SYW French Dragoons Regiment "Royal"

I am clearing up loose ends before the year-end and the new project for 2017. So there will be lots of bits and pieces, including two weeks worth of French dragoons.

Here is the first of them (Foundry figures) and there will be another next week as well as some of the last Jaegers that are lingering around.

WAS Spanish Harvor Hussars

This description comes from Manley: “The armies of Spain had no permanently established light cavalry since the existance of the Hungarian hussar regiments of the Habsburg pretender Carlo III  fighting in the WSS (1700-1713). For the campaigns in Italy of the 1740s, an expedient first used in the War of the Polish Succession (1732-1738), was re-adopted. This was the recruiting of deserters and POWs from the enemys units of grenzers into squadrons of semi-regular hussars.

The Conde of Montemar raised the first company of such troops in Bologna in mid-1742 under the command of Captain Ladislas Harvor. Initially the unit served dismounted as the “Comania  franca de husares a pie”, indeed it was in action as such at Camp Santo. By 1744, “El Cuerpo de Husares” had reached a strength of two companies, both now mounted, and was serving with the army of Gages. Thereafter the Corps survived until the end of the wars, becoming an official ‘regiment’ before being disbabded, probably before the end of 1748.”

Interestingly, on the other side, the Austrian side, there was a  Feldmarschallieutenant  Baron Havor who was inhaber of the Havor Hussars which also participated in the Italian campaign. This is that regiment:

http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Dessewffy_Hussars

These Hussars, in Spanish service, wore this yellow-blue uniform. The Spanish seemed to like yellow as a coat colour (their dragoons mostly wore yellow too) and it is a striking look.

Last of the Prussian artillery (3)

The top pictures shows a large howitzer battery of 12 guns. The bottom one shows the artillery allocated to the advance guard - 6pdrs on the left and 4pdrs on the right. The green coats are for the artillery crews of Freikorps von Kleist.

Assorted Prussian Jaegers

Three Jaegers companies, each equipped with rifles. Figures by Foundry. I like the variations in green.

I am selling a lot of wargames figures.........

I need to sort out my groaning lead mountain so I have decided to sell hordes of unpainted 15/18mm figures. There are mostly Old Glory (but include plenty of Eureka) and are mostly SYW. When I say hordes I do mean that – dozens of bags (mostly opened) of all nationalities. Most have been opened and some blacked. I would guess, of the top of my head, that there are around 1000 to 1500 in total. I don’t expect to get book price but nor do I wish to give them away for free. Postage from France needs to be considered. Drop me a message either here or go to 18thcenturypress.com and use the ‘contact’ button if you are interested.

I also have a large number of 15mm card buildings on sculpted terrain bases for sale.

Furthermore, I also need to sell painted armies. Here getting the correct price is more important. I am prepared to sell my 28mm Eastern Renaissance army(all metal), my 28mm Ancients (Caesearian Romans and Gauls – a mix of metals and plastics) and finally I will consider selling my entire 40mm SYW collection. I would rather these went individually as single collections.

Pictures of all these painted armies are on the blog in the appropriate sections. The reasons for selling them mostly concern the small amount of storage space I have. At the moment they are just collecting dust. They need to march across wargames tables.

WAS: Modenese Regiment MIRANDOLA

Here is the second ‘National’ regiment of Modena called Mirandola. This was an independent Duchy under the Pico family until Modena purchased it in 1711 for 175,000 golden doubloons. It demolished the 15^th century castle and built an 18^th century fortress (picture below)which was to be besieged by the invading Piedmontese in the WAS.

I am unsure about what shade of green to use for the facings (green is a tricky colour as there are so many shades) but I love this Jade green from Coat d’Arms (158) and so any chance to use it is welcome.

I also have had to make a decision about the uniforms of Modenese generals. I am sure there was no uniform and that the Duchy followed the normal practise of using the colonel-in-chief’s outfit with extra embellishments. There were two known generals that I have been able to track down (besides the Duke himself): Lt General Gross (who command the Swiss regiment so he would have worn red faced pale blue until they reversed the colours) and who was notionally the senior general, and a Major-General Negri. I have no information about him at all so I have just put him in the uniform of Mirandola and in this uniform he will command the single Modenese infantry brigade. The figure is from Black Hussar and their nice new pair of French SYW Generals, in this case Chevert. The only thing I don’t like about the new figures is that they have turned back the coats and almost all contemporary illustrations do not show this detail. 

More Prussian artillery (2)

The top picture shows a battery of captured Austrian 12pdrs, repainted in Prussian blue, and pressed into service.

The middle 4 pictures show 12pdr Brummers as used at Rossbach with great effect. These are massive beasts and when first pressed into service they were pulled around by human crews.

The bottom picture shows a comparison of various 12 pdrs just to show how large the Brummers were. All guns come from Fife & Drum.

WAS: First Modenese battalion REGGIO

Here is the first of my planned Modenese brigade. I intend doing four or five battalions uniformed as they were in exile after the Piedmontese invasion in March 1742. In reality the Duke of Modena escaped with only his personal  Guardia del Corpo. Other remnants of the army made their way into exile to join the Spanish in the south.

Now I had planned to replicate the 10 battalion army that tried to resist the Piedmontese but I have decided to assemble a much more disperate force consisting of one Modenese brigade, one Neapolitan brigade and two Spanish ones plus cavalry.

The Modenese brigade will consist of 4 ‘National’ battalions, and Reggio is the first of them. The uniform details are from Manley and they agree in almost every detail with the Vinkhuizen plates, one of which I show here. The uniform is really quite different from the later SYW. The only detail where Vinkhuizen and Manley differ is in the stock; the latter described this as red. One further detail is that the plate shows the pre-invasion black cockade. Manley mentions that they adopted a yellow cockade so I like the sound of that. In all other respects though these can serve as pre or post invasion.

Also, a word on my choice of figures. I like the Black Hussar French figures so much that I will use them for the entire brigade, maybe even for the other nationalities. I know that the coat should be closed and buttoned up but it is hot in southern/central Italy and permission is granted to them to unbutton their coats to prevent over-heating!

Finally, I am a little unsure about which nationalities formed their battalions in 3 or 4 ranks. This is important (and frequently overlooked by many sets of rules of the period). It is important because a 3-rank battalion will be able to fire every rank (in rotation) whereas a 4-rank battalion will only be able to fire the front three ranks (in rotation) and will hold the forth rank in reserve. This make them (the 4 rank battalion) probably better in melee if it ever comes to that. But a three rank battalion of, say, 600 men will have 200 men in the front rank for the initial volley. The 600 man battalion in 4 ranks will only have 150 men in the front rank. Using my ground scale of 1mm = 1 pace this battalion has about 400 men in 4 ranks.

I know that France formed in 4 ranks in the WAS. French policy was not to rely on firing but to close with the bayonet. Spain followed the French tactics and Naples followed Spain in this regard. Unknown to me is what Modena and Piemont did. I have assumed that Piedmont formed in 3 ranks and Modena in 4. If anybody knows to the contrary, pease be good enough to let me know. What you see here is a Modenese battalion in 4 ranks (3 ranks of actual figures). Plus any help with Neapolitan flags of this period would be a great help.

WAS Piedmontese artillery

I use one gun model to represent two artillery pieces on the table. Here I have a howitzer (Perry I think) plus 3 Austrian 6 pdrs from Fife & Drum. The limber and horses are superb and come from Black Hussar. Although the supplied traces are fiddly to put on, I think they improve the look. I will probably have to do three limbers more to complete the Piedmontese artillery. But like most others, the expense and trouble of doing limbers puts them at the end of the 'to do' list.

Prussian Artillery (1)

 Here we have four 12pdr batteries - three batteries have 6 guns and one has eight. There was no standard size of battery in the SYW - guns were grouped as needed on the day.

The crews are mostly from Foundry although a few from Front Rank and Crusader have crept in for variety. All the guns are from the fantastic artillery range of Fife & Drum. I painted 48 crews some time back and they have been waiting the arrival of the ordinance so over the next few weeks you will see 24 gun models with crews.

Kleist Freikorps dismounted dragoons

You have recently seen the mounted Dragoons and here they are dismounted - well most of them. The officer likes his ride. Figures are Foundry again.
Next week and for the next three weeks I will be focusing on artillery. Hordes of them too.