Saxons Are Based Pix

Prinz Albrecht (left) and Graf Bruhl (right). click on all pictures to enlarge view.

Better view of the Graf Bruhl flag

Front view without the officer. All figures are Minden Prussians

Here they are with the basing completed.

Graf Bruhl Cheveaulegers

Saxon cheveauleger regiments Graf Bruhl (blue facings in foreground) and Prinz Albrecht (green facings in background). click all images to enlarge the view

Prinz Albrecht leibfahnen

Graf Bruhl ordinarefahnen.

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Minden Saxon Cavalry Pix

Saxon regiment Prinz Karl Cheveaulegers (CL2) - click to enlarge the view.

This evening I completed the first of two squadrons that I plan to paint of the Prinz Karl Cheveauleger cavalry regiment in the Saxon army of the SYW. I used Minden Miniatures Prussian dragoons for the Saxons. I usually have two 12-figure squadrons comprising a cavalry regiment in my  organization, or 24 figures to a regiment. Some day I might up the total to three squadrons of 12-figures, or 36 figures. For now though, 24 figures is enough for me.

I decided to freehand paint the leibfahne colour for the regiment. I usually use a GMB Designs flag, but they do not make Saxon flags at the moment. Maverick Miniatures in the UK has Saxon flags and will size them for you to fit with any size of wargame figure. I used Dr. Stephen Summerfield's book on the Saxon army for my source of flag information and the Kronoskaf website for the uniform information.

Ground level view of the squadron with a good view of the flag.

The Graf Bruhl cheveaulegers are next on my painting table and I should have a squadron of them completed later this week.

Minden Saxon Cavalry

Minden Prussian Dragoons painted as Saxon Cheveaulegers

My goal is to paint enough Austrian and Prussian forces, including units already painted, to host a Battle of Kolin game at the next Seven Years War Association convention on March 30, 31 and April 1st in South Bend, Indiana. Christopher Dufffy will be the guest once again and he plans on giving a talk about the Battle of Kolin. So you can see how my mind is at work on this one.

The Austrian army at Kolin had a contingent of Saxon Cheveauleger cavalry (basically they are dragoons) posted in reserve on the right flank behind the Oak Wood. So I decided that I would need to have several Saxon units to play this role in the game.

After taking a look at the information on the Saxons at the Kronoskaf web site, I decided that the Minden Prussian Dragoons would be acceptable stand ins for Saxon cavalry. With this in mind, I painted three test figures to represent the Prinz Karl, Prinz Albrecht and Graf Bruhl cheveauleger regiments at Kolin.

Here is a picture drawn by Knotel:

Here are some close up pictures of the individual cavalry figures. I always paint one sample figure of any new unit before painting the whole regiment. I like the way that these Minden Saxons are turning out.

Prinz Karl Cheveauleger

Prinz Albrecht Cheveauleger

Graf Bruhl Cheveauleger

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Saxon Flags of the SYW

Saxon Infantry Flags painted by Mark Allen (click to enlarge)

I recently commissioned 4 sets of flags from Mark Allen for my nascent SYW Saxon project. Mark had previously painted a set of Saxon Leib-Grenadier-Garde regiment flags for me ( a set being comprised of the white Leibfahne and the colored Ordinarefahne). Mark is the gentleman who paints all of the flags that John Ray uses in his 28mm SYW armies, as seen in his book, "A Military Gentleman".

From left to right, starting with the top row: von Bruhl or Rochow regiment leibfahne and ordinarefahne; the Lubrinsky regiment leibfahne and ordinarefahne;

Bottom row, left to right: Prinz Maximilian leibfahne and ordinarefahne; and the Prinz Clemenz leibfahne and ordinarefahn.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I might as well add another brigade of four regiments to give me a total of 8 infantry regiments. For the cavalry, I will paint the three Saxon chive-leger regiments that escaped capture at Pirna with the rest of the Saxon army in 1756. The Prinz Albrecht, Prinz Clemenz and Graf Bruhl regiments had the good fortune to be stationed in Poland at the outbreak of the SYW, thus escaping the capitulation at Pirna.

I plan to use Minden Prussian musketeers with Swedish cuffs for the Saxon infantry and the Prussian dragoons for the Saxon Cheveau-leger cavalry regiments.

More SYW Saxons

Here is a picture of some Minden Saxons that were painted by Richard Ansell. I found this picture in the archives of images that I saved from Frank Hammond's former Minden blog. You didn't know that Minden made SYW Saxons? They are actually the Prussian musketeers in Swedish cuffs that have been "converted by paint". 

As I look for some allies to field with my Austrians, I am more and more drawn to the idea of painting a brigade of Saxon infantry, to be kicked around by the Prussians on my tabletop. They could then do double duty as the army of the evil Duke of Sachsen Raschstein, the perennial foe of the Elector and Duke of Hesse Seewald.

Some Saxons could come in handy to fight such battles as Hohenfriedburg, Kesselsdorf, Hennersdorf ( all fought during the Second Silesian War/War of the Austrian Succession) as well as one Saxon cavalry for a relight of Kolin during the SYW. Saxon infantry regiments were later reconstituted in the service of France (Berge, Minden).

I have placed an order with Maverick Models in the UK for some Saxon infantry flags. Several of my readers have recommended this company as a good source for flags, so I thought that I would give Maverick a try.

More to come, no doubt.

Saxon Leib Garde circa 1756

Saxon Leib Garde using Minden Miniatures Prussians. Click to enlarge.

With a long three day weekend due to the MLK Day holiday in the USA, I had a lot of extra time to paint figures and specifically, knock out nearly a battalion of Saxon Leib Garde - 24 of the eventual 36 figures. I used the Minden Miniatures SYW Prussians with Swedish (large cuffs) cuffs to serve as my Saxons. The inspiration for the regiment was my continued reading of John Ray's fine book, A Military Gentleman, in which the Saxon Leibgrenadier regiment plays a prominent role in the fictional Battle of Fulda. Besides that, what's not to like about a regiment wearing colorful red coats and yellow small clothes, all set off by white gaitors?

Now I know that many of my readers are well versed in the uniforms of the combatants during the Seven Years War, and I know that someone will mention that the Saxon Leibgrenadiers wore grenadier mitres rather than felt tricorn hats. One of my readers has a ready answer for that: the Saxons are wearing their service uniform and they have stored their mitres away for the coming campaign.

A close-up view of the grenadier company of the Garde.

The other part of the equation is the fact that this regiment will also serve as the first regiment in my fictional Army of Hesse Seewald, where they will serve as the Hertzog's personal guards. In fact, I will probably paint two 30-figure battalions: one wearing tricorns and the other wearing the mitres, in a manner similar to that of the Prussian Leib Garde IR15/II & III. That creates a little bit of conundrum with respect to placing flags on the regiment. Which flags should I use?

The Saxon flags are just on the edge of the limits of my own painting ability, so I am not sure whether or not I can paint them free hand. The other option is to find some commercially made preprinted Saxon flags. The only source that I am aware of is Vaubanner Graphics. These are OK, but they are not the quality of GMB Designs flags (and GMB does not make SYW era Saxon flags).

The other option is to use GMB Hessian flags for the AWI era and just flag each regiment with one of the GMB flags. It doesn't really matter which real flag goes with which fictional Hesse Seewald regiment. I could use any old Hessian flag and simply state that it is the flag of the Hesse Seewald Leib Garde and be done with the problem. I will probably employ the second option. I have nearly every AWI Hessian flag that GMB makes, so there is no shortage of standards to use.

UPDATE: I found this web site for Maverick Models -- the company makes Saxon flags.

Maverick Models Saxon Flags

Back to the matter at hand: there are 18 musketeers and 6 grenadiers in the unit, as pictured. I have another dozen musketeers to paint, which will bring the batallion up to 30 musketeers. Then the 6 grenadiers will provide a start for a second battalion all wearing mitres.

The line regiments of the Hesse Seewald army wear green coats with a Prussian cut to them. In otherwords, I will be using Minden Prussians with Swedish cuffs for my line regiments. I have 30 musketeers set aside to form the first regiment IR1 von Glasenap in the Hesse Seewald army. I don't know when I will get around to painting the regiment, but it will be placed in the painting queue, now that I have an urge to paint an imaginations army for myself.

Saxon Leibgarde with Minden Miniatures

Saxon Leibgarde in undress uniform - Minden Miniatures

Last evening I was doing some color experiments with some of the Minden Prussian figures just for the fun of it. Inspired by the Saxon Leibgarde grenadier regiment in John Ray's "A Military Gentleman", I decided to paint the figure as a Saxon. Yes I know, the Leibgarde wore mitres, but since this is a tryout for an Imagination army uniform for Hesse Seewald, they can wear whatever I decide that they will wear. It is good to be King.

I rather like the color combination with the red coat and contrasting yellow small clothes and facings, finished off by white gaitors, silver buttons and white hat lace. If I could find the time, it would be fun to paint a 30-figure battalion of these figures.

And Abdul, do not even attempt to ask. You know what I'm talking about.

Rear view of the Prussian figure painted as a Saxon Leibgarde musketeer.

The picture below depicts some of the Hesse Seewald soldiers modeling the proposed new uniforms for the army. The red coated figure could be the Hertzog's Leibgarde while the other three uniforms would be those of line regiments.

Some uniform sample for the Hesse Seewald army - Minden Miniatures Prussians.

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