Navarre Regiment SYW

I am working away on my task for the Snowlord, but also have some bits and bobs from stuff left mostly completed before submitting.  In this case I had all of the figures painted before I hit the summit, but I hadn't based them.

In my terms this is a paint bomb, maybe my largest ever point total.  It's a full 24 man battalion of the Navarre Regiment from the French Army for Seven Years War project.  Navarre was one of the oldest regiments in the French army, dating back to 1558 but not joining the French Army until Henri IV because King.  They served in Western Germany from 1757-1762 and took part in most of the big battles.

He doesn't show well here but I really like the Crusader drummer.  The  standard bearer in the front rank is from Front Rank

Close up of the Grenadiers.  The NCO pointing is Front Rank.

You can see the variations in Crusader's marching figures.  The office waving his hat  is FR.

Normally I roll my battalions out in three lots of 8 so as to keep up the image of progress, so a 24 man posting is rare for me.  I had planned to do the same here, but when I finished the first lot I realized that I was out of the bases I use for this project.  Challenger Byron of https://northernlightsterrain.com/ sourced me some free of charge (thanks Byron) on his most recent trip to Regina, but which time I had all 24 set to be based.  My Sarissa order has since arrived so I'm now Covid-19 prepared with bases.

Figures are Crusader mostly with a few Front Rank command figures.  I've done most of the unit with turn backs but added a few figures with coats undone for variety.  There's the normal command treats, two drummers in King's Livery, two flags (sourced from a gamer blog and printed at home) and a grenadier stand.  The grenadiers are over represented in the unit as there should be only 1-2 in the 24  man unit but I like the bearskins. I like to think that fusiliers were detached to guard the camp, perform picket duties etc upping the proportion of grenadiers in the main unit.

The Crusader and Front Rank figures both paint up nicely.  I like the Crusader private soldier figures with their subtle mix of related poses and the drummers are nice.  However, Crusader's officer, NCO and and standard bearers are a little static and low key so I often sub in replacements from Front Rank.  The two companies work ok to my aging and fading eyes.


Points wise that's 24 figures @ 5 point a pop for a grand total of 120, which leaves me almost exactly at my Challenge target of 500 points.  There's more stuff in progress plus the Snowlord's Challenge so I'll make my target with some room to spare.

Diesbach Regiment Completed

Ok this will be my second take on this post.  I had a post all ready to go on Tuesday the 6th, but it disappeared into the ether while under final edit from my Minion.  Murphy's law of backups applied.  I typically copy the draft post over to my own blog before it goes live, but schedule it to appear 2 days later than my Challenge day.  But, oh course this week I figured that I could catch that up in the evening after Ray made it go live.....

 So I've got the remaining 16 members of the Diesbach Regiment from the Seven Years War, one of several Swiss regiments in the French army.  I didn't split out the new figures from the 8 I did earlier, so I've got the full battalion of 24.  Figures are mostly Crusader with some Front Rank thrown in.

The sergeant pointing is Front Rank figure.  His unpinned coat is more WAS than SYW, but he was too nice not to include.

The officer is another Front Rank figure, the rest Crusader.  One of the standard bearers was an NCO with half pike  but I trimmed off the pike and added a standard pole.  Flags were downloaded from the web and printed at home.  There was contradictory info on drummers, but I liked this livery and tried to add an impression of the Diesbach family crest on the drum barrel.

The grenadiers and their officer are Front Rank.  More contradictory info on the bags for the grenadier caps, which blue in a contemporary image and descriptions of red.  I tried both but liked the red better, not that you can see in this shot.

From the left flank.  I've added unit labels on the back of the bases complete with an image of a flag.  Once again the flags are a major attraction of this army.

Now you can see the red bags on the Grenadier caps.

I really like the Front Rank officer with his hat off.  He looks like he'd invite Messrs. les Anglais to tirez le premier.

Like the UK, Regina had a major dump of snow this week - 35-40cms from Sunday to Tuesday.  I took advantage of the heavy snow to ski to work on Tuesday.  I only get to do this rarely since it requires a heavy snow fall without the deep freeze. Most importantly I need to get out before people shovel the selves out as I skiing on the streets and sidewalks.

Finally, I thought I would share this rare footage of Ray following a hard days work at the Minion keyboard and totalling up terrain scores.

To make it easy on Ray's brain I'll do the heavy lifting for him.  That's 16 newly painted 28mm figures for a total of 80 points.

Touriane Regiment Completed

These stands include the Crusader command figures, the officer pointing and NCO with half pike.  

My flu is finally on the way out and I am getting back in the painting swing, but it is another small post from me this week.  I've got the last 8 infantrymen from the Touraine Regiment to make up the full 24 man battalion.  So far production has been incremental, I think Benito's on the same track, but it's worked.  I set my bar low and use the paining as a sanity break from a very busy semester.

These figures are all Crusader, although there are a few Front Rank figures in the full battalion.

FYI I chose the Regiments that I am painting based on the Rene North book that I used as my inspiration for my SYW project - see my Childhood round post.  This picture from the book features  members of both the Touraine and Diesbach regiments - which I targeted as my main goals to have completed by the Spring Equinox.

I've painted mine to match other sources, so Tourane's facings are a deeper blue and Diesbach has a collar added after Rossbach

Next week I hope to have a larger submission, year end is winding down at the 2/3rds of my job where I do actuarial work and it's break week at the 2/3rds of my job where I teach.  Plus the nurgles invading my sinuses and lungs are being crushed and the Olympics help with the painting mojo.

Full battalion in line.

The Front Rank and Crusader figs match up better than I expected.  The attack column is ahistorical for SYW, but I can get the full battalion in view!

Strictly speaking this should be a two battalion regiment, but I am am building only one battalion per regiment so as to max out on the unit variety.

So by my math that's another 8 28mm figures this week for another whopping 40 points!  However, there's more on the production line and I hop to have larger posts over the  next couple of weeks.

SYW Touraine Regiment Part 2

Note to self - bus clean up the front of the Ordonnance colour!

Forgive me Father it has been three weeks since my last confession....
Rumours of my death being slightly exaggerated I am back with a post again having missed two weeks with the flu. Continuing with my ongoing slow progress with my SYW project I have another 8 members of the French Touraine Regiment.

Three Crusader figures led by a Front Rank Officer

The rank and file members are Crusader as are the drummer and one of the two standard bearers.  I wasn't overly enamoured of the Crusader command pack so pick up some Front Rank figures to swell the ranks.  The Front Rankers are the two Grenadiers and the two officers in the front rank (appropriately enough).   The two figure companies worked better together than I had feared, with the Grenadiers looking suitably buff compared to the fusiliers without dwarfing them.

I'm quite happy with the unit labels.

During the Seven Years War French Battalions had 16 fusilier companies and one Grenadier company, so in a 24 man battalion that should be 1.4 grenadier figures, which I have of course rounded up to 2 beefy men in moustaches and spiffy bearskin hats.  There were often piquet or chasseur companies detached for counting, raiding or other Kleine Krieg activities which I hope to add later.  Unlike the Allied armies opposing them, the grenadiers were not detached into permanent composite battalions but typically remained with the parent regiment unless detached for a specific action.

I really like those Front Rank grenadiers.

Of course a big attraction of a French army of the period is the flags, the white Colonel's colour and the multicoloured Ordonnance colour.  Normally my default for flags is the excellent Warflag site, but the examples for Turaine seemed a little garish and I ventured more widely on the web and found these examples on the Not By Appointment site.  I downloaded the jpeg, resized the images and printed them off at home.  Hopefully I've not violated any copyright in the process, but these are gorgeous flags.

16 down, 8 more to go.

Here's the 16 completed members of the Touraine Regiment in line.  I've added unit labels at the back, including a small image of the Ordonance colour for added visual reference given that I'll have several French regiments in grey-white.

From the rear.  I quite like the Crusader drummer.  Being a Provincial regiment, I've given him the King's livery.

So by my count that's 8 28mm figures for 40 points.  it also means that after three weeks stuck at 196, I finally get over my modest 200 point target!

SYW Diesbach Regiment in 28mm

So, with a very busy winter semester I am continuing with my one foot at a time approach to the Challenge.  I've low balled my target and am using my painting time as relaxing down time rather than rushing to meet a goal.

I've left a flat strip along the back of each base to add unit labels at a later time

My ongoing project is two battalions of French infantry in 28mm using Crusader figures.  The first set of 8 from Touraine Regiment was posted last week, and his lot of 8 is from the Swiss Diesbach Regiment.  There is a reason for my choice of units, which I'll reveal further into the Challenge.   The figures are the same as the first lot, but in Swiss red with blue facing and laced waistcoat - a very natty combination if you ask me. 

Again I really like the back view

The Swiss regiments in French service date back to the Italian wars of the early 16th century (at least) and lasted into the Napoleonic age (at least).  They gave excellent service being steady under fire.

To add variety I staggered figures on the bases a bit

The original plan here was for my second set of French infantry to be from Touraine again including command figures.  However, I found the Crusader command dull so ordered in some additional officers and NCOs from Front Rank.  In the interim I kept the ball moving with 8 fusiliers from Diesbach.  My Front Rank package arrived last Monday after a lightening fast week long hop from Blighty.  Hopefully, we'll see some of the Front Rankers next week.

NCO on the left with gold braid on his cuffs

These next figures won't count for points as they were all but the basing finished before the challenge started.  Last year my SYW work included the British 15th Light Dragoons on horseback.  These are 12 dragoons on foot so that the regiment can dismount and skirmish.  The figures are Perry's from their excellent AWI range - two packs of the British infantry in Saratoga uniforms with short coats and helmets.  I did some conversion to make them look more cavalry like.  For instance I lopped off the bayonets and ends of the muskets to give the appearance of carbines.  The cross belts and cartridge boxes are wrong, but I figured that doesn't really stand out and anyway I can argue that they "acquired" appropriate equipment for dismounted work.

Not my best photo but it works.  Love the Perry's variety of poses

Most importantly the figures came in a mix 1/2 in stiff gaiters and 1/2 in trouser gaiters, where they should be in boots.  X-acto knife work stripped off the buttons and trimmed the tops of the stiff gaiters back to resemble worn riding boots.  For the other 6, I trimmed off the buttons and added boot tops from green stuff.  It was my first time using green stuff and I'm quite chuffed with the results.  I wanted to have these for this challenge, but they got impatient and painted them early.

I didn't do a dismounted officer - I figured the mounted ones could do double duty, plus I didn't want to get a pack of 6 command figs to get one officer.

So excluding the light dragoons, that's 8 28mm foot figures at 5 points a pop for another 40 points.  That edges me to within 5 points of my goal for the challenge.

I haven't posted a song link this year so I will post one that's been popping up on my iPod a lot recently.  I know there's an official Challenges tunes image, but I refuse to post anything to do with Kiss - I thought that they were the dumbest thing imaginable in 1975 and the intervening years have not improved my opinion.  I have instead substituted a more appropriate photo from my listening in the late 1970s.

Song "The Foggy Dew"
Artist: Sinead O'Connor and the Chieftains
Album: The Long Black Veil

I'm 100% pure Sassenach but I married an Irish gal and Celtic music is a love of mine.  This is most definitely NOT the Foggy Dew I sang at bonfires with my family as a kid.

French SYW Touraine Regiment in 28mm

These figures had all but the bases finished last week, but didn’t quite make it in time.

Challenge veterans may remember that last year I worked on my SYW project for Sharp Practice, mainly focusing on my British/Allied side of the equation.   For this year I am looking at the French opposition.  In addition, I found that I like the lace wars so much that the scale of the project has ramped up from Sharp Practice skirmish gaming to Black Powder/Honours of War.  

In keeping with what worked last year and my ramped up work schedule, my French will be coming out in drips and drabs.  These are the first 8 figures from the Touraine regiment, which like the rest of my battalions will be 24 strong.  The figures are 28mm from Crusader minis.  (FYI they currently have a SYW unit deal going on).

Interestingly these are a good scale fit for Perry figures but smaller than the beefier Crusader El Cid range figures I’d painted years ago.  They come in packs of 8 with 2 figures each of 4 subtle variants, with the emphasis being on the subtle part of the equation.  The end result gives a good representation of a regiment in step but with slight variants on the head and arm position – much less variation than a Perry regiment but not all identical.

I like the backs of these figures - the pack is very elegantly sculpted.

I added gold lace to the cuffs on Jean a la gauche, to represent an NCO. 

I got these as unit deals (16 privates plus 4 command) plus an extra pack of 8 privates to flush out the units.  The command figs are nice but a little staid so I am getting Front Rank extras to add to the variety.  Update:  my Front Rank package was ordered January 8th and delivered to the frozen Canadian prairies today - one week late.  Front Rank put Royal Mail tracking on it and bingo - it positively flew here.

I left flat spaces at the back for unit labels to be added later.

Touraine Regiment dates back to the 1620s and fought in all of Louis XIV’s wars (maybe including service at Laarden), and the wars of Succession (English, Spanish, Polish, Austrian).  It served in Western Germany through the SYW, fighting well in the losing causes at Krefeld and Warburg.

There are differences if you look very carefully at the sculpts- or are there?

So by my math that's 8 foot figures in 28mm @ 5 points a pop = 40 points Mr Minion please.