-printing of the Ortenburg book is ditched as a reprint as images have appeared on the web, much to my annoyance, and, sadly, I don't think the copyright holders challenged them when they started to leak out. The Web brings benefits to everyone but there are people out there who think nothing about scanning images from books still within copyright and posting them for all to see. This makes reprinting of image-intensive books of limited economic benefit to publishers.

15% Sale

2011-12-06T09:03:00.004+01:00

Just to let you know that http://www.18thcenturypress.com/ has started it's Christmas Sale and all books, including Greenwood & Ball, are 15% off. The sale will last until the end of January 2012.

The new Russian booklet will be available in the new year too.

Preview of new Russian SYW guide

2011-11-01T21:18:00.004+01:00

I just wanted to wet your appetites, you Greenwood & Ball fans, with an illustration from the new booklet 18thCenturyPress is preparing at the moment on the Russian Army of the SYW.

This will be the third in the series following on from No1. Prussia and No.2 Austria.

Release date will be early next year - well that is the plan anyway. My compliments to Pete the illustrator who, I think you will agree, has a fine eye and an even finer drawing hand!

I'd like to hope that we could embark on the forth booklet towards the end of 2012 and to that end I'd like to invite ideas from you as to which nation we should cover next. All except, I think, the French whose army was so large that two booklets would be needed. So, leaving them aside, whose army should be next? I'll do a poll.

SYW: French Orleans Dragoons

2011-10-31T13:05:00.003+01:00

Dragoon Regiment Orleans was owned by Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, but was commanded in the field by mestre de camp lieutenant comte de Pons Saint-Maurice. Whilst dragoons in other nation's service seem, by this time, to have fought mostly mounted, in France they retained a significant dismounted role. For example at the Battle of Hastembeck, this regiment served on the right wing in a dismounted role while at the Battle of Krefeld they were mounted.

This regiment wears almost exactly the reverse colour scheme of the other Dragoon regiment I have painted - Lanquedoc.

Capitaine Oudinot and the Gardes d'Honneur

2011-10-22T13:27:00.005+02:00

A few months ago I purchased two boxes of Perry Hussars - a total of 28 figures. Allocating 24 to the 4th Hussars (one squadron done, the rest en-route) that left me 4 figures left over. I decided to paint them up as Gardes d'Honneur, a single company or half a squadron of the 4th Gardes d'Honneur. Plus I had an officer left over. Having also decided that I wanted my French army to be commanded by a more obscure Marshal, I hit upon Oudinot who, it appears from wiki, had a son Charles (born in 1791) who was a cavalryman to boot!

Thus we have the Marshal's personal escort, a half squadron of the Gardes d'Honneur commanded by his son Charles. Surely these guys will never actually fight, except perhaps in extremis, but they will look dashing sitting at the back of the battlefield surveying the carnage about them.

But perhaps I could turn these three figures into a six-figure squadron so if anybody has some (3 to be exact) Perry cavalrymen lying around without purpose, you could sell them to me? I can buy an extra command sprue from the Perrys but it is the rankers I am after.

Russian Napoleonics: Arkangel Infantry

2011-10-21T10:25:00.006+02:00

Anybody who regularly reads this blog will probably remember that the Napoleonic project involved Prussians. Well, it will, in due course, but I have been side-tracked into buying some new plastic Russians from Warlordgames. Four boxes to be precise and here is the first box done - the 1st battalion of Arkangel'gorod' regiment. Gorod, in Russian, just means 'town' so this is the Arkangel regiment from the 8th division.

Firstly, the figures are not bad at all. The box comes with seven sprues of plastics (each with 4 figures) plus four metal command - a drummer, officer and two standard bearers. While the plastic figures have the normal problem of loss of definition on their sides they are nice and animated and each sprue has musketeer heads as well as grenadier heads. Actually I think the plastic figures are rather nicer than the metals which are crude. There is also a decent little sheet of flags for five regiments and it was seeing Arkangel's flags that made me do this regiment although I will not be doing all the other regiments from the 8th Division. I have decided to allow myself artistic licence and just to do four regiments whose flags I like! I plan a fictional division of 12 battalions to face off against my 10 battalions of French, more pictures of which will be on here soon. Don't forget that next year will be the 200th anniversary of the 1812 campaign!

Bercheny Hussars

2011-10-12T09:38:00.005+02:00

My apologies for being quiet of late but I have been rounding off a number of projects and there
will be quite a bit to post over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, here is a French SYW regiment of Hussars. The use of hussars was in its infancy in Western European nations and the French only had four regiments, mostly raised by Hungarian emigres. This regiment, Bercheny, was probably the best of them and one regiment, Polleresky's, was disbanded in 1758, (its squadrons hived off to other regiments) for doing what hussars do rather well - looting and pillaging. They sure look pretty but their quality leaves much to be desired.

The figures are from Front Rank. The flag is conjectural.

40mm: Prussian IR 22 Prinz Moritz von Anhalt

2011-09-16T14:40:00.000+02:00

Here are the first four Prussian battalions finished. The turquoise and white flagged regiment is IR 12
and the blue-red flagged regiment is IR 22 Prinz Moritz von Anhalt. The figures are by Trident from their AWI range of Hessians and they are lovely figures to paint. I would like to do the entire Prussian infantry using Trident's figures.

The reason why I'm showing them on verdant but bare terrain is because I don't have any 40mm specific terrain yet. If I keep going with this project, which I'd like to do but which time and budget constraints might delay, then I'll look at some scale features. As more people get into 40mm, more ephemera might become available.

40mm Prussian Generals

2011-08-31T13:28:00.006+02:00

I would normally use mounted figures to represent Generals of Brigade, but as nobody has made them yet I am having to make do with officers on foot. For 40mm there are three companies making figures for the SYW or useable for that period:

Sash and Saber - a specific SYW range.
Trident - an AWI range with a good Hessian contingent that serves for Prussians.
Front Rank - an AWI range with Hessians/Prussians as well.

The gentleman on the left is a Front Rank figure painted as Generalmajor Karl Ferdinand von Hagen, who was killed at Hochkirch. Although he looks a bit young, this is a well sculpted figure that comes with a separate right arm and a choice of 3 separate heads.

The figure on the right (whom you have seen before) is from Trident and represents Generalmajor Emanuel von Schoning, who was killed at the battle of Prague. Both figures are wearing regimental uniform, in the case of the former IR8 and in the case of the latter, IR46.

Size-wise they sit well side by side. The Front Rank figure has led an epicurean existance, as have all figures from this manufacturer, which would account for his ample stomach whereas the chap from Trident has a somewhat lean and hungry look.

40mm Austrian Draggons (2)

2011-08-16T14:12:00.009+02:00

I know it is Tuesday, but Blogger is acting like it is Monday after a busy weekend out clubbing!
In other words, Blooger is acting up, so here is the text that should have gone with the pictures in the preceeding post:

As promised, I’m showing you the 40mm Austrian SYW Dragoon Regiment Sachsen-Gotha, resplendent in its red coats and light blue facings. The cavalry figures come from Chris Hughes at Sash & Saber (Saber spelt the American way – when I fenced as a youth a long time ago a Saber was a “Sabre” but that is the richness of the English language!) and they come with three different horse poses and three different cavalrymen poses and separate hands with swords in them. This allows great variety in pose and I think he has done a great job showing the movement of a cavalry charge. So far then, in his 40mm range, you can buy Prussian musketeers, fusiliers, grenadiers, some artillery and dragoons. In the Austrian range you can buy Austrian and Hungarian fusiliers and grenadiers, artillery and dragoons. I’m hoping, as he fills out this range, to see wildly charging hussars and more static Cuirassiers in reserve not to mention generals, grenzers and other light infantry.The Prussians being charged (the unfortunate IR 12 Erbprinz von Hessen-Darmstadt) are from Tridents AWI range of Hessians, which work perfectly for the Prussians.

In the Kronoskaf article on the Sachsen-Gotha dragoons, they show a different lace on the horse furniture but I believe this lace might be a later-war detail. I have given them the plain red schabraque with yellow lace as I think this is more appropriate for WAS or early SYW. They also mention a completely different colour for the schabraques of officers (in this case green) and I think that too is a late war change but this time I kept that as it made a nice change and it might make it easier for these chaps to rally in the event of disaster. Still the way they are charging forward, one feels, perhaps, that ones simpathies lie more with the Prussian infantry about to be carved up.

Lastly please look at the buildings in the background. They are 25mm scale and work well with the 40mm figures. Doors are the key – stick a 40mm figure next to a 25mm door and it looks foolish, but if there is no door visable then a large 25mm building will work with 40mm.

40mm Austrian Dragoons

2011-08-16T13:59:00.007+02:00

SYW Prussian Infantry Regiment 34

2011-08-15T10:14:00.005+02:00

This is one of my favourite Prussian Infantry Regiments, No. 34, whose chef was Prince August Ferdinand, one of Frederick's younger brothers, because of the jazzy flags. It was raised in 1740 from the Garde Regiment No.15 and from Garrison regiments one and two.

Again, the figures are a mix of Foundry, Front Rank and Crusader - mostly the latter.

Talleyrand SYW French Cavalry

2011-08-11T11:30:00.005+02:00

Another French cavalry regiment - this time Talleyrand. There is very little information, no, let me re-phrase that, there is NO information that I have been able to find on the musician's uniform so I have painted it in dark red with red/green lace. Figures are by Front Rank.

Also done and ready to show you is a 20 figure Austrian Dragoon regiment in 40mm. I have ordered some 25mm flags, which I will need to re-scale, and then I'll post pictures here. These are from Sash & Saber.

IR 25 von Kalckstein

2011-07-28T17:18:00.003+02:00

Another fine Prussian SYW regiment - in this case No.25 von Kalckstein. Figures are Foundry, Crusader and Front Rank.

The pictures are a little dark and I must apologise for that. When I put them through my normal process of lightening and sharpening (a rather dodgy and old piece of software that I continue to use because I know how it works!) it really hated the apple green and yellow colours in the flags and it threw a 'wobbly' which I was able to 'undo' fortunately. Oh, what would we do without an 'undo' button on our computers! Pitty there isn't one for mistakes made in our lives.

Beauvilliers SYW French Cavalry

2011-07-28T17:02:00.002+02:00

This is Beauvilliers regiment of cavalry from the SYW. The figures are all by Front Rank.
Provincial and noble regiments present a problem when it comes to knowing the colour scheme for musicians. If they had been Royal regiments then one would use the blue and red commonly- seen dress. These regimental musicians were dressed entirely at the whim of their colonel-proprietors and, in this case, I have used the regimental lace (Isabella - a coffee brown - and red chains) to cover a coat coloured as for the rest of the regiment. It might be right but it probably is wrong - but, hey, nobody really knows.

28mm SYW Prussians

2011-07-23T17:22:00.006+02:00

Brigaded together are my two favourite Prussian infantry regiments - numbers 11 and 12 (11 has the red flags). A total of four battalions, each battalion has twenty figures in it. This post shows a mixture of figures from 3 manufacturers - Foundry, Front Rank and Crusader.
In my view, they reflect the fact that people come in different sizes too. The most noticeable difference, in the top picture for example, is with the standard bearers - on the left is a shorter, stockier Front Rank figure and on the right, the somewhat taller Crusader colleague.

Still, I think they work well together and being able to mix figures from all three sources gives you greater variety.

4th Squadron of the 4th Hussars

2011-07-15T09:59:00.004+02:00

Perry Hussars painted as the 4th (French) Hussars around 1812-15. My stamina must be flagging because I find myself only able to paint these squadron (6 figures) by squadron.
They are lovely figures but fiddly.

With summer in full flow I have less time to paint these days - come, sweet winter!

Valhubert

2011-07-06T12:56:00.007+02:00

Phase one of this Napoleonics project is the initial French force consisting of a Division of infantry. Each battalion is 36 figs plus a further six duplicated voltigeur company, which is exactly the contents of a Perry box of plastics. These are pretty much done and I’ll be showing them over the next few weeks. Also to be done in Phase one are Generals, one battery of artillery and 4 squadrons of hussars.

Phase two will be a similar sized Prussian force and as I progress I’ll add additional divisions with the aim of using as many plastics as I can and as many figures designed by the Perrys.

The aim is for them to be used from 1812-1815 but with a focus on the year 1813.

Pictured above is the first brigade of the Division (GD Foy’s) and it is commanded by General de Brigade Valhubert who was killed at the battle of Austerlitz. But I have resurrected him because I used to leave near the Normandy town of Avranches, where he was born and where there is a splendid statue of him erected by King Charles X in 1832.

He commands two battalions, the first and second, of the 6th Legere. I extracted most of the figures without greatcoats from 10 Perry boxes to give these chaps a more regular appearance.

He also commands three battalions of the 30th Ligne making his command a total of five battalions or 210 figures.

SYW French Cavalry: Colonel Général

2011-06-26T13:59:00.003+02:00

This is the very excellent French Cavalry regiment No.1 Colonel Général. All figures by Front Rank. The following article is from Kronoskaf and is useful although it only covers the regiment's early war record.

Organisation and pre-SYW service

This regiment was raised probably raised in 1631 by the duke of Saxe-Weimar when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden intervened in the affairs of Germany. The regiment was among the contingent who joined the French service in 1633. It was incorporated into the French army on October 26 1635.

In 1651, the house of Turenne acquired the regiment. On April 24 1657, when Turenne became colonel-general, his regiment was renamed Colonel-Général Cavalerie and took precedence over all other line cavalry regiments and ranked first.

During the War of the Polish Succession, the regiment served on the Rhine in 1733, taking part to the siege of Kehl. In 1734, it was at Ettlengen and Philippsburg, in 1735 at Klausen.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, the regiment took part to the invasion of Bohemia in 1741. In February 1743, it returned to France. In 1744, the regiment served at Saint-Quentin, then in Flanders. On May 11 1745, it took part to the battle of Fontenoy. In 1746, it was at Bruxelles and fought at Rocoux on October 11. On July 2 1747, it took part to the battle of Lauffeld. In 1748, it was at the siege of Maastricht.

Exceptionally, this regiment counted 3 squadrons.

During the Seven Years' War, the regiment ranked 1^st among the line cavalry and was under the command of:

since July 7 1740: Godefroi Charles Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, prince de Turenne
from April 16 1759: Armand, marquis de Béthune

When the French cavalry was reorganised on December 1 1761, the regiment was increased to 4 squadrons, each of them consisting of 4 companies of 40 troopers, for a total of 640 troopers. The additional squadron came from I./Montcalm Cavalerie.

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SYW service

In 1756, the regiment was stationed at Strasbourg.

In June 1757, the regiment was with the Lower Rhine Army under d'Estrees encamped at Bielefeld. On July 26, the regiment took part in the battle of Hastenbeck where it was among the cavalry of the right wing. After the victory, the regiment encamped at Grosselsen near Hameln with the main body of the Lower Rhine Army from July 31 to August 2. After the Convention of Kloster-Zeven (September 8), it followed the main body, led by the maréchal de Richelieu, who encamped at Halberstadt from September 28 to November 5. The regiment was placed on the first line of the right wing. At the end of the year, it took its winter quarters in Weener in Ostfriese, in the fourth line of the French Army.

In April 1758, when Clermont redeployed his army along the Rhine, the regiment was stationed in the villages of Till, Moyland, Huisberden, Warbeyen, Grieth, Kaltenberg, Hasselt and Bedburg in the area of Kleve. After the successful crossing of the Rhine by Ferdinand's army on May 31, the regiment retired towards Rheinberg where it joined Clermont's army on June 2. It remained in this camp until June 12. It was placed on the right wing of the first line. On June 23, the regiment took part to the battle of Krefeld where it was placed on the right wing of the first line, under d'Armentières. In Mid August, after Ferdinand's retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, the regiment, as part of the army of the Lower Rhine under Contades recrossed the Rhine to follow the Allied army. On August 20, it was encamped near Wesel where it was placed on the right wing of the first line.

SYW French Cavalry: La Reine

2011-06-18T09:30:00.005+02:00

La Reine French cavalry regiment of the WAS/SYW, figures by Front Rank. These were sculpted over ten years ago but are still, in my opinion, the best French cavalry available in 28mm. Although there are only two basic rank and file cavalrymen, you can, with a pair of pliers, move the arm into a slightly different angle and give them more variety. Beware though-livery is a fiddly nightmare!

This commences a 2-3 month run on French cavalry although there will be some surprises too. In fact, the beginning of my Napoleonics.

Arquebesiers de Grassin

2011-06-02T09:43:00.007+02:00

The Arquebesiers de Grassin figurees are from Eureka and gorgeous they are too. They have one of the most complicated and theatrical uniforms of the period - a red mirliton, edged blue, with a brass front plate, blue cockade and white plume. The blue coat is trimmed in black fur for the rankers and I have given grey fur for the officers, though this is speculation on my part.
There are sources out there (Pengel & Hurt) for the rankers but very little for the officers. The only thing I don't like is the sash for the officer as I'm sure this is wrong. Still, for those wishing to defend the bois du Barry (Battle of Fontenoy), you will need this hard-fighting unit.

I believe Eureka plan to do the mounted element of hussar-type figures but there is no sign of them yet, unless I have overlooked them.

Lastly, a pack of Foundry dismounted French dragoons - great character but crude detailing
as per most of the Foundry SYW range.

New SYW Russian booklet

2011-05-18T20:15:00.004+02:00

Just to let you all know that we have started work on the third colour booklet in our Greenwood & Ball series on uniforms of the SYW, which are available from 18thCenturyPress (link on the right hand side).

While I have an excellent illustrator in place, I'm looking for someone to write the copy and liaise with him. I am prepared to do this myself later on this summer but I thought I would ask out amongst my readers if someone fancies the job. If they do, please contact me by email via the contact button at 18CenturyPress.

The provisional cover is shown above.

SYW Languedoc Dragoons

2011-05-15T10:15:00.002+02:00

A 16 figure French dragoon regiment painted for a client. All figures are by Foundry although some of you will spot the occasional Front Rank horse. These mix well together, in terms of height and heft, although the FR horses tend to be larger around the waist and need some filing before the figures fit.

Everybody loves a Camel

2011-05-06T15:32:00.005+02:00

You too should want Camels!

I picked these up at a show a few years ago as I thought they were lovely sculpts. They are by Immortal Miniatures and are sold under the title of Midianite Camel Archers, which puts them firmly into the Greek-Persian wars period. But I have a sneaky feeling you could use them in other Ancient periods.

Of course I'm not going to keep them as they were rarely seen wandering around Gaul so they were bought to paint and they were most enjoyable to complete.
They are on eBay under item:

110684074900

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And for those of you interested in 15mm SYW figures I will be putting onto eBay today 4 battalions of Prussians and 4 battalions of Austrians and they are rather nice!

Conclusion

2011-05-03T16:55:00.010+02:00

The pictures above are the conclusion of the battle of Plexatia. The reason why I have not put them in any order or given any further explanation is because the rules let us down with some bizarre results. The rules were “Macedon and Rome” by Computer Strategies.

Given the disheartening result on day two, I’m surprised that the new gamers I was playing with actually enjoyed themselves but they did, so there was a silver lining to this cloud.

Day one was quite normal – both sides threw their skirmishers and cavalry forward while the main warbands or cohorts advanced. Day one was entirely taken up by this skirmishing (with little casualties) and, by the end of the day (wargaming day – i.e. by about move 9) the four regiments of the Gallic Sotiates force had generally gained the upper hand against their enemies.

Day two was going to be the main event. The warbands were going to charge the cohorts and the battle would be resolved by these ‘serious’ units. Then things started to go pear-shaped. The first warband/cohort melee threw up a weird results – BOTH units were destroyed, so the computer said. No winners, both losers, both units wiped out! Weird we all shouted. No push backs.

Maybe this was a freak result. We tried another pair of units and both were destroyed again. By now I realised that these computer rules had a serious flaw or maybe more than just one. Lastly, we threw the 600 Gallic Soldurii (Chieftain’s personal guard) in against a Thracian unit that was already looking dodgy and was down to half strength. The Soldurii were fresh and in fine shape. Guess what! The Soldurii were destroyed. At that point we gave up.

I wrote to Clinton, the writer of the software, and to quote part of his email “I can only guess that the problem was something local on your PC”. Not very satisfactory but he did attach all the latest software upgrades so in the next few months I’ll replay some of the melees and see what happens. If they work, then that will be great and we will continue to use them. If not, the bin seems like the appropriate place for them.

Onwards and upwards! New things soon.

Plexatia Preview 3 - The Gauls

2011-04-17T15:06:00.006+02:00

Plexatia Preview 2- The Romans

2011-04-17T14:37:00.008+02:00

Battle of Plexatia 56BC - Preview 1

2011-04-17T14:24:00.006+02:00

We are fighting this fictional battle down the length of the table - 23 feet of it. Crassus has led his 7th Legion, with assorted light infantry and cavalry allies, over the ford (at the River Garonne)
which is located by a friendly Aedui village called Plexatia.

Adcantuannus, the chief of the Sotiates tribe, has heard of the Roman advance on his territory and has moved his entire army of 11,000 men to the ford in the hope of catching them crossing. He has arrived too late and must fight here.

I'll post some more detailed pre-battle pictures. The game will be fought on Tuesday/Wednesday of next week and I'll do a battle report at the end.

A small baroque Church (15mm)

2011-04-11T11:50:00.005+02:00

Here are two Austrian battalions of IR 18 Marshall deployed on either side of a small baroque church. I bought the resin model years ago and have just painted and based it. I'm not sure who manufactured it, but it is very pretty.

Most of the rest of this week I'll be sorting out the table for the Roman game we will be having next week. I'll try to post pictures of the new table later on.

15mm WAS/SYW

2011-04-10T13:09:00.008+02:00

I have decided to replace my 25mm SYW with 15mm for two reasons:

1) I’m going to buy back from my friend in New York (Jon) all those painted 15mm armies I sold him 18 years ago. That means 680 French infantry plus cavalry, artillery and generals. On the Allied side that means 384 Hanoverian infantry plus cavalry, artillery and generals. I painted them so I know they are fine. This will provide a very substantial core of what will be needed.

2) I like large armies and the width of my table (seven feet) means 15mm will be the best scale to do this period in and to do it justice.

So, at some time later this year, these armies will be winging their way across the Atlantic and then it will just be a question of rebasing and replacing the OG cavalry. OG infantry are lovely and I like painting them, but I’m no fan of their cavalry. Eureka, on the other hand, have wonderful cavalry.

In the meantime, I’m playing around with the size of the battalions. I’ve decided that I’ll use 20 figures a battalion for all nations that use the 3 rank system – based in two ranks.

These armies must be versatile to be used in both the WAS and SYW so I’ve had to come up with a system to cover those nations that deployed in 4 ranks. I tried a system that had extra pairs of figures in a third rank (to represent the 4 ranks) but which could be brought together into the front line to make battalions in 3 ranks. I dropped this plan as 15mm figures in pairs are too fiddly to use. So I’ve decided to base Austrians, for example, exactly like the Prussians (20 figures in 5 bases of 4 figures) but when they are to represent battalions in four ranks I’ll just take away a base to reduce the frontage. Are you still with me, or have your eyes glazed over as you fall into a stupor?

Because I use computer rules (Carnage and Glory II – much to be recommended!) you can do all these sorts of things because it’s what you input into the computer order of battle that is important, not the number of figures.

What I am showing in these pictures is a number of Prussian infantry battalions placed in front of my modular village units. Each village unit is 8” long by 4” and I’ll explain the thinking behind them in a later post.

Lastly, why am I doing Prussians and Austrians rather than French and Allies? Because I have bags of Prussian and Austrian figures and I can’t touch the Western theatre until I have all the armies physically in front of me.

Top Picture: 1st Battalion of Prussian IR 1 in front of module one.

2nd Picture: 2nd Battalion of Prussian IR 1 in front of the rear of module one.

3rd Picture: 1st Battalion of Prussian IR 8 in front of module two

4th Picture: 2nd Battalion of Prussian IR 8 in front of the rear of module two.

Right Wing Cavalry

2011-04-09T12:34:00.009+02:00

Here is the right wing of my Polish Renaissance army. It consists of:

General Jan Holowczynski

Duke Janusz of Masovia Hussaria Banner (6)

Pawel Sapieha, Voivod of Witebsk’s Hussaria Banner

Jan of Tarnow’s Pancerni Banner (12)

Klemens of Moskorzew Pancerni Banner (6)

Iwo of Obichowa Pancerni Banner (6)

General Levy of Lublin Banner(12)

General Levy of Przemysl Banner (12)

I’m now about half way through!

Iwo of Obichowa Pancerni Banner

2011-04-07T12:58:00.005+02:00

This is the last cavalry regiment for the Right Wing of my Polish Renaissance army. We are now about half way through!

I’ll picture the entire force this weekend when I go up to the attic to set up the table for the ancients game we will be having on 19th April. More on that game next week with pictures of the battlefield and orders-of-battle. It is going to be a game of Caesarean Romans under the younger Crassus against the Sotiate tribe of Gauls.

A small BIG BATTALION

2011-03-27T10:09:00.009+02:00

I’ve been meaning to paint up a SYW Prussian battalion in the ‘grand scale’ for some time now. By ‘grand scale, I mean as numerous as possible. I tinkered with doing 5 companies of 23 figures and have ended up with three bases making a total of 69 figures plus a mounted officer and two battalion guns, one at either end. This works out at a ratio of about 1:10.

The idea was to be able to see what it looked like in three ranks, to see battalion guns at both ends and so see the full glory of all five flags. There was no question of doing this in 25mm as a battalion would take up too much space. To me, a battle with just a few battalions per side is just a glorified skirmish and so, if I decide to continue with this and make it a project, then I’d want at least 25-30 battalions and a similar number of squadrons of cavalry at about 12 figures each. This led me away from 'God’s own scale' of 25mm to 15mm. But am I falling into that old habit of biting off more than I can chew?

Now I have always liked Old Glory’s SYW 15mm range – back in the 1980’s I had huge 15mm SYW armies, all of which have long since been sold but some of which might be coming home! More about that another day. The other thing I really like are Eureka’s SYW range – in particular the one-piece casting cavalry which are on splendidly large horses. So, for reasons of economy (OG are much cheaper) I can see a large project developing here using OG infantry and Eureka cavalry. The other advantage is that Eureka will supply their horses on their own, if you ask them nicely, and so OG command bags can be re-mounted. Frankly the only disappointment in the OG range is that their cavalry is mounted on pigmy horses, well pigmy when put side-by-side with Eureka’s.

This is, at the moment, just a mini-project – a ‘see-if-I-like-it’ effort. I have ordered some Austrians and will soon paint an Austrian battalion in four ranks (four flags as I’m going with a WAS organisation of 4 companies) but with the forth rank on its own base so that I can redeploy post-Kolin into three ranks. As I use computer rules (C&G II) the number of bases is irrelevant as one inputs the number of men in the battalion and the number of companies/platoons as was historically correct. Companies were organisational entities in this period and of no importance to firing which was normally done by platoon or division of platoons.

Prussian battalion carried five flags in this period (one per company) and these were grouped in the middle of the battalion in a manner like a 5 on a die. What I don’t know is where the Leibfahne was within this system. I have placed it at the front and on the right, the position of honour (and at the suggestion of Christian Rogge) but it could also have been in the centre. Because this is the first battalion, there is one Leibfahne and 4 Kompaniefahnen. I have chosen to depict IR 1 Winterfeldt as, in my eyes, it was the classic Prussian uniform.

I still like 25mm of course (there is a very satisfying weight to each base and the uniform detailing is much more evident and fun to paint) but I have dozens of 15mm houses so gaming 15mm will not involve additional cost in buying more terrain. Do please let me know what you think.

Pawel Sapieha, Voivod of Witebsk’s Hussaria Banner

2011-03-26T12:05:00.003+01:00

This is the second unit of winged hussars in the right wing cavalry force. There is only one unit left to paint and when the wing is ready I'll picture it here in all it's fluttering colourfulness.

You must think I’m slacking somewhat showing a weekly painting total of just six measly cavalry! Actually, I have been working on another small project as well and I will post pictures on Sunday just to prove that production remains steady, despite the sunshine that is flooding every nook and cranny of SW France as I write this.

Jan Holowczynski and Klemens of Moskorzew Pancerni Banner

2011-03-20T10:38:00.005+01:00

The Polish army moves on. The top picture shows General Jan Holowczynski who commands the right wing cavalry. He is a Foundry figure next to a TAG standard bearer or pancerni lancer. Although the Foundry figure is slightly smaller, the difference is acceptable.

The middle picture shows Klemens of Moskorzew Pancerni Banner, a small unit of six. TAG figures again.

The bottom picture shows more Foundry figures – a Cossack skirmishing unit. The Cossacks are some of the nicest Foundry (Copplestone) figures available.

I’ve been busy painting up background stuff the last few weeks by which I mean Gallic slingers and archers for the game we will have next month. They are Old Glory figures (cheap and nasty) and certainly not good enough to show you. But I needed thirty of each for the Sotiate Gallic army and these were the cheapest available. I have not enjoyed painting them but such are the woes of duty!

I’m hoping that all the Polish right wing cavalry will soon be finished. Considering we are only talking about 60 figures I must admit to myself that I have created a mountain out of a molehill and been lacking somewhat in courage and fortitude. I think that is because I wanted to do a 'good job' and these colourful fellows have been taxing. No more excuses otherwise I will have to dust off the hair suit!

146th New York Zouaves

2011-03-08T17:13:00.005+01:00

This unit is the146^th New York Zouaves from the ACW. The uniform was obviously based on the French 'Turcos' uniform and these chaps surely must had stood out on the battlefield. This completes the Zouaves from the Perry plastic box.

I have just finished putting 31 lots of SYW French onto eBay. I'd love them to go to one home but I don't imagine that that will happen but please have a look. All have been painted by yours truly and took a very long time to complete. The first item number is 110658890827. Thanks for looking.

Dillon, Rooth and a gift for you

2011-03-06T13:33:00.007+01:00

100,000 hits in 40 months! That is how long this blog has been in existence and that works out at about 2,500 hits a month. I’m pleased and thank you very much!

I feel I should reward you in some way – that is if you can call what I am going to suggest as a ‘reward’and not a blight or a blot on the landscape. I’d like to paint up a unit of wargames figures for free to the first two readers who drop me an email. A unit of 15/18mm or 25/28mm infantry or cavalry – you supply and post the figures to me, I’ll paint them and post them back to you for free. My painting schedule is quite heavy but I promise I will paint them this year! I will be happy to discuss the project but reserve the right to paint only those periods that appeal to me and to paint only figures that I like.

On another subject, I will be selling most of my SYW French/Allied figures quite soon on eBay. I’ll be starting off this coming week with the French and when they have been sold I’ll move on to the much larger Allied/Pragmatic army. I’ve learned a lesson about myself with this project as it was always too ambitious for me having to paint both sides and I’d rather concentrate on smaller armies. In all honesty I’ve become a little bored with them and I have the glint of Napoleonics (my first wargaming interest) in my eyes.

I’m sure I will return to the SYW at some time in the future.

I’ll post next week with the eBay auction numbers. Meanwhile here are two more battalions of Irish – Dillon and Rooth. Dillon has black facings and Rooth has blue. The figures are by Foundry and that completes a full Irish brigade of four battalions. These are, by the way, the figures that lean to the left when you buy them. To cure this problem I’ve inserted a small wedge of cardboard underneath almost every figure to bring them to a more visually appealing vertical. These will be in the coming auction.

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The 'competition' is now over as I will be painting units for Seb and James so sorry folks!

1st Louisiana Zouaves

2011-02-25T17:14:00.002+01:00

These are new plastic Zouaves from the Perrys and they are both lovely figures (a lot better than the first box of ACW infantry they produced some time back which in itself was pretty good too) and easy to paint. The detailing of the faces is particularly good. I could not resist getting one box and the remaining battalion will be the 146th NY Zouaves. I'm working on them at the moment.

French and Swiss Guards

2011-02-21T17:18:00.006+01:00

I’ve just finished two battalions of the Gardes Suisses (Foundry figures) and I’m showing the entire Guard brigade with its commander, Le marechal de camp Marquis de Conflans.

On the left are two battalions of the Gardes Francaises, in their blue coats, and on the right, two battalions of the Gardes Suisses. I have made the tiniest of errors when painting the latter – I had simply assumed that they were entirely reversed colours from the Gardes Françaises, so I had painted them with red trousers whereas both regiments wore blue trousers. Still they are done now and would you have noticed if I had not pointed it out? Yes? Sure….

As for the Foundry figures they have two failings. Firstly, they tend to lean to the left and I’ve had the devil of a job straightening them up. In fact this problem is even worse in the Foundry Line figures as you will see when I paint two Irish battalions next week. Each of those figures will need a cardboard wedge to straighten out their tendency to lean! Secondly, some of the figures, particularly the command figures, have no necks. This can be a problem in the human condition although that fact may save them from Madame Guillotine in the near future.

In terms of painting, my suggestion, for the officers at least, would be to black undercoat them (I always use a black undercoat for all my figures anyway) and then dry brush the silver detail which is very well sculpted. Then cut in the coat colour around the profuse silver lace.

Poles and Ottomans Renaissance Armies

2011-02-11T13:21:00.004+01:00

I’ve been rebasing some of the Polish Cavalry for this project. Originally I had planned to have all my cavalry regiments at a strength of 12 figures because TAG sells them at a discount in twelves and because I did not really understand how the Poles fielded their cavalry. But having seen some OOBs I’ve noted that strengths for many regiments, but particularly those of the Hussaria, were often just a few hundred and that the most obvious thing about a Polish army of this period was the sheer irregularity of it all. So I’ve cut some of these Hussar regiments from 12 figures to six (my figure scale is 1:50) so they will just be 300 men strong. I’ve also done the same with the Pancerni. Cutting some regiments to six has meant rebasing them all.

I’m showing a schematic drawing which I normally do for all projects so I can see the armies in a diagrammatic form and record the progress of painting.

I’ve also been adding lance pennants to some other regiments too. I don’t know why I had limited them to just the Hussars but now all my Pancerni regiments will have them too. Even the Levy will have smaller pennants too. I’m looking here at visual appeal only and not historical accuracy. The picture shows some of the new cavalry.

The other thing you may have noticed is that the Russians seems to have disappeared and the Ottomans have arrived. Well, I’ve sold the Russians except for the Guard Cavalry Jiltsi unit I had done, which I had a horrible accident with. They went crashing to the floor and now lie in a box, a pile of bits forlornly looking for repair. I must be a very fickle wargamer if I can drop an army like that! Now I have always wanted an Ottoman army being one of the most colourful and versatile armies available. Versatile because they will both be able to fight the Poles in this timescale but also the Austrians in the mid 18th century.I can't wait to start painting them!

80th Foix

2011-02-04T09:40:00.004+01:00

This regiment has unusual features to its uniform. It has red facings, showing on cuffs and collar only, and silver hat lace with brass (copper) coat and cuff buttons. It was a one battalion regiment that served in Germany with distinction in the first part of the SYW and which was then dispatched, in 1760, to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) where it remained until 1765.

Then, according to Kronoskaf, certain uniform changes were made in 1761 – the pale grey waistcoat changed to blue and the silver hat lace was changed to match the button colour and became gold. Now I very much doubt that these changes were enforced in Haiti and furthermore, in 1762, a second battalion was raised. Could they have raised a second battalion in Haiti or was this second battalion, more probably, raised in France?

My assumption is that the second regiment was raised in France with the new uniform details. I have no idea whether the second battalion was then sent to Haiti but if it was, you could see them bringing extra uniforms (waistcoats and yards of extra gold lace) to their compatriots in the colonies.

The Colonial link then continued. Part of this regiment (the first battalion perhaps with its colonial experience?)was sent to the West Indies in 1776 and participated in the failed attack on Savannah three years later.

I have painted this in the uniform at the start of the SYW. Figures are Crusader though the officer is from Front Rank. The lovely flag is by GMB.

(I have checked in Pengel & Hurt and they only mention gold hat lace so maybe that is a reference to post 1761).

Field Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Count von Browne

2011-02-01T09:28:00.005+01:00

This is my command base for the new Austrian WAS/SYW army I’ve started.

Ulysses von Browne (October 23, 1705 – June 26, 1757), of Irish extraction, was already a colonel of an Austrian infantry regiment by the age of twenty nine. He gained much of his miltary experience during the Italian campaign of 1734 and he distinguished himself in the Tirolese fighting of 1735, and, in the Turkish war, he won further distinction as a general officer.

During the WAS he was present at the battle of Mollwitz, where he was badly wounded. In 1745 he served under Count Traun, and was promoted to the rank of Feldzeugmeister. In 1746 he was present in the Italian campaign and the battles of Piacenza and Rottofreddo. Thereafter he was placed in command of the army intended for the invasion of France, and early in 1747 of all the imperial forces in Italy

He was in Bohemia when the SYW opened with Frederick's invasion of Saxony in 1756. Von Browne's army, advancing to the relief of the Saxon army at Pirna, was met, and, after a hard struggle, defeated by the king at Lobositz, but he drew off in excellent order, and soon made another attempt with a picked force to reach Pirna, by wild mountain tracks. The field marshal never spared himself, bivouacking in the snow with his men, and Carlyle records that private soldiers made rough shelters over him as he slept.

He actually reached the Elbe at Schandau, but as the Saxons were unable to break out, von Browne retired, having succeeded, however, in delaying the development of Frederick's operations for a whole campaign. In the campaign of 1757 he voluntarily served under Prince Charles of Lorraine, who was made commander-in-chief, and on the 6th of May in that year, while leading a bayonet charge at the battle of Prague, von Browne, like Schwerin on the same day, met his death. He was carried mortally wounded into Prague, and there died on the 26th of June.

The mounted General figures are by Front Rank, one of the few companies that make decent Austrian figures of generals, but they are on Foundry horses. The flunky at the back, nonchalantly holding a tray with a bottle of Tokay on it, is by Foundry too. These gentlemen will soon be requiring a drink when they see the Prussian army.

78th Bigorre

2011-01-29T09:38:00.004+01:00

The top two pictures are of French SYW Regiment 'Bigorre' numbered as 78 and having only one battalion. The higher the numbers go, the more junior the regiments get and, after 76 if I recall, they become mostly one battalion regiments and their flags become more hmm, flashy, and colourful. These figures are all Crusader except the officer, who is from Front Rank. There was a thread on TMP recently about mixing figures from various manufacturers and here I think you can see that both go very well together. I have used Armypainter again as my preference is for that grimy campaign look.

I've also put in a picture of work in progress - the Austrian Hussar Regiment 'Hadik'. Only six figures are finished out of a total of 16 (four squadrons of four) but they are a very jolly bunch
and are all by Crusader except that the rearing horse is by Front Rank. Mixing horses is something else you can do to give extra variety and I find that one can mix from three manufacturers (the two mentioned above and Foundry) without too much work. Elite can also be mixed in though in some cases you will need to do a fair amount of filing. I have some Austrian generals I have done using Elite French on Foundry horses but I'll show you these another day.

Frederick the Great

2011-01-24T14:24:00.008+01:00

This is my Prussian command base. Frederick the Great is in the middle in his somewhat plain uniform, which, contemporaries stated, was normally covered in snuff. To the left is General-major Hartwig Carl von Wartenberg (in the uniform of the 3rd Hussars of which he was Chef), who was killed in a skirmish with Austrian hussars and Grenzers in 1757. He is wearing, around his neck, the ‘Pour de Merite’ order created by Frederick and often called the Blue Max. To the right is Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz, wearing the orange sash of the Order of the Black Eagle, which he was awarded, as well as the rank of General-lieutenant, for his dashing role in the Battle of Rossbach. He is wearing the uniform of the Chef of Kuirassier Regiment No.8.

I will have another base for those battles where the King will be absent and there were a few other generals he trusted, but not that many who emerged from the war with enhansed reputations – his brother Henry being one of them.

There are also some nice illustrations Ive posted which I used as a base for painting these figures.

These are all from Foundry and they are quite brilliant figures. The code is SYWP069. As a point of interest, I wrote to Foundry in December telling them I wanted to order 1500 euros worth of figures from them during their sale but that I could not pay for them until the end of January. They told me I had to pay for them in December to get the sale deal. So I switched to Crusader, who were always going to get the order for the Austrians. They therefore got the order for all the Prussians and Austrians. Seems a bit short sighted to me but, hey, I’m just the customer and Foundry’s loss is Crusader’s gain.

French Infantry Regiment 35 La Fere

2011-01-20T13:36:00.005+01:00

As the title says, this is French Infantry Regiment number 35 La Fere of the WAS or SYW period. Dull though the infantry may be, their flags are very colourful and a whole army of French infantry looks very pretty indeed.

The figures are all by Crusader except for the officer figure in the first battalion as well as the wounded chap and these two are from Front Rank. The Crusader SYW range is very nice although there are some holes. It would be great to see some Russian grenadiers to go with the musketeers and perhaps some Observation Corps. Nonetheless, I think these are the nicest French SYW infantry available in 25/28mm and you can mix and match with Front Rank to create variety. The infantry in particular match well in size. I’d largely steer clear of the Foundry French range although, as you will see soon, the Swiss/French Guard figures are the best of their offering.

The French army progresses and there will be more infantry next week. In particular the one-battalion regiment of Bigorre.

Ruminations 1

2011-01-19T12:30:00.002+01:00

I was ruminating the other night on the subject of casualties of war, particularly horses and their general treatment by mankind. I remember reading an anecdote (Duffy I think) in which he said that Frederick used to hit his horse between the ears with his cane or riding crop. There is no doubt in my mind that Frederick was a cad but one of his (slightly) redeeming features was his love for his whippet Biche. Whippets are a small breed of dog, a miniature type of greyhound, and when the fortunate Biche was returned to him by the Austrian general Nadasdy, Frederick broke down.

Anybody who has ridden horses knows that they cannot be forced to do something if they don’t want to do it. I suppose that with rigorous training (which would included getting them used to loud noises) you could train a horse to obey most of your commands but you can never train a horse to total obedience, Lipizzaners included. I remember an incidence about fifteen years ago when I was out riding in the New Forest in England.

A group of us went out for a two hour trek (that is one hour and three quarters going out, and a quarter of an hour coming back – horses are always keen to get home!). We were returning home at full gallop and were all having fun when suddenly a large lake loomed up in front. It didn’t just loom up front, it occupied my entire frontal vision. Time suddenly slows in such circumstances because I can remember considering my options:

1) take control and try to steer the horse left and apply brakes or 2) trust the horse and hang on for dear life. Needless to say I chose option two and, like synchronized swimmers, all the horses made an almost 90 degree left turn, at full gallop, and missed disaster by a few yards. I remember hanging on the horse’s mane and thinking that that is what manes are for.

From this you will gather that I rather like horses despite their ability to be totally unpredictable. On my miniature battlefield I don’t mind having human casualty figures but I never have dead horses. Too close to the truth. This truth – horses throughout history have been used and abused by mankind and it is a horrible part of warfare I’d rather pretend did not happen.

I’m not a Buddhist but if I were, I’d like to come back as a horse on one condition (is one allowed to apply conditions?): that I live on some manicured farm in Virginia. Something along the lines of the marvellous farm that belonged or even still belongs to Senator John Warner. I was going to call him the ‘late’ John Warner but according to wiki he is still alive. One of the things about getting older is one’s preoccupation with ‘late’. I remember visiting that farm back in the days when he was married to a famous actress (when and why did that word ‘actress’ disappear to be replaced with the unisex word ‘actor’?) and meeting her. So I’d be that horse that carried that famous rump!

On the subject of farms in Virginia (or Maryland) I also recall a BBQ one Sunday on the farm of the late Bill Colby, who used to run one of the largest Intelligence Services. There I spent the day missing every clay pigeon sent in my direction and feeling very proud that I was a useless shot but that is another story.

Back to reality, my painting schedule has been rather heavy. There will be some more SYW French infantry on this blog in a few days time and over the next few months you will see large quantities of Austrian and Prussian cavalry.

40mm SYW Austrian Dragoon

2011-01-11T10:21:00.005+01:00

I don’t normally like to show un-based figures on my blog but this has to be an exception. It is a 40mm Austrian SYW Dragoon from Sash & Saber that Chris kindly sent me. He is painted up as a Jung-Modena Dragoon.

I’m still dithering as to whether to do Prussian and Austrian SYW armies in 40mm or 25mm and the key to the resolution of that question has to be the availability of cavalry in the bigger scale. The fact that dragoons, for both sides, are now available pushes me, ever so slightly, towards 40mm. But I just wish that Cuirassiers and Hussars were available.

I’ve fiddled around with making some larger trees too as you can see. These are made from twigs with ‘normal’ trees inserted in them. The last picture shows the 40mm next to a 25mm figure from Front Rank. The Jung-Modena Dragoon was finished off with Army Painter to give him that grimy campaign look.

Prussian Grenadiers

2011-01-09T15:29:00.003+01:00

I’ve been painting an assortment of things since the beginning of the month in a vain attempt to reduce the lead mountain.

Here are two Prussian converged Grenadier battalions from the WAS/SYW period, all Foundry figures and 25/28mm.

The top two pictures are front and rear views of the grenadiers of Regiments 12 and 26. These were not actually converged during the SYW but saw some action together in the earlier period. By the SYW the pairing of grenadiers into battalions seems to have been fixed in concrete whereas in the WAS they seem to have been thrown together on an ad-hoc basis that might change from battle to battle.

The lower pair of pictures show Grenadier Battalion Bülow, grenadiers of II/III of 15 and those of 18. My personal preference is to have mitres of the same colour (either all brass or all silver) but my personal taste seems at odds with Frederick’s own view where button colour was less important than massing his battalions by district. Most of his battalions have mitres of mixed colours so he clearly was not a complete aesthete!

French 4pdr "à la Suédoise"

2011-01-04T14:14:00.004+01:00

These illustrations have been done by my friend Christian Rogge and he has kindly allowed me to post them here before they go onto his own blog (http://crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com).This is a French 4-pdr battalion gun "à la Suédoise" employed during the SYW.

It is a very accurate scale drawing and should be invaluable to those companies wishing to model this gun and to gamers of the period. The closest I have seen in 25/28mm is the one by Elite.

He says: “After this 4-pdr Swedish-type French gun I'll do the "heavy" 4-pdr of the Vallière system and place them next to another. Just to get a feel of the different dimensions of these 2 pieces.”

We differ on the colour of the guns, he thinks red, I think blue, but the jury remains out on this subject so you make up your own mind.

I just saw my own copies of the new Greenwood & Balls today and I’m pleased with them. I wonder whether we might consider adding a title to the range on the subject of Artillery of the SYW. If you would be interested, please let me know.

Happy Christmas

2010-12-19T13:57:00.005+01:00

I wanted to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and in the spirit of giving (even tiny ‘giving’) a list of most (perhaps 80-90%) of the Prussian Generals of the WAS and SYW, with their regimental numbers. This is a slightly more complete list than I have provided in the new Prussian painting guide and I hope you find it useful if Prussians of the SYW are your ‘thing’. This might help you in giving that individual the correct uniform. Click on the image to expand. If you want a better image then let me know and I'll email you.

One final note. Many of you have purchased one or both of the new Uniform guides I mentioned above – thank you. They are experiencing shocking weather in the UK I gather (I’m in the SW of France where we have had no snow to speak of) and I think Terry has or will be writing to all of you suggesting that we delay posting. He will post on Monday if you respond to his email asking him to do so. Otherwise booklets will be going out in the post before the year end. My apologies for the delay but this is as perfect example of ‘factors beyond our control’ as possible

Greenwood & Ball are out!

2010-12-14T11:35:00.004+01:00

These are now out and can be purchased individually or together (at a discount) so please go to www.18thcenturypress.com

Thanks for your interest.

Savory Christmas Sale

2010-12-11T16:57:00.002+01:00

Just to let you know, we are having a 16% off Christmas Sale at 18thCenturyPress for the Savory book. This is a repeat of the very successful sale we had last year.

Just go to www.18thcentury press.com and click on the Savory tab on the left hand side.

Next week I’ll be putting the Greenwood & Ball SYW uniform guides on the website.

IR12.1 von Finck

2010-12-08T09:39:00.006+01:00

The top three pictures show the first battalion of the Regiment von Finck (No.12), a regiment highly rated by Frederick when he reviewed the performance of his army after the SYW.

The bottom pictures shows both battalions in line. They are, if you missed my previous post, 40mm from Trident.

On the subject of the re-printing of the Greenwood & Ball SYW Uniform guides, I think we are now about a week away. One of the things I have included in the Prussian booklet is this rating system of Frederick's mentioned above: one star or two stars given to just a handful of Infantry and Cavalry units that may help you rate your wargames units.

Hordes of Gauls

2010-11-26T11:53:00.008+01:00

The Roman Army for the invasion of Aquitania is finished. The Gallic army is almost finished – all that remains are some slingers and archers (Old Glory) which are rather uninspiring figures and which I will finish soon. These warbands are based slightly wider than usual to reflect the fact that they are hill tribesmen with the ability to move fast in a looser order.

This post is about the five warbands. I was uncertain as to what I should call them and in the end I have given them names after their standards. It’s not an entirely satisfactory solution and I would rather have named them after locales but most names have changed significantly and a place called, for example, Nerac (a nearby town) was probably not called Nerac two thousand years ago. There is a nearby town called Eauze and that was where an allied tribe called the Elusates was located but that is the only tribal name I have been able to track down – besides the Sotiates of course.

There is a temptation, reinforced by terms like ‘warband’, to consider Gauls to be barbarians in comparison to their sophisticated and sometimes effete Roman neighbours. But this is misleading on a number of levels.

Gallic society was surprisingly sophisticated. It traded throughout the Mediterranean, both importing and exporting and it farmed sufficiently well enough to feed a growing population. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics was the tribe, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called pagi. Each tribe had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate.

The tribal groups, or pagi, were organized into larger super-tribal groups the Romans called civitates. The Sotiates were a pagi within the civitates of the Aquitani but they may also have been a civitates themselves with lesser tribes within their collective. Although the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various tribes. Caesar divided Gaul into three ethnic groups: the Belgae in the north (roughly between the Rhine and the Seine rivers), the Celts in the center and the Aquitani in the southwest and the first two spent much of their energies opposing the expansion of the German tribes into Gaul.

The Aquitani had the luxory of being distant from the German threat and their focus lay to the south of the Pyrenees. They were Celto-Iberians and as Crassus’s campaign continued after the defeat of the Sotiates, the remaining Aquitani pagi called for, and received, help from Iberians who had helped Sertorius in his rebellion against Rome.

Another intriguing facet of Gallic life was religion and the practice of the Druids. The druids presided over human or animal sacrifices that were made in wooded groves or rude temples. They also appear to have held the responsibility for preserving the annual agricultural calendar and instigating seasonal festivals which corresponding to key points of the lunar-solar calendar. The religious practices of druids were syncretic and borrowed from earlier pagan traditions, especially of ancient Britain. Julius Caesar mentions in his Gallic Wars that those Celts who wanted to make a close study of druidism went to Britain to do so. There is no certainty concerning the origin of the druids, but it is clear that they vehemently guarded the secrets of their order and held sway over the people of Gaul. Indeed they claimed the right to determine questions of war and peace, and thereby held an "international" status. In addition, the Druids monitored the religion of ordinary Gauls and were in charge of educating the aristocracy. They also practiced a form of excommunication from the assembly of worshipers, which in ancient Gaul meant a separation from secular society as well. Thus the Druids were an important part of Gallic society. The nearly complete and mysterious disappearance of the Celtic language from most of the territorial lands of ancient Gaul, with the exception of Brittany, France, can be attributed to the fact that Celtic druids refused to allow the Celtic oral literature or traditional wisdom to be committed to the written letter. They also encouraged the practice of of headhunting as the head was believed to house a person's soul.

The other thing that is worth noting is that the Romans were hard as nails. Under Caesar their ruthlessness was quite a shock to the Gauls. Caesar’s war was a war of conquest not a war of retribution. By the time the Gallic tribes had united under the chief of the Arverni tribe, Vercingetorix, the game was largely over. As many as a million people (probably 1 in 5 of the Gauls) died, another million were enslaved, 300 tribes were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the Gallic Wars . The entire population of the city of Avaricum (modern day Bourges) (40,000 in all) were slaughtered. During Julius Caesar's campaign against the Helvetii (present-day Switzerland) approximately 60% of the tribe was destroyed, and another 20% was taken into slavery.

I take no credit for the painting of these figures as they have marched in from overseas. But I had to sort out all the shields (if I never do another transfer it will be too soon!), paint them with Armypainter to give them that dirty, muddy look and then base them. Figures are mostly from the excellent Warlord Games.

Re-printing Greenwood & Ball SYW uniform guides: 1) Prussia 2) Austria

2010-11-24T20:42:00.005+01:00

As some of you know, we (18th Century Press – see our link on the right) are re-printing the SYW Uniform guides. The good news is that the Prussian one is finished and the Austrian one is being worked on at the moment. I want to be able to release both at the same time and that will be within the next four weeks. I want to be able to release then together so that you will be able to buy both together at a better price than buying them individually. They will be priced at £10 each plus post and packing (quite small as you will see shortly) or £18 for the pair. I will be letting readers of this blog get the news first as to actual availability and as to when the website (www.18thcenturypress.com) is taking orders for these booklets.

If you have never been fortunate to own these, let me tell you about them. They are 26 pages long, in booklet format with colour front and back cover and also have four pages of colour plates in the centre. There are also many black and white illustrations. The Prussian booklet has additional information (more flags are shown, we have added information of regimental commanders, grenadier battalion convergence, Fredericks own assessment of their performance etc) and the Austrian booklet will contain charts of WAS Uniform facings and a large new section on flags. The core of the work remains the Greenwood & Ball publications but there has been a serious amount of up-dating, editing and additions.

I said I’d mention postage rates. To give you an idea of these, the UK will be £1 for one booklet and £1.50 for two. Europe will be £1.80 for one, £2.50 for two. The Rest of the World will be £2.50 for one and £4 for two. As I hope you can see we have tried to keep postage to actual cost.

I’ve posted pictures of the new covers. I’ll let you know when these are ready.

Austrian GM von Kottendorf

2010-11-13T10:00:00.005+01:00

I thought it was time to paint an Austrian Brigade General in 40mm but nobody makes them for the SYW.

So I looked for a Trident Hessian to convert and my main criteria was that there should be no gorget as this would be difficult to cut away from any metal figure. Voila, this gentleman appeared and he looked like a suitable candidate.

The model came with a bare head and a separate tricorne which, I suppose, was to be placed somehow in his outstretched hand. But the hand position looked wrong and I could not see any way of putting a tricorne into his hand. So I filed his head down and glued his hat to his head in a somewhat rakish angle. Then I had to cut away the cord that held the cane to his coat lapel (this is an error on the designer’s part as I am sure that officers in the Hessian army of the AWI – that is the period the range is designed for – did not have a cane suspended from their lapels). NCOs did though. But Austrian officers carried a black cane so it is now just being held in his hand. Then he needed fuller cuffs so I used greenstuff to fill them out.

Then it was just a question of painting him. I think it’s a splendid uniform. He is a tad taller than the men in his brigade (Sash and Saber) but, hey, maybe he is a giant amongst men.

When Chris at S&S sends me some more figures I’ll be able to finish off Kottendorf’s Infantry brigade and maybe complete a Dragoon regiment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a completely different note, I was spammed by Rolex, the up-market watch people, today. Now either they are no longer up-market or business is so bad that they have taken to the equivalent of begging on the street. I’ve knocked them off my Christmas list for shocking temerity!

40mm Trident Hessians as Prussians

2010-11-12T13:55:00.008+01:00

These are Trident’s 40mm Hessians from their AWI range but perfectly suited for the WAS/SYW. They are not easy to paint as the detail is so crisp that there are no areas to fudge. But, nonetheless, I absolutely love them. They are slightly thinner and taller than the heftier Sash and Saber 40mm SYW figures but I think they will do fine.

Having sold most of the 40mm I’ve now decided to restart this project and I will use these Trident figures for the Prussians while continuing to use S & S for the Austrians.

The drummer comes with a separate drum and hands. Next time I’ll paint the figures first and then add the drum and hands as getting a brush into those nooks and crannies is not easy. The standard bearer figure doubles as an NCO and comes with a spontoon if you wish to use it. Again the hands are separate. The officer has a separate right hand. All the remaining figures are one-piece castings with three basic poses of the arms and numerous head variations in each body pose.

I think these are quite possibly the finest wargames figures I have ever had the pleasure to paint - and that is saying a lot as I have painted figures from most manufacturer’s ranges. The only caveat is that they are not easy to paint. They are intolerant of sloppy painting so took me a great deal of time. Army Painter has been used again, but in a minimalist way only on straps and small clothes. I am content with the result and will soon start on the second battalion of this regiment, one of my favourites, Number 12.

Preobrazenskiy Leib-Guard ‘Leibkompanie’ SYW

2010-10-29T09:45:00.007+02:00

Have you every seen a more ostentatious uniform before? Well my guess would be that the Empress Elizabeth, no slouch herself when it came to outrageous dress, had this uniform designed by a theatrical costumier.

Kronoskaf say that “In 1742, Elizabeth Petrovna created the Leibkompanie from the grenadiers of the regiment in recognition of the help that this unit had given her when she had walked upon the Palais d'hiver.” I think that is a reference to seizing power by marching on the Winter Palace. They did not last long though as Peter III disbanded them in 1762.

These are Foundry figures by our friend ‘sausage-fingers’ and they are rather splendid. Their hats are covered in ostrich feathers – all-white for officers and red-white for rank and file. NCOs had white feathers with a red stripe down the centre and drummers the reverse feather colour. I would imagine that they would have preferred to stay indoors as ostrich feather look rather sad when wet! Of course this unit did not serve at the front in the SYW but guarded the Empress in St.Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. They were a highly priviledged elite. Ordinary grenadiers had the rank and pay of a Lieutenant in the army and a Lieutenant ranked as a senior general.

I think I have made a couple of errors when I painted these – drummers should have been in reversed colours and the helmet itself might have had a black background to the Imperial eagle plate on the front. I have Pengel and Hurt but they don’t always present the information in a clear and legible manner. I wish someone would produce a decent guide for Russian uniforms of the SYW! Oh, and I have used ArmyPainter on these but in a very minimalist manner.

These don’t fit in my current armies so I will be selling them on eBay on Sunday. If you would be interested in buying them, please contact me or just bid. Ebay item number 110605560463.

Adcantuannus

2010-10-23T09:38:00.006+02:00

I knew when I saw this vignette on Foundry's website (GL15) a few months back that I had to buy it to represent Adcantuannus, my Gallic chieftain, despite it’s completely outrageous price. It’s very cartoon-comic like and the sculptor (the same one who did Foundry’s SYW French and British) has certain traits that I recognized when the pack arrived – like, for example, sausage fingers. But, besides these minor things, I like the overall effect and the story it tells. Clearly our chieftain is fond of his capon as well as wine from the Republic (the aristocracy of Gaul had developed a taste for Roman wine by this time) and his four exhausted shield bearers are groaning under their portly load.

Nobody knows what Adcantuannus looked like and I have chosen to make him an old man beyond his prime and quite possibly too old to mount a horse which accounts for this method of transportation. The question is, on the wargames table, should he be stationary or allowed to move? I suspect that if a cohort charged in their direction the shield bearers would very unceremoniously dump their august passenger and grab weapons or run for it.
But on the other hand, if the old boy stood up (perhaps not an easy thing to do) he’d have a better view of the battlefield than on a horse. A minus for mobility and a plus for the improved view?

40mm Trident figures

2010-10-20T16:16:00.005+02:00

I'm here asking opinions. The pictures show the new 40mm AWI range from Trident - in particular, the Hessians that are suitable to use as SYW Prussians. In the centre are three Trident figures framed on either side by Sash and Saber 40mm. On the left are Hungarians and on the right are Austrians.

The question is one of size compatability. It's not a proper comparison as the grenadier mitre in the centre is so tall and a better comparison would have been against Austrians in their bearskins but I don't have any so this comparison will have to do.

The Trident figures are certainly thinner. They are also more expensive. But, do you think the look okay together or not? If I used them at all, then all the Prussians would from the same manufacturer. Answers on a postcard please!

(On the subject of painting these figures, I've used ArmyPainter but only on areas of white and the faces. I like the results although there are inaccuracies in the figures; no shoulder-straps and I don't think that officers carried a cane attached in this way to their lapels. I think that was a method used exclusively by NCOs.)

Spanish Caetrati

2010-10-20T10:07:00.005+02:00

Not castrati, as someone on TMP recently said, these are caetrati, or Spanish light infantry hired by Crassus to join his army for the invasion of Aquitania.

Figures are by Crusader, shield transfers by LBM studios and Army painter is by, well, Armypainter!

2nd Battalion 27th Ligne

2010-10-19T09:28:00.003+02:00

Continuing on (if ever so slowly) with my Napoleonic project, here is another box of Perry's plastics completed. Thirty six figures in the battalion, plus the light company duplicated in skirmish order, for a total of 42 figures. Just eight more boxes to go to make the Division!

Spanish slingers

2010-10-18T14:44:00.005+02:00

These are Crusader figures for my Caesarian Roman army. As the Roman army of this period did not have auxilia they needed to hire light infantry from whomsoever. These slingers have been supplied to Crassus by a nearby friendly Spanish tribe and they will shortly be joined by another group armed with javelins and shields.

These figures were given the quick painting job that involved using Army Painter. They were black undercoated and every colour, except the flesh, was a single tone. The weathered look comes from the Army Painter and this product, which I cannot recommend highly enough, has made this process speedy and enjoyable.

October is normally a month for tidying up my painting desk so I’ve painted quite a variety of figures which you will see over the next few days.

40mm WAS-SYW Austrians

2010-10-16T16:52:00.008+02:00

A few months ago I sold all my 40mm Prussians and most of my Austrians. But inspiration has returned as I have been recently editing the old Greenwood & Ball Seven Years War Uniform guides for both the Prussians and the Austrians. New versions of these terrific guides will be released before Christmas by 18th Century Press, my printing company (see the Savory link on the right), and I’ll update you here on my blog with more news soon. The Austrian booklet will cover both the WAS as well as the SYW.

It was the re-writing of the Austrian booklet, with my last blog entry, plus the further correspondence with Christian Rogge on the subject of Infantry flags, that has inspired me to look again at this project. I found the late SYW uniform rather boring and I’ve decided to build a small Austrian WAS army - WAS to early SYW to be precise.

I had one battalion of IR18 Marschall unsold from the ‘old’ project so I have given them red turn-backs as used earlier on. The Hungarian battalion is new and this is the second battalion of IR37 Esterhazy, one of six new Hungarian regiments raised in the WAS.They are carrying the red flags that were issued to these new regiments which will be explained and illustrated in the Austrian booklet. Plus we will be debunking the notion that the so-called green Hungarian flag was issued to Hungarian regiments.

I would have started Austrian and Prussian armies in 25mm if I had liked the figures that manufacturers make for the former – but I don’t sadly and these 40mm from Sash and Saber are deliciously chunky and fun to paint. Plus Chris ‘promises’ that there will be dragoons soon……….

I will put the article on Austrian flags on my blog but not until the end of the year and after the booklets have been published. I hope you understand the reasons why.

Austrian Infantry Uniform differences between the WAS and the SYW

2010-10-07T12:45:00.011+02:00

This information is largely based upon Pengel and Hurt publications and correspondence between Christian Rogge and myself.

By the end of the Seven Years War (1756-63) the look of Austrian Infantry had largely been set and standardised to what we are familiar with – the white coat, with white turn-backs and coloured lapels and cuffs. But reaching this simple and elegant uniform had not been a straight forward process and Austria’s infantry in the earlier War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) had presented a far more varied and colourful appearance.

Most wargamers interested in the Lace wars tend to portray armies of the late SYW but I’d like to suggest that, in the case of Austria at least, choosing to replicate her army as a WAS army or an early SYW army will offer you a greater reward in both colourfulness of the uniforms as well as variety of flags. I’ll leave the issue of flags for another day and focus on infantry uniforms.

This is what Pengel and Hurt say:
“Despite regulations there is a definite possibility that until 1760, when uniform regulations were tightened up, that some regiments would have retained the various coloured vests and turn backs previously issued and therefore it can be assumed that in the early stages of the war (SYW) these would have been seen on the battlefield. This assumption is based on the fact that in many regiments, drummers retained their coloured coats to this period and even later, a few regiments retained their coloured turn backs until 1762”
Table
If regiment not listed then = white

Reg.number(1916)...Lapels/Cuffs...Vest(and trousers*)...Turn-backs
IR1.....Red.......Red.....Red
IR3.....Red.......Red.....Red
IR4**...Dark Blue..DkBlue..DkBlue
IR8.....Red.....Red.....Red
IR12.....Blue.....Blue.....Blue
IR17.....Red.....White......Red
IR18.....Red.....White.....Red
IR22.....Red.....BLUE.....Red
IR23.....Dark Blue..DkBlue..DkBlue
IR24.....Dark Blue..White..DkBlue
IR26.....Red.....White.....Red
IR27.....Light Blue..White..Light Blue
IR29.....Blue.....Blue.....Blue
IR30.....Dark Blue..DkBlue..DkBlue
IR42.....Blue.....White.....Blue
IR46.....Red.....Red.....Red
IR47.....Blue.....Blue.....Blue
IR48.....Green.....Green.....Green
IR50.....Red.....White......Red
IR55.....Red.....Red.....Red
Notes:
*Although trousers could be in the vest colour, the greater likelihood is that they were soon replaced by white.
**Sapphire blue according to Greenwood & Ball
Kronskaf don’t have many illustrations but they do agree with IR1 in 1757. They also show IR10, red facings, as having red vests and turn-backs. Please note the above chart has been altered and expanded with the latest information
_______________________
The Pengel and Hurt information seems to stem from Friedrich Schirmer's “Die Heere der kriegführenden Staaten 1756-1763”. Schirmer lists vest colour and trouser colour and he seems to have taken the information from an existing “1757 Militär-Schematismus” (N.B.: an official contemporary Austrian source similar to the French État Militaire volumes). It lists a total of 18 German regiments that had turn-backs in facing colour, and 13 with coloured vests (and breeches). This is the information provided by Dr. Bleckwenn but he does not mention which ones.

SOURCES

This is a short background on the sources.
Morier's 1748 pictures (in the Royal collection) are accurate and basically the sole image source of WAS period. Not much changed till 1756. The change to white for vest and breeches took place after the WAS and before the SYW. But, as he states, a survey of regimental records implies that the commanders responded very slowly to any instructions from the Vienna Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council). The rule seems to have been that they ignored Vienna and responding was more the exception. It was the SYW, with it's much more centralistic and organized re-supply that changed things more, within a matter of 2 or 3 years, then the eight years between WAS and the SYW.

COLOURS

As to the facing colours of the infantry in general. Bleckwenn identifies at least 3 shades of blue and possibly more. That presents all sorts of problems as accounts are rare and contemporary colour illustrations, even rarer. He does state a pale or light blue for Baden-Durlach (27) and this is confirmed by an observation from the battle of Prague. Schwerin was killed in front of this regiment, and it was identified by their light blue facings. He is sure there was only one shade of red. All variants are because of fading or poor copying by artists. From another eyewitness we know that the Regiment de Ligne (38) was seen with rose coloured gaiter belts in 1762 as it paraded out of Schweidnitz. The same witness also saw a dead officer of the same regiment, sometime before, who wore rose Hungarian trousers, half boots and a rose "Soubise" (I take that to be a richly laced vest). Now that's completely againstgulation! Bleckwenn states the infantry wore both red and black stocks and as they were issued with both, this sounds quite reasonable.

GOING TOWARDS WHITE

On 27 October 1757, the Hofkriegsrat launched it's notorious order
that the entire infantry should be dressed in white with red cuffs
and lapels only, from 1 November effective. This order never came into effect. In December 1757 it was recalled. The Hofkriegsrat gave in and said everything could remain as it was, but it did continue to insist on white vests and breeches. We may assume that from 1758 on, after the infantry's near destruction in Silesia, many regiments needed complete new outfits as they were rebuild.

Most illustrations show the 1761/62 army. The main sources are the
so called "Albertina manuscript", illustrations done by a certain
"l'Allemand" for Raspe publishers in Nurnberg. The original is now kept
at the Vienna Army Museum. It is the master, and the Raspe coloured
coppers were done afterwards.
Then there is a different source kept at the Bauzten Museum (Lusatia/Saxony) called the "Bautzen manuscript"and it is dated from the same period. It provides some conflicting information. For example, Bautzen shows a Grün-Loudon Grenadier with an odd grenadier fur hat that Albertina does not show. Additionally, there is more information on pompoms and tassels. The latter, apparently, served the same purpose as the sword knots in other German armies. In other words there is the suggestion that they were coloured differently for each company.

DRUMMERS

By the end of the SYW most drummers looked like the rank and file of their regiments – white coats and facings on cuffs and lapels. But Greenwood and Ball show the following regiments as wearing coats of the facing colour presumably with white cuffs and turn-backs: 3, 9, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 24, 28, 30, 38, 40, 41, 48, 55, 56, and 57. The only one I have my doubts about is 14 (Salm) as that was the only regiment with black facings. I cannot confirm the accuracy though of Greenwood and Ball’s information. And Christian adds that by an Order dated 5 June 1755 all the Tambours were to dress in the same uniform as the regiment and were to have swallow nests as their sole distinction. However, Schirmer lists a good number of regiments that continued to dress in reversed colours as late as 1760 and possibly even later:
Lorraine IR 3*, Los Rios 9*, Salm 14*, Königsegg 16**, Alt-Colloredo 20, Sprecher/Lacy 22**, Starhemberg 24**, Wied 28*, Saxe-Gotha 30*, Ligne 38*, Jung-Colloredo 40*, Bayreuth 41*, Platz 43*, Clerici 44***, Luzane 48**, d’Arberg 55*, Mercy 56, Andlau 57**. Possibly also Pallavicini 15** - largely corresponding with Greenwood&Ball’s list.
In addition, Bleckwenn knows of a record in the Erbprinz of Hesse-Darmstadt “Schreibkalender” that IR 8 Hildburghausen (red facings) had tambours dressed in dark blue coats in 1746 – apparently seen in Flanders – and violating the custom of reversed colour pattern.

DOES REGIMENTAL LOCATION PLAY A ROLE?

If one looks at where Regiments were garrisoned on the eve of the SYW, it can be speculated that all regiments stationed outside the Austrian heartlands of Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, including a few more in Hungary and Siebenbürgen, were less likely to have paid attention to instructions from Vienna concerning uniforms. It seems, all regiments stationed in Italy, Netherlands, and the more remote south-eastern parts of Hungary/Slavonia, and Banat seem not to have caught up with latest regulations.

* in 1756 stationed in the Netherlands
** in Italy
*** Hungary, Banat, and Slavonia

Regiments located in the Austrian heartlands had also been involved in several pre-war revues held in Kolin and Olmütz and they would therefore have fallen under greater scrutiny and were thus much more likely to follow Vienna’s instructions pertaining to uniforms.

SUMMARY

In summary, if you were to field an army of the WAS or early SYW you could have a very colourful army – most notably perhaps IR 22 with red lapels and cuffs, blue vest, turn-backs as well as trousers. Plus drummers in some reversed facing combination! When you add to this, the strange and unusual flags possibilities (more on that another day) you can see, I hope, that the Austrian infantry presents a more colourful variety than at first glance.

Eporedorix

2010-10-03T15:39:00.004+02:00

Eporedorix commands the infantry in the Sotiate army. He is a strange figure because he comes from two manufacturers - from the waist up he is, I think, from Warlord Games. A 'freebie', who has been sitting legless in a drawer, he has yearned for completion! The bottom half is an old Foundry figure (late Roman Officer but 'late' in more than one sense). Put the two together and he is totally unique.

Correos and the last of the Gallic cavalry

2010-09-27T10:20:00.004+02:00

Correos commands the four units of Gallic cavalry in the Sotiate army. He is a 1st Corps figure. The last of the cavalry units is actually a packet of plastic Germans from Wargames Factory and difference between the Germans and the Gauls is small - the Germans have bare feet, different heads, command and shields but otherwise can easily be used as Gauls. I have changed most of the heads as well as shields but otherwise these serve perfectly well as Gauls.

So all the cavalry (a total of six Gallic regiments) for Crassus's invasion are ready and the plan is to finish both these armies by the yearend as well as paint up some Napoleonic units as well. The first half of next year will see a return to the SYW/WAS project.

Later on this week I'll try to post pictures of all this cavalry on the table.

Gallic cavalry melange

2010-09-21T09:52:00.004+02:00

This is the third Sotiate cavalry unit and, as I explained in my last post, I have used surplus Wargames Factory plastic figures on the new Aventine horses.

So here, to recap, are metal Aventine horses with Wargames Factory plastic riders and they are mixed up further as quite a few have metal heads from Warlord Games! I suppose this is one way to use up those surplus bits and pieces.

The Sotiates will have a total of four cavalry units to oppose the two units of Gallic cavalry in Roman service so I have just one more to paint. I’m not much enjoying painting Gauls which is why I have sent 120 infantry off to ‘another place’ to be painted so, when I have finished this last cavalry unit, I just have to sit down and force myself to apply the transfers to over 100 shields. But the end of the tunnel is in sight for these armies and I can see them being ready by the end of the year.

Plus the big bonus is that these armies easily morph into armies for the Punic wars – something I have always wanted to do – and which I will discuss in greater detail later.

New Aventine Roman officers and more Sotiates cavalry

2010-09-13T15:53:00.009+02:00

Aventine is not a company I have bought from before but I like the sculpts and so I thought I'd buy some of their new Republican Roman officers as well as some horses, that they sell separately - more on those later. I'd like to recommend these as beautiful figures.

The top picture shows the three together and they cost £10.

The second picture shows the army’s second in command - Legatus Tiberius Cornelius and he is also the commanding officer of the VII legion.

The next senior officer is Praefectus Equitum Decimus Balbus, who commands the cavalry and he shows his Spanish roots by virtue of the falcata he is carrying. I’m sure I can remember from Colleen McCulloch’s books that the Balbus family were Caesar’s bankers and that they originated in Gades (Cadiz). Perhaps a debt is being paid off here.

The third officer is the most junior and he is Tribunus augusticlavius Lucinius Nexus. He commands the two cohorts of recruited veterans as well as the light infantry.

Lastly, there is another unit of Wargames Factory’s Celtic/Gallic cavalry. I’ve reviewed these before and was less than thrilled by them then. I still find it very hard to give them a decent paint job and I’m using them because they were cheap, which, in my book, is as good a reason as any. Now the odd thing about Wargames Factory’s packaging is that you will have a lot of surplus riders left over when you have used a box that contains 12 complete figures. And, even though they sell separate horses, that will not solve the problem as they don’t sell separate saddles. So, in the spirit of using everything I have bought, I looked around for someone who would sell separate ancients horses with saddles on them. Bingo – Aventine! At £5 for three horses they are not cheap (and indeed you could buy another box of complete Wargames Factory cavalry for the price of the 12 horses I bought) but at least I have the satisfaction (minor thought it is) of having used up all or most of the bits I have previously bought. Needless to say I’m not entirely convinced of the logic of this but you will see the results soon. Plastic figures on metal horses.

Adcantuannus’s Soldurii

2010-08-30T13:45:00.004+02:00

Gaius Julius Caesar’s description of the soldurii is as follows: “And while the attention of our men is engaged in that matter [the attack on the Oppidum of the Sotiates], in another part Adcantuannus, who held the chief command, with 600 devoted followers whom they call soldurii (the conditions of whose association are these, - that they enjoy all the conveniences of life with those to whose friendship they have devoted themselves: if any thing calamitous happen to them, either they endure the same destiny together with them, or commit suicide: nor hitherto, in the, memory of men, has there been found any one who, upon his being slain to whose friendship he had devoted himself, refused to die); Adcantuannus, [I say] endeavoring to make a sally with these, when our soldiers had rushed together to arms, upon a shout being raised at that part of the fortification, and a fierce battle had been fought there, was driven back into the town, yet he obtained from Crassus [the indulgence] that he should enjoy the same terms of surrender [as the other inhabitants]. “

When I placed my last order with Wargames Factory (great service, by the way!) they sent me some freebies – enough to make 16 Saxons and, not really needing to start another period, I put them aside to use as Gauls. Seems unlikely, I hear you say, as they are separated by about 1000 years of history but you judge for yourself. Given Gallic heads and shields, I reckon they look okay. These then will be Adcantuannus’s personal bodyguard and it will be interesting to see how many fulfill their contractual obligations to their boss!

On the subject of my Gallic army, I have been giving thought to variable move distances for warbands. The main strength of such an army, against the Romans for example, seems to me their great speed over poor as well as good terrain. The rules I plan to use are another Computer set “Macedon, Rome and Hellas” by Computer Strategies, and I’m fairly familiar with them having used them ten years ago. The move distances in the accompanying booklet state that HI and MI move 150 paces and Open MI/HI move 200 paces (I’m using the groundscale of 1 mm = 1 pace). I’m planning to rate all my warbands as Open MI and giving them one (d6) of extra variable compulsory movement with each pip giving an extra 10 paces. So their movement could be between 210 paces and 260 paces and this will mean that warbands will hit the Romans in an uncoordinated manner, which I think is fair.

The other thing I’d like to play around with is the ability of the Gallic C-in-C to hold back his warbands from instantly charging the enemy at sight. The better his skill, the more likely he could hold his forces back.

These ideas will need playing out on the table. Any thoughts most welcome.

Volcae Tectosages cavalry

2010-08-13T10:18:00.004+02:00

Last of the cavalry attached to the Roman army of invasion, these are the Volcae Tectosages. Figures are by 1st Corps and are good value for money.

Next to them is one of the new copses. I bought a large batch of trees on eBay (from China, needless to say) at a bargain price. But they came without bases and are rather a bright green so I've decided to blend them in with some of my existing trees and to make copses or small groupings of trees. These are based on card, holes make for the trees, then filled. Finally the base is oil washed and flocked and pins glued in so they are fixed to the hex terrain I use. One done, about another 80 to go but I'm in no hurry to do them!

56BC Campaign in Aquitania

2010-08-07T09:46:00.007+02:00

I need to explain in greater details what ancient armies I am doing.

Sotiates Tribe

The Sotiates were a fairly minor tribe whose territory was centred around Sos in the modern department of Lot-en-Garonne. They are known principally as the first tribe that Julius Publius Crassus, Caesar's lieutenant, encountered as he moved from the territory of the Nitiobriges and into Aquitaine. According to the records, the Sotiates put-up a spirited and determined defence, mostly using their cavalry and centred around their principal oppidium (Sos). Indeed, recent excavations have shown that it was once a Gallic stronghold. Crassus finally captured Sos and this allowed the defeat of Aquitaine. During Roman times (possibly due to their resistance) the star of the Sotiates was in the wane and by 300 CE they had been absorbed into the neighbouring Elusatae.

The defeat of the Sotiates (56 B.C.) was the first of two major battles in unknown locations in which Publius Crassus, the son of the Triumvir and one of Caesar's most able lieutenants, defeated the Aquitani tribes of south-west Gaul.

Caesar's invasion of Aquitania was one of his most blatantly aggressive moves. In the summer of 56 B.C. Caesar was campaigning against the maritime tribes of north-west Gaul, led by the Veneti, but the Aquitani had not taken part in that rebellion. Caesar would have been justified in watching the line of the Garonne, which marked the border of Aquitani territory, but instead he chose to send Publius Crassus, with twelve infantry cohorts and a large cavalry detachment, into Aquitania 'lest auxiliaries should be sent into Gaul by these states'.

Crassus was aware that he faced a difficult task, and so when he reached Aquitania, he summoned extra auxiliary troops and cavalry from the nearby Roman Province in southern Gaul. This reinforced army then advanced into the territory of the Sotiates tribe.

The Sotiates planned to draw Crassus into an ambush. Their infantry was placed in a position where they could attack the Romans as they passed through a valley, and their strong cavalry force was used to lure the Romans in.

Crassus fell into the trap. The Sotiates cavalry attacked the Roman column while it was on the march. The cavalry was duly defeated, and the Romans began a pursuit which brought them into the valley where the Sotiates infantry was waiting. As the Romans passed through the valley in some disorder, they were duly ambushed. At this point the Sotiates plan began to go wrong. Order was quickly restored in the Roman force, and after a long fight the Sotiates broke and fled, suffering heavy casualties in the process.

After this victory Crassus advanced deeper into Sotiates territory and began to besiege their principle towns. After a number of sorties failed to drive off the Roman siege forces, the Sotiates surrendered, freeing Crassus to move against the Vocates and Tarusates.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this explains things in Caesar's own words and is a tranlsation taken from his Gallic War:

From Julius Caesar, “Gallic War”

56BC
Chapter 20

About the same time, P. Crassus, when he had arrived in Aquitania (which, as has been before said, both from its extent of territory and the great number of its people, is to be reckoned a third part of Gaul,) understanding that he was to wage war in these parts, where a few years before, L. Valerius Praeconinus, the lieutenant had been killed, and his army routed, and from which L. Manilius, the proconsul, had fled with the loss of his baggage, he perceived that no ordinary care must be used by him. Wherefore, having provided corn, procured auxiliaries and cavalry, [and] having summoned by name many valiant men from Tolosa, Carcaso, and Narbo, which are the states of the province of Gaul, that border on these regions [Aquitania], he led his army into the territories of the Sotiates. On his arrival being known, the Sotiates having brought together great forces and [much] cavalry, in which their strength principally lay, and assailing our army on the march, engaged first in a cavalry action, then when their cavalry was routed, and our men pursuing, they suddenly display their infantry forces, which they had placed in ambuscade in a valley. These attacked our men [while] disordered, and renewed the fight.

Chapter 21

The battle was long and vigorously contested, since the Sotiates, relying on their former victories, imagined that the safety of the whole of Aquitania rested on their valor; [and] our men, on the other hand, desired it might be seen what they could accomplish without their general and without the other legions, under a very young commander; at length the enemy, worn out with wounds, began to turn their backs, and a great number of them being slain, Crassus began to besiege the [principal] town of the Sotiates on his march. Upon their valiantly resisting, he raised vineae* and turrets. They at one time attempting a sally, at another forming mines, to our rampart and vineae (at which the Aquitani are eminently skilled, because in many places among them there are copper mines); when they perceived that nothing could be gained by these operations through the perseverance of our men, they send embassadors to Crassus, and entreat him to admit them to a surrender. Having obtained it, they, being ordered to deliver up their arms, comply.

Chapter 22

And while the attention of our men is engaged in that matter, in another part Adcantuannus, who held the chief command, with 600 devoted followers whom they call soldurii (the conditions of whose association are these, - that they enjoy all the conveniences of life with those to whose friendship they have devoted themselves: if any thing calamitous happen to them, either they endure the same destiny together with them, or commit suicide: nor hitherto, in the, memory of men, has there been found any one who, upon his being slain to whose friendship he had devoted himself, refused to die); Adcantuannus, [I say] endeavoring to make a sally with these, when our soldiers had rushed together to arms, upon a shout being raised at that part of the, fortification, and a fierce battle had been fought there, was driven back into the town, yet he obtained from Crassus [the indulgence] that he should enjoy the same terms of surrender [as the other inhabitants].

Chapter 23

Crassus, having received their arms and hostages, marched into the territories of the Vocates and the Tarusates. But then, the barbarians being alarmed, because they had heard that a town fortified by the nature of the place and by art, had been taken by us in a few days after our arrival there, began to send ambassadors into all quarters, to combine, to give hostages one to another, to raise troops. Ambassadors also are sent to those states of Hither Spain which are nearest to Aquitania, and auxiliaries and leaders are summoned from them; on whose arrival they proceed to carry on the war with great confidence, and with a great host of men. They who had been with Q. Sertorius the whole period [of his war in Spain] and were supposed to have very great skill in military matters, are chosen leaders. These, adopting the practice of the Roman people, begin to select [advantageous] places, to fortify their camp, to cut off our men from provisions, which, when Crassus observes, [and likewise] that his forces, on account of their small number could not safely be separated; that the enemy both made excursions and beset the passes, and [yet] left sufficient guard for their camp; that on that account, corn and provision could not very conveniently be brought up to him, and that the number of the enemy was daily increased, he thought that he ought not to delay in giving battle. This matter being brought to a council, when he discovered that all thought the same thing, he appointed the next day for the fight.

Chapter 24

Having drawn out all his forces at the break of day, and marshaled them in a double line, he posted the auxiliaries in the center, and waited to see what measures the enemy would take. They, although on account of their great number and their ancient renown in war, and the small number of our men, they supposed they might safely fight, nevertheless considered it safer to gain the victory without any wound, by besetting the passes [and] cutting off the provisions: and if the Romans, on account of the want of corn, should begin to retreat, they intended to attack them while encumbered in their march and depressed in spirit [as being assailed while] under baggage. This measure being approved of by the leaders and the forces of the Romans drawn out, the enemy [still] kept themselves in their camp. Crassus having remarked this circumstance, since the enemy, intimidated by their own delay, and by the reputation [i.e. for cowardice arising thence] had rendered our soldiers more eager for fighting, and the remarks of all were heard [declaring] that no longer ought delay to be made in going to the camp, after encouraging his men, he marches to the camp of the enemy, to the great gratification of his own troops.)

Chapter 25

There, while some were filling up the ditch, and others, by throwing a large number of darts, were driving the defenders from the rampart and fortifications, and the auxiliaries, on whom Crassus did not much rely in the battle, by supplying stones and weapons [to the soldiers], and by conveying turf to the mound, presented the appearance and character of men engaged in fighting; while also the enemy were fighting resolutely and boldly, and their weapons, discharged from their higher position, fell with great effect; the horse, having gone round the camp of the enemy, reported to Crassus that the camp was not fortified with equal care on the side of the Decuman gate, and had an easy approach.

Chapter 26

Crassus, having exhorted the commanders of the horse to animate their men by great rewards and promises, points out to them what he wished to have done. They, as they had been commanded, having brought out the four cohorts, which, as they had been left as a guard for the camp, were not fatigued by exertion, and having led them round by a some what longer way, lest they could be seen from the camp of the enemy, when the eyes and minds of all were intent upon the battle, quickly arrived at those fortifications which we have spoken of, and, having demolished these, stood in the camp of the enemy before they were seen by them, or it was known what was going on. And then, a shout being heard in that quarter, our men, their strength having been recruited, (which usually occurs on the hope of victory), began to fight more vigorously. The enemy surrounded on all sides, [and] all their affairs being despaired of, made great attempts to cast themselves down over the ramparts and to seek safety in flight. These the cavalry pursued over the very open plains, and after leaving scarcely a fourth part out of the number of 50,000, which it was certain had assembled out of Aquitania and from the Cantabri, returned late at night to the camp.

Chapter 27

Having heard of this battle, the greatest part of Aquitania surrendered itself to Crassus, and of its own accord sent hostages, in which number were the Tarbelli, the Bigerriones, the Preciani, the Vocasates, the Tarusates, the Elurates, the Garites, the Ausci, the Garumni, the Sibuzates, the Cocosates. A few [and those] most remote nations, relying on the time of the year, because winter was at hand, neglected to do this.

*Note regarding Vineae:
Movable shelters, open at both ends, pushed along on wheels, and made of stout wattling, covered with leather. As the name suggests, the earliest were probably constructed of interlaced vine stems. Under their protection battering-rams could be worked, mines commenced, and other siege operations conducted.
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So I am preparing two armies, a Sotiates one that will double up for the Vocates and the Tarusates (although I may add a couple of veteran Celto-Iberian units to bolster this latter force), and a Roman Army under Crassus. I'm focusing on the latter, in painting terms, at the moment.

While it has been easy to be quite specific from the sources about much of the Roman army for the invasion, it has been largely guess-work for the Sotiates. I'm not sure if the mix of infantry to cavalry is quite right and I'd welcome comments from anyone with an opinion on this.

Volcae Arecomici Cavalry

2010-08-07T09:28:00.005+02:00

The Volcae were the largest tribe in the Roman colony of Gallia Narbonensis or Gallia Transalpina, to use another name (see map). They frequently supplied allied contingents to serve with Roman armies and Caesar made much use of their cavalry though he prefered to use German cavalry, which he considered more warlike.

They were divided into two sub-sects: the Volcae Arecomici and the Volcae Tectosages.
Both, incidentally, had been involved in the invasion of Greece and Macedonia in 281 BC and while some had returned home ladden with loot from the temples they had torched, others had moved on to form the Gallic state of Galatia in asia minor.

Publius Crassus has raised two Volcae cavalry units to serve with him on his invasion of Aquitania and this is the first of them.

The figures are mostly Foundry with some slightly smaller 1st Corps command. The Foundry figures are by far the best Gallic cavalry I’ve come across and I picked these up some time ago on eBay. But I won’t pay their shop prices so the command came from 1st Corps and I think they mix quite well. The shields though are from Warlord Games.

I’m showing the small Roman OOB which, as you can see, is about three quarters done.

VII Legio arrives

2010-08-03T12:03:00.005+02:00

Publius Licinius Crassus reviews the major part of his army, VII Legio, which has just arrived after a long march from Sri Lanka (the painters!).

Each cohort is 12 figures making a legion of 120 figures. I think that 12s are the smallest sized cohorts one can do to allow differing formations. They are based in two fours of 40mm x 40mm and two pairs of 40mm x 20mm. I will be using a set of ancients computer rules (Macedon to Rome by Computer Strategies) for these games so the basing system is my own. For the rest of this month I’ll be painting the Gallic cavalry part of this army plus some skirmishers. Then it will be on to their opponents and I’m aiming to have these armies ready by the summer of next year.

General Levy of Lublin

2010-07-31T10:05:00.011+02:00

July has been a month of miscellaneous painting and that will continue in August. One day or week I’ll post some Thracians, the next some Polish Renaissance.

Here is a unit called the General Levy of Lublin for that Polish Renaissance army (circa about 16430-60). This is the forth unit of five that will make up the right wing cavalry as follows:

Right Wing: General Jan Holowczynski

Duke Janusz of Masovia Hussaria Banner (12)
Krysten of Ostrow’s Pancerni Banner (12)
Jan of Tarnow’s Pancerni Banner (12)
General Levy of Lublin Banner(12)
General Levy of Przemysl Banner (12)

The top three were painted some time ago and you can see them in the index on the right under Polish Renaissance. This unit, and the General Levy of Przemysl to come, consisted of cavalry raised by some magnate or other and I have painted them with some semblance of regularity. I have no source as to how these might have looked but I have assumed that a rich landlord has contributed the core of the unit and given them blue coats and others have chipped in with other contributions dressed in brown. I admit it is entirely my conjecture without historical foundation. They are equipped with light lance, side weapon and bow. They will be somewhat erratic in behavior, I suspect.

The figures are by TAG but all those with lances are conversions, which I have discussed in a previous post.

Once the right wing cavalry is finished it will be time to fill out the ranks of Haiduks.

Publius Licinius Crassus or Gaius Julius Caesar

2010-07-30T09:49:00.003+02:00

This vignette, from 1st Corps, shows Gaius Julius Caesar with a lictor. This will be used to represent Publius Licinius Crassus on the battlefield. I’m knee deep in Colleen McCullough’s magnificent series of books on the Roman Republic. I’m reading the sixth of the seven currently in the series (The October Horse) and anyone who has read them will know that Caesar’s horse was called Toes.

If you have not read them and you have an interest in the ancient world, I can’t recommend them enough. This is, in fact, the third time I have read the series.

Gathering the troops (2)

2010-07-30T09:27:00.005+02:00

First up is the second cohors urbana of Narbo Martius (figures by Foundry and command by 1st Corps). These two cohorts consist of re-enlisted veterans who have been living out their twilight years on the French coast – sun loungers, wine and sandy beaches. Narbo Martius (present day Narbonne) was the first veteran’s colony established in Gaul.

Next is a cohort of Legio VII. The remaining cohorts are marching in from ‘over the seas’ and will be arriving shortly. Figures are from Wargames Factory who have improved somewhat since this, their first product.

Lastly, although I think it improbable that Thracians were serving under Publius Licinius Crassus, I happen to have a unit of twelve figures and it would be a shame not to use them. My justification is that the Ancient world was probably full of mercenary bands wandering around looking for work. Spain had been through its Sertorious wars and I’m speculating that this band of cut-throats was ambling home, via Gaul and Italy, when en-route, our Publius made them an offer they could not refuse. Figures are Foundry but with Crusader command.

Their Just Deserts

2010-07-11T14:02:00.002+02:00

Foundry produce, within or alongside their SYW British range, a few packs of highwaymen and smugglers. The rear two figures come from that latter range and I’ve decided to use them to represent deserters from the Allied/Pragmatic army, or to be more specific, deserters from the 37th Foot (Stewart’s). They have been captured by a dragoon from the 6th Dragoons (Inniskillings) and he is taking them (or actually dragging them) towards their just deserts!

New Farm and Légion Britannique 1st Btn

2010-07-10T08:50:00.007+02:00

This is the latest farm - larger than the previous one, with two buildings, apple barrels, fences and water trough, all from Hovels.

Lurking in the farm is the Légion Britannique 1st Btn, with light blue coats and buff facings. I've used the Army painter on these fellows to give them a campaign look as befitting their busy role. You might call them the scum of the earth as they are made up, largely, of deserters and they enjoy a good pillage. The bottom picture shows an unusual Foundry vignette of a wounded officer being dragged by a drummer ( the drummer's uniform for this unit is unknown so I have speculated) whilst being guarded by a fierce looking sergeant with bunderbuss.

SYW Hessian Leib-Regiment

2010-07-05T13:14:00.004+02:00

This regiment completes the regular line units of the Allied Pragmatic Army. They are missing their finials and tassels but that will have to wait until my next order to Front Rank. The First Division or Column (and indeed sometimes called “Corps”) contains 8 battalions, the second, eleven battalions, and the third contains twelve battalions, for a total of thirty one battalions. We’ll have a review shortly – I’m waiting for some flags from GMB before I can do that.

I’ve also found some extra figures so I’m going to paint up two additional light battalions to serve in the advance guard next to the three Jaeger regiments - Légion Britannique 1st and 3rd battalions. Once they are done, I’ll return to the French infantry and complete the first column.

I’m also working on the next farm and that should be up on this blog by the weekend.