Thursday, February 25, 2016

Bad, bad Badeners.. but Murawaski and Rawkins are perfect together!

My previous post on the Grand Duchy of Baden from 2011 has been one of the most viewed of all time for this blog. As I observed then, it can be difficult to get good information about this minor state Napoleonic army. Aside from the brief existence of the Pontoonier miniatures Baden figures that I was lucky enough to obtain circa 2008 (and depicted in that same post), specific 25/28mm figures for Baden had also been sorely lacking. Franznap in Germany has released some really exquisite figures for Baden in the past 1-2 years, with more planned. However, those are 1/72nd (20mm), and thus not suitable for my purposes. There are some Badeners available i9n 15mm scale, but once again, that doesn't help me.

Late last year, Muarawski Miniatures, makers of an extensive and very well researched and sculpted line of 28mm figures for the (Grand) Duchy of Warsaw, finally began to fill some of that gap. They had a nice pre-Christmas sale, and I took advantage of that to pick up enough figures for 2 more units of Baden infantry. With the two units of Pontoonier Baden line and the one unit of Pontoonier Baden Jagers, this would allow me to depict the entire infantry arm of the Grand Duchy, aside from the small battalion of the Leib Grenadier Garde, which saw no real fighting during the Napoleonic Wars.

Lead now in hand, I was quite excited to paint these troops, so they moved to the top of the queue. I have yet to see any painted examples of these fine fellows yet, so while I'm sure a really pro painter could do them better, I am happy to share my work with all of you.



The names and lineage of the four Baden infantry regiments gets a bit tricky (we'll come to more on that later), but in 1809 this is Infantry Regiment #2, "Erbgrossherzog".


Yellow facings, yellow metal buttons and fixtures on the helmet.


I'll also come to a discussion of the flags later, but suffice it to say that most of the sources indicate this unit should have flags with RED as their distinctive color instead of the Yellow shown here. I have deliberately chosen top ignore that. 


The Grenadier companies have white plumes and red epaulets, the Schutzen (light/sharpshooter) companies have green plumes and epaulets both. The Baden army increased its regiments from one field battalion to two and were adopting French six company battalion organization as the "Crisis ion the Danube" broke in April of 1809. 



The second unit I painted as I. R. #3, "Von Harrant". White metal buttons and fittings on the helmets for this regiment.  


Some (most) sources give their facings as "red" or "scarlet", same as I. R. #1 but others say "Deep Red". I chose to go with a darker shade of red  (Delta CC "Moroccan Red") to make them stand out more from my previously painted (Pontoonier figures)  I.R. #1, "Grossherzog", for which I used a bright red shaded towards the orange range. 

Once again, I chose to give this unit flags with a (deep) red distinctive color, where sources indicate the flags should have dark blue instead. 


 The red turnbacks are common to all regiments, and are painted in an intermediate shade of red (Delta CC "Fire Red"). I painted all the facings and turnbacks white first, then over painted them with the facing/turnback color to make the colors deep and vivid.


About the time these figures arrived here, I became aware of the availability of the greatly expanded, revised, and improved series of (now) e-books by W. J.Rawkins:

http://www.thehistorybookman.webeden.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/The-History-Book-Man-595370540524338/

For some reason, I have great difficulty accessing his site from any links or searches. Anyway, when I was able to connect, I downloaded the E-book on Baden - for about $6 US, you get 132 pages chock full of background information, organization, uniform and flag details, accompanied by a great many color illustrations, many of which I'd never seen before elsewhere.  As I've observed before, there is no Osprey on this interesting army, and Knotel has no plates of the 1809 Line infantry uniform. Even his text in "Handbuch der Uniformkunde" glosses over the Line infantry without listing their facings ( was hoping to see how they appeared written in the original German) , and stating that they were all red in 1809, which is off by a year or two. Funken also doesn't illustrate the 1809 uniform, and the Histofig site, which was one of the sources that I used for my blog post in 2011 is now defunct. In short, if you want to paint Badenetrs.... BUY THIS BOOK!

Rawkins has a great many other Napoleonic titles, including the (Grand) Duchy of Warsaw, Sweden, Wurttemburg, and many others, with more new titles planned. 


Greatly condensed from this outstanding effort, here's a brief survey of the evolution of the uniforms of the four regiments of Baden Line Infantry for



1803* uniform- Prussian style (w/ bicorn)   *Titles are as of entry into the Rheinbund in 1806
Title/Inhaber
Facings
Lace
Buttons, etc
Leib Regt Grossherzog
Scarlet
White w/ tassels, incl. lapels
White
Erbgrossherzog
Deep Yellow
White w/ 2 red stripes, tassels
Yellow
Markgraf Ludwig
Scarlet
White w/ 2 light blue stripes
White
von Harrant
White
Yellow
Yellow

1808 uniform (w/ raupenhelm)#
No.
Title/Inhaber
Facings
Buttons, etc
1
Leib Regt Grossherzog
Scarlet w/ white lace
White
2
Erbgrossherzog
Deep Yellow
Yellow
3
von Harrant
Deep Red
White
4
von Porbeck*
White
Yellow
#The army of 1809 was assembled rather hastily, with the Regiments being enlarged absorbing men from the Garrison regiments as well as the introduction of conscription. To make things more confusing, one regiment was sent to Spain, but was composed of 2 battalions, each from a different parent regiment (#'s 3 and 4) and thus each with a  different facing color but nominally  (? re-) numbered as #4.



1810* uniform (w/ French style shako)  *Titles as of 1811
No.
Title/Inhaber
Facings
Buttons, etc
1
Untitled
Scarlet w/ scarl. flap
White
2
Untitled
Scarlet
Yellow
3
Graf Hochberg
Scarlet
Yellow
4
Von Neuenstein
Scarlet
Yellow#
Note that the 1st regiment is again differentiated from the rest, in this case nopw by having red cuff flaps instead of the blue ones otherwise worn by Baden infantry. 


1813 uniform (w/ Prussian style shako)
No.
Title/Inhaber
Facings
Buttons, etc
1
Stockhorn
Crimson w/ scrl flap
White
2
Grossherzog
Deep Yellow
Yellow
3
Graf Hochberg
Rose Pink
Yellow
4
von Neuenstein
White
Yellow#
It is odd that the 1st regiment retains some distinctive features still, but now it is the Yellow faced 2nd regiment that has the Grossherzog (Grand Duke) as it's inhaber. I suspect this is because it was formerly the regiment of the Crown Prince (Erbgrossherzog)Karl, who became the new Grand Duke (Grossherzog) upon the death of his Grandfather, Karl Friedrich, in June 1811. Interestingly, Karl was married at age 20, in 1806 and very much against his wishes, to Stéphanie de Beauharnais, a cousin of Josephine's first husband, Alexandre François Marie, Viscount of Beauharnais. Lacking heirs, Napoleon had adopted her and named her an Imperial Princess, using the dynastic marriage to cement an alliance with Baden. By all accounts it was an unhappy marriage, with Karl avoiding his wife as much as he could. He had to pretty much ordered to start producing heirs; their first child was not born until 1811, and no males survived past infancy, which would cause problems with the succession in 1818, when Karl himself died at the young age of 32.



Here are some more pictures of the Murawski Badenes, also taken outside but early on a cloudy morning, and with a different background. The earlier pictures were taken at mid day on a very cloudy day, thus requiring no flash, and overall I think the mid day ones came out better. 


The flag was printed out from warflag, and enhanced with some paint to the  colored Maltese cross sections.


The none criticism I would have of these figures, is that their raupenhelm lacks a "comb". While different illustration of the Baden raupenhelm show the comb to be varying heights from low to medium, it was distinctive in that it was colored with red and yellow enamel (the Grand Ducal colors).


After some experimentation, I painted a yellow stripe at the base of the black"caterpillar"(or "sausage roll")  crest, and then added red upright stripes. Overall, this seems to have worked better than I expected, and I think the results are quite presentable. 


The lace on the red wings and sleeves of the drummer's uniform was white with 2 yellow and one red stripe - I have just used the yellow and red to suggest this decoration. the drum rim are red and yellow. Some illustrations show red flames and/or the Ducal arms (as seen in the center of the flags) painted on the body of the drum, others just plain brass. 


The officers retained the Bicorne until the shako was adopted; they never wore the Raupenhelm. 


Baden officers wore a sash of silver, gold, and red.


The raupenhelm had a small cockade of red within yellow on the left hand side. 


as seen here, the narrow lapels extend all the way up to the collar. Shoulder straps were generally dark blue, later piped with the facing color. 


Finally, here are some overview pictures of my entire  1809 Baden force - 4 Line, 1 light, and a few command figures - some 93 in all. 


I hope to add an artillery battery or two (there were 1 horse  and  2 foot batteries) and  the Baden light Dragoons in their distinctive medium blue uniforms at some point... still waiting for someone to make them!


 Perhaps we can buy enough if the Baden line infantry to get Murawski to go ahead with adding the  Baden cavalry (? the hussars, too)  and artillery to their range. I know Jon has done his part; how about the rest of you?  Uncle Karl wants YOU to build a pocket Baden army!  :-)


From Left to right, IR #1 "Grossherzog" (Pontoonier), IR #2 "Erbgrosherzog" (Murawski), IR #3 "von Harrant" (Murawski),  IR #4 " von Porbeck" (Pontoonier). 


OK, now on to the subject of the flags. Here's what Rawkins has to say...  


Each of the 4 regiments received two flags, a Leibfahne which was given to the 1st Battalion and a Regimenterfahne which was carried by the 2nd Battalion. The flags were of a common design and differed only by the colour for each regiment. The Regimenterfahne was white with a Maltese cross of regimental colour. This did not necessarily equate to the regimental facing colours as the original flags were retain by their battalions when the regiments moved in the line seniority. The Leibfahne were the reverse, with the flag of the regimental colour and the Maltese cross white. The exception being the Linien-Infanterie Regiment Nr 1 ‘Grossherzog’ (Formerly the Leibregiment) who carried a single pattern of flag presented to both battalions of scarlet with a yellow Maltese cross. From 1808 to 1814 the regimental colours for the flags were, 1st Regiment – Scarlet; 2nd Regiment – Scarlet; 3rd Regiment – Dark Blue, and 4th Regiment - Yellow. 

Keith Over says pretty much the same thing, as does Terrence Wise (Osprey Men at Arms #77). The flag staffs were painted brown.


Thus you can see that aside from the 1st regiment's red/yellow flag, I have intentionally mis-assigned the Regimenterfahnen colors so that the distinctive color of the flag matches the facing color of the regiment (in the case of #4 with white facings, Dark blue is substituted for white). It seems pretty obvious that this was likely what was originally intended before the shuffling of the regiments. Rawkins' book has a marvelous plate by Hourtelle showing just about the scene I have created above, with the yellow flags carried by troops with yellow facings, red flags by troops with red facings, and the dark blue flag carried by men with white facings.  It just looks so much better and is so much more rational. Much more fitting for the troops of a ruler said to epitomize the ideals of the Age of Reason!


A few final shots of the entire Baden 1809 collection again.


Rawkins' book, by the way also includes descriptions and color illustrations of the flags of the Liebgrenadier Garde, Garde du Corps, Hussars, and Light Dragoons as well. Like I said - BUY THIS BOOK!


Color  Party on parade in Karlsruhe!


The officers seen here at the rear are Pontoonier figures. 

44 comments:

  1. Very impressive force and beautifully done. Luckily I am not tempted back to 28mm!

    John

    ps great flags by the way

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    1. Thanks John. There is much to be said for being settled into a scale, whatever one it is!

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  2. Quite an exhaustive treatise on the uniforms of the Baden Army, Peter!
    I know I will be returning to this post when work begins on my Badeners.

    Excellent brushwork, by the way!

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    1. Thanks, Jon. I'm sure you'll enjoy painting them. They are very nice figures as you know. Now I need someone to do the rest of the Army's troops!

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  3. lovely sight of painted Badens you have here Pete! love the skirmishers (line)

    wonder if one may use/convert 28mm Perry Bavarian Infantry to paint as "Baden's"? :o)

    cheers,

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    1. In 15mm or smaller, I'd say yes, you probably could. In 25/28mm, the raupenhelm really is pretty distinct from the Bavarians. The Wurttemburg helmet would be closer. Bavarian Chevau-Legerts and artillery would be reasonable stand ins for the Baden Light Dragoons and artillery - it may come to that if I don't get another option in the future. Fortunately, there is no rush on my part!

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  4. Excellent work, and an amazing resource. You are Baden to the bone!

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  5. Awesome!! These are I believe the first complete painted battalions of our Baden range I've seen. What a sight!

    I'm currently painting the 2nd regiment, I expect it will be finished in the next few weeks. You did a great job on the raupenhelm's comb; I'll admit it didn't come up how we wanted.

    Those flags are just fantastic, aren't they?

    You'll be happy to know both the Baden artillery and cavalry are still in our plans...but yes, we need all of you to support the range with your wallets!

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    1. Merci, Iannick!

      I was pleased with how well the paint job worked in representing the comb - not bad at all.

      It would make me very happy to see the Baden Cavalry and Artillery added to the range - no question I would buy those! The Baden officers are interesting as well. The Erbherzog (Crown Prince, later Grand Duke Karl) lead the Baden contingent during most of the Napoleonic Wars. He was a German nationalist who didn't like Napoleon at all. He was an unlucky man, witnessing his father's death in a carriage accident at young age, being forced into an unhappy dynastic marriage, and himself dying at a very young age (32). In his portrait as a young man, he is quite handsome and dashing looking!

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  6. Also, can we use your pictures on our Facebook page and website? With due credit, of course.

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  7. Replies
    1. I've thoroughly enjoyed doingh both versions of the Badeners. Of course if they come out with the infantry and Cavalry, the journey will continue.

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  8. They look absolutely splendid. A real treat to see Badeners en masse.

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  9. What a magnificent looking force Peter - lovely work on these figures and may I also say, incredibly informative post (as always). I have a stack of Poles from Murawski mocking me in a cupboard and the only Baden figures from Connoisseur Miniatures. These ones of yours are superb.

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    1. Thank you, Carlo. I have figures for 2 Murawski Uhlan units, which I may do next.

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  10. Thanks, Varlo. I have Murawski figures for 2 Uhlan units, which I may do next.

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  11. I have to agree with you on the Rawkins books. I have all the series so far. Not only are they rammed with information but they are also stupid cheap. Literally a tenth of the price of most uniform handbooks.

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    1. Robert, I believe it was your blog that first made me aware of these, so thank you!

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  12. Great introduction. Love your units. I need to check Rawkins books and find something for my needs. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you, Bartek! If you paint Napoleonic troop-s, it will be hard NOT to find something from Rawkins that fits your needs!

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  13. Super units for an unheralded force

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    1. Thanks, Garry. Baden is a state little familiar to most of us. BTW, it played an important role in the German uprisings later in the century.

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  14. Two battalions of Roger's Badeners also turned up at my place a couple of weeks ago (by design rather than accident of course), and I can't wait to get stuck into them. This will be extremely useful, so thanks in advance.

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    1. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy painting them as much as I did, Laurence.

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  15. Fantastic! Great article Peter thanks. I'm waiting for their later Baden range, but they look like more gorgeous figures!

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    1. Thanks, Mark! A Badener from any year would be just as "Bad".

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  16. They look fantastic. And I now regret rebasing my Napoleonics into 2x2.

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    1. Thanks, David. There are advantages and disadvantages to all basing schemes. The basic scheme I use for basing my Napoleonics only changed once over 45 years, then I went back to this one. Fortunately that change only effected a small percentage of my forces. I hate re=-basing! :-)

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  17. Grand looking force, I am deferring Napoleonics until I am more grown up but until then I can delight in your figures.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain. I'm not sure that I've grown up yet myself! :-)

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  18. Lovely additions Peter, I've never seen Baden troops in a napoleonic army before. Well done Roger for getting them out there!

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    1. They aren't seen very often, but hopefully these Murawski figures will help remedy that. As I observed, it is one of the harder armies to find good information on, but the Rawkins book really gives you almost every thing you need with lots of color illustrations, a very reasonable price, and near immediate delivery as a download.

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  19. Well done Peter - I'm grateful for your excellent post and research - I had no idea about the red and yellow comb on the Raupenhelm so now I have a lot more repainting to do on my recently required Badener army (Jolly Frog figures with some Foundry cav and artillery). Pity I got them as part of a deal before Roger put out his superb Paul Hicks sculpts. Source material is hard to find but I've been relying on Hourtoulles' 'Wagram' (Histoire et Collections) which has a number of colour plates of the Baden Contingent (part of Legrand's Division) but unfortunately doesn't have the detail you've uncovered with Rawkins book.

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    1. Glad you found it useful (Did you check the link to the earlier post as well?). In my first post on Baden I commented how poorly documented this rather interesting army is - NO depiction of the Line infantry in Funken OR Knoetel, vague descriptions of their uniforms, no Osprey either. The Rawkins book is outstanding. The Hourtelle book on Wagram actually had among the most information on Baden before that. The Histofig site was pretty good as well, but that is now defunct. The first hint I had about the comb (which I am told is properly called the crest, while the sausage is the comb!)was actually a single plate of Baden infantry for a 1960's era "Uniforms of the World" handbook that included some decent text on the Baden line infantry. I have a good freind in Dresden who has a good freind who works in the state archives in Karlsruhe, and he tried to interest her in locating some primary source references to the Baden military, but gave up when her reaction was "Why would anyone care about THAT?" Sigh!

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  20. Great work Peter, I am just about to start mine and add to my collection of german states.

    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Thanks, Matt! It is a wonderful little "pocket army". Now that Murawski have added the artillery and light Dragoons, they should be joining my collection in the first half of 2019!

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  21. Very very nice work and great flags.

    I was wondering if you'd be interested in selling a copy of the Rawkins book (or trading)? I'm trying to build a full collection. If interested please contact me at solei41411@mypacks.net

    Thanks!

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    1. I only have the electronic version/pdf file. As you likely are aware, unfortunately, Mr. Rawkins passed away earlier this year, and at present the books are not available. I have heard that arrangements are being made to make them available again in the future, but nothing definite about how, where or when.

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