Just wanted to share some progress on my Les Higgins War of the Spanish Succession cavalry, sample figures courtesy of John Cunningham. There’s still a little corrective paint required on one or two of these figures, nonetheless I’ve been creating (from left to right):
a trooper of the Bavarian Arco Cuirassier Regiment
a French dragoon of the Royal Regiment
a dragoon of the Danish 5th Jydske Dragoon Regiment
a trooper of the Regiment du Roi, a French Horse Regiment
Still work to be done, but they’ve given me the template for creating an entire regiment of each. Yesterday, I received more of these wonderful old Les Higgins miniatures so I can set to work when I’m ready. These, along with the other mountain of figures should at least keep me well occupied in these troubling times of global pandemic.
Scrubbed and drying, ready for paint: my Les Higgins 20mm cavalry haul.
For anyone interested in purchasing Les Higgins recast figures, please visit this page on Vintage Wargaming Figures for more information.
Presenting my project’s third regiment from the Duke of Marlborough’s British army; the 1st Foot Guards!
Lovely figures, once again by Strelets, if not entirely historically accurate. They are mostly all from their new “Firing Line” box of British Infantry figures. Blue breeches, cuffs and collars are a distinctive element in this regiment’s uniform.
For the grenadiers, I’ve used a couple of figures from their “In Attack” box instead, simply because the ‘firing line’ grenadiers looked so good that I’m thinking of keeping them back for a special purpose.The grenadiers have blue fronted caps, piped with yellow, examples of which I’ve attempted to reproduce (see 1st Guards grenadiers crossing the River Nebel below):
The musketeers I’ve shown with yellow hat lace.
The Strelets Firing Line box comes with various firing and loading poses. For the 1st Guards, I’ve concentrated all the firing figures together within this single battalion. Strelets supplied two poses standing to fire their muskets.
But there were only a limited four figures in a kneeling pose across the box.
The NCO was a pleasing figure to paint, suitably adopting a shouting and pointing pose:
This commissioned officer appears to be wearing gaiters and is holding his pair of white gloves.
More ‘fun with flags’… Would you believe that I actually quite enjoy the tinkering challenge of not-quite-getting-it-right, until I eventually admit defeat and accept whatever outcome. With this one, I realised I had foolishly put the red device in completely the wrong corner! Oh well, never mind…
I’m now thinking that I’m ready to tackle something else in the WSS project which perhaps isn’t British infantry. I’m not sure what exactly yet and anyway the FEMbruary challenge will now take precedence for a little while. Furthermore, I’ve recently come into possession some more WSS figures – but more on this in another post.
Strelets, meanwhile, recently announced on their forum that they are committed to also producing both cavalry and artillery sets for this series, in addition to the French Fusiliers slated for production – so much more to look forward to there! 🙂
I’m starting to find some very useful information about British regiments at the time of the War of the Spanish Succession. A website called The Spanish Succession is dedicated to the WSS and has lots of great and detailed information even on individual regiments including my chosen one; Orkney’s Regiment. The “oldest regiment in the British armed forces” had it’s roots far back in the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus of all things!
Ironically, my War of the Spanish Succession regiment even fought for the French army until Charles II ‘asked for it back’ in 1688. This regiment fought in all the major battles of the Duke of Marlborough and around this time became known as ‘The Royal Regiment’.
The Earl of Orkney, who gave him his name to the regiment, was appointed to it’s colonelcy 1692. An experienced soldier, he notably led the final assault at the Battle of Blenheim on the village leading eight battalions of troops before then receiving the final surrender of the French there.
By Martin Maingaud – Public Domain.
I also found some information on Pinterest about the flags carried into battle by the Royal Regiment / Orkney’s Regiment. My previous regiment had an English flag but being a Scottish regiment, the Orkney’s national flag was carried instead of the Union flag at this time. The design is shown below:
Once again, I had to endure the horrors of painting folded flag drapes. I might neaten up those white lines, but here is the result:
Orkney’s Regiment is described in my copy of “The Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough’s Wars” as having red coats, white facings, grey breeches and yellow lace on the tricornes. The facings later became blue possibly as early as the end of the 17th century but sources depict them still with white cuffs during the Marlburian period. Certainly, artist Bob Marrion preferred to illustrate the regiment with white facings in the aforementioned book.
R.J. Marrion’s illustration of a man of Orkney’s Regiment of Foot (book cover).
The figures I’m using are still from Strelets “advancing” set of British infantry figures. Sankey’s Regiment were all marching with arms at the slope, but Orkney’s men are all charging forward with their bayonets ready.
Though the box is finished, Orkney’s Regiment is lacking an officer and also a grenadier company. I’ve ordered more boxes of this series, however, so I can open another and attend to the shortfall in due course!
I am particularly delighted to have a book come through the post recently which is an indispensable guide to the era I’m currently painting. It’s a 2016 hardback edition of C.S. Grant’s “The Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough’s Wars”. This terrific book combines two previously separately released volumes on the topic and – best of all – is lavishly illustrated throughout with line sketches and lots of full-colour depictions of Marlburian-era soldiers by one of my favourite military uniform artists, the now sadly deceased R.J. Marrion (the author’s ‘great friend and collaborator’).
To anyone interested in the War of the Spanish Succession, I can only highly recommend it – if you can find or afford a copy, that is! Although recently published, it seems to be very rare and, from some sellers, hideously expensive. For an era whose records of military uniforms are sketchy at best, it is proving extremely useful to tap into Charles Grant’s ‘many years of research’ with this beautifully presented book.
I’ll be honest here, it didn’t come cheap but I think is worth every penny and is an essential help to one of my 2020 projects – wargaming the Marlburian Wars.
Yes, wargaming isn’t something I’ve ever done before but I’ve been steadily looking into it with a view to trying some solo games. I’ve already invested in a green baize table cover for the landscape and also secured some ‘buildings’. The intention is to explore putting my 1/72 scale Lace Wars figures into use on the wargaming table. This will be a slow-burn process involving steady research and development, specifically requiring:
developing my understanding of wargaming and how it works!!!!!
developing some Marlburian-era rules through research on the period
developing the armies themselves by painting the figures (1 regiment (Sankey’s) completed so far!)
Of course, I’ve plenty of other figures from different eras I could use for skirmishes, etc, but my Lace Wars figures are the first being developed with wargaming specifically in mind and this has already led to some development on the bases;
Grenadiers of Sankey’s Regiment – now with decorated caps!
By grouping the bases together instead of individually (I’ve grouped them in groups of 4, 2 and singles), it will facilitate rapid deployment and movement during the game, the individually based figures allow for any casualties/losses to be reflected on the table… Apologies to wargamers – this is all new to me!
So my first regiment is virtually completed. The British army is already represented by the above Sankey’s Regiment which consists of 24 figures including 2 sergeants, an ensign and an officer. I’ve deliberately used a simple, plain, green grass scatter on the bases to help reduce shedding of the grass through wargame use, and also to better match my dark green baize which they’ll be marching across.
The flag was a real pain to paint! I love the sculpting but trying to understand the fold of the flag and then reflect that fold with the painted cross of St. George resulted in a number of repaints. The end result is still not right but I’m sticking with it!
Given that the Act of Union was in 1707, British regiments at this time were for some time represented by either English or Scottish flags instead of the Union flag. So I have shown this English regiment carrying the cross of St.George into battle. The other regimental flag, the colonel’s colour, was much more open to individual interpretation often with any colour background and a design of the colonel’s own choosing.
I’ve already started on the other half of the box of Strelets’ advancing infantry by depicting a Scottish regiment – more on that in a future post!
The War of the Spanish Succession, indeed much the 18th century’s so-called ‘lace wars’, have been significantly overlooked in plastic at 1/72 scale until Strelets began to put things right towards the end of last year. At time of writing, Strelets have four sets slated for release:
British Infantry in Advance (1701-1714)
British Infantry in Attack (1701-1714)
British Infantry Firing Line (1701-1714)
French Fusiliers (Early War)
The first two have been released and the first set has already found its way to Suburban Militarism. This “in Advance” set includes around 20 marching figures and a similar number again advancing with the point of the bayonet – I’ve started with the marching boys.
I’ve been struggling to find Marlburian uniform information on specific regiments on the net, so I may have to turn to actual ye olde books for more info. Eventually, I turned to one of my postcards which was part of a set bought from The Keep Museum in Dorchester about the Devonshire and Dorsetshire Regiments.
The postcard shows an illustration by Rob Chapman of a soldier from Sankey’s Regiment in 1718 (regiments being named at the time after their colonel). Depicted just after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession on ‘sea service’, they would later be numbered as the 39th Regiment of Foot.
I was attracted to painting this regiment by the green facings, yet my copy of W.Y. Carman’s “Richard Simkin’s Uniforms of the British Infantry Regiments” tells me that for this regiment “no distinctive facings may be quoted before 1742” but does have this to say on their subsequent green facings when :
“…pale green was used for the facings and waistcoat. The green was later named as ‘willow green’, ‘popinjay’, ‘light green’ and other variations, no doubt because a fixed shade of green was hard to find in those days when dyes changed under battle conditions.”
In the end, I’ve been happy to go with the illustration and (in the spirit of those endless shades of green that they enjoyed) have given them some lime green facings, to match Rob Chapman’s illustration.
My marching figures are now about 90% finished, but you will note that some work does still remain to be done. This grenadier company above, for example, are still awaiting some attention to their grenadier caps. No idea what the actual caps looked like but I’m thinking some more of that lime green and some other detailing might do the trick.
Also on the march are some sergeants carrying halberds and a couple of officers too wearing their gorgets. The ensign has a black flag which needs painting in some manner too:
Sankey’s Regiment: A brief history
This regiment was orignally named “Colonel Coote’s Regiment” when it was raised in 1702. The said Colonel Richard Coote however was soon to die in a duel to be succeeded by Colonel Sankey, whose name the Regiment then took. Though missing out on all of Marlborough’s great battles of the war, they still campaigned in the Low Countries, France, Germany, Spain and North America. At the battle of Almanza, the regiment mounted mules to earn the ironic nickname “Sankey’s Horse”. After the war, having been raised as infantry and later serving as psuedo-cavalry when mounted on mules, the men found then found themselves acting as marines when on ‘sea-service’!
The remainder of the box I intend to paint up as a different British regiment, though I’ve yet to decide upon which one. Another aspect on my mind is for me a somewhat novel approach to basing, but more on that in another post.
Suburban Militarism 