Well, the musketeer from Regiment de Languedoc for the Dutch Wars is ready to be based!
Sadly, the hacking of the League of Augsburg has held up some of my research to finish the mini. I just assumed that the ribbons on his stockings, his shoes and his hat were red and not red and yellow. I also assumed the breeches were gray. That seems to be confirmed by this print from
Drabant Miniatures:
This represents Languedoc at the Battle of Blenheim, but because there is so little documented about the Dutch Wars, I had to make a few assumptions. I also got the gold buttons and gold hilt to the infantry sword from this print.
That left me with the apostles. There are several prints from Louis Susane's
Histoire de l'ancienne infanterie française in
The Vinkhuijzen collection of military uniforms. For the apostles, I chose to use this example from the Regiment Picardie:
I'd already painted some of the pouches leather, so I kept those. I might go with the example of Picardie for the breeches of additional members of Languedoc, should I raise a company for
Once Upon a Time in the West Country, which would give me two battalions of the regiment for
Beneath the Lily Banners. I have not reached the chapter in Lynn detailing the clothing situation of the Bourbon Army.
Anyway, here are four photos of the almost finished miniature:
All photographs were taken with my cell phone. Admittedly, the Droid Pro has a great camera for a cell phone, and it makes it really easy for WIP shots. Still, the images can be a bit fuzzy, and some of the shading is so subtle it may not show up!
All that is left is to highlight his hat and shoes, and base the miniature. Since my 25mm figure bases are spackled, painted, sanded, washed, drybrushed and static grassed, it didn't seem prudent to put more than a basic effort into the shoes until I was done with the paint bits.
4 comments:
Very nice painting job with this model, and the info is very interesting.
Best regards.
Thanks! The research was the hardest part. The Dutch Wars are not very well documented, and many of the plates are out-of-period anachronisms (like the fur cap on the grenadier at Blenheim!) Without the help of Arthur on the Fightingtalk forum, I would have been dead in the water.
This figure was a joy to paint - not a lot of flash, not a lot of tricky areas to paint, not even many needs to touch up. Even things like look tricky - like the leather for the apostles - was easy to highlight with a decent sized brush. If you're interested in the early wars of Louis XIV, I can't recommend the Northstar 1672 lines enough!
The only place where I'm somewhat unsatisfied is with the highlighting of the face. In person the highlights look too light. Since it's the 1600s, we'll just say he's got some kind of pox or flux.
I've finished basing and flocking, and will post WIP pictures later.
Hi, just a thought and I take your point about a lack of uniform info but in the ECW, apostles were often painted in "facing" colour. In the Picardie pic, the green breeches match the apostles so I wonder if French practice was similar.
It is absolutely possible. How close to likely, I don't know.
Lynn has information about the timeframe of issuance of equipment to French units. The Dutch wars were the beginning of a uniform appearance for the French army, but uniformity depended on the purse of the colonel and the captains. Their whim also played a part.
The problem with the Picardie print is that it's not period - it's part of a history of the French Infantry written in 1852. From the information I have, I can confidently say Susane is not 100% accurate, though was he completely right with this Picardie print? I don't know.
It could also be that the green is an error, and both apostles and breeches are gray. Nobody really knows.
So yeah, I'd say that your interpretation is as plausible as mine or anybody else's.
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