General Guerchy and Aide

Presenting the commander of my French forces General Guerchy and his as yet unnamed Aid-de-Camp. Both are 15mm Old Glory figures from their French Generals pack. I am not sure what the general is telling his aide but the expression on the aide's face is abject terror.

For the command stand I copied an idea from the Koenig Krieg web-site and added a fence to the stand. The aide's uniform is fairly standard for French aides, however I wanted General Guerchy to stand out so I opted for a white coat with red accents as generals had no regulation uniform in the French army at this time.

I favor round washer bases for my generals, the fence was made out of some hobby sticks that I cut the edges to roughen up. The base is covered with renaissance ink flocking gel and woodland scenic flock for the bushes, grass and static grass.
Here is a rear view of the generals, I like the details of the lace on the pockets.

This is the first black horse I have painted. I highlighted the horse with a dark blue-gray, I felt the dark horse contrasted with the generals white uniform.

Shot of General Guerchy's expression and the fence. I am not sure what color the fence would have been, natural wood perhaps, but for aesthetic reasons with the dark horses I opted for a gray fence. I hope to finish another French infantry regiment this week.

My brother-in-law has planned a wonderful trip to Gettysburg in a couple of weeks so I am currently re-reading some of my books and may make a diversion to some ACW minis.

Royal Etranger

Presenting the Royal Etranger "heavy" cavalry unit. I have read that the French army utilized the usual variety of cavalry, heavy, light and elite (Gendarmerie de France), the Royal Etranger troops are reported in my scenarios as "armored" so I am assuming they were Curiassiers.

The regiment was originally formed in 1659 from several foreign regiments, hence the name, but was thereafter mustered from Frenchmen. The uniforms are blue with Aurora epaulets and red cuffs, lapels and turnbacks. This seems to be the standard uniform colors for most "heavy" cavalry with gentlemen regiments wearing red.

The lace around the horse furniture is aurora with a red diamond pattern with white diamonds. I just dotted the trim with white dots, adds a little detail. I used a paper flag from http://www.juniorgeneral.org/ I need to do some research on dragoons and hussars as some units appear to have worn bearskins and Mirlton hats.

A picture of the unit in column, I added the lace on the musician and tried to vary the brown on the horses.

Picture of General Duc de Brissac leading the Royal Etranger and Cavenderian Ladika Hussars.


Cavenderian units will serve as the foreign regiments in French service. Pictured left infantry regiments (IR) Bourbonnois, Fitzgerald and Prinz Geoffrey. General Chevelas and Colonel Jalsevic.

Growing French army. Up next IR-Rouergue, IR-Die Dame's Fub and more artillery, plus the overall commander of French forces, General Guerchy with his Aide-de-camp and maybe some Hessians.

Completed building this Hallmark coach for the Reich Duke and King Basil's upcoming visit. Need to paint it up. I was wondering if someone could tell me if I had the horses in the correct position by their harnesses. The model was bit tricky to assemble requiring some drilling but should be fun for photos. Finally, have played the naval rescue of Dukas scenario and should be able to report that soon in a fiction.

French IR-Bourbonnais

I finished up my first French infantry regiment (IR) Bourbonnais for my western theater scenario for Charcon. As mentioned previously figures are Old Glory 15mm based on 3/4" x 1" bases. You can click on the pictures for larger images. The french are fairly easy to paint being mostly white and this regiment in particular completely white, except for the musicians.

Picture from the right, I went back and painted the gaiters on the standard bearer white after I realized in a previous post that he was wearing gaiters not boots. The french figs from the old glory pack appear a bit thinner than the Austrians and Prussians I have ordered previously which is fine, but I do not care for the officer poses in these packs much. I spoke with a sales rep for Old Glory and they said I could order packs with just the hatmen, no officers in the future to flesh out the units a bit more in the future.

Shot from the left you can see the exaggerated pose of the officer, he would most likely have put out the eye of the guy behind him. the NCO is striking quite a pose as well. I do like the drummer and the standard bearer quite a bit. The only difference in grenadier I can tell is a mustache and at this scale I did not worry about that very much.

Finally I am still working on getting the right buff leather color for the belting. You can see I have a bit of a yellowish leather right now, the hat lace is a metallic gold and from the photo the belting looks similar. This regiment will be brigaded together with IR-Rouergue and serve under General Chevelas, who has been previously painted. I have nearly completed the first cavalry unit, Royal Etranger, and will have pics of them up soon. If anyone knows the proper spelling for these French units please drop me a line as I do not speak French and am relying on Internet information.

Duc de Brissac and IR-Bourbonnois

I was able to do some painting yesterday and have added another general to the French forces for my western theater scenario.

To the left is the Duc de Brissac, Old Glory (OG) 15mm Seven Years War French General. The Duc will be leading the French cavalry so I thought this very animated miniature would suit him well. He is based on a metal washer which had renaissance ink flocking gel and regular flocking gel and static grass added.

Here is a view from the side. I spent a little bit more time on my general figures, adding eyes and concentrating on the lace etc. On this miniature to add a little more contrast I added the stockings showing above the boot and put him on my favorite horse to paint, the dapple gray. French generals did not wear specific uniforms so the idea for this uniform is blue coat as most infantry and the rest from a nice site, I can not recall the link at this time.

The other side of the general you can make out his yellow waste-coat and some additional gold on the cuffs. For an experiment I tried a green gray highlight on the horses reins, I think it looks nice, I will probably use this more often in the future.

What is a cavalry general without cavalry? Therefore the next unit I am painting are some Curiassier Etranger, so the Duc will not be lonely.

It has been suggested, jokingly, that I have miss labeled my miniatures as 15mm when they are actually 25-28mm. Here is a side by side with a Front Rank Austrian general for comparison and legitimacy :) Although technically speaking with enough photo-shop tweaking one could manipulate a 28mm figure photo :))

I have completed painting IR-Bourbonnois who will be under the command of the formerly photographed General Chevelas.

I enjoyed painting the drummer in his royal coat. I have not completed the basing on the entire unit when I do I will post. to the left is a sneak-peak of the unit. I am not certain that I am completely happy with the leather belts, oh well plenty of French to experiment with.

Another view of the infantry with a better shot of the chain lace on the drummer. I went with an actual metallic gold for the trim of the tricornes per Mr. Protz recommendation. I really like the blue on the drum and wish the regular infantry had a bit more color, oh well, such is life.

A side-by-side photo with a 28mm Bavarian drummer for scale reference. The 28mm drummer is Crusader and part of my Bring your own battalion that fled on turn two at the SYW convention this year.

The wife has to work this weekend so I may have a greater painting output than usual and should have an update on the attempted rescue of Spyridon Dukas for the Adriatic campaign early next week.

ciao,

First Completed Brunswickers and French

I have completed my first historical regiment for my western theater scenario. Pictured to the left is the Duchy of Brunswick Leib Regiment. The figures are Old Glory (OG) 15mm Prussian Infantry. Uniform colors were researched using William Biles booklet: Uniforms of the Seven Years War A Painter's Guide Volume 1: Prussia, England, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel & Brunswick. The flag is the pre-1760 version of the leib standard provided by http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Brunswick_Leib-Regiment

Second picture of the Leib Regiment with a better view of the standard. The bases are 3/4" x 1" metal bases by Wargames Accessories ordered through http://www.scalecreep.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=217_218 The bases were textured with Flocking Gel from http://www.renaissanceink.net/index.php?body=gels.html

Final picture of the battalion. After the Flocking Gel is applied to the bases I finished them off with some static grass and model railroad flocking from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=woodland+scenics&aq=f&oq=&aqi=n1g10 purchased at my local craft store. I use generic craft paints that you can pick up at places like A.C. Moore.

For some unknown reason the musicians of the Leib Regiment wore yellow coats with red swallows nests trimmed white. I enjoyed painting this unit and especially the drummer. This is my first attempt at adding lace to the infantry uniforms and I think it turned out pretty good. Simple white lines down the lapels do the trick.

Another photo of the drummer. The drum is bordered with a striped pattern and is supposed to have the Brunswick coat of arms on the brass drums but even my maniacal detailing neurosis has it's limits. The finished battalion is four (4) stands totaling 16 figs. I have based the figures for the Fire and Fury rules Seven Years' War variant Age of Honor. Each figure represents approximately 80 men for a regimental strength of 1,280. Mr. Biles list the regimental strength of Brunswick units as two (2) battalions of 600 musketeers with 140 grenadiers per battalion or 1,480 troops. Close enough for my goals.

Next picture is of French Brigadier General Chevelas. Biles' pamphlet on the French uniforms states that French generals did not adhear to any specific dress-code and wore coats of red, white and blue. I decided Monsieur General Chevelas would were red. I really need the practice painting red not to mention everyone knows the old joke about "Bring me my red jacket!"

Rear view of General Chevelas. In my French army General Chevalas will be in command of Infantry Regiments (IR) Bourbonnois and Rouergue. I have seen several spellings of IR-Rouergue, if any one could give me a definitive spelling that would be fantastic.

Final picture is of a French Royal artillery crew sans cannon, I have not completed it yet. I like the figure who has decided to remove his coat, makes since to me. These are my first attempts at white gaiters. Not too bad but I think I can do better. Next on the workbench is IR-Bourbonnois.

In Cavenderian news, I will be gaming the Rescue of Dukas naval scenario using Warfare in the Age of Reason Volume II, naval rules that I picked up back in March and should be able to post the results soon in a battle report and Adriatic Campaign narrative.

As always you can click on any of the pictures for a very large picture.

Head west young man...

I have had an itch to do some historical units and have decided to indulge my Francophile desires with the purchase of several bags of Old Glory (OG) 15mm French (50 Infantry, 16 Cuirassier, 6 Cannon and crew and a bag of generals). I also recently painted up a unit of Prussian infantry as Brunswickers. After having gamed the battle of Warburg I have developed an interest in the Western European theater of the Seven Years War (SYW) and am painting up a scenario for Charcon (Charleston, West Virginia gaming convention) for the fall. The con game should be very colorful with French against the allies. Cavenderian regiments will fill the role of the French Swiss infantry units allowing me to discuss imaginationhood with any players as well. I painted up the a few ensigns last night and wanted to post them as an appetizer to my renewed painting.

The corp of my new Armee France, from left to right Infantry Regiments (IR), Champagne, Latour du Pin, Bourbonnois and Rouergue. These units will be accompanied by IR-Enghein, IR-Touraine and several Cavenderian infantry units.

The miniatures are OG 15mm as mentioned earlier and the flags are paper flags I made from David's Not by Appointment blog http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/search?q=flag

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The uniforms variances of these units is very slight with only variations of what parts of the collar, cuffs and vests are red. The artillery, cavalry and Cavenderian units will add some additional color to this army. I like the small addition of the buttons on the flags.

The picture to the left is of Brunswick Leib regiment Colonel flag pre-1760 from the Seven Years War Project web-site, http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Brunswick_Leib-Regiment I have to admit, this is one of the most interesting flags I have seen of the SYW period. The flag inspired me to paint this unit and this is my first foray into painting button lace upon the lapels.

The miniature is an OG 15mm Prussian and I have nearly completed the first battalion. I will post pictures upon completion.

This is a picture of the rear of the figure photographed from some distance to illustrate how the detail of the flag is still discernible at some distance. I can not praise the SYW Project web-site enough for their presentation of unit flags. I must note though that I have found some discrepancy between the site's uniform descriptions and other source materials. For the Allied army and French I am defaulting to reference material supplied by William Biles guides.

Final photo is a close-up of the detail in the Brunswick Leib flag. I will let the picture speak for itself.

I hope to update the blog a bit more in June as work progresses.

On the Cavenderian front, we are beginning construction of our royal coach and eagerly await the arrival of Duke Wilhelm of Beerstein and have began recruitment of additional members to our diplomatic corp.