A Tough Day on the Firing Line, Zululamnd 1879

 Stadden Zulu War British.

24 down and 24 to go.

Stumped! Or, the value of older, overlooked books.

The tricky (troubling, challenging... pick a word) part of building such obscurities as the Brandenburg and Swedish armies is of course references.

I have managed to develop what seem to me pretty fair visual references for Brandenburger flags and uniforms; the Swedes are a more difficult proposition. The only decent volume I know of (Scanian War 1675-1679 Colours and Uniforms. Lars-Eric Höglund) seems not to be in print at the moment and is only available at ruinous prices on the secondary market. Oh well! What to do? Surely one can't go too far wrong with blue coats and yellow facings, right? Right?

Kannick - image pinched from Barry Hiltons' Blog.

Idle fancy took me to Kannick last night, and as I stook there in the shedio*,  gazing at the one plate of any use, my eye fell upon my copy of Knoetel, Knoetel and Seig. Well, duh. Of course. I opened it, flipped quickly to page 414 and there it was, a list of coat and turnback colours for the Swedish Army circa 1675.

Not a single blue coat with yellow facings to be seen, but at least a couple with blue-faced-red.

It's a start.

*Yes, the Shed-cum-studio is finished. It's slightly magnificent and I couldn't be happier with it. Pictures to follow in another post.

Painted Samples

Junior Officer, Pikemen and Senior Officer of the Leib Garde

Pikeman of the Kurfurstins' Regiment

Some rather hypothetical Swedes!

Painted wet-on-wet with some washes and layering.