Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday and New Year, and to thank everyone for visiting the blog, commenting and for using the templates in various ways. I'd also like to thank those who have commissioned flags and other items from me.
Friday 24 December 2010
Happy Christmas and New Year to All - and another Regiment Nikolaus
Posted by David Morfitt at Friday, December 24, 2010 10 comments
Saturday 11 December 2010
Royal Navy Midshipman, full dress
Thanks to Moshe again, as this was another of the templates I designed for him.
Posted by David Morfitt at Saturday, December 11, 2010 7 comments
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Royal Navy Captain, undress uniform
This is the undress uniform of a captain - dress uniform did not have the lapels but had more gold lace.
This was part of a commission of templates of 18th century naval uniform by Moshe, who kindly allowed me to present this for general use.
Posted by David Morfitt at Wednesday, November 17, 2010 10 comments
Thursday 28 October 2010
Order of the Golden Lion of Katzenstein
Posted by David Morfitt at Thursday, October 28, 2010 2 comments
Saturday 16 October 2010
Trooper, Saxon Garde du Corps 1756
According to Johannes Eichhorn and Eberhard Boltze (details differ slightly). Text to follow sometime...
Posted by David Morfitt at Saturday, October 16, 2010 5 comments
Wednesday 13 October 2010
French infantry officer in summer campaign dress, North America
Posted by David Morfitt at Wednesday, October 13, 2010 3 comments
Monday 4 October 2010
Fusilier, Summer Dress, Compagnies Franches de la Marine, Canada 1750s
In bonnet de police, regimental waistcoat or veste and Indian leggings, this is a fusilier of the colonial infantry dressed for summer campaigning in Canada.
More text to follow...
Posted by David Morfitt at Monday, October 04, 2010 9 comments
Friday 1 October 2010
French Line Infantry North America, Summer Campaign Dress - Other Ranks
Posted by David Morfitt at Friday, October 01, 2010 4 comments
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Generic WSS Cavalryman
Just a quick item - with more work it could no doubt be improved but this might be of some use to the WSS enthusiasts. When I get chance I'll do a few WSS infantry templates too.
Posted by David Morfitt at Wednesday, September 29, 2010 0 comments
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Coming soon - French infantry in summer campaign dress, North America
In North America the French infantry often fought in the summer in their long-sleeved waistcoats without the heavy justaucorps. That will be the next uniform type I'll depict, with a couple of variants of other ranks' uniform and an officer in gold-laced waistcoat and gorget.
Posted by David Morfitt at Tuesday, September 28, 2010 0 comments
Monday 27 September 2010
Private, New Jersey "Blues", North America 1755-1763
This website: http://www.nj.gov/military/museum/frenchindian.html suggests they had a fairly rough war: "Indian raids along the colony’s northwest border in the summer of 1755 prompted the raising of a thousand man regiment of “Jersey Blues”, as well as a force to garrison forts along the Delaware. The Blues saw considerable combat. One detachment of the regiment was captured at Oswego in 1756 and another wiped out in a fight at Sabbath Day Point on Lake George in 1757. Another 300 were surrendered to the French at Fort William Henry in 1757 and some of these men were massacred by the Indians."
Posted by David Morfitt at Monday, September 27, 2010 6 comments
Friday 17 September 2010
British Light Infantrymen, North America 1759
Light troops were much in demand in North America and "the most active resolute men" from the regular line regiments were selected to form a body of Light Infantry. Generals Amherst and Wolfe ordered their light infantrymen to put the sleeves of their coats on their waistcoats, add wings like those of grenadiers but larger and to extend down the sleeve, to have no lace but to keep the lapels, and to add two extra pockets of leather for ball and flints. They were to carry a knapsack "as the Indians carry their pack", that is, very high between the shoulders, have a cartouche box under the arm on the left side suspended from a leather strap, carry a canteen covered with cloth under the knapsack and have a tomahawk in a rough case with a button in a leather sling at the side. Fusil, bayonet and powder horn were also carried. The leggings had leather straps under the shoes and the tricorn hat was cut down into a cap and flaps added so that it could be fastened under the chin for warmth. The result was not pretty and must have given many of the more traditional officers and NCOs apoplexies but it was practical.
Initially the light infantry fought with the rangers on guerilla operations but in 1759 they led the army up the Heights of Abraham to Quebec. In 1760 they were returned to their regiments but the experiment was not forgotten and in 1770 line infantry regiments were given light infantry companies to make 10 companies per battalion (including 8 battalion or "hatmen" companies and a grenadier company). (Already in 1755 some regiments had been experimenting with "picquet" companies which were also forerunners of the light company and which were copied from the French.)
Posted by David Morfitt at Friday, September 17, 2010 8 comments
Friday 10 September 2010
British 80th Foot, North America 1758
Although the ranger units were useful and effective in their own way, it was felt that regular units of light infantry were needed in North America. In 1757-8 Colonel Thomas Gage raised a unit of 500 light infantry at his own expense. They proved useful throughout the war but especially in the suppression of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763-4, when, at the end of the SYW, a number of tribes (especially in the Great Lakes region) rose up against the British as a result of dissatisfaction with the British policy of treating the Indians as a conquered people, in contrast to the previous French policy of conciliation. The regiment was disbanded in 1764.
Their uniform was unusually drab, as it consisted of a short brown jacket with black painted or japanned pewter buttons, brick red waistcoat and breeches, and gaiters of varying colours, often brown, grey or blue-grey. Many men had shortened muskets, some with browned barrels. The authorities clearly had problems accepting so unorthodox a uniform, as by the end of the war the unit had a new uniform of a red jacket faced orange. Headgear was a jockey cap, usually cut down in various ways from the cocked hat and with flaps that could be lowered to protect the head in bad weather.
Posted by David Morfitt at Friday, September 10, 2010 6 comments
Monday 6 September 2010
British Ranger Officer 1750s
Posted by David Morfitt at Monday, September 06, 2010 6 comments
Sunday 22 August 2010
British Rangers 1750s
I was commissioned to do a variety of ranger types and Moshe who commissioned them kindly allowed me to post these on the blog.
Posted by David Morfitt at Sunday, August 22, 2010 4 comments
Sunday 15 August 2010
Some historical flag work in progress...
Update 14th October 2010 - here's an updated rough showing the correct number of fleurs de lys on the cross of the flag of Royal Roussillon - 48 and not 49, and also naming most of the units! (See Chartrand's "French Soldier in Colonial America" for pictures of the flag of Royal Roussillon and of La Reine from the official pattern book; that pattern book is one volume that should definitely be in print!) 3 of the flags are very near completion and I'll post a snapshot of them sometime soon.
Posted by David Morfitt at Sunday, August 15, 2010 11 comments
Tuesday 10 August 2010
Bavarian "Knecht" or Driver, on foot with gaiters
Posted by David Morfitt at Tuesday, August 10, 2010 6 comments
Wednesday 21 July 2010
Hesse Kassel IR Prinz Carl, Musketeer 1762
Posted by David Morfitt at Wednesday, July 21, 2010 2 comments
Wednesday 7 July 2010
New Poll: Is there a need for a separate website for the templates?
Several people have suggested in the past that the blog is not a very good format for displaying and presenting the templates and I think there's some truth in that. With the linear format of the pages older templates disappear into the dim and dusty recesses of the blog. I have considered doing a supplementary website where they can be more accessibly and clearly presented. The problem is that at present I have too little time to do more templates as often as I'd like and making a website will eat up even more time I don't really have, so if I were to embark on creating a website even fewer new templates would be done in the near future. Hence the poll to gauge what sort of popularity a website would have to see if it would be worth the effort (although I make no promises that even if a website is overwhelmingly popular, it will happen soon or even at all!). But it will be helpful to get some idea...
UPDATE 16.07.2010: Thanks to everyone who commented and voted on the poll. I'm thinking about how to go ahead now and will report back when a decision is made!
Posted by David Morfitt at Wednesday, July 07, 2010 23 comments
Thursday 3 June 2010
Saxon Feldjägerkorps Revisited
A quick plug for John Cunningham's figures here; he has revived, markets and is expanding a number of classic 20mm wargames figure lines (Les Higgins' splendid ECW and Marlburians, for instance) and now has available the Wodensfeld 20mm SYW French. If you would like to know more about these or any of John's other 20mm ranges, please email him on: CunnJoh [at] aol [dot] com for details.
Posted by David Morfitt at Thursday, June 03, 2010 0 comments
Thursday 20 May 2010
Hesse Kassel Artilleryman (after Witzel)
Posted by David Morfitt at Thursday, May 20, 2010 6 comments
Sunday 16 May 2010
Map and plan resources using Gimp (and Photoshop)
Some useful map and plan Gimp brushes here: http://istarlome.deviantart.com/gallery/#brushes-and-vector-resources for those of you doing ImagiNations work. Many more Gimp brushes including some other map and plan-related material here: http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/gimpbrushes/
If you're a Photoshop user you can find many brushes including map ones here too: http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/psbrushes/
Note that many Photoshop brushes can also be used directly in versions of Gimp later than 2.4.
Gimp is a free program for image manipulation and creation that can be downloaded from here: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ and information on the Gimp can be found here: http://www.gimp.org/ Many tutorials are also available from the Net.
Posted by David Morfitt at Sunday, May 16, 2010 0 comments
Saturday 15 May 2010
Hesse Kassel Foot Jägers - Variant 2
It seems more and more likely that various features of version 1 (see below) (e.g. the plume) may have been extrapolated from the American War of Independence uniform and not relate to the SYW period at all. Reliable information about the early SYW Hessian uniforms is not easy to find.
Posted by David Morfitt at Saturday, May 15, 2010 6 comments
Thursday 13 May 2010
Hesse Kassel Foot Jägers - Variant 1
As with all Hesse-Kassel uniforms there seems to be much disagreement about the details. This is based on the version given by Pengel and Hurt and the Heer und Tradition Plate 91.
Posted by David Morfitt at Thursday, May 13, 2010 5 comments
Sunday 2 May 2010
Hesse Kassel Artilleryman
There seems to be considerable disagreement on the details of the Hessian uniforms of the SYW, at least in part because the uniforms do seem to have changed and evolved throughout the war. This is the version of Schirmer via Pengel and Hurt. I shall next post the version of Rudolf Witzel in his recent book (2007) on the Hessian army of 1762. Kronoskaf's version, based on many sources, is different again.
Update 12.05.2010 - I'm currently working on various Hessen-Kassel uniforms but finding it difficult to find definitive information on the uniforms, as every secondary source seems to disagree on the details. I should shortly receive a copy of Rudolf Witzel's book on the HK army of 1762 (only parts of the book are viewable on Google Books) and I know that that book, useful though it will be in many ways, will only add to the confusion about uniform details. This is getting as bad as French SYW uniforms...
Posted by David Morfitt at Sunday, May 02, 2010 12 comments
Thursday 15 April 2010
NCO of the Saxon Feldjägerkorps
Straw-coloured gloves were worn, and the carbine and sword had brass metalwork. Officers wore a sash but it is not known if they also wore a gorget or the customary green breeches. The style of the waistcoat is speculative, as is the style of the silver lace and that of the shabraque, although the colours are known.
Posted by David Morfitt at Thursday, April 15, 2010 4 comments
Sunday 11 April 2010
Saxon Henneberg Militia 1756; militiaman
Other ranks (in white with blue facings, shown here) had straw-coloured leatherwork with brass fittings and the usual musket and bayonet. They wore long grey stockings, not gaiters. Again, the Saxon-style lapelled waistcoat is speculative as the verbal description from Schirmer via Pengel and Hurt does not specify.
Posted by David Morfitt at Sunday, April 11, 2010 2 comments