WIP- Guard Mameluke band part three

 Guard Mameluke band 

I feel embarrassed to say I have had these guys almost complete for almost a year, grey horses can be a challenge especially if they are for a guard unit that you want to look fabulous! A few days off this last week has allowed me to actually sit down and finish some part completed projects that have been in my project drawers for a long time. 

These guys are finally coming close to completion, they are from the fabulous Gringo 40 range. 

Cheers

Matt 

National Garde du Nantes - Garde d'Honneur de Nantes

 National Garde du Nantes 

I am currently working on my French Revolution and Napoleonic’s this month and I am planning some National Garde units for fighting the Chouan and Vendee royalist rebellions. 

To my surprise I also found a National Garde du Nantes uniform for the 1808 visit of Napoleon and Josephine to the capital of Brittany. The city of Nantes and the region had still not recovered from the counter revolution fighting in the region from 1793 to 1795, and some chouan were still active in Brittany and Maine/Mayenne departments. 

The honor Garde was raised as a volunteer unit, uniforms were paid for partially by the members. It consisted of a two companies of 84 cavalry and two companies of 120 infantry and a band of 26 musicians. The city also presented two standards the unit, the Nantes Garde of honor was commanded by colonel Pitier Deurbroucq, who had lead the defence of the city in the Revolutionary wars.

Cavalry Uniform 

Black bicorne, white plume over an amaranth base, national cockade, gilt twisted braid edging, tassels, and gold buttons. Green Chasseur à Cheval-style coat with pointed lapels, collar, lapels, pointed cuffs, and amaranth turnbacks, gold buttons with an eagle bearing "Garde d'Honneur de Nantes" , gilt braided aiguillettes on the left shoulder, gold trefoils on the right shoulder, gilt hunting horns on the turnbacks. 

Officers wear the aiguillettes on the right and an epaulette of their rank on the left. The bicorne is edged in gold.
Ochre gloves. White waistcoat with three rows of gold buttons. White breeches with gold trefoils and braid. Black boots with gold trim and tassels. Sabre with copper gilt scabbard, gold sword knot, black belt and loops, gilt buckle. 

The officers also have a dress uniform with a coat whose lapels are green piped in amaranth, the rest as above. Undress uniform White cashmere breeches, white stockings, black shoes with gold buckles, small sword.

A hunting-style black leather horse harness with white metal buckles. The halter is trimmed with amaranth cloth, and it includes a black fly whisk, an amaranth surcingle, and a breastplate adorned with an eagle. The shabraque is made of dark green cloth, edged with amaranth cloth, with a gold lace braid running along the edge. It has gilt hunting horns in the corners, no portmanteau was fitted, pistols are holstered under the saddlecloth.

The trumpeters wear a uniform with the colors reversed, as was customary during the early part of the empire. 

Mounted Chasseur Officer 

Flag Finial

The mounted company drapeau

Uniform habit  of a OR

Original officers habit in the Nantes Museum 

Cuff and flap detail 

Turn back detail 

OR habit veste

Napoleonic French légère skirmishers

French Légère skirmishers 

These four skirmisher bases have been part finished I think for 10 years, the command base perhaps longer as I have not painted old glory light infantry since 1997

The were based coated but had not been completed so a tounch up, wash and highlight then based, done in two evenings in between other bits on the desk. 

Elite miniatures

Elite miniatures 

Old Glory Miniatures

Cheers

Matt

Prussian Kurmark Landwehr Lancers

 Prussian Kurmark Landwehr Lancers 

When Peter sculpted these I knew I had to have a squadron of them for my army. They are lovely figures to paint, have good raised detail and quite simple faces. I have had the horses painted for two months or more, so a little annoyed with myself for not concentrating on the cavalry men for a couple of hours to get them completed. The lances and pennants possibly took longer as I made the incorrect colour first then had to make a second set! 

Cheers

Matt

French 76th ligne regiment

 French 76th ligne regiment 

I should of posted these two weeks ago, but was too slack to complete the 2 & 3 Porte Aigle pennants and paint the edge of the flag, finally yesterday I needed to clear the painting table for new projects so I competed these along with a unit of cavalry, and 10 skirmisher bases. 

The victrix figures are a poor cousin to the perry figures, the bayonets being quite flimsy, most poses are good though, but again difficult to flesh out a full battalion for general de brigade. I do not think I will buy another box though and will purchase the Perry figures or print some more piano figures. Happy with the paint job though and another addition to the pre 1809 army. This coming month onto more 1813-15 Prussians, 1793-95 Chouans, French guard Mamelukes, French plastic guard infantry 1814 in greatcoats, then some  1813-15 Hanoverians for a big Napoleonic game in October in Brittany. 

Cheers

Matt

French Napoleonic dragoons

 French Napoleonic Dragoons 

First completed pieces off the desk since our return from holidays. French dismounted dragoon skirmishers from the Perry plastic Dragoon box. Quite a simple paint job and done quite quickly. Really happy with the results. 

Cheers

Matt

Napoleonic Kurmark Landwehr Cavalry Part 1

 1st Kurmark Landwehr Cavalry  

1st Kurmark Landwehr cavalry charge into the 7th Italian foot regiment at Dennewitz

After nine weeks in the antipodes away from the painting desk I finally got back into it this past week, lots of toys arriving also as a few Kickstarters have completed while I was away but were on hold before posting,  most notable Piano miniatures Baden and the new plastic French which I am excited for. Another is the new Écorcheurs rules for medieval skirmish along with an order from Gripping Beast. 

Last year I ordered some Landwehr cavalry just after Gripping Beast started to produce the Calpe miniatures range and picked them up at Partizan in November, so they had no real chance of seeing the table before this year. 

One of the units I elected to build this last week was the Kurmark Landwehr cavalry, two sqaudrons strong. The unit is quite interesting and striking with its Prussian litwka and British shakos laced with white band. Plus the different pennons in each Squadron. There is also a great painting by Knotel of the 7nit charging Italian infantry at Dennewitz. The figures are a fantastic sculpt by Peter and wear a combination of regulation and non-regulation items. 

Uniform

A standard dark blue cavalry litewka for the ORs, the officers wore regulation uniform and shako. The litewka had a poppy red facing colour only appears on the collar, not the cuffs, gold buttons for officers, brass for ORs. White epaulettes for the first Sqaudron, red for the second and yellow for the third. The leather work is all black, included in the sculpt is horse shoe holder also a neat addition. The portmanteau is the same blue with poppy red lace work 

The shabraque has pointed ends in light blue like a dragoon uniform with a twin lace of Poppy red with a poppy red heart in the corner. The shabraque is a pre 1750s model type, similar to Graf Brühl chevauxlegers shabraque in the 7 years war. 

The shako is thought to be a British stovepipe shako. One reference says they may have been captured French hussar shakoes but more credible sources do credit the British with the original source. This shako was black but the top rim was laced in white. Where the plate would have been, there was now a large black and white Prussian cockade, centre in black and outer rim white. A second smaller Prussian cockade was placed at the top of the shako on the white rim, also with a black centre and white outer. The two cockades were joined by a line of ribbon with a black centre and white edging. The ribbon ended in a button which helped hold the large central cockade in place, most sources show this in white metal. The chin scales attached to the shako were yellow metal.

The lances were white over black pennants for the first Sqaudron, second quartered black and poppy red black. 

In Knotel's painting of the 1st regiment at Dennewitz, a squadron officer appears in the left foreground of the picture, he wears full regulation uniform down to the sheepskin shabraque with rounded corners.

Cheers

Matt 

Terrain Tuesday- Windmill

 Windmill

I picked up the Renendra Windmill at Partizan, last week I put it together, painted it and then was not happy with the lines so I added wood putty paste and repainted it, much happier now. I am considering adding real cloth sails and some flour sacks. Maybe on a week or so when my Victrix stuff arrives. I added green wash for the windows etc pretty happy with the results 

Cheers

Matt

Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 1st Squadron

 Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 1st Squadron 

The 1st squadron, I elected to mount them all except the colonel on palomino horses, really happy with my paint job, so simple to do with close Pelisse. Again Elite Miniatures. 

Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 2nd Squadron

 Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 2nd squadron 

I elected to paint the second squadron of the 4th hussar regiment on bay horses, so quite plain compared to the other two squadrons. 

Cheers 

Matt

Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 3rd Squadron

 Prussian 4th Hussars (1st Silesian) 1813-15 3rd Squadron 

Off the desk this week are my first unit of Prussian Hussars, I elected to follow my orbat for the 1814 campaign so the Prussian 4th Hussars are high on the list. 

Eight days from start to finish mostly painting in the evenings so really happy with the speed and the results. The figures are from the Elite Miniatures range, I purchased them last Christmas so good to see they are completed. 

The third Squadron are up first, all on paint horses which I like to do for my Prussians as they were short on standard horse flesh and the hussars did not get first choice of animals. 

Cheers 

Matt

Chevau-légers lanciers Brigade commander Tomasz Andrzej Łubieński

 Chevau-légers lanciers Tomasz Andrzej Łubieński

I had a few spare command figures over from the warlord boxes, the metal horses need pinning to stand, this one was snapped off at the hooves so I repined and also added a central pin, when basing came around I stuck flock to hide the pin, I think it looks effective. 

Tomasz Andrzej Łubieński 

Tomasz Łubieński (center, mounted on a white horse) fighting Austrian uhlans at the Battle of Wagram , July 6, 1809. Painting by Juliusz Kossak , 1867.

December 1806 the defeat of Prussia by the French, Tomasz Łubieński became second-in-command of the Polish honor guard tasked with welcoming Napoleon upon his entry into Warsaw. After the Battle of Pułtusk (1806) , where he served as the Emperor's messenger, he received the national order of the Legion of Honour .

April 7, 1807 He was assigned as a squadron leader to a newly formed regiment, the Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard. In mid-June 1807, he commanded the first contingent of 125 light cavalrymen, assembled in Warsaw, which left the city for Königsberg , then Hanover ; from there, joined by a second detachment, his men marched successively to Paris, Chantilly , and finally Bordeaux , where they arrived in November 1807.

With his regiment, Łubieński participated in the Spanish campaign , in particular the Battle of Somosierra , November 30, 1808. At that time, he commanded the 1st squadron of Polish light cavalry of the Guard, the other three being led respectively by Jan Kozietulski , Ferdynand Stokowski , and Henryk Ignacy Kamieński. During this engagement, following the attack of the 3rd Polish squadron against the Spanish positions, Napoleon ordered Łubieński to lead a second charge at the head of his own squadron and a platoon of Guard cavalry. Although hampered in their advance by the aftereffects of the previous charge, Łubieński's cavalrymen reached the summit of the pass where, regrouped by their leader with the remnants of the 3rd squadron , they witnessed the pursuit of the routed enemy army by the last two squadrons of the regiment. Łubieński subsequently sought to be recognized, at the expense of Kozietulski, as the true victor of Somosierra .

At the beginning of 1809, as General John Moore 's British expeditionary force retreated before the French forces in Spain, Łubieński defeated a British squadron with only 29 cavalrymen . His squadron eventually left Spain inJanuary 1809, closely followed by the rest of the Polish light cavalry regiment. On April 5th He received the officer's cross of the Legion of Honour .


During the 1809 campaign against Austria, he participated in the Battle of Essling , May 22, then to that of Wagram on July 6th. To reward his courage, Napoleon made him a Baron of the Empire with a pension of four thousand francs, later increased to 6,000 francs. In 1810, he returned briefly to Warsaw and received the military order of Virtuti Militari . Disagreeing with Wincenty Krasiński, Łubieński submitted his resignation, but it was not accepted. At the beginning of 1811, he was sent to Sedan with the Vistula Legion ( Legia Nadwiślańska ), one of the main Polish Napoleonic legions; he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 8th Regiment of Light Cavalry Lancers .

March 1812 he led his regiment to Berlin , Grudziądz , Wystruć , and Vilnius , while Napoleon assembled the Grande Armée to launch his attack against Russia,  Łubieński's regiment was part of the reserve corps commanded by Marshal Nicolas Charles Oudinot . It participated in the battles of Filipow, Polotsk, Borisov; on the return from Moscow, during the crossing of the Berezina (November 1812), his regiment suffered heavy losses protecting the army's passage. At the end of 1812, Lubienski returned to Warsaw, which was about to be occupied by the Russian army.

In 1813, still at the head of the 8th Lancers , he took part in the German campaign , notably in the battles of Lützen , Bautzen , Dresden and Leipzig. January 19, 1814 colonel commanding the 7th Lancers Regiment with which he charged at Champaubert , Vauchamps and Reims. Promoted to brigadier general on March 15, 1814. He resigned from the French army on June 1st​ following the abdication of Napoleon

Cheers

Matt

WIP Wednesday- Mameluke Band part two

 WIP Wednesday- Mameluke Band part two

The band is fully underway with the horses all base coated along with the band members, I have elected to add sculpted cobblestones to the base so I will paint each band member then sculpt in the base before placing the next one, this May slow the basing process by a few days but I think will give me a very nice table and  display piece for the cabinet. I plan to have these completed by the end of next week. 

Cheers

Matt

8e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers, 3 Sqaudron

 8e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers, 3 Sqaudron 

The third Sqaudron, this time I elected for swords and carbines, again warlord miniatures 

8th regiment ready for battle! 

Cheers

Matt 

8e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers, 2 Sqaudron

 8e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers, 2 Sqaudron 

The second Sqaudron, I elected to portray with lancers also. Again warlord figures 

Cheers

Matt