I never intended to have to ever paint a French army, as my friend had a larg collection of them, but when we decided to do Minden and totted up the number of battalions we needed versus the ones we had (even with using my Austrians as French and my Prussians as Allied forces) we needed aquite a few more.
I had the figures and got to work, these are the results - another two dozen or so extra French battalions of foot.
The French wore, for the most part, grey/white uniforms, but they do have a large contingent of mid-blue, dark blue and red-coated battalions/regiments.
Rather than show the rather boring (imho) regular grey-coated battalions, here's some photographs of the others and a selection of flags:
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Battalion of St. German (L) and Bentheim(R) - Light blue coats !
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| Close up of their colours |
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Royal Baviere, a two battalion regiment - dark blue coats
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A battlion of the grenadiers de France
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Rear view of above, showing their incorrect flag
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| Grenadier serjeant (arrowed), from a later Spencer Smith plastic Range |
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The flags of my four grenadier battalions have the flagstaff on the incorrect side of the flag - I blame Pengel and Hurt, the lack of information available at the time, my youth and enthusiasm, bad eyesight etc. for the error.
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A shot showing mnay French flags, regiments etc.
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I knew I'd painted a four-battalion French Regiment, that wasn't in the drawer and had to dig out another box that I remembered using for transprtation:
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The Liquorice French forces...
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...and the contents - another nine French Battalions and two more Hanoverian grenadier battalions
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The colours of the four battalions of the regiment Monaco
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Flags from four of the other regiments in the box
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The two Hanoverian grenadier battalions (obligatory blurry photo)
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So my French forces, from nothin, had risen to be the numerous force I have, with somehwere in the region of three dozen battalions of foot, all for a single battle.
The French and Hanoverians were the last figures I painted for my 7YW arnmies, some twenty plus years ago, but they all did see service on the table-top, ven if fot just the one battle !
Having, more or less, shown all my infantry forces, next week I'll show the Cavalry - there only drawer and a half of those !
Sorry it's been bit of a boring journeyfor most of my followers and visitors, but it's all I got !
That's it then for another week, apologies again for my self-indulgence and as ever your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.
Wonderful looking army Joe, I personally have enjoyed seeing these old armies of yours, as part of your hobby history
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, originally all I was blogging bout was what I was cuurrently doig, this has progressed retrospecitvely to what I've done in the past.
DeleteExcellent looking collection again sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks you Michal, hard to tell I know, but these were some of the I'd painted in my 7yw collection.
DeleteThere's nothing boring about these army posts, Joe, I find them fascinating as I don't really know anything about this period. It's kind of odd to think that armies wore such bright colours into battle! And as usual the flags look amazing; are they freehand or painted photocopies? Either way they're great.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt,to me, the 7YW has all the glamour of Napoleonics without the huge forces necessary.
DeleteMany of the simpler flags were hand drawn, but I suspect most were black and white photocopies that I'd paint over. But honestly my memory is not to be relied upon !
Splendid trip down memory lane! I enjoy seeing these great looking 7 years war figures, would have liked to see some of the boring grey /white French too!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain, they're all French ! I do see your point though and Monaco above is one of the many boring grey regiments (Only their colours are shown -for reasons).
ReplyDeleteIf that's only your part to add to your friends force, how big was the army Joe & for that matter how big was the table you guys used ? they look wonderful btw :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Frank, there were about 50 to 60 Btns on the Allied side (approx 1000 figures) and 70 to 80 Btns on the French side (approx 1400 figures) plus cavalry, artillery and mounted officers. The main part of the table was six foot wide by sixteen foot long, on to which another six foot by eight foot 'T' or 'L' shape was added to the French right - so plenty of room to deploy all the figures !
DeleteMore fantastic Spencer Smith SYW eye candy, these photo's are inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWillz.
Thanks Willz, though I suspect you may well change your mind a bit when I show the drawer (a larger one) with allthe unused SPencer Smith figures I have.
DeleteOn a different note, I conider figuresto be 'playing pieces' not matter how well they're painted.
You bring back a lot of good old memories with your reports about these tin-figures.Very nice to read my friend.Please keep posting
ReplyDeleteTHanks you Ptr, I doubt if you can get more 'old school' than these, inless you're using "Britains" lead fgures, like HG Wells ! They are in fact plastic though, not tin, like the old Airfix figures.
DeleteI've decdied to post a while longer, but not too much.