Saturday, March 11, 2023

Wurttemberg Light Infantry, 1st Battalion

Two Leichtes Infanterie Bataillone were first raised by Wurttemberg in 1805. They were named for their commanders; Leichtes-Infanterie-Bataillone ‘von Neubronn’ and Leichtes-Infanterie-Bataillone ‘Scheler’. In 1806 they received new commanding officers and became ‘von Bunau’ and ‘von Brusselle’ respectively. The following year they assigned numbers and became Leichtes-Infanterie-Bataillone Nr1 and Nr 2. They were intended to function similarly to the Prussian Fusilier battalions. 


This is the 1st battalion, as it appeared in 1809. The earlier "Rumsfeld" style helmet was rep[laced by the shako in 1807. Both battalions had a dark green cloth turban wrapped around the middle of the shako. The tall plume was red for the 1st battalion, and dark green for the second. White cords and flounders were worn for full dress, as seen here. 


Unusually, all the leather work for both units was buff color, although most drawings depict it as a fairly bright yellow. I used Delta CC "Empire Gold" for the belts (and Delta CC "Christmas Green" for the jackets). 

Combined with the light blue facings piped white, this has to be one of the gaudiest units of the Napoleonic Wars!

Aside from the obvious difference in the color of the plumes, the first battalion had square cuffs and the second pointed "Swedish" cuffs, and the buttons were brass for the first battalion and pewter for the second. By 1809, both units had pointed cuffs. 

These are more of the marvelous figures by Lucas Luber of Piano Wargames in Germany. There was a set of 6 skirmishing figures, so when I supported the 2nd Kickstarter by Lucas, I go that as well. I don't usually use Skirmish stands like this in my games, but I couldn't resist them!

Officer shakos had a broad metallic top band in gold or silver according to the button color of the battalion, thus gold for the first battalion. NCO Shakos had a top band of lace according top the button color (yellow or white); a single wide band of flat lace for the Oberfeldwebel and a double narrow band for the Unterfeldwebel. The green turban was similarly edged in white or yellow lace.

Musicians (Hornists and Drummers) had "swallow's nests" on the shoulders their jackets, light blue piped in white lace for the 1st battalion, and dark green piped in yellow lace for the second. These were decorated with a "W" pattern in the same color as the piping. Plumes for the Hornist and Drummers had three sections,  red/dark green/red for the 1st Battalion and dark green/red/dark green for the 2nd Battalion.

Note that the hitherto successful "cut and paste" of the lead photo, so as to allow the thumbnail to show in Blog reading lists, failed to even be allowed to upload in this post, almost as if Blogger has caught on to our tricks! :-)

28 comments:

  1. Fine looking regiment, Peter. For me, drag and drop of the lead photo still works.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jon. It may just be one of those odd temporary Nlogger quirks...

      Delete
    2. Try this. If you are getting an error on pasting, save the page, close blogger and then reopen. Try copy/paste again. Sometimes, I get this error when drag/drop but rarely. This works every time.

      Delete
    3. Thanks, Jon. Tried it, and it worked. Maybe using two different image insertion techniques at the same time was confusing Blogger as to where the image belonged.

      Delete
  2. Beautiful regiment, Peter. I love the colors; have to keep them in mind if I paint up another Napoleonic unit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a very striking unit. I have a version of it in the earlier headdress by Minifigs; now we'll just have to assume it's the 2nd battalion!

      Delete
  3. Just excellent and again so impressed with the sculpts very life like

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think it is any exaggeration to say that Lucas' digital sculpting is at least as good as the best figures out there!

      Delete
  4. What lovely sculpts and a great paint job too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! If you have any interest in 25/28 mm Napoleonics, Piano Wargames is well worth checking out. The Bavarians, Tirolese and Austrians from his 4th Kickstarter are already on their way to me, and the preliminary sculpts he's showing for the next Napoleonic KS look equally awesome!

      Delete
  5. Great paintjob, the sculpts are very good, but you knew that.

    I am eagerly awaiting my shipment from the 3rd KS as well. Cows!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Joe. My best estimate is that they will arive in about a week.

      Delete
  6. Handsome figures and beautiful uniforms! Had to go wrong with green coats and light blue facings.

    Kind Regards,

    Stokes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Stokes. It ios a striking combination, isn't it?

      Delete
  7. These look great Peter and it is terrific seeing Lucas's figures come to life. Nice work getting around Blogger with the thumbnail, as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lawrence, the more I paint these figures the better I appreciate them! Thanks also to Jon for further advice on the twarted thumbnails!

      Delete
  8. They look good. The red plumes will certainly make them stand out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the second battalion with green plumes would be a bit less striking!

      Delete
  9. A superb looking regiment, very colourful

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great looking figures once again Peter, great uniform colours too!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Fantastic figures, now I have another unit I want to paint!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Such and awesome uniform and must replace my Eagle single pose figs with these march attack ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you like them, Mark. No need to replace them, just paint one as 1st Battalion and the other as the second!

      Delete