About to cross the Rhine

So, after a weekend away from the painting desk I finished off the Hessian dragoons, jägers, and stuck them and the Hessian & Brunswicker hussars to their bases. The bases were coated with chinchilla dust and when this was dried on, the bases were given a wash of burnt umber. I say a wash because that is something the quarter master has failed to re-order, so the paint had to be thinned down. Oh, and the infantry bases got their regulation 3 levels of highlighting (per the Baccus guide and basing kits). But all are waiting for supplies of 'grass'. So the whole lot was boxed and attention has moved to the next contingent.

The Hessian and Brunswicker cavalry and skirmishers. Netherlanders in the foreground in their new coats. Next step is to do the brown on the Dutch (muskets, flag poles, horses*). Then it's on to all the fiddly white bits. When that's done I begin peeling the little chaps off into relevant groups of units for cuffs, facings etc.
* My new convention is to do dragoons on brown horses and horse on black.

By an overwhelming majority (if 4 people voting can ever be considered overwhelming) I started on the Dutch. The infantry is all going to be in blue coats (only 1 battalion of the German Waldeck regiment at Fontenoy was in white). I got the coats on 5 units ('brigades' in TOTSK parlance) of infantry done. I hesitated on doing the grenadiers as (a) I'm not sure if they had separate units of combined grenadiers (none listed on the Fontenoy orbat); (b) I'm not sure who wore bearskins and who wore mitres in the 1740s. More research needed. But I did do the coats on 2 units of dragoons and 2 of horse. The dragoons are in blue and the horse in grey. Some pictures show white, but I wanted a bit of a change from all those Austrians, French, Germans etc. And the grey I used (Vallejo 'wolf grey') is very light if I put it on thick enough.

I might get this lot complete by the weekend. Let's see. In the meantime, I need to get down to a local art shop to get a new tub of burnt umber.

Hessians and Brunswickers almost done

I finished painting the Hessian and Brunswick infantry: 9 units of c.50 figures. The Brunswickers have painted flags but I haven't done the Hessens' yet as the guide isn't quite so straightforward for them. So a bit of time is needed.

The process was quite quick, though I haven't added up the hours I spent doing them. One of the key factors was the 'production line' technique, doing a colour for all units at the same time. At least in theory - there are times when the scheduling isn't quite right. For example, when doing the combined grenadier units, there was a bit of going and froing because I hadn't got EVERYTHING organised whereby I painted all yellow cuffs and turn backs on the line infantry and then had to re-open the yellow for certain elements of the grenadiers. One feature of this approach, apart from being quicker, is that for a long time you don't have a finished unit, and then suddenly when that last cuff is done, you have several units ready. [I do own up however, to having modified the process slightly to get the Brunswickers done ahead of the Hessens].

Apologies for the dark background of the bases. This is the results of the spray undercoat. I stick the figures to the bases with blutack to paint undercoat and paint them. Then I roughly half of these bases as their final 'home'. Half because they'll be in 2 ranks not one.

The cavalry (1 unit of dragoons and 1 combined hussar unit) still need quite a lot of work. And I haven't touched the jägers yet, beyond the undercoat. The figures I'm using for the jägers are actually Austrian musketeers firing (I prefer them to the actual jäger models) and will just clip the bayonets off and the muskets a bit shorter. I'm pretty confident I can finish the cav tomorrow and get them all stuck to bases. Saturday will be a 'rest day' as I'm out all day/early evening. Maybe Sunday will see me get the bases done apart from the final 'flock stage'.

What comes next, Reichsarmee or Dutch?

The Big Push has started

Now the soldiers of the assorted states of the Holy Roman Empire have been recruited, along with their neighbours from the United Provinces, the task of organising them into regiments, clothing and equipping them has begun.

First step was to undercoat them. This was completed by Saturday. Step two was to turn all these faceless warriors into, warriors that had faces. So flesh was dabbed on them. All 1400. This was completed on Saturday whilst listening to the build up, and first half of Grimsby's FA Cup match. I missed the second half to go for a swim, and I'm flaming glad I did. The best that can be said is 'we can concentrate on the League now'.

I digress. Now step three was to break the metaphorical elephant down into more manageable pieces. I always do batch painting (hence steps 1 and 2) but doing 1100+ infantry, colour by colour, is a bit daunting. I have therefore broken them down to what some games call 'factions'. As I'd been thinking of Minden for a long time, I decided to crack on with the Hessens and Brunswickers. Next task was to identify the uniform colours, for which I leant on Kronoskaf. Sufficient figures were pulled out of the stocks to make up 7 units of musketeers, 2 of grenadiers, 1 hussars (combining Hessen and Brunswick regiments) and 1 of dragoons. I already have a unit of Hessian Horse finished from a month or so ago. I'll do a unit of Jäger later. 1 regiment of infantry (1/2 a game unit) is going to be dressed in late war style, in fusilier mitres because I have some in the spares box, and for a bit of variety.

Hessian Horse (regiments Prinz Wilhelm and Pruschenk), before the bases were finished.

The infantry are all blue-coated (I've gone dark for the Hessens and mid-blue for the Brunswickers, just for variety and ease of identification), the dragoons are sky blue (like the Prussians). Rather boring in itself, but amongst the usual red cuffs and turn backs, there is yellow, white and even orange to lift the gloom. The hussars are also blue, but they just look more splendid, at least in the pictures:

Brunswick Roth Hussars 

Hessen-Kassel Hussars

Having organised all that, I finally got the various shades of blue paint out and set to work. The German auxiliaries all have coats now. They're now waiting for the commissariat of His Britannic Majesty to provide the rest of the clothing and weaponry. Can I finish painting by the weekend?

Whilst I've been doing all this, apart from football, I've been listening to the Empire podcast with William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Specifically the series on the East India Company, and the Great Game. Having gone through all the early days of the EIC and its rise to power over much of India, I've been through the First Afghan War and now on to the Crimean War. The guest on the latter is Orlando Figes author of (what I thought) was an excellent introductory tome on the CW. Very, very entertaining and informative. All spookily current too.

Update

I have finished painting the Brunswick line infantry contingent, including the flags. Plus on the rest I've done all the white breeches, swords, musket barrels/bayonets, drums, mitre fronts and metal on the flags, pontoons etc. I also had to go back and do some of the coat backs and faces that I'd missed. Just over 3 hours work. Effectively I'm only 2 packs down of the 30 that I bought. Gulp! 

It's the cross belts and the hat lace that takes the time. But tis' these things that make them look like 18th century soldiers, so it's worth it.

Oh, and if you came here looking for the Big Push, the band, here is something for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSeCuR51rek 

A bientôt mes amis!

Tall Order and a Hospital Pass

Wednesday saw the arrival of my order from H&R, which I hope to complete by year end. With some odds and ends which I had already, the total amounts to 30-odd units plus general staff figures. Total individual figures comes to 1475 (1481 if you count the 6 guns). When finished, the WAS/SYW collection will be over 8000 figures and just about complete.

The breakdown by contingent looks like this.

	Dutch	Hessian	Brunswick	Schaumberg-Lippe	Reichsarmee	Hanoverian	Mixed	All
Gren mitre	1	1	0.75	0	0.5	1	0	4.25
Gren bearskin	0	0	0	0	0.5	0	0	0.5
Jägers	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Musketeers	5	5	2	0.25	4	0.5	0	16.75
Inf total	6	7	2.75	0.25	5	1.5	0	22.5
Horse	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	4
Dragoons	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	4
Hussar mirleton	0	0	0.5	0	0	0.5	0	1
Cav total	4	2	0.5	0	2	0.5	0	9
Staff	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Artillery	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Total bdes/packs	10	9	3.25	0.25	7	2	2	33.5

Each brigade is 1 game unit of 2 bases. I'll actually have figures for more units than this, since the H&R infantry packs include enough figures for 1 1/4 units. Extras might go to the Reichsarmee which looks a bit light in numbers. And in truth, the Schaumberg-Lippe boys will get mixed in with the Brunswickers, as  they only fielded 1 battalion, plus 1 small squadron of exotically uniformed 'carabiniers' and 50 jägers. The guns will probably be shared out (Dutch/Reichsarmee/Other Germans).

All but 4 units of cav have been prepped and spray undercoated. These 4 cav have been prepped but not yet sprayed. That, and dabbing flesh on faces can be done whilst listening to Grimsby struggle at home in the Cup to semi-professional Wealdstone.

I really ought to get some games in, so those 9 weeks before New Year will soon disappear. Maybe get the Germans done first and finally do Minden.

****

At lunchtime on Friday I caught up with David-in-Suffolk (a true gent) when we attended the very instructive talk at the National Army Museum on 'How the ACW Changed the British Army'. This was a talk by Michael Somerville, author of another book by Helion: https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/bull-run-to-boer-war-how-the-american-civil-war-changed-the-british-army.php

The author started by discussing the 'traditional' view that the British (and other powers) took scant regard to the ACW and paid the price in WWI. Needless to say this view was exploded. Many examples were given of how warfare changed during the ACW and how the British Army did in fact evolve to deal with modern developments. In fact, some of the changes began before the ACW. Reflecting later in the day, I wondered how much of these changes had also been prompted by continental European wars, and Britain's imperial conflicts. To be fair, the author did touch on the latter. One other theme that came across was how much more professional the British Army officer class was than is usually portrayed. This 'myth-busting' wasn't much of a surprise given Peter Brown's, Don Hagist's and Robbie MacNiven's work on the similarly dismissed Georgian army.

By the way, some of these talks can be listened to on-line, so if you are too far away from London, you might still be able to enjoy them. 4 AM might be too early for those in the Pacific NW though! What's On at NAM

David and I had a good chinwag over sandwiches in the museum's caff afterwards, and we both noted how helpful other bloggers have been in our hobby pursuits. Leftfield observation: we also noted how the museum cafe seems to be a magnet for people looking after very young children. David suggested that it was a meeting place for nannies taking care of children from the local (wealthy) Chelsea area.

Walking along Royal Hospital Road afterwards I passed a young woman and her young ward talking to a Chelsea Pensioner outside the Royal Hospital (London's equivalent to Les Invalides, but still used for its original purpose). As I passed I overheard the boy say that he had made a 'tricorn'! I felt like stopping and saying "GOOD LAD" but felt I shouldn't betray my eavesdropping. I couldn't help but think 'how many kids that age (7ish?) knew what a tricorn is?'.