10mm WSS: van Dyck miniatures: Zurlauben Regiment

 

This company in Belgium produces the finest and most detailed tiny metal miniatures. Their ranges are a little limited but their figures are gorgeous. In particular they have exquisite horses which, in my view, is the best way to judge the work of a mini-sculptor.

I'm showing here the French(Walloon) regiment Zurlauben, 3 battalions, whose greatest claim to fame was it's defence of the village of Blenheim. On 13 August, it took part in the disastrous Battle of Blenheim where it was virtually annihilated and its colonel mortally wounded.

I also show here my system for basing regiments formed in 4-5 ranks, which includes every nation except the British and Dutch. I snip off the supplied standard pikes and replace them with tiny steel pins because I like big flags.

Visit their website at https://vandyckmodelsandfigurines.be/WP/shop/

12m Epic Scale ACW: 74th New York Zouaves

 

For a pleasant and colourful change.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 13 and 14

 

Here are the last two Royalist foot regiments.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 11 and 12

 

Colonel John Taylor's Foot (white flags) and Jacob Astley's Foot (blue flags).

28mm Perry Plastics FPW 1870: French Infantry (2)

 

I've done a third battalion and made a change to the flag arrangement. Previously I just had the flag on the second battalion (as was historically correct) but now I have added flags to all battalions. It is a question of what looks good to me and 'looking good' sometimes has to trump what might be historically accurate. The notional regiment has turned into the 50th Regiment too as I have decided to press on with this project and paint eleven battalions for this army. The mounted officer is Marshal Canrobert but I will be using him as General de Brigade Montmarie.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 9 and 10

 

John Talbot's 'white' regiment and the 'yellow' regiment of Colonel Bernard Ashley.

28mm Napoleonic Russians: IR Kazan

 

Here are two new battalions for my Russian army. I've done four battalions and I showed these a year ago (Tchernigovsk and Staroskol Regiments) so we are progressing with the second brigade. I choose which regiments to paint based entirely on the flags and these are from Flags of War.

28mm ECW Royalist: Horse regiment of Prince Maurice

Again here we have figures from 1st Corps as mentioned previously. I decided to do a horse regiment belonging to Prince Maurice as, although he is less dashing that his more famous brother Prince Rupert, he may well have been a more able general. He also had an independent command at times. I'm not sure if I will continue this project in 28mm or not.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 7 and 8

 

White regiment of the city of Oxford and a fictional regiment with green flags.

28mm ECW Royalist: Foot regiment of John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse

 

I am not sure why I got drawn into ECW in 28mm, given that I am currently on a long run with Epic scale, but I was curious about the figures from 1st Corps and wanted to look at them. I bought a foot regiment and one of horse too. Here is the foot regiment – a 'blue' Royalist one.

Belasyse was a rich man who raised six regiments of horse and foot soldiers at his own expense. He was a catholic who married three times and fathered six daughters. He lived through the reigns of both Charles's and James and died in 1689. He looks very splendid in his portrait dated 1636.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 5 and 6

 

White regiment of Sir Henry Bard and the red regiment of Sir Ralph Hopton.

28mm SYW French: Royal Dragoons

 

So this is the first of the two Dragoon regiments to finish off my French army. I have used the same figures which work fine, differences being mostly resolved by paint. The other one will be Caraman. Thanks to Frederic Aubert for the lovely flags.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: Royalist Foot 3 and 4

 

The purple regiment belonged to Colonel Bagot and the green regiment to the Earl of Northampton. I have followed the lazy principle of using the flag colour for the coat colour. There is no justification for this but it will give a colourful looking army. I try to mix in a few brown coated men in with them for variety too.

12mm Epic Scale ECW: King's Lifeguard and Prince Rupert's Foot Regiment

 

A new project is afoot! Well actually quite a few regiments of 'foot'. Here are the first two Royalist regiments and we will be doing 14.

28mm SYW French: Tallyrand Cavalry

This is the last of the Horse regiments (so 9 in total) which, using French nomenclature, are classified as cavalerie légère or light Horse. I will also be doing two Dragoon regiments to finish off the left wing. The Talleyrand coat of arms was red with three golden lions rampant so I have given the musician a red coat.

 

28mm Perry Plastics FPW 1870: French Infantry

 

Here are the latest FPW French infantry from the Perrys. I have painted two battalions, the first and second of a notional Regiment. The Eagle and flag are carried by the second battalion. They are nice figures but the coats are so voluminous that it's quite hard to fit all the figures on a stadard plastic green base.

I posted a Prussian battalion back in August 2021 and actually I prefer the poses of those figures although the French uniform is quite pretty. The Perry uniform quide is, as always, useful but not detailed enough concerning the kepi so I have posted here a more detailed picture of the kepi from a reproduction company in France.

28mm SYW French: Noailles Cavalry

Another regiment of Horse done. This is the 8th out of the nine planned.

As for the musician, the house of Noailles' coat of arms was red-yellow so the coat might have been a combination of those two colours. Equally, it might not. There are no sources and this is an 'educated' guess.

 

28mm SYW French: Henrichemont Cavalry

 

I'm slowly plodding my way through these French cavalry regiments and this unit finishes my second brigade and the right wing.

28mm SYW French: Conti Cavalry

This was a 'Prince de Sang' Regiment as the Conde-Conti family was a part of the larger Bourbon family. They used their own livery of sand with light blue as per the infantry drummer picture attached.

This is the 6^th regiment finished for my French army.

 

28mm Celtic light cavary (metals) 1

 

Figures from Foundry.

28mm Hessians: 10/12 Rückersfeld Grenadiers

 

The last of the converged grenadier battalions.

28mm Hessians: IR12 Erbprinz

 

This regiment had 'Sang de Boeuf' coloured facings or Bull's blood, a very dark red. The lovely flags are from my friend Frederick Aubert, as are all my Hessian flags. Figures are largely from Black Hussar. I have almost finished the Hessian infantry. Just one grenadier battalion to go and the two battalions of IR7.