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.