Poll results so far...

I know the poll still has 3 days to go but I'm surprised to see the French cavalry so popular. I'm sure the last time I offered them as an option they were way down the list. A few generals' uniforms I'm quite keen to do so I'm happy that option's 2nd. And the hussars are not last this time! Amazing! ;-) It's a pity the Prussian Freikorps are so unpopular - there are some wonderfully exotic uniforms like Schony's Freikorps grenadiers and the Von Kleist uhlans, horse grenadiers and various infantry. Still, I'll probably get round to them eventually, as I like them myself.

Please get your vote in if you haven't yet done so!

Jäger, Prussian Le Noble Frei-Corps

One battalion plus jäger detachment raised 1756, by Lieutenant-Colonel Franciscus Le Noble (from the Palatinate); captured Landeshut 1760 but re-raised and a 2nd battalion added; forcibly disbanded at gunpoint 1763 and the men taken into regular regiments and the officers "retired involuntarily" without compensation.

Uniform: Black leather cap (very like the Austrian casquet) with Frederick's cipher in white on the front. Black stock. Very dark green coat with collar, lapels, cuffs and turnbacks in lime green, as were the waistcoat and breeches; white lace and white metal buttons. Black long boots, white inner stocking.

Austrian Kompanie Lacy

Unit details to follow...

Uniform: Black leather casquet; brass front with black crown and double-headed eagle; on left side red plume with black or green tip. Red stock. White coat with chrome yellow lapels, shoulder strap and cuffs, white lace button loops, yellow metal buttons. (Albertina manuscript 1762 shows no side pockets.) White waistcoat and breeches. Black gaiters.

Austrian Feld Jäger Corps

The Jäger Corps was raised as a small unit in 1758, made a large independent unit in 1761, but disbanded in 1763. It was distinguished at Torgau.

Uniform: Black leather casquet with black plume and white border to the front. Black stock. Hechtgrau or pike grey coat, waistcoat and breeches with green cuffs, turnbacks and collar. Yellow metal buttons. Black long boots, white inner stocking.

Austrian Pioneer

The pioneer battalion was raised in 1758 to give commanding officers a force able to move with the advance guard "to widen and repair roads and set up light timber bridges" (Duffy, Army of Maria Theresa). They were so useful the unit was more than doubled in size in 1759 but the unit was most unfortunately disbanded as part of the drastic economies of 1761-2.

Uniform: Plain black leather casquet. Black stock, hechtgrau coat and waistcoat with grass green collar, cuffs and turnbacks, white breeches. Yellow metal buttons, black gaiters.

Austrian Sapper

The Sapeur-Corps was raised in 1760 to provide a body of skilled labour for siege warfare and rapidly distinguished itself, notably at the siege of Schweidnitz in July 1760. It was again distinguished in the defence of Schweidnitz in 1762, where out of 24 sappers 10 were killed and 11 wounded. 3 officers were awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa, which Christopher Duffy says "must have been a record for a unit of this size" (Army of Maria Theresa, p.120).

Uniform: Black casquet with yellow lace and decorations, green and white cockade, red inner, white outer feather. Black stock. Hechtgrau (pike grey) coat, waistcoat and breeches, with carmine red cuffs and collar (and possibly red turnbacks pre-1762). Yellow metal buttons. Black gaiters with white inner stocking.

Uniform details from Duffy (various) and Albertina manuscript 1762.

Coming very soon...

Austrian sapper, pioneer and jäger templates.

Russian Artilleryman

A gunner of the Russian artillery, in red with black stock, collar, cuffs and turnbacks, red waistcoat, red breeches, black gaiters with white inner stocking, buff belt, copper buttons.

Pandour of Russian Pandour Regiment

This is the uniform of a pandour with a smaller badge on the cap. Uniform colours were otherwise exactly the same as those of the grenadiers.

Russian Grenadier of Pandour Regiment

The Russian pandour regiments wore uniforms similar to those of the Austrian pandours or Croats. The ordinary pandours wore a smaller plate of different design from that of the grenadiers. This article has useful information on their history, organisation and uniform: http://vial.jean.free.fr/new_npi/revues_npi/17_2000/npi_1700/17_russ_pan1.htm

Black felt cap with copper plate; black stock; black coat and dark green waistcoat with red lace, red cuffs on coat and copper buttons; red sash; red trousers. Black short boots were also worn (not visible here).

All hussar templates improved and modified 20.11.07

All the hussar templates (Prussian Regiments 2, 5 and 7) have now been slightly modified and improved. This does not apply to the colour versions which have not yet been updated.

SYW Prussian Hussar 3 - Regiment No. 5 the Black or Death Hussars

In contrast to the previous two colourful uniforms this is the all black uniformed 5th Hussars, with their notorious skull and crossbones badge on the front of the mirliton, a similar design to which survived as late as World War 1 on the furcap of German hussars. The mirliton is shown with its wing "unfurled".

Squadrons of this regiment fought on almost all fronts of the European theatre in the Seven Years War.

Again, the actual template is here: http://www.woodward.toucansurf.com/SYW/SYWPrussian5thHussarRegtBlackorDeath-DM1.png because of the problem with the blog increasing the size and colour depth of images over a certain size.

Monday 19th November: Image slightly modified and improved.

SYW Prussian Hussar 2 - Regiment No. 7 the Yellow Hussars in colour

SYW Prussian Hussar 2 - Regiment No. 7 the Yellow Hussars

This is a commoner variant of the Prussian hussar uniform with the mirliton cap rather than the fur cap.

Differences from the uniform of the 2nd include: black mirliton with white braid and lace, a yellow dolman, black fur on the pelisse, blue sabretache and yellow edge to the shabraque. Lacing is simpler and there is less of it - 12 rows on the dolman and pelisse rather than 18 and there is no frame around the lace on the dolman or pelisse.

Again, the template can be found here: http://www.woodward.toucansurf.com/SYW/SYWPrussian7thYellowHussar-DM1.png

SYW Prussian Hussar - Regiment No. 2 Von Zieten in colour

SYW Prussian Hussar - Regiment No. 2 Von Zieten

It's finished at last and I'm very relieved. The template is around twice the usual size, at 2000 pixels high, so that details of this complex uniform are not lost when converting the image to PNG from the original vector file.

From head to feet the colours of this uniform are: light brown fur cap, red bag, white cords; red dolman, white lace, white metal buttons, blue collar and cuffs, brown leather reinforcing patch on elbow; blue pelisse, white lace, white metal buttons, white fur trim; girdle mixed blue and white; breeches buff leather with blue over stocking with white edge; black boots. Sabretache red with white FR cipher and crown, white lace, brown leather base and straps. The shabraque was blue with red edging and white lace between.

Created in 1730, HR2 was at Prague, Kolin, Breslau, Leuthen, Zorndorf, Hochkirch, Kay, Kunersdorf, Liegnitz and Torgau.

N.B. Unfortunately uploading the 47k 256 colour PNG image results in a 550k 16.7m colour image on the blog - another instance of some bizarre conversion that takes place with files over a certain size when they are uploaded here. I don't know how to resolve this, except perhaps to host the actual hussar file somewhere else and put a link to it in this blog. Very, very annoying!

SO PLEASE NOTE: ACTUAL TEMPLATE IS HERE: http://www.woodward.toucansurf.com/SYW/SYWPrussianHussarRegt2VonZieten-DM1.png

Final new hussar preview

Well, it's been quite a slog but it's nearly finished - here is the final preview of the new hussar template, shown here as Prussian Regiment No.2 Von Zieten. As you can see, all that need to be done now are the sabretache straps and the fiddly hanging braid on the fur cap. This template will form the basis of a number of hussar variants but the devil is in the detail with hussar uniforms so it will not be as easy creating each variant as it is for most infantry uniforms.

SYW Russian Cavalry 2- Horse Grenadier

Russian horse grenadiers wore a uniform identical to that of the dragoons apart from the infantry-style grenadier cap with its copper front and the shabraque and pistol covers in pale yellow.

SYW Russian Cavalry 1- Dragoon

Another interim template as the hussar is still in progress - a Russian dragoon, in a uniform very similar to that of the infantry in style but in cornflower blue with red collar, cuffs, turnbacks and button lace. The breeches (which were leather) and the waistcoat were buff-coloured. The tricorne was black with white lace and white bow. All buttons were copper. The shabraque was cornflower blue and entirely plain for other ranks.

Swedish Dragoon SYW

The new hussar is taking a long time to finish, not least because for some days I've been rebuilding XP and reinstalling programs, a tedious and lengthy process. So, as an interim offering which took only a relatively short time to do, here is a Swedish dragoon of regiments 1, 2 or 3, with the distinguishing motif of the three crowns on the shabraque.

Hussar Progress 2

Another update - as you can see much of the uniform is done, with quite a lot of tweaking still to do, and the shabraque, sabretache and suspension straps still to be done.

For Jean-Louis and Stagonian Jeff :-)

Just a little jest! :-)

This is a preview of the new hussar template - all (ha ha) that now needs to be done is to add all the details for the Prussian 2nd Regiment. On the left can be seen part of the old hussar template.

Coming soon...

A hussar of Prussian regiment no.2 von Zieten. I know not many people wanted a new hussar (or hussars, as there are great differences in detail amongst SYW hussar uniforms) but I thought I'd please myself for a change (and the very few others who were also interested). :-)



The illustration above from the NYPL Digital Gallery shows the uniform of the 2nd with a hussar on the left and an officer on the right. It's a fiddly uniform to do so will take a while to finish but I now feel somewhat embarrassed by the relative crudeness of the generic hussar I first did so very rapidly. Little did I then suspect that I'd be turning out so many SYW templates in the next few months.

British in India 1 - Private, East India Company European Infantry

This is a typical uniform of the East India Company's Bengal, Madras and Bombay European infantry regiments.

Standard features were a red coat and black tricorne with white lace.