Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Wurttemberg Foot Artillery


Prior to 1805, the Wurttemberg artillery was limited to regimental guns As of that year, the artillery arm was consolidated to create 2 foot and 1 horse battery.


By 1809, the Wurttemberg Artillery arm had expanded to 4 foot batteries (3 light and one heavy), and 3 horse batteries (one now  forming part of the Royal Guard).


Until 1807 or 1808, the artillery wore a Rumsfeld style helmet similar to early infantry helmet, with falling horsehair in the back, but by 1808 a Raupenhelm similar to the new headgear, but with a shorter crest, was adopted. 


The exact hue of the coats for the Wurttemberg Artillery is a matter of some debate, some depictions being light blue or azure in color. Based on the information in Rawkins book about the Wurttemberg army, I have gone with a lighter shade than the infantry, but not really a light blue or turquoise hue. 


The carriages of the Wurttemberg artillery are noted to have been varnished but not painted. 


Rawkins notes that the foot artillery Raupenhelm had light blue plumes on the side for full dress. so  some figures in this battery (drawn from spares from the Horse Artillery set) are so depicted. 


These are of course more of the fantastic figures from Lucas Luber and Piano Wargames. 


The wood grain effect on the carriages shows off very well. 


Lovely models all, now joining the 5 Wurttemberg infantry battalions already painted. 


Plenty more Wurttembergers still to paint!

21 comments:

  1. Lovely light blue plumes, are they indicative of a foot or horse battery or are all batteries so uniformed?

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    1. The uniforms are pretty similar between the Foot and Horse Artillery (a unit of the later will be up later this month). Lucas has plumes on the Horse gunners but not the foot, but as above, it looks like the FA could wear light blue plumes as opposed to the white plumes of the HA. There are some other minor differences which we'll see in the post to come.

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  2. Another lovely group of figures Peter. Your basing is quite unusual....do you always have the wheels of your artillery pieces off the front of the base as in these examples?

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    1. Thanks, Keith. Yes, this has been my standard basing for decades. To indicate that the battery is limbered, place the gun at the rear of the stand, facing backwards.

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  3. They look great Peter. I didn't purchase any of Lucas's Wurttemberg artillery but wish I had now.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! There's always the next order... :-)

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  4. Very nice batteries Peter. Out of interest why do you do the bases smaller, and the gun is "left outside"?

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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  5. Peter has a method that shows limbered/deployed and this mounting system is part of it. I am sure he'll enlighten shortly.

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    1. Exactly. I am actually starting to collect at least one limber for most armies, but I don't particularly enjoy painting them, and they are expensive. I use them mostly for table dressing. :-)
      They take up a LOT of space, both on the table, and in storage. The one advantage of using limbers on the table is that it makes it harder to unrealistically cram too much artillery in a small space.
      Thus far the one thing Lucas doesn't do is limbers.

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    2. Yes!, I get your point. I have few limbers to paint (for ACW, ECW and my napoleonic Austrians and Brunswickers), and I've been pushing them further in the painting que ;-) I will do them eventually as they look awesome on the table. Brunswick limbers first!

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    3. I agree on all levels re limbers - they look great and probably should be represented to fill up the appropriate amount of footprint on the table - but they are a pain to assemble AND they cost a bloody fortune! I was so happy years ago when one of the very first Perry plastic sets was the ACW artillery ... but the canny buggers never made another plastic artillery set - ggrrrr!

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    4. The limber dilemma is timeless, I think. 🤪

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    5. The Limber dilemma is timeless, I think!

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  6. These are very nice Peter. They castings are incredibly well sculpted.

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    1. Thanks, Neil. Doubtless they'd look even better with a more talented painter! :-)

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  8. So continuously nice those sculpts

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    1. Everything Lucas has sculpted so far has been awesome!

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