Saxon Chevauleger & Uhlans - Black Hussar 28mm

Saxon Light Cavalry, the Von Polenz Chevauleger, and Prinz Clemens Uhlans.  The Chevaulegers I posted a couple of years back, but the Uhlans are newly painted, so thought I'd take the oportunity to post both these units together. These are all from Black Hussar Miniatures.

Von Polenz Chevaulegers.

Prinz Clemenz Uhlans. Newly painted, with North Star metal lances and penants from Adolfo Ramos, except I had to repaint top half to the green from blue as this more obscure combo wasn't one he made at time of purchase.  Wasn't too sure of the green here but most notes I've seen have it fairly light in shade and this looks good so that's what I went with :)

These models are in campaign dress with Shako's covered, though fortunately the rest of the uniform makes up for that in terms of colour. Full dress has plumes etc as you'd expect. 

Saxon Limbers - 28mm Black Hussar

Some close ups of recently painted Saxon Limber teams. Bit of a cheat here, in that while the horses and riders are Saxons from Black Hussar, I used two spare Austrian limber models I had lying around as "requisitions". Main difference from Saxon ones is the seat cover I believe.

The Black Hussar models are pretty robust compared to Perry horses/riders, but still quite compatible.

Half way through our month long lockdown here in New Zealand, which seems to be working well with only 29 new virus cases today, down from about 90 at the peak as the Ministry of Health graph below shows.  Very happy for our frontline medical stafff in particular. Looking forward to playing some games again soon hopefully!

Saxon Leib Kuirassier Garde - 28mm Black Hussar

More Saxon Kuirassiers, this time the Leib regiment, to join their brother Zastrow Kuirassier regiment.  Great figures again from Black Hussar. Conflicting source information about the horse furniture led to some moments of indecision with these (see below), but I'm happy enough with the end result.

Spelling is important by the way. Due to me getting the "e" and "i" the wrong way around for some time, I'm at risk of my German wife innocently enquiring about the fate of the "Love Kuirassiers" (Lieb) instead of the Life Kuirassiers (Leib), forever more...

Like the Zastrow regiment and Austrian Cuirassiers, the Leib regiment only wore front plates.

A pic below with their Zastrow colleagues.  Both the Zastrow and Leib regiments fought at the Battles of Dresden and Leipzig. The Zastrow regiment broke two Austrian squares at Dresden. The Leib regiment captured a battery of 12 Russian cannon at Leipzig and fought with Russian Cuirassiers/Dragoons that tried to retake them. These Saxon Kuirassiers were serious business. I believe they were also the last Saxons to change sides at Leipzig, the idea being offensive to their inherited knightly/noble honour code.

Given the figures are interchangeable, I mixed in six of the Zastrow Kuirassier figures to the Leib regiment, as the poses (swords down or shouldered) are more durable for wargaming. Three of the rank and file plus the three command of the Leib are all from the Leib figure range though. 

As to the above mentioned issue of horse furniture, I agonised over what mix of yellow, red and white border to go with. For example, here's what they look like with yellow and red rather than white and red. This seems to be the most common representation, but after doing some this way I noticed that it was also looking very much like Austrian heavy cavalry, so I reverted to the white and red. This also matches the white and yellow I did for the Zastrow nicely. Once again I left off the Cipher detail though!

Rawkins in his Army of Saxony book, suggests that the source conflict is due to different variants of horse furniture existing over time, including perhaps even for different squadrons within the same regiment. The saddlecloths also tended to wear out more quickly than other aspects of the equipment, particularly the edges, hence also the cropping of the corner into something rounded rather than pointed for durability.

Saxon Artillery - 28mm Black Hussar

A battery of Saxon artillery from Black Hussar completed. Three 6 pounders and an 8 pounder howitzer.

The Saxon guns had the wooden parts painted black (actually creosote, so a very dark grey), and the metalwork in yellow, thus emulating the black and yellow of the Saxon Coat of Arms. The yellow was likely a dark mustard yellow, which I did use on these. though with highlighting it has come out looking rather lighter in colour, especially when contrasted with the barrel colour.

Black Hussar also make Saxon crew with fatigue caps, but I preferred the look of having them all in shakos for this battery (bar a couple of officers).

The Black Hussar artillery pieces themselves are rather fantastically detailed, almost too much so for wargaming pieces really! Having to glue on the brackets that hold the barrel to the carriage (rather than these just being attached to the barrel as do most manufacturers), is a curious choice, and rather annoyingly fiddly. You also get all the equipment to serve the guns - ramrods etc, that I didn't use in this case. For modelers this is all very good though I guess!

Here's a pic from the Rawkins book of a Saxon 4 pounder gun.

Saxon Line Infantry - Black Hussar 28mm

Saxon line infantry completed. Excellent Black Hussar miniatures again for these.

The Saxon regiments in 1810-13 were distinguished by their facing colours (red, yellow, blue, green), each colour having a regiment with brass and another with pewter buttons, making a total of 8 regiments. These regiments were named after their Inhaber or Owner/Patron. I've painted up the four regiments with brass buttons.

The great Rawkin's Saxon book has contains a wealth of information for painting, as well as interesting history.  In 1806 many of the Saxon Regimental Officers were nobility of advanced years, and criticised by the Saxon General Ferdinand von Funck as lacking in military knowledge, in addition to the mental and physical vigour necessary for campaigning. The average age of Colonels was 65, and Captains 55. Heinrick von Boblick, Commandant of the Konig regiment was 90 years old, though fortunately he had a youthful 72 year old deputy to assist him...  With later reforms better trained and more capable officers were available though.

Here's the Konig Regiment with red facings and brass buttons. The officer for this regiment is in steel gray Dienstuniform (service uniform) which was an alternative to the standard dress coat the officers of the other three regiments are wearing. It was authorised for all service except parades. The von Niesemeuschel regiment also had red facings but pewter buttons. 

 

One detail of these Black Hussar Models is that the sabre/bayonet pouchcomes separately and must be glued on. This allows for a more realistic model appearance, though being a wargamer I'd also be  happy with the less fiddly pre-molded versions!

Prinz Maximilian Regiment, with yellow facings and brass buttons. The von Rechten regiment also had yellow facings but pewter buttons.

Prinz Anton Regiment with blue facings and brass buttons. The von Low regiment also had blue facings but pewter buttons.

Prinz Friedrich August Regiment with green facings and brass buttons. The Prinz Clemens regiment also had green facings but pewter buttons.

Thanks for looking, up next will likely be the Saxon Artillery.