Kleine Krieg Project - Bercheny Hussards

The first unit completed for my Sharp Practice Kleine Kreig project is a group (squadron) of the Bercheny Hussards, the oldest Hussards regiment in the French army.  The regiment was founded by a Transylvanian Count Bercheny and the Colonelship stayed in the family until the Revolution.  The uniform of Sky blue dolman and pellisse with red and blue mirliton is quite natty looking.

This unit was over a year in the completion.  I originally bought the figures for an aborted Maurice SYW project, which I put in hold due to cost worries.  They sat half finished for about a year, and were finished in May just before we went to the UK.  Hussars in general are among the most finicky figures to paint, and Seven Years War era hussars felt worse than most.  Finally I got them to the "that'll do pig" stage.

The figures are from the Perrys AWI range.  The wargames fashion police (WFPD) might give me heck on that but the uniforms are very, very similar to SYW era troops and the Perrys don't do SYW.  Also uniform cuts and patterns are much less doumented than for the Napoleonic era, so the exact cut of the cloth is not clearly defined.  Anyway they have the requisite uniform pieces - dolman, pellisse, tight britches and rediculously silly hat!

The Perrys are my go to figure manufacturer for a variety of reasons.  Customer service is top rate, they consistently are able to deliver figures to the Canadian wilds in quick order without over charging for postage plus they don't charge VAT on overseas orders.  Also I love the poses for the variety and the realism.  It seems quite popular to bash the Perrys on the level of flash on their figures, but I don't find that a problem at all.  It may be that I am less fussy about it, don't notice or am just used to dealing with crappy casts!  Or it could be that I fame in obscure periods that no sane individual could give a rats ass about.  Any way I like the figs and am quite pleased with the end result.

There are 6 troopers, officer and trumpeter.  The officer wears a fur busby in place of the mirliton and has a leopard skin shabraque.  Officially he is supposed to have a mirliton, but being hussars the officers apparently wore what they wanted and typically this was a busby!  The trumpeter just to be completely different wears a brown long coat and tricorne!