Saturday 15 January 2011

Am Embarrassment of Officers!

In lieu of a better collective term I thought the above would suffice!

Going through my boxes of mid-C18 figures I found more Officer figures than I had imagined.  Indeed not all are in the photo as I discovered a couple more zip-loc bags after taking the snap.  A few months of Ebay bargain browsing and judicious sale shopping have produced more than I will need for Beimbach-Schönau.

I thought the picture may be useful as it illustrates figures from a few different ranges (Dixon, Front Rank, Foundry & Crusader) and shows that they are (in my humble opinion) fairly inter-changeable.   The only chap who may be a bit "off" is the little Prussian Hussar - lurking upper right - but Hussars were recruited from smaller fellows!  I do not think a unit of such troopers will look bad in the finished army.

Incidentally, I am told the nicely sculpted figure at front centre is supposed to be Friedrich der Große!  What a terrible portrait.   Yes he has a cane but he sports spurs and looks nothing like DAF.

Well, enough of this - time to get back to IR.10 and the clean-up/sculpting.

4 comments:

  1. If you have the corresponding horses, what about a 'Druzina' of noble volunteers? While the *colors* of the uniform is fixed by the tradition, its *cut* (and that of the saddlecloth, &c...) is totally free and left to the taste of each volunteer. Remember that an uniform was at first perceived as a 'livery', and a livery is worn by servants, by valets, NOT by noblemen!
    At first -at the time of Dumas' novel- the uniform of the noble Mousquetaires of the French Household was limited to their casaque, worn only when 'on duty' ("in the service of the King") and over any clothes that took their fancy.
    Along the same lines, the nobles volunteers of the Druzina could tolerate to, when 'on duty', wear clothes of a combination / location of colors traditional for the 'Companions' (modeled on those of Alexander the Great) of the Reichsfürst, but provided they keep the free choice of the cut of their clothes?

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  2. Thanks for that Abdul, that is a really good idea!

    I think I may well try something along those lines once I have taken all I need for conversions etc.

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  3. we have been shopping in the same place!!! I am current carefully grinding the gorget off most of my figures with them.. cleaning them up or sculpting some lace to cover the damage with greenstuff..they are not the garb of generals, indeed shouldn't really be worn unless on duty with one's own regiment...and an infantry thing to boot..

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  4. I was thinking the same thing as Jean-Louis, a unit of noble volunteers like one of our other imagi-nation rulers has done.

    Jim

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