Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise

Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise

Completed my latest command piece today for my French army. Why is Soubise wearing a red jacket ?
He is wearing the uniform of the Gendarmes de la Garde, as per the artwork in"Prussia's Glory" by Christopher Duffy. The handpainted flag is based on the Soubise coat of arms as shown on Kronoscaf. I like to add a flag to my command figures to give them more presence. The ADC wears standard blue tunic.

French 7YW Infantry regiment Conde

Today saw me finish French Infantry Regiment Conde. This regiment wore a fairly traditional French uniform, with red facings and waistcoat. The coat had no turnbacks. In the Seven years war, this regiment consisted of two btns, which I have represented with a seven base unit, foot officer & NCO.
The regiment is marching across my new teddy bear fur scenic mat. I am quite pleased with the look of this. Still a few coats of paint to get it looking right, but it will do the job. Picked the teddy bear mat up a Dunelm for £10, a real bargain !

                                               Regiment Conde

Time for a Review - My French Army

I started my French army about a year ago, and I am delighted with progress. Initially I was a bit sceptical about creating a French army, the uniforms all looked similar, and the flags a little simplistic. But I have found this army quite fascinating the more research that I do. There is actually  tremendous amount of uniform variation, especially when Irish, German, Swiss and Scots regiments are included and the flags are very colourful and different. Add to this militia, troops on foreign service, royal regiments etc, and there is no end of challenging uniforms to recreate. My current infantry regimental count stands at 13, with 2 cavalry regiments and 2 militia units, plus supporting units and vignettes.There is still much work to do and I am currently researching cavalry regiments that will look good on the table. I plan to start my Hanoverian army/British in January, and I will continue to paint more French cavalry. But the core infantry units are now complete, and that is when the fun can start. So I plan lots of French vignettes in 2020 in addition to painting redcoats and horses. I have recently printed many of the fantastic Eugene Leliepvre illustrations which are available on Pintrest, and these will provide great sources of inpiration for the vignettes.
So progress has been good in 2019, averaging about 1.75 regiments in 40mm per month, about 2-3 figures per day, 5-600 this year. With my Prussian and Austrian armies virtually complete, I have really enjoyed working on my Frenchies, and hope to have them on the table towards the end of 2020.

The French Orbat

Unit                                                     Btns                                     Total figs
Marine                                                 4                                                54
Provence                                              2                                                30
Champagne                                         4                                                54
Du Roi                                                 4                                                30
Gardes Francais                                 4                                                55
Diesbach                                             2                                                30
Royal Ecosse                                      2                                                 30
Dillon                                                 2                                                 30
La Mark                                             2                                                 30
Gardes Suisse                                    4                                                 54
Auvergne                                           4                                                  54
Grenadiers de France                       4                                                  54
Conde                                                2                                                  30

Militia
Martinique Militia                            1                                                   12
De La Roche's Militia                       1                                                   12

Cavalry
Royal Cravattes                                1                                                  12
Chasseurs Fischer                            1                                                  12

A new book and an old book

Not much to report this week. My French infantry recruitment is nearing completion, with nearly 14 regiments painted up. The Grenadiers de France continue their recruitment, and I am also working on Reg Conde, a 2 btn unit which will complete the infantry meantime. My aim is to have my French infantry and artillery units basically completed by Xmas, with a new army in the pipeline for 2020.

Meanwhile a couple of new book purchases.

I spotted this Funken book at Kirriemuir, but the seller would only sell them as a set of 2. I already have Volume 1 in several languages and did not want more copies. Fortunately I managed to pick up volume 2 on Amazon, and it arrived today. Not a book for 18th century purists, with a number of mistakes, but Funken was one of my earliest introductions to the period, and the illustrations have a certain charm and can still give inspiration to new ideas. Volume 2 is seen far less than volume 1, and it may have had a smaller print run. I will certainly enjoy flicking through the artwork later.

I am currently reading the new Helion book on Hawley. Not the most popular person in these parts, and probably only Cumberland himself is more disliked. The book tries to redress the balance and gives an interesting insight into his life. Falkirk was something of a lost opportunity, if the Jacobites had pursued the government troops. Terrible weather on the day, and the uncertainty of the government strength, makes hindsight easy. It is difficult to comprehend how regiments who had performed so well at Fontenoy could not have stood firm on the day at Falkirk, and as for the government cavalry !
This is a well researched book on an often overlooked battle, and it makes a nice complement to the Prestonpans volume which was released previously. Good work Helion, you are producing some fantastic material.

Kirriemuir, the show, and a new distraction

Back from Targe, a long trip 3 hours each way, but an enjoyable day out. Kirriemuir is very much a gamers show, with very few traders, a mix of games, and plenty of time to catch up with friends.

Stuart  had a great Rome 1848 game, with some nice scenery, fantastic Vauban style fortifications and artillery which actually light up when they fired. There was also some clever modelling of artillery shells coming out of the guns. The game was compact, but very well presented. 

There were a couple of larger games featuring jungle themes which I must confess I did not look at in any depth as they are not in my sphere of interest, and I think they picked up the awards.

I was almost tempted to buy a second hand 3d resin printer from Commando miniatures, but decided that I would hold out for a Prusa or something similar, as scenery is my priority rather than figures.

I did buy some grass tufts, was tempted to buy a second hand copy of The Funken Lace wars cavalry book, but declined as they were being sold as a set, and I already have 2 copies of volume 1. Never minds, ordered one on Amazon when I got home.

I was attracted to a stand selling fabulous painted busts, 28mm figures and some larger ones. None of them really appropriate but then I spotted a wonderful 40mm diarama of "The retreat from Moscow" at a price I could not resist.

The painting is wonderful, not 18th century, but a beautiful display piece for my cabinet.

For me, it was a bit of a Jackie Fischer "dreadnought" moment, as they are so well painted, they make the rest of my collection obsolete !

Do not despair, I will not be venturing into the Napoleonic era, but I will try and up my game with a paint brush !

Kirriemuir

Off to Targe at Kirriemuir tomorrow. I would have liked o have joined Charles G at Crisis in Antwerp, but I left the planning late, and will try and go in 2020

Targe is a friendly little show, and it is always good to catch up with old friends and chat. No major purchases planned, but you never know what will turn up.
Looking forward to seeing Old Meldrum's Siege of Rome game and catching up with Stuart I.
Will take photos and report back.
The link is below
http://www.kirriemuirwargames.co.uk/targe/

Kirriemuir is also the birthplace of Bon Scott, lead singer of my favourite band, AC/DC.
Never visited his statue, so I will drop by during my trip.

Grenadiers de France

The first four bases and command figure for the Grenadiers de France were completed today.
This was a big unit, and I will represent it with a 48 man unit plus command. (12 bases).
Purists will probably ay with good reason that the bearskins are too tall, and they will probably be correct, but I like them and it makes this unit distinctive. I wonder if they had btn guns, and if the gunners wore bearskins ? Would make a nice piece methinks !

To the best of my knowledge this regiment had no colonel company therefore no colonel colours.
I have therefore asked Mark to paint the ordonnance colour, and a superb job he had made of it.

40mm 18th century sailors

The research that I have done into 18th century naval uniforms would indicate that anything goes for the crew. I want "working" figures to man my boats, and leave the action figurines to the marines. With this in mind, I wanted to avoid using the pirate style figurines which are on the market.
Having a free hand at the uniforms is a converters dream, so I have hacked bits here added some milliput there, to produce my first half dozen or so figures. I think that 40mm works ok with the scale of the ships, (28mm is a dream !).  I think that each ship can sustain a crew of about 20 sailors and maybe 10 marines. That is my plan.

So here are the first few finished sailors

The Royal Cravattes

This week I started on my French cavalry. This first in line is the Royal Cravattes, My Austrian  Prussian cavalry regiments are normally 16 figures in strength, (2 x 8 bases), but as French regiments tended to be smaller, I have gone for a 12 man unit to reflect this.
The Royal Cravattes flag has been painted by Mark Allan. Mark has painted the majority of my flags, and this has to be one of my favourites. The hand painted detail is quite amazing, Mark is an incredible talent.