I may have let on at one time or another over the past few months that I'm rather fond of the Saxon Army for this period.
I think this fondness came out of their "Army in Exile" status during the Seven Years War, a bit of sympathy for an underdog.
I have over the past few years put quite a lot of thought into recreating this army using RSM Miniatures and I thought I might share my ideas here.
The Infantry
The Infantry uniform was in it's cut not dissimilar to that of the Prussian army of the day - with certain differences!
At the start of the period - say, 1742 - the uniform was worn with lapels. No problems there - the RSM Prussians all have lapels cast on. This changes for most regiments after 1745 where all regiments apart from the Leibgrenadier Garde lost their lapels. Another change was to the grenadier cap which previously had been very similar to the later Prussian fusilier cap and now came strongly to resemble that of the king of Prussia's grenadiers.
My sources have little to say on Saxon uniforms at the start of the Seven Year's War, but after the constitution of the army in exile, uniforms were being worn with and without lapels depending on the regiment - the von Rochow Fusiliers, von Bruhl's, the Kurprinzessin's and the Leibgrenadier Garde wore lapels on their coats, the remainder did not.
So what does this mean for figure purchases?
For the period from 1740 to 1745 the infantry can adequately be represented by RSM Prussian musketeers with their Prussian Fusiliers standing in for the Saxon Grenadiers.
For the remainder of the War of the Austrian Succession I'd suggest using Russian infantry with either head swaps from RSM Prussian Grenadiers or just using the Prussians with their lapels either filed off or painted over.
For the Seven Year's War, RSM Prussians can be used without modification for the von Rochow Fusiliers, von Bruhl's, the Kurprinzessin's and the Leibgrenadier Garde. For the rest of the army, I recommend the Russian Infantry, again with head swaps from RSM Prussian Grenadiers or just using the Prussians with their lapels either filed off or painted over.
One thing I'd like to see (purely selfishly) is a dedicated 7YW Saxon 28mm range...
From 1740 to 1742
2 comments:
Greg,
I don't know for sure, but, if you created a master figure perhaps Rich at RSM would be willing to cast it? He's a very agreeable and helpful person.
I do know that if you are willing to commit to a reasonably large order that Irregular will sculpt a figure for you and there is the Eureka 100 club, although I'm not sure about compatability with RSM's.
Just a thought.
Donald~
There are some Saxon Infantry on at the 100 Club at the moment - I placed a pre-order for 120. I think confirmation of the order might be contingent on the sculpting style, though...
I'd never thought of sculpting my own. Probably not too difficult if you look at it as a series of conversions from the existing RSM Prussian line.
Greg
Post a Comment