Saturday, December 31, 2016

Altes Jahr, neue österreichische Jäger

One last unit to march off the painting table for 2016, although there are a few others nearing completion. Here is the second of the two units of Austrian Jäger, This one just finished a few days ago. As the most senior, 1st battalion, they are perhaps the Meister Jägers!


When the Light Infantry battalions were disbanded in 1801, they were replaced by a regiment of Tyrolean Jägers. It was numbered #64, and designated as the Tiroler Jäger Regiment.The regiment's Inhaber was Marquis Chasteler, who was the military commander of the Tyrol region. When the Tyrol was lost after the debacle of 1805, it was re-designated the Jäger-Regiment Chasteler


The regiment initially was uniformed similarly to the earlier Light Infantry, wearing grey jackets and pants with green facings (collar cuffs, turnbacks, piping on shoulder straps), a helmet with  a green sausage roll crest, and black leather-work. They were armed at least partially with the 1798 pattern rifle.


In preparation with the anticipated renewal of hostilities with France, in 1808 the Jägers were reorganized into 9 divisions of 2 companies each, with each division to be expanded into a 6 company battalion when war approached. 


As far as I can tell, it was around 1806 that the familiar  Korsehut ( a round hat with a turned up brim) was adopted. This had a brass plate on the front bearing the battalion number, but evidently not all the hats were so equipped. Like the earlier unit, these are Old Glory figures; there are subtle differences between the previous unit and this one to make it easier to tell them apart -0 the basing, the color of the greatcoat rolls, etc. 


The uniform was again described as Pike Grey, which should probably be lighter and bluer than the shade that I have chosen, with the overcoats being a dark "mixed grey" color. Hornists had green shoulder wings with white edging and central medallions, and black mixed with yellow cords on the horn. Officer wore a cocked hat with a gold loop, which could be trimmed with gold lace as well. Officers were to be clean shaven, but mustaches were obligatory for the men. 

Thursday, December 29, 2016

While I tell of Yuletide Treasures...

For at least 25 years now, we have a "pre-Christmas" celebration with our close friends, the Hopkins family. Bob's birthday falls on Christmas day itself, so in some ways the pre-Christmas is more fun. We alternate years hosting the party. Aside from the good food, better company, and the traditional bottle of Moët Impérial, another feature of the event from my standpoint is that the Hopkins "get" (and share) my love of history in away that my own family, with the possible exception of my older daughter, do not. Their gifts to me are almost always books. This year, I received a veritable treasure trove from them:








This last, acquired inexpensively from a used book sale,. is perhaps my favorite. While I had read it maybe 30+ years ago, I don't own a copy. Yes, if I recall properly, it is a heavily romanticized narrative, but as a place to start that's perhaps not such a bad embarkation point.  I look forward to reading it again!


No lead for me this year; with the huge backlog of Macedonians, Canaanites, and the rest of the lead pile facing me, I will attempt to avoid buying any new figures for a least a few months into 2017. Now of course if Murasaki were to release Baden Light Dragoons and Artillery and couple that with a sale, my resolve would be worth very little, LOL! And if they ever get around to announcing a Theme for Historicon 2017, that might impact my buying as well. Yep, like Lancelot in the musical "Camelot", I'm blessed with an Iron Will. Or maybe it should be "I'll be leaving a lot of Lead in my Will", LOL! 


Myself, the Empress, and Grandson (and potential heir to the Lead Fortune), Owen.
He is certainly the greatest of our Yuletide treasures!

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Happy Christmas from Russia, 1812

This year, it is my recently augmented Napoleonic Russian Army which gets to shake out for the annual Christmas Review...


It seems the event centers around the dedication of a monument to the darlings of the Russian Army - the Artillery!


Southern view.


Some closeups, working clockwise...


The "monument" is some 54mm figures given to me last year by our good friends, the Hopkins. They "get" my love of history!


The army, as seen above has 43 Infantry units.


16 Musketeers, 7 Jager, 4 Grenadiers, 4 Guard, 3 Guard Jager, and 4 4 Opolchenie


There are 21 cavalry Regiments


5 Hussars, 1 Uhlan, 2 Dragoon, 2 Mounted Jager, 4 Cossack, 3 Cuirassier, 1 Guard Dragoon, 1 Guard Uhlan, 1 Chevalier Guard, \1 Lifeguard Hussar


In suitably Russian fashion, it includes 21 Artillery batteries


Seven Line 6 lber Foot, Three Line 12 lber Foot, Five Line 6 lber Horse Batteries, one Guard 6 lber Foot, one Guard 12 lber Foot, and one Guard 6 lber Hiorse Batteries., along with four Li9mbers and 4 Engineers.


On the Leadership side, there are thirty-four command stands.

Eleven 2 figure "Corps?Army" commanders, and twenty-one Divisional commanders


Totals: Infantry: 43@ 698, Cavalry: 21@168, Artillery: 18@113, 34 Staff @ 45
Grand Total 1,024 figures and 42 guns


To President elect Trump,

Bet my...     army is bigger than yours!

Happy Christmas with love,

Vladimir Putin 


"Russian Christmas Music"- Russian in theme only, but beautiful none the less.
Russian Christmas Music, written by Alfred Reed in 1944. It is one of the most frequently performed pieces of concert band literature. Reed was commissioned to write a piece of "Russian music"  for a concert in Denver, Colorado. The concert's aim was to improve Soviet-American relations; as such, it was to include premieres of new Soviet and American works. Prokofiev's March, Op. 99 was supposed to be the Russian work, but it was discovered that the work had already been performed in the United States, and Reed was assigned to write a new piece a mere sixteen days before the concert. The piece was first performed on December 12, 1944, on nationally-broadcast NBC radio. (From Wikipedia)

Merry Christmas to one and all who celebrate it!

May there be Peace on Earth and Good Will towards all men.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Austrian Cavalry Battery

With about 6 inches of snow outside, these somewhat wintry pictures seemed appropriate to post.


Austrian cavalry Battery, 1809 - Perry Figures, 28mm


The assembly of the long, leather covered  seat that the Kanoniers rode upon was difficult to figure out - in the end I did one right and one wrong!


It is surprising how few manufacturers do these iconic Austrian guns in 25/28mm. 


Feuer! 
Unlike most other nations, there were no uniform distinction for the gunners of the cavalry batteries as opposed to the "Foot" batteries"; of course, unlike other nations, the Austrians rode the long seats rather than being mounted on horses. 


Top down view. The turned up Korsehut was worn by the artillery from about 1790 to 1798, and then again from 1803 - 1806., and officially again in 1811, changing in style with each iteration. The Bicorn, as worn by these troops, was in use from 1806, and from a practical standpoint, by most Austrian artillerymen until the end of the Napoleonic Wars

View from the back of the house yesterday AM; Let it snow!


I had these guys ready for the Austerlitz game (was it only 2 weeks ago?), but the cannons themselves were not quite completed. Here are the crew in "summertime".


Perry only sell their guns with their crew figures, which I find annoying. The Osprey shows 1800 gunners in a helmet with red crests and the brass plate bearing a cannon badge. Evidently this was worn from 1798 - 1803, if not universally. I don't think I have ever seen those figures done... so probably they are  due to roll off Jon's painting table tomorrow, like the 1798 Jagers just did LOL!


I painted up the 2 extra figures as the members of the unskilled "Handlanger"Corps, with their attractive light blue facings. They will be assigned to assist the engineering and sapper department. 
Note the famed "bricoles", ropes and leather parts used for dragging the artillery when unlimbered.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Austrian Light Infantry and Jagers

I finished painting this unit on December 2nd, and it took place in the Austerlitz game. I just hadn't had a chance to do a post on it until now. While the Austruian army probably lead Europe in Light Infantry tactics during the 7 Years War, thanks to their Grenz troops, the attempt to convert them into something closer to line infantry resulted in a notable decline in their effectiveness at skirmishing and raiding activities. In 1798, 15 battalions of Light Infantry were raised from several existing units of Freikorps. Their existence was short lived, being disbanded in  1801. Their uniforms are rather interesting, so I will present the basic information on these units.

Austrian Light Infantry Battalions, 1798-1801

Jackets were essentially the same cut as for the line infantry, but were "pike grey" (Hechtgrau)in color. This is a blue grey, with the emphasis more on the blue than the grey. The top bar of the table of facings is as close as I could come for the hue. There is an excellent presentation of what the various Austrian facing colors probably actually looked like here. The units recruited in Italy had  "German" pants with gaiters, while the rest had the tight pants yellow braid  and short ankle boots of Hungarian units. In either case, the pants were Pike Grey as well. The facing colors appeared on the collar, cuffs, turnbacks, and the piping of the shoulder straps. It seems that the Italian units also had round cuffs and the rest (mostly) pointed cuffs in the Hungarian style. The helmet was worn as for the line infantry of the time, but with  a brass "F-II" cipher on the front instead of the usual brass plate. 



Bn #
Title
Recruitment
Facings
Buttons
Legwear
1
Strozzi
Galicia
Crab Red
Yellow
Hungarian
2
Carl Johan
Italy
Crab Red
White
German
3
Am Ende
Italy
Brick Red
Yellow
German
4
Bach
Italy
Brick Red
White
German
5
Radivojevich
slavonia
Orange-Yellow
Yellow
Hungarian
6
Trautenburg
Hungary
Orange-Yellow
Yellow
Hungarian
7
Otto
Hungary
Steel Green
Yellow
Hungarian
8
Wurmser
Hungary
Sulphur Yellow
Yellow
Hungarian
9
Greth
Hungary
Carmine
Yellow
Hungarian
10
Siegenfeld
Croatia
Dark Blue
White
Hungarian
11
Carneville
Italy
Dark Blue
Yellow
German
12
Rubenityz
Galicia
Steel Green
White
Hungarian
13
Munkacsy
Hungary
Sulphur Yellow
Yellow
Hungarian
14
Rohan
Italy
Black
White
German
15
Mihalovic
Slavonia
Black
Yellow
Hungarian





Austrian Light Infantry, 1798, by Tranquillo Mollo. 

    All in all an interesting uniform that requires pretty much just a paint conversion of Austrian and Hungarian Line infantry figures wearing the helmet. I think my friend Jon needs a unit of them in his early Austrian Army!  :-)


When the Light Infantry were disbanded in 1801, their place was taken by 3 battalions of Jagers. Originally, these were part of IR 46, but were reassigned as IR 64, and named the Tiroler-Jager Regiment. When the Tyrol was lost in the treaty of Pressburg following Austerlitz, it was restyled the Jager-Regiment Chasteler. 


The initial uniform was similar to that of the earlier  light infantry, with hechtgrau jackets and pants, grass green facings, and all black leather work, topped by a helmet with a green crest. 


The familiar Korsehut as seen above was evidently not adopted until as late as 1808, when the Jagers were reorganized in to nine, 2-company "divisions". Each "division was to be expanded to a six company battalion in wartime, with war being anticipated in 1809. In 1813, the Jagers were increased to 12 battalions


I will be discussing the 1808 uniform in another post; this small unit of 12 Old Glory 28mm figures has a sister unit of 18 yet to come. I will note that I opted for the more traditional medium grey color these rifle armed  Jagers are usually depicted in, rather than the bluish, proper hechtgrau shade. 

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Piquet/FoB PDF rules Holiday sale - through January 1, 2017

Brent Oman, of Piquet, Inc, has announced a Holiday sale on their many PDF products
The full list of available PDF's is shown below.  Standard prices and the sale prices are shown.  The sale runs through January 1, 2017. 

Payment is made directly to Brent Oman via PayPal at brentoman@q.com.  If you would prefer to receive a request for payment from Brent through PayPal, please email him (as above), and he can handle payment that way.


For more information on these productrs, including the Print versions, plus other additional products avaialable only in hard copy, see:

http://www.piquetwargames.com/


$15   (On Sale until Jan 2 for $10)


Archon 2nd Edition - Eric Burgess

Band of Brothers 2nd Edition - Peter Anderson and Ken Baggaley

Anchor of Faith - Mark Dudley and James Roach

Cartouche 2nd Edition - Mark Dudley

Les Grognards 2nd Edition - Brent Oman

Hallowed Ground  2nd Edition - Brent Oman

 Din of Battle 2nd Edition - Eric Burgess

Barrage - Eric Burgess

Jump or Burn - James Roach

Command Piquet - Brent Oman

Pulse of Battle - Brent Oman

Field of Battle 2nd Edition - Brent Oman

Blunders on the Danube - Peter Anderson

 Field of Battle: World War 1 - Pat Wingfield
(Available in Hyperlinked PDF format only)

Field of Battle: WW2 - Brent Oman

Hostile Realms - Peter Anderson



$10  (On Sale until Jan 2 for $6)



Hannibal ad Portas - Glenn Pruitt
Written for use with Archon, but easily adapted to other rules sets. I love this book of scenarios for the 2nd Punic Wars!   (file in 3 parts due to file size)


 Chef de PK - James Getz

 Grand Piquet - Jim Mauro 

Theater of War - Brent Oman
Simplified Campaign rules for use with all supplements using the Piquet Master Rules
  
Forgotten Heroes - David Black

PKowboys - Jeff Grossman


$3  
Master Rules  (needed for playing the Piquet period supplements - titles requiring a copy opf these rules are in BLUE)

Piquet - Master Rules - Bob Jones