40mm Horse Grenadiers of Erzherzog Joseph Dragoons

I'm mildly pleased with these chaps. The Austrian cavalry for 'phase one' is now complete with a total of 14 squadrons.

More Gendarmerie

Three more squadrons of the Gendarmerie. There were a total of 8 squadrons in the Gendarmerie and each was composed of two companies as follows:

1st squadron

• Gendarmes Écossais
• Gendarmes de Bourgogne

2nd squadron

• Gendarmes Anglais
• Chevau-légers de Bourgogne

3rd squadron

• Gendarmes Bourguignons
• Gendarmes d'Aquitaine

4th squadron

• Gendarmes de Flandres
• Chevau-légers d'Aquitaine

5th squadron

• Gendarmes de la Reine
• Gendarmes de Berry

6th squadron

• Chevau-légers de la Reine
• Chevau-légers de Berry

7th squadron

• Gendarmes du Dauphin
• Gendarmes d'Orléans

8th squadron

• Chevau-légers du Dauphin
• Chevau-légers d'Orléans

There were lace differences in each company but the most noticeable difference was in the colour of the bandoleer over the shoulder. According to Kronoskaf, when two companies were combined they wore the bandoleer colour of the senior unit in the pairing, which was news to me and which makes sense.
Figures are mostly Foundry with a sprinkling of Elite and Front Rank for variety.

40mm Austrian Dragoon Brigade

Here is my first WAS/SYW Austrian cavalry brigade in 40mm.  Six squadrons of the Erzherzog Joseph dragoons up front (green coats) and six squadrons of the Sachsen-Gotha dragoons behind (in the red coats) with their commander Berlichingen at the front. All figures are from the fantastic Sash & Saber SYW range except for Berlichingen, who is a Trident figure.

I have a 'slight' lighting issue on my new wargames table in the basement! I'll need to sort out stronger lighting for photography.

I'm waiting for some new Prussian hussars to give these chaps someone to fight against!

Grenadiers de France

Here are all four battalions/brigades of the Grenadiers de France. For their organisation, see my post on July 5th. All figures are by Front Rank, except for a couple of Foundry chaps lurking in the background.

New table and backdrop

I've finally sorted out my basement and my wargames table. It is smaller than I've had before but I'm satisfied as it's about as big as I can fit into the space - 15' x 6'.
I've bought a splendid backdrop from Dave Burgess at www.backdropjunction.com. This particular one came in three parts (each 17" x 4') so all three strung together cover 12' of the 15' of the table.
It was self-adhesive so I had a few tricky minutes getting the three parts to join up correctly but I hope you agree it looks great. Plus I can slide it along as it is trapped between the table edging and the terrain squares.
Note the rather outsized ACW 12pdr Napoleon - it was made by my father who enjoyed assembling kits like this.
Lastly, I finally got to lay out my collection of figures properly too, with, you will note, extra shelves for expansion!

More 40mm cavalry for WAS/SYW

Back in August 2011 I painted 5 squadrons of the Austrian Dragoon regiment "Sachsen-Gotha". I have added to this force and started a new dragoon regiment.

(Top picture) Another squadron of Sachsen-Gotha to bring it to six squadrons in total.

(2nd picture) The Horse Grenadier squadron of the same regiment to go with the reserves. It should technically be just a company in size but that would be too fiddly so I have given them a full squadron.

(Bottom two pictures) Two squadrons of Erzherzog Joseph Dragoons. There will be six in total plus a Horse Grenadier squadron. Both regiments will be brigaded together with a total of 12 squadrons and the two Horse Grenadier squadrons will eventually have another squadron added to them and then these guys will form their own converged regiment. I rather like the green uniform.

Grenadiers de France, 1st and 2nd BTN

Grenadiers de France, a four battalion regiment numbered 40,  which was created in 1749 from the grenadier companies of  regiments disbanned after the WAS. In fact each battalion was called a 'brigade' and consisted of 12 companies. Each brigade was commanded by a maréchal de camp so this is was a regiment top-heavy with senior officers. Additionally each pair of companies was commanded by a colonel so a single battalion/brigade had a further six colonels!

All figures are by Front Rank and the remaining 2 battalions/brigades will be shown shortly.