The Next Templates...

Well, unless the Poll changes dramatically in the next 24 hours it looks as if the French are well ahead. (That fits rather well with my plans anyway! :-)) Next is the Reichsarmee.

So, the plan will probably be first to do variants on the basic French infantry uniform; someone would like versions of the uniforms worn by the French regiments in North America for a web article which has already used my single French infantry template http://www.immortels.fr/spip.php?article89 so I shall do those units as they make a good small and varied selection. Then I shall probably do some foreign units in French service - German and Swiss regiments, especially, as well as Grenadiers de France. That should keep me busy for a while!

For the Reichsarmee, I shall probably draw a selection of the best infantry regiments as identified by Soubise in 1757 (in Duffy, Prussia's Glory), otherwise there are simply too many from which to choose.

I haven't looked thoroughly into the SYW in India yet but do have some good material for it. It will be some weeks yet before I get there...

Prussian Grenadier IR12 or 18 with black eagle on mitre cap

Four Prussian regiments had a black eagle of some sort on the mitre cap - IRs 3, 11, 12 and 18. The variant here represents Regiment 12 or 18. The other two regiments had much smaller black eagles on the mitre front and different lacing on the coat.

Problems with Polls

There's a problem with Polls on Blogger at the moment so I had to use a workaround to delete the Poll on numbers of templates downloaded. My apologies to the one person who managed to vote; I have noted what the vote was!

3rd Russian Infantryman - Grenadier

The unusual grenadier cap was introduced in 1752 and changed for a more conventional mitre cap in 1763. The civic arms were carried on the front of the grenadier cap and also on the cartridge pouch carried at the waist.

2nd Russian Infantryman - Musketeer of the Observation Corps

The Observation Corps was a sort of "private army" (Duffy) set up by Shuvalov in 1756 in Poland, with a super-large grenadier regiment and a great deal of artillery. In the event it performed rather badly at Kunersdorf and was eventually absorbed into the main Russian army. The uniform differed from that of the regular army only in the wearing of cavalry boots by all ranks.

1st Russian Infantryman - Musketeer

And here is the first Russian infantryman - a musketeer. The Russians had an unusually simple standardised uniform in almost every branch of the army, with each regiment distinguished only by its regional badge. The uniform was also rather old fashioned by the standards of the Seven Years War, with a rather more generous cut as seen, for example, in the more ample skirts of the waistcoat.

After the Russians...

The improved hussar template drew so few votes in the previous poll that I was rather wondering what people might actually like done after the Russian infantry. I make no promises that I will actually do what people request (that way madness really does lie! ;-)) but I will take serious note of popular options. So - start suggesting! :-) (And no, I don't really feel like branching out into civilians at the moment, before anyone mentions it...)

3rd Highlander - Grenadier of the 42nd Foot (Black Watch)

As the title says! This type of fur cap was a development of the mitre cap - early examples were in fact mitre caps with fur added until eventually the fur covered the entire cap except (as here) for the front flap.

Russian infantry coming next!

2nd Highlander - Private of the 42nd Foot (Black Watch)

Unlike the short-lived Fraser's Highlanders, the Black Watch lasted as a regiment from 1740 until March 2006, when it became a battalion in a larger Scottish regiment under army reorganisation. It is one of the most famous units in the British army. As with most British units of the period the uniform had a complex lace, with small threads of different colour, which are almost impossible to represent in a drawing made into a low-resolution bitmap like this. Next will be a grenadier of the Black Watch with the fur cap which was adopted by grenadiers throughout the army in 1768.

1st Highlander - Private of the 78th Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) 1757-1763

And here it is at last - the first highlander template. It's a rather simple but quite elegant uniform, with little decoration. This regiment was short-lived and served exclusively in North America, where kilts were generally quickly changed for breeches and canvas gaiters. This is the feileadh beag or little kilt worn in the field and as worn today, not the full or belted plaid, the breacan-an-feileadh. As requested, I have left off the tartan pattern but will probably try drawing it at some point.

Highlanders later this week

Thanks to everyone who voted in the Poll about the highlanders and posted comments. I shall do all 3 but also get started on the Russians ASAP. I've been away for some days hence the absence of any posting since the middle of last week. I'm very busy until late Wednesday but then I should have some time to do the highlanders. As a number of people seemed happy to have them without the tartan I shall be able to speed up the drawing by omitting it. I may try doing it later though, as I quite like a challenge when I'm in the mood! ;-)

Highlander delayed, sadly...

I had hoped to finish the (first or possibly only) highlander and post him this week but too much is happening, I'm afraid, so it will be next week that he appears. Doing the tartan pattern on the kilt is going to be really entertaining (not)! I'll probably do him with the cut-down kilt worn on campaign and not have all that tartan drapery attached to the left shoulder that so many prints show. Otherwise I think instant insanity would follow from trying to draw the tartan round all the curves involved. Or should I simply draw the shape of the kilt and leave the tartan out entirely? That way, it would be done far more quickly and people could then have the fun of drawing their own tartan from scratch. :-) I'll be interested to see if I get any responses to that question!

I had also thought of doing 3 variants: 1) A highlander of the 78th Fraser's Highlanders and 2,3) a grenadier and private soldier of the 42nd Highlanders (with a much more complex uniform than the the 78th's). Any feelings on that? If I get no or little response, I'll probably just do the simpler 78th uniform. In fact, I think I'll post a poll on it! :-)

New Blog for Freistadt Tippelbruder

I've decided it's probably best to separate the templates from the politics and goings-on with Tippelbruder; it's here: http://freistadttippelbruder.blogspot.com/ I don't want to confuse my visitors here too much!

Saxon Grenadier of the Leibgrenadier-Garde Early SYW Uniform

And here is the early version of the Leibgrenadier-Garde uniform, with the extra lace on the lapels and cuffs, as shown in e.g. Pengel and Hurt. The style of the waistcoat is unclear so I have kept the more complex lapelled waistcoat as on the other templates. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, please let me know!

Saxon Grenadier of the Leibgrenadier-Garde Late SYW Uniform

This is the first of 2 variants of the red Saxon Leibgrenadier-Garde uniform, after Wolfgang Friedrich, Die Uniformen der Kurfürstlich Sächsischen Armee 1683-1763 1998. It appears to be a much simplified version of the early uniform, which had much more lace. The early uniform will be the next template.

Alternative Saxon Infantry Uniform

Here is an alternative interpretation of the "standard" SYW Saxon infantry uniform, without collar, with a different cuff style and with hat lace as shown in e.g. Mollo "Uniforms of the Seven Years War".

Second Saxon Infantryman - Grenadier 1756-7

This Saxon grenadier of 1756-7 is wearing the later Prussian-style mitre cap; earlier grenadiers wore a low cap very like that of the Prussian fusiliers. Apparently the Prussian fusilier design was taken from the earlier Saxon grenadier style so both were filching from each other! After 1757 Saxon grenadiers abandoned the grenadier mitre and reportedly wore white lace on the tricorne to distinguish them from the musketeers.

First Saxon Infantryman - Regiment Prince Friedrich 1760

The Saxons won the Poll and so here is the first of the Saxon Infantry. There seems some dispute about many of the details of Saxon uniform; here (specifically for a musketeer of the Regiment Prince Friedrich 1760 serving with the French army) I have followed Wolfgang Friedrich's 1998 work, Die Uniformen der Kurfürstlich Sächsischen Armee 1683-1763. I can also fairly easily do variants that cover the other interpretations of the Saxon uniform. Major differences in my sources are in the buttons on the cuffs, the collar and the lace on the hat. If anyone has definitive information, please let me know and refer me to your source.

War approaches...

As war looms large over Tippelbruder, offers of help have flooded in from others opposed to the tyranny of Stagonia. Both the Soweiter League and Hesse-Engelburg have pledged troops to defend the town and we await details of the troops which Saxe-Bearstein will be able to commit to the impending conflict. At a tense meeting of the Town Council of Tippelbruder last night all present vowed to resist the tyranny of Stagonia, should the present animosity escalate into war, as most fear it will. The general council were addressed by the great orator and patriot (and pie shop proprietor) Herr Adolf Flegelruck whose stirring speech concluded: "We shall fight them in the forests, we shall fight them on the lakesides, we shall fight them in the streets. We shall never surrender!" The meeting concluded at 9.35 and refreshments were served in the Council Chamber.

Trunkenbold Freikorps

The staff artist with the Tippelbruder Allgemeine Zeitung has produced this drawing of the uniforms of the Trunkenbold Freikorps, so that all citizens meeting them in the woods or the local alehouses can recognise them and make them welcome with friendly words and offers of food and drink.

P.S. Lock up your daughters...

Heightened tension in Tippelbruder

From the Tippelbruder Allgemeine Zeitung, 1st August 1757: "Sabre rattling and threats from the court of Stagonia over alleged insults to their king Maurice by that upright and noble citizen David Linienblatt have led to a state of high alert in Tippelbruder. The Town Watch are now manning barricades at all entrances to the town, the drawbridges are routinely kept raised (despite protests from many merchants who are feeling most inconvenienced), and muskets and cannon have been issued from the town armoury to the town militia for the first time in over 30 years. It is believed that the Freikorps of Count Hans Trunkenbold von Misthaufen is spending the summer in the woods around Tippelbruder, allegedly for the sake of their health; this may be only a coincidence but it is public knowledge that the Count is cousin to David Linienblatt and their presence, as well as a promise of aid from Saxe-Bearstein in the event of hostilities, is helping to maintain good morale and public order in the town."

And the winner of the Poll is...

Saxon Infantry! It's a surprising winner but as it's only a matter of time before the others are done too everyone who cast a vote will ultimately be happy, I hope. Next will be the Highlander followed by the Russians and trailing in at the very end of the field, the hussar. So, the plan is to do 1 or 2 Saxons this week and the Highlander next; we can then see how long things take to develop in the real world of making templates and not having much time to do it! The Highlander will be an entirely new template so will of course take longer to do. Thank you to everyone who voted; it was a near run thing (apart from the poor hussar, who will now crawl off to some lowly dive in Gin Alley to get monumentally blitzo...).

SYW Hanoverian Horse Grenadier 1763-style

After many trials and tribulations, here is a Hanoverian Horse Grenadier. It is a slight cheat, as it is in fact the uniform worn from 1763 onwards by the combined Horse Grenadier unit created by the amalgamation of the old guards cavalry units, and is not the early Seven Years War uniform. I finally had to admit defeat on the zigzag pattern on the shabraque of the early uniform, which I simply could not get to look right after much struggle. It is amazing how tricky some of these patterns can be to get right.

There does seem to be some dispute about the uniform worn by the earlier Horse Grenadiers; the contemporary illustration in Niemeyer and Ortenburg depicts a uniform without lace around cuffs, lapels and buttonholes for the early uniform, whereas in Mollo's SYW uniforms book or in e.g. Preben Kannik's "Military Uniforms of the World in Colour" the early uniform is shown with the lace.

Hopefully Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein will now be happy!

All templates now updated to 256 colours

And all future templates will, of course, start as 256 colours! Now that's out of the way, I can hopefully do some more creative work and finish the Hanoverian Horse Grenadier.

With the newer versions of the images with their 256 colour palettes dropping them into a graphics program and colouring them in should be easier. I've found that one of the easiest and most intuitive programs is the free version of Graphics Gale http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/download.html where if you load one of my templates into it it clearly shows you the entire range of 256 colours available and, using the fill tool, you can easily select a colour and fill the required area. Quite a number of graphics programs I personally find *very* unintuitive to use, especially with my templates.

SYW Hanoverian Dragoons Template 2 - 256 colours