Regular
readers of this blog will know that I am slightly obsessed with 18th
century Hessians. I even have another blog, if a bit redundant at the
moment, that focuses on early SYW Hessians. What I like about them is
that they are a Prussian looking army but much smaller and feasible
given that I have to paint both sides if I embark on a project. Add
to that the fact that my second favourite army of this bewigged
century is the French. Who could possible manufacture both sides?
Well I am teasing you because my favourite manufacturer is Black
Hussar who, incidentally, produce both Prussians and French for the
SYW. The imminent arrival of Prussian Cuirassiers is most welcome
too.
So
here is the start of a small project (Hessians v French) for late
SYW. When I say small, I mean similar sized to the WAS in Italy
project which consists of about 12 battalions and 12 squadrons each
side.
The
other thing I like about Hessians are their bewilderingly colourful
AWI flags. In 1760 the old Landgraf passed away and his son
Friedrich
II came to the throne. He was a Prussian General
and inhaber of a Prussian Infantry regiment too. Already quite
Prussian in it's look, he tinkered with the organisation and flags to
make the army a mini-replica of his big neighbour to the East. The
early flags, prior to 1760, I find a little bit dull. The post 1760
flags are much more Prussian in look but many details of what they
looked like are unknown. With the AWI you would have thought that the
fog of what the flags looked like might have lifted but sadly not.
Many of the articles on the AWI flags captured are inconsistent with
Prussian practice. A good article is here at
So
what I am doing is a late SYW Hessian army with AWI flags. Some are
conjectural as the Hessians only sent single battalions to North
America whereas I will field double battalion regiments. Some
questions remain as to what exactly was the colour combination of the
Leibfahne and what was the colour combination of the Regimentfahne? I
will try to follow the logic of the Prussian system but I admit there
are many opposing views so this is just my interpretation. But you
also have to just love the vibrant colour of the flags which came
from http://FlagsofWar.com
Iain
there is a great chap and he has resized the flags slightly for me so
that they fit on the Black Hussar flagpoles. I think the artwork is
even better than GMB's, which is saying something.
In
terms of the uniforms, most will be based on the SYW late version but
with this first regiment, I have gone with the AWI uniform. The late
SYW version had pink facings which looked wrong with these flags
whereas the sand/mustard yellow facings compliment the flags. And in
the unlikely event that I ever do armies for the AWI, then these two
battalions can be combined into one, less one set of flags.
