28mm WSS: French Regiment de Montfort

 

A two battalion regiment of Walloons in French service. I rather like the flags.

28mm WSS: English 9pdr Battery and C-in-C

 

The battery is from a Warlord Games plastic box using 9 out of the 12 crew supplied. The command base is from Front Rank although I had originally planned to buy them from Ebor. I found I had quite a few unused 28mm horses that could be pressed into service obviating the need to buy more horses.

ETYMOLOGIES: “BIGWIG”

Bigwig: an important or influential person; someone of a high status

Origin: The term bigwig originated in the 17th century, when the short lived fad of wig-wearing was at its peak. It became fashionable for people to shave their heads and replace their hair with wigs; in this way they could sport a style they might not be able to naturally grow. It was seen as a triumph of man’s ingenuity over nature. However hair to make up these wigs was quite rare and expensive. Hair was sold by the strand and it was not uncommon for the lower classes to be seen wearing wigs consisting of only several strands of hair. The rich folk on the other hand were able to purchase large wigs made up of thousands of strands of hair and very soon the term ‘bigwig’ became associated with the very wealthy.

28mm WSS: Hessian Dragoons Erbprinz (4 squ)

 

This Hessian dragoon regiment was brigaded with Hay's and Ross' dragoons at Blenheim.

I have based these in the 3 rank basing system I will be using. The depth is excessive by a mile but the key thing is the reduced frontage, compared to the British dragoons already shown. This is the system I will be using for most of my cavalry, including the French.

28mm WSS: Hay's Dragoons (2 squ)

 

The regiment's history began in 1678, when three independent troops of Scots Dragoons were raised. In 1681, these troops were regimented to form The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons, numbered the 4th Dragoons in 1694. They were already mounted on grey horses by this stage and were already being referred to as the Grey Dragoons. In 1707, they were renamed The Royal North British Dragoons (North Britain then being the envisaged common name for Scotland – rather an insult I would say being a Scot), but were already being referred to as the Scots Greys.

28mm WSS: Ross' Dragoons (2 squ)

 

Here I am using Warlord Games plastic WSS cavalry for the first time. They are quite fiddly to assemble and the horse's heads are horrible, but when finished they don't look that bad plus, and this is important to me, they are quick to paint. The officer has actually come from the Artillery box and should represent a general of sorts but I have just made him the dragoon officer. My 'real' general figures will probably come from Ebor. Note British cavalry deploy in 2 ranks which accounts for the wide bases.

Charles Ross (or Rosse; 8 February 1667 – 5 August 1732) was a Scottish general and Member of Parliament.

He was the second son of George Ross, 11th Lord Ross. When Wynne's Regiment of Dragoons was raised in 1689, Ross joined as a captain, and served with the regiment in the Williamite War in Ireland. He went to Flanders with the regiment as lieutenant-colonel in 1694, and was appointed colonel of the regiment on Wynne's death, 15 July 1695. In 1704 he secured the title of the Royal Dragoons of Ireland for his regiment. Ross was promoted brigadier-general on 9 March 1702, and major-general on 1 January. He commanded a brigade of Dragoons at the battles of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. He was further promoted to lieutenant-general on 1 January 1707, made Colonel-General of all the Dragoons on 1 May 1711, and promoted to full general on 1 January 1712. He was removed from the colonelcy of the Royal Dragoons of Ireland on 8 October 1715, but reappointed on 1 February 1729, holding the post until his death.

28mm WSS: French (German) Regiment Zurlauben

This is the first of a two battalion Regiment I plan to have. Many sources describe it as Walloon but others state that it was a German regiment and I incline towards the latter view. It was at Blenheim and occupied the village of the same name (or Blindheim if you prefer). It was largely wiped out there and was never re-raised.

Interestingly it's proprietor was Lieutenant General Beatus Jacques II de Zurlauben, who commanded the Gendarmerie at that same battle and who later died of his wounds sustained on that bloody day. He was a Swiss who was much favoured by Louis XIV for his valiant performance at the Battle of the Boyne. Wiki says “Appointed lieutenant general on June 5, 1702, he made heroic efforts at the battle of Höchstädt (Blenheim)in 1704. Although he had received seven deep wounds, having placed himself at the head of the gendarmerie, he had thrice driven back the enemy;but not being seconded (supported), he was obliged to retire. The king, informed of his conduct, made the Minister of War write: "His Majesty commanded me to say ALL that you will be happy with the way in which he intends to compensate you, remember to heal promptly and to come and receive the reward for your services.". The letter was dated September 20;and, before it could reach him, Zurlauben died in Ulm.”

Flags from Flags of War. Lastly, one strange coincidence: one of his sons was a captain in the yellow-coated regiment (Hessy) I showed you recently.

 

28mm WSS: French (Swiss) Regiment Hessy

This is a slightly controversial unit as the yellow coats may have disappeared by the WSS although they were used at the end of the 17^th century.

This regiment was raised in 1672 under the name of Pfyffer (or Pfiffer) and in 1689 it became Hessy. The regimental history then progressed right through to the revolution under different names – in the WAS it was Vigier and in the SYW it was Castellas. The yellow coat colour changed at some point( possibly in 1720, possibly earlier) to the more well-known red with blue facings or if you think Bacchus is reliable, then it's painting guide show this regiment as having blue coats faced red. The Ordonnance flags had various yellow-blue combinations that changed each time the proprietor changed but in 1753 the scheme changed to red-blue flames.

I have no idea the colour scheme for the drummers but they certainly did not use Royal Livery so the drummers wore what the colonel/proprietor wanted and reversed colours were the convention in this period.

This 3 battalion regiment would make a splendid brigade. In the WSS it fought in Flanders in 1704 and for the rest of the war it was in Spain. Hessy himself died in 1729 having reached the rank of maréchal de camp in 1702 and lieutenant général in 1704. There is no reason why you could not have him present in person commanding his brigade! I have painted the second battalion.

 

28mm WSS: Austrian Regiment Carl Joseph Lothringen

 

Of course I had to have this regiment when I saw the dark green coat plus those flags.

This was a 2 battalion regiment raised from Carl Ignaz (Bishop of Osnabrück and Olmütz) Duke of Lorraine and Bar's Lifeguard. It was originally one battalion strong but was strengthened to two. It got around too. It served in the early war in the Army of the Rhine, then was sent to Italy and then to Catalonia. The grenadiers wore bearskins as per Austrian tradition.

28mm WSS: Dutch Regiment Pallandt

 

This Dutch regiment has rather pretty flags and yellow facings, so what's not to like. I have decided to give the Dutch a slightly darker grey than the Danes just for the sake of variety.

The flags come from Flags of War and, to quite a large extent, my choice of regiments to paint has been determined by the glory of their flags as well as the options for uniform sources on-line. The grenadier headgear is entirely speculative and I probably should have split the company into two with a grenadier figures at each end. The drummer too is a complete speculation.

28mm WSS: British 2nd Foot The Queen Dowager's Regiment and Danish Regiment Fynske

 

I bought some boxes of WSS plastics from Warlord Games recently and they are lovely figures, very easy to assemble. I cannot say for sure that this is the start of another project but I can say that I will paint up 4 British/Allied battalions and 4 French/Bavarian battalions to start off with and then take it from there – keep or sell depending on how I feel later.

But, so far, they are lovely to paint and here is (on the left) Catherine of Braganza's regiment (she was married to King Charles II) and after his death she became the Queen Dowager, an unusual position in British history. The regiment has startling sea-green facings and part of the joy of the WSS is that uniform details are very hazy at best so you can, within certain limits, do, more-or-less, what you want. Plus the flags are dazzling too!

These deploy in 3 ranks with my 3 rank/Platoon Firing basing, which shows them 'Locked-Up'.

On the right is the Danish Regiment Fynske (1^st BTN of three, the first served in Flanders with Marlborough while the other two served with the Imperialists). These (plus the Prussians) produce a slight basing dilema as they were either in 3 ranks PF or 4 ranks PF. Sources differ so I have based them flexibly to be able to do either. When gaming flexibility is not required (ie because they always deployed in 4 or 5 ranks, like the French or Imperialists) the pairs of figures at the back of the line will be glued to the fours in front.

I have gone here for a lighter shade of grey than that I plan to use for the Dutch. I chose this regiment because I read that it had green trousers and gaiters, which later changed to red, so it is rather fetching to my eye. The grenadier headgear is entirely speculative.