My submission for the "childhood" round is this vignette featuring three members of the Brunswick Lieb Regiment from the SYW. And no there's not a child among them and it does look more like a "musician"bonus post. But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Ok, more details. My entire work this year is my SYW project which to me is a nostalgic return to my childhood. As a young lad (I'm guessing 8-10) my father gave a copy of this book by Rene North (I bet many grognards have the same volume). Family circumstances being that I rarely saw my dad in my first 5 years, and not at all for another 10 years, any gift from him tended to get a lot of my attention.
Forty five plus years later, I've still got stuck in my head snippets from the book about the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. The "Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers" incident from Fontenoy, the Minden roses, the Walloon dragoons in the Austrian army and the red brick walls of the Diesbach Regiment that Freddy's artillery could not breach. So when I started a SYW project for Sharp Practice, it became a homecoming for me. Plus I found I really, really like painting lace wars uniforms. So much so that my SP project has expanded into a Black Powder/Honours of War project.
The figures are all Perry miniatures Hessians from their AWI line from two separate command packs (there are I believe 8 Hessian command packs in the Perry line). The Lieb regiment drummers wore a yellow coat as shown in the period folk art illustration.
The officer has adopted some campaign mods, turning back his coat, changing to low cut soft boots and added a cloak worn bandoleer style. I am picturing a moment of a long day's march as the troops settle into camp routine. An officer pauses to here one drummer play a plaintive folk song on his fife as the second takes a well deserved breather.
Very nice trio Peter!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sander
DeletePeter, I must have been about the same age when my Dad gave me the very same book. I still have it (although the spine has long gone). I've always had a soft spot for the 7YW. Nicely painted figures, and a change from the usual British, French and Prussian suspects.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Richard C
Thanks Richard. The spine gave out on my copy too. Finally gave up on keeping the loose pages last year and binned it. I've regretted that decision and ordered a used copy via Amazon. We'll see how "good" the condition is when it arrives!
DeleteWhat a lovely post Peter and a great vignette to boot.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Michael
DeleteNice work Peter!
ReplyDeleteThanks Adam
DeleteNice work, Peter! 7YW is special to me too, found out about my family's lack of lace in that conflict! ;)
ReplyDeleteI like the basing and uniforms of this trio.
Thanks David. My family has SYW connections in North America too. One part of my Grandmother's family moved from the Boston area to Acadia in 1760 once Evageline's family had been ethnically cleared out by the Brits. another part were Swiss settlers in the Lunenburg area who got kidnapped by Micmacs and taken to Quebec
DeleteVery colourful!
ReplyDeleteCheers Barks!
DeleteLovely post, I similarly got a hardback book on the history of uniform age 5 and was hooked!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain. I think that most historical gamers have a similar story.
DeleteGreat work on these Peter. I like the background with getting the book from your father.
ReplyDeleteThanks Curt. When I saw that you had a childhood theme, it was the first thing that came to mind
DeleteNice choice. I have the book too, although mine has a different cover. I remember using it as a reference for converting and painting Airfix figures.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathon. Now you're talking my language - I used to do head swaps and such on those Airfix Waterloo Sets.
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