And here is the last French Infantry Template for today - a private of regiment Béarn. During the SYW the 1st battalion stayed in France and was mostly employed on coastal guard duties. The 2nd battalion went to Canada in 1755; it was involved in the capture of Fort Oswego in 1756, the capture of Fort William-Henry in 1757, the battle of Ticonderoga in 1758, the siege of Quebec and the battles of Montmorency and The Plains of Abraham in 1759, the battle of Ste. Foy and siege of Quebec in 1760, and it surrendered at Montreal in September of that year. The uniform is very similar to that of Berry (below) except that it has only 3 buttons on the cuff.
G'day David,
ReplyDeleteThe French templates are looking very nice.
I suppose that it might be noted with regard to French infantry uniforms was that a real effort was made to standardise on a white coat with neither collar nor lapels, white waistcoat and breeches in about 1734 (I think) with each regiments facing colours being confined to the cuffs.
This basic cut held up until the War of the Austraian Succession where complaints were made that the lack of distinction per regiment made identifying who was who on the battle-field difficult and so induvidual modes of distinction started to creep back in, initially collars and coloured waistcoats by the start of the 7YW, but also as this conflict drew on and military fashion became influenced by the Prussian example, coats began to gain features like lapels and turn-backs.
I think that distinctions like the cut of pockets and numbers of buttons had been held onto right throughout the period.
I'd suggest that you might to well to produce variants based on:
*plain coat
*plain coat with collar
*coat with collar and turnbacks
*coat with collar, turnbacks and lapels.
That would cover the French basic uniform from 1734-1756. To make things less insane on yourself you might then digram the pockets and reference this against a list of regiments.
I've said it before, but repetition is justified; you are doing fabulous work.
Regards,
Greg Horne
Hi Greg,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. Essentially I am doing a snapshot of French uniforms around 1757. The German, Swiss and probably other Foreign units templates will cover some of the variants with lapels and turnbacks so pretty much the entire range of types will indeed be covered - therefore your wish will largely come true. :-)
I'm glad you like them anyway!
I tried posting a comment on your blog a few days ago, in response to your item about coming to Europe in September, wishing you and your wife a good trip and hoping that you'd take lots of pictures for the rest of us to see. Unfortunately I see it hasn't appeared - did it perhaps go missing before you could moderate it?
Thanks again.
Regards,
David.
That's odd David,
ReplyDeleteI never saw it get to my little email moderation bin. These things happen though!
Please feel free to post again, and thanks for the kind thoughts. I am indeed perparing to take many many photos and will be setting up a dedicated blog for that purpose.
Regards,
Greg
Hi Greg,
ReplyDeleteThanks - will do this weekend. I'm glad you're planning a blog for the pictures - look forward to them . :-) It's very late here now, time for a light supper and then to bed. I've just had time to post the last 2 French infantry templates that I'd already finished yesterday. Coming soon - the German and Swiss uniforms.
Regards,
David.
lovely work david, keep it up, have you ever thought about frontal uniform shot also.
ReplyDeleteregards
matt
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteThanks. :-)
Yes, I have given that some thought. The problem with frontal shots is A) extra work! and b) lots of extra work as posting a frontal shot would mean having to do a rear shot too! But I certainly do bear it in mind as a possibility.
Cheers,
David.