Wednesday 20 February 2019

Baden Light Dragoons - 28mm Murawski

At long last a manufacturer has released Baden Light Dragoons! This regiment was present in many French allied armies, but until now no 28mm models existed. Murawski Miniatures has made these models in their 1809 uniform. They are done in campaign dress, but fortunately (from my perspective), this campaign dress is not too messy and very similar to the full dress uniform.  Full dress uniform is what I prefer of course!

With their Raupenhelms and red faced Azure blue uniforms they are quite distinctive from other light cavalry.






I did make one slight conversion to the figures. The figure in the back row second from left in picture below comes in the command pack wearing a fatigue long stocking cap (the 1805 cap on the left in picture below the unit photo). It may be historical but I didn't like the look of this fatigue kit breaking up the uniformity, plus frankly it reminded me of something a Warhammer Goblin would wear! Therefore, I removed the head and replaced it with a Raupenhelm from a spare infantry figure... :) 


As to what blue to paint these... this is the subject of debate. It may well have been the colour of the fatigue caps above (which I believe are recreations). As far as we can ascertain it was lighter than the Baden infantry blue but darker than the Bavarian blue. Consulting the Baden Rawkins book and Facebook Napoleonic Wargamer group, I decided on Vallejo Prussian Blue, highlighted with Magic Blue, highlighted with a mix of Magic Blue and Azure. If you look online you will see prints and models of them painted as light as the Andreas Blue or Sky Blue, but I will be using the Andreas Blue for Bavarians so that was out and these lighter blue colours are probably too light anyway.

Speaking of the Rawkins Baden Army book, this downloadable series cannot be recommended enough! They are amazingly cheap for the quality of material you get, buy them here

Lastly, for further reference, here's some  prints and pics of Baden Light Dragoons found online. As  you can see the colour of blue depicted varies considerably!

1809 uniform has the red lapels on the chest.

1813 uniform has coat closed and plain blue chest.





Also found online, a Baden Light Dragoon Officers Raupenhelm. Looks like it has sabre slash damage across the front (though perhaps it was damaged in some other way of course).

And this Raupenhelm from a trooper.

Thanks for looking! And thank Roger at Murawski for making these for us by buying a unit here!

Next up will be more Baden!

26 comments:

  1. Super work, Mark! The Murawski Baden infantry I have are slight figures compared to Frobt Rank. How do the cavalry compare with respect to size? Also, the Raupenheims shown in your actuals carry no plume. Was plume for full dress only?

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    1. Cheers Jonathan, this cavalry and campaign dress infantry are sturdier figures in build. Different sculptor I think. The more slender infantry still looks ok next to Perry though, as do these cavalry. These cavalry figures have a plume though it's a bit shorter than that in pics above.

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  2. Not often seen on our tables...and so beautiful, nice post and great work!

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  3. A very nice job Mark - they were obviously were worth the long wait!

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  4. A great post Mark as these have been on my mind for a while now. I also couldn't agree more with regard to Rawkins's booklets; I have had an original on the Swedish Napoleonic army for twenty years or so now and am amazed at how much relevant detail he manages to cram into the equivalent of twenty-four A5 pages.

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    1. Cheers Lawrence, yes great value indeed! In electronic format the page limit doesn't matter anymore of course, so the Austrian one runs to about 460 pages!

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  5. Fine! Yes, Baden is a rare army on the game table.

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    1. Thanks Dmitry, and yes though hopefully less rare now the figures are available!

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  6. Excellent to see more of the French allied forces come to life on the tabletop.

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  7. Lovely work, the red and blue combo is a classic and I agree that uniformity in headgear is a must!
    Best Iain

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  8. You did a superb job on these, Mark. I was somewhat disappointed that they chose to do them in Campaign dress as well. The head swap is a good idea. I will have to keep it in mind as I do have a few spare Baden heads around. This unit is definitely on my "purchase and paint" by the end of the year list!

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    1. Thanks Peter, yes the campaign dress fortunately is not so overdone on these, just a few minor variations on the full dress like scarf or back of neck protector and not all wearing their gloves.

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  9. Great looking unit. Their helmets and uniforms are very smart looking.

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  10. excellent work Mark,

    A great addition to your Baden contingent.

    They are quite nice figures, I converted my stocking cap troopers to gendarme and added green stuff bicornes. Hope to complete mine in the coming week, just the trumpeters horses and officers horses to complete really. I also went with grey overalls rather than the blue. Similar to you with the jacket colour but elected to go down the ultra marine blue coat highlight.

    cheers
    Matt

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    1. Thanks Matt, I hope to see yours posted soon! :)

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  11. A great piece for inspiration.
    I bought my Baden figs from Murawski when they first came out and they are still waiting for paint!
    Need to finish my Hesse Darmstadt first, then another couple of French regiments before I can start on the Baden contingent (Massena's Corps 1809)
    Must paint faster!

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    1. Many thanks! Hesse Damstadt are on my list too, what figures did you use for them?

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    2. Apologies for previously posting as unknown!
      I have used Elite Miniatures 1806 Prussian musketeers. I used the march position for the HD mustekeers and the charge advance for the Fusilier battalions. One mounted officer per Regiment.

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    3. Ok great thanks for the info Gary!

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