O'Donel's Frei-corps using 15mm AB Miniatures Part 2

At last, I've eventually managed to complete another battalion for my collection!

I started these guys on 16 April, so nearly a month and a half. I think need to get my speed up.

So these guys are the finished O'Donel's Frei-corps. I'd started them in a greenish-grey uniform, but on advise decided they needed to be more green. I used GW Catachan Green as a base colour with Lauren Green as the highlight. I think it works though there's no knowing how these would have actually looked.

The other plan was to give them all the unique double-plume on their shakos, but after posting pictures of these I got this advise from Dave Hollins....

"These Freikorps are a nightmare and the extent to which they were reuniformed as the LightInfantry battalions in 1799-1800 is impossible to be sure about. Consequently, there is plenty of scope for variation!
The original drawing (actually shown in MAA299) is from the official 1795 Schematis, but that double plume is probably a bit of wishful thinking. So, you are fine with a simple shako and some foliage as per the 1799 Zurich Strozzi picture.
The original uniform included a dark green jacket with the pre-98 flat collar and the red trousers. The plan in 1798 was to put the light infantry into hechtgrau uniforms with helmets adorned with FII rather than a full plate. I showed the 3rd battalion at Montebello in Campaign 70: Marengo, but that was to illustrate the planned uniform (and notably the drum belt). However, these troops were at the back of the queue for kit and so, all kinds of combinations probably arose. In Seele's illustration of infantry and grenadiers, thought to be sketched in southern Germany in 1799 (ie: contemporary with the Zurich pics) albeit painted in 1805, there is a figure in the background wearing a helmet, but still in an old Freikorps uniform (probably the 1794 Archduke Charles legion). Karger notes on p.151 that Strozzi was in German style kit, although half of the battalions were in Hungarian kit. The distinction was in the trousers in usual line styles. However, these Galician troops were of course wearing Hungarian style red trousers!
So, there is plenty of guesswork going on here and much depends on how much new kit they received. The confusion over the jacket colour is probably be down to an assumption (suggested by the left hand figure in Haythornthwaite's Osprey plate) that these Light Battalions received the hechtgrau jackets and helmets, but not the trousers in the Second Coalition."  Dave Hollins

I also received these wonderful images which I used as reference.

Taking this all into account, and especially the bit that the "double plume is probably a bit of wishful thinking" I decided to only do a couple with the plume. I also added a couple of Austro-Hungarian Line infantry into the mix as their uniform is cut almost the same but with the kaskett hat adding a little bit of variety to the unit. I'd also thought about doing some with differing coloured coats but I think I prefer the unit to look more uniform than that.

So here is the finished unit (albeit I will be swapping the mounted officer for a Sho Boki Line Officer when they become available - the current officer is from Blue Moon's "Austrian Generals" set) and I may add some more plumes if I get the urge. They may not be 100% accurate, but I really think they add a bit of uniqueness to my Austrian army.

(OOOPS!! Just spotted: One base hasn't had the dark red centre painted on their pompoms!!

So what's next? First I'll be finishing an Austrian Grenadier Battalion, then it'll be the Battaglioni Saluzzo for my Piedmont army, then once those are done I will be doing another obscure unit using AB's Austrian pre-1798 Line. Here's a clue. Lets see who can guess who they are...

 

 

Corn Stooks! 15mm Scenery - Part 2

I finally got around to painting the corn stooks I purchased from Timecast. These got quite a quick paint job - undercoat in a sandy straw colour, a wash of Citadels Agrax Earthshade, and a dry brush of the sand with a tint of stomne grey. I highlighted the ties around the corn stooks - even though these would probably have been twisted straw and the same colour.

I decided not to base these separately, but may do so later.

Overall they came out quite well and will add a bit of interest to a table top.

These are pictured with the Museum Miniature hay wagon and Vendee from Alan Toillier.

Waterloo Day at the Black Watch Museum, Perth 16/MAY/2015

Last night I got a message from a friend I haven't seen in years saying him and his family were coming up to Perth to meet up with another friend who was taking part in a Waterloo re-enactment at the Black Watch Museum... I had no idea this was happening, and as my wife was away for the day, plans were quickly hatched, and thankfully the kids were up for it.

The weather stayed nice, though it did rain off and on (it is Scotland after all), so we headed around to the museum after the kids Saturday morning stuff had been dealt with.

We'd missed the first part of the show by the time we got there, but with about 10 guys milling about in the Napoleonic uniforms of the 42nd, and a mix of WW1 and WW2 vehicles on display the kids were happy. Then we found out there was a cannon being fired later.

It actually wasn't much of a re-enactment as there were no French in site, but when they actually got to fire off the gun, which was a small 3 pounder, I was totally surprised by how bloody loud the thing was. They fired it three times and my blackberry failed to catch a single shot as the video cut out each time. A few car alarms in the nearby car park also were going off, and the shots seemed to loosen the rain out the clouds, which meant the second part of the afternoons event, a musket demonstration, failed to spark.

Best part of the day for me was getting a few pictures on my phone - I just wish I'd taken the proper camera.

For those of you painting the 42nd - the tartan is VERY dark in real life. When the sun is shining on it brightly the colours are clear, otherwise I'd just paint your kilts a very dark green with a hint of blue.

Here's the best of the pictures from the day (Please bear in mind that I used a Blackberry, so the quality is not great) ...

 

Revolutionary Flags (NEW RELEASE) - 4th Cavalarie (Cuirassiers) 1794

While its been quiet on the figure side of things (I'm working on a few things) the flags have been progressing.

The next is almost finished. This one was a request from Von Winterfeld on TMP who had done some fantastic conversion work to create some early French Cuirassiers.

This is the first version of that flag. There are a couple of slight questions that I need answered so this may change.

The second version will have the Royalist emblems removed and/or patched over.