7 new Royal Navy uniform templates very soon...

I've just completed a commission to produce seven new Royal Navy officers' uniform templates and the chap who commissioned them is happy to see them go on my blog. They are: Lieutenant, Junior Captain, Senior Captain, and Flag Officer in waistcoat; Senior Captain and Flag Officer in dress uniform; and Flag Officer in undress uniform. Some of these are very elaborate and impressive. As usual, there'll be colour and blank templates for each uniform. Watch this space!

Colours of French Languedoc Infantry Regiment - French infantry in Canada series No.5

 

First raised 1672, the 2 battalion infantry regiment Languedoc supplied its 2nd battalion for the war in Canada. It arrived in 1755, although 4 companies were captured at sea by the British. It was at the defeat at Fort George 1755; the capture of Fort William Henry 1757; the French victory of Ticonderoga 1758; the siege of Quebec and battles of Montmorency and the Plains of Abraham; the French victory of Sainte Foy and the siege of Quebec 1760; and finally the retreat to and surrender at Montreal 8th September 1760. Only the ordonnance flag was carried in Canada and was burned before the surrender at Montreal but the colonel's colour is shown here for completeness.

We're getting close to the complete set of infantry colours of French regular battalions in Canada - only a few to go now...

Colours of French La Sarre Infantry Regiment - French infantry in Canada series No.4

 

 

First raised 1651, the 2 battalion infantry regiment La Sarre supplied its 2nd battalion for the war in Canada. It arrived in 1756 as part of the convoy carrying the new commander Montcalm. It was at the capture of Oswego 1756; the capture of Fort William Henry 1757; the French victory of Ticonderoga 1758; the siege of Quebec and battles of Montmorency and the Plains of Abraham; elements surrendered at Fort Niagara 1759; was at the French victory of Sainte Foy and the siege of Quebec 1760; and finally the retreat to and surrender at Montreal 8th September 1760. Only the ordonnance flag was carried in Canada and was burned before the surrender at Montreal but the colonel's colour is shown here for completeness.

Colours of French Guyenne Infantry Regiment - French infantry in Canada series No.3

 

 

First raised 1674, the 2 battalion infantry regiment Guyenne supplied its 2nd battalion for the war in Canada. It had a busy war; it was at the capture of Oswego 1756; the capture of Fort William Henry 1757; the French victory of Ticonderoga 1758; the siege of Quebec and battles of Montmorency and the Plains of Abraham; elements surrendered at Fort Niagara 1759; the French victory of Sainte Foy and the siege of Quebec 1760; the battle and retreat from Isle aux Noix; and finally the retreat to and surrender at Montreal 8th September 1760. Only the ordonnance flag was carried in Canada and was burned before the surrender at Montreal but the colonel's colour is shown here for completeness.

I'm currently redoing the French infantry uniform template as the current one is old, crude and rather worn out. :-)

Flags of French Royal Roussillon Infantry Regiment - French infantry in Canada series No.2

The 1st Battalion of Royal Roussilllon served in Canada from 1756-1760. The golden lilies signify a Royal regiment. Of the 2 drapeaux d'ordonnance (the upper colour) carried by this regiment in Canada, one is supposed to have been captured by the British 35th Foot at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on 13th September 1759 and the other was burned before the surrender of Montreal on the 8th September 1760. More information on Kronoskaf here: http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Royal_Roussillon_Infanterie

Colours of French La Reine Infantry Regiment - French infantry in Canada series No.1

 

 

The second battalion of La Reine in Canada carried the battalion colours (the upper colour) from 1755 until the 8th September 1760 "when General Levis ordered the colours to be burnt following the British refusal to grant the Honours of War as part of the terms of capitulation" (René Chartrand, "The French Soldier in Colonial America"). Dashed unsporting and ungentlemanly! (Of the British, that is... ;-))

Apparently only the single battalion regiment Angoumois carried its white colonel's colour in North America during the Seven Years War; the rest of the regular infantry carried only the regimental or battalion colours (drapeaux d'ordonnance).

Unfortunately the blog does not allow me to post these flags as a vector file, which would be both a smaller file size and much more crisp and detailed.

42nd Highlanders' Grenadier with tartan pattern

I shall eventually get round to a coloured version when I'm less sober but for now here's the long-awaited version of this template with outline tartan. It's larger than the normal template as otherwise the complex pattern of the tartan will not show.

The tartan pattern was a commission for Moshe a while ago.

Stylish Blogger Award

Three people, all with splendid blogs, Fabrizio Davi (http://torgauproject.blogspot.com/), Dave of Golconda (http://golcondarising.blogspot.com/) and Lluis of Catalonia (http://what-if-catalonia.blogspot.com/) have kindly nominated my blog for the Stylish Blogger Award. I do appreciate it as recognition is always enjoyable, although I also share some of the misgivings about the Award expressed by e.g. Fitzbadger and Cardinal Hawkwood. So I shall cheat, I'm afraid, and not list seven things about myself, nor nominate 10-15 other blogs worthy of the award as those I would nominate have all, I think, been nominated already! My apologies if anyone feels I have not really entered into the spirit of the thing...

WSS Cuirassier in tricorne

I was planning this eventually anyway but Jean-Louis has asked for it on the TMP 18th Century forum so here it is, rather sooner than planned!

Early 18th Century European Cuirassier

This is the classic uniform of the European cuirassier, which survived almost unchanged for a century or more from the early 17th century in the armies of a number of European nations, and was used by the Austrian cavalry specifically for fighting the Turks until the late 18th century. The zischagge-style of lobster pot helmet was Eastern European, with its extensive fluting on the bowl and the single bar adjustable nose guard. The coat was usually thick buff leather throughout the 17th century but was gradually replaced with a cloth coat in the 18th century. The heavy back and breastplate, painted black to prevent rust, was usually at least pistol proof. Breeches were often leather in the earlier period but like the buff coat were often later replaced with cloth.

The coloured version represents the Bavarian Horse Regiment Salburg Widel at the time of the War of the Spanish Succession.

This template is an adaptation of a simpler one I did as a commission for Moshe some time ago.

Recently finished design for Golconda

Here's a snapshot of a commission I've recently finished for Golconda; see: http://golcondarising.blogspot.com/ It's an excellent and fascinating blog on wargaming all things Indian in the 18th century.

I think the exotic talwar came out pretty well... :-)

Typical British Sailor c.1750

This is the typical Sunday-best dress of a British sailor of around 1750. In the days before any official uniform for ordinary sailors a sort of uniform was produced by each ship having clothing issued by the ship's purser - so-called "purser's slops". The blue jacket without tails has the classic three-button opening cuff. The mustard coloured waistcoat would often have the addition of gold or silver lace if the sailor had won some prize money and if that were so his black leather buckled shoes would also possibly acquire silver or gilt buckles. Breeches and stockings were often worn as an alternative to the loose trousers. The small flat tricorne was typical working class wear and it was sometimes aped by young men of the upper classes. When out walking in the town a sailor would often carry a cudgel or cudgel-like walking stick.

Not Quite SYW But - Napoleonic British Sailor in his Sunday best

Another commission from some time ago by Moshe, to whom again thanks for permission to upload it here, this is a template of the typical "full dress" Sunday best of a British Napoleonic sailor; there was no prescribed uniform until well into the 19th century but British sailors did tend to wear rather similar clothes, partly because many of them were "slop", acquired from the ship's purser.

I hope to get round to a template for a genuine 18th century sailor before too long but in the meantime someone may find a use for this.

Royal Navy Lieutenant, Full Dress

Another of the templates commissioned by Moshe, this is the full dress uniform of a British naval lieutenant from 1748 onwards.

Thanks to Moshe for letting me offer this for general use.

More elements for ImagiNations mapping

I'm sorry it has been so long since I last posted. Ill-health and other Real Life issues have got in the way. I thought these might be of use to someone as they've been sitting on my computer for nearly 2 years now and I may as well offer them for use rather than let them sit gathering cyberdust any longer. I can export them as an SVG file so anyone can use Inkscape (or other vector editor) to resize them, edit them or export them in other formats to use as they wish on their ImagiNations' maps. They're pretty self-explanatory - symbols of various features like 4 and 5 sided sconces or earthwork forts and a number of walled cities drawn after 18th century maps.

As with the uniform templates (see the copyright notice on the left of this page), I'm offering them free to use but retain the copyright and they must not be sold or used in any profit-making enterprise without my permission

If anyone would like the SVG file, please leave a message in the comments with your (disguised) email address and I'll email it to you.

Happy Christmas and New Year to All - and another Regiment Nikolaus

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.

The template above is actually one I posted a long time ago and it turns out that the regiment did in fact eventually become Regiment Nikolaus (but King, not Saint... ;-)). The colours of this drummer of the regiment are certainly right for the more recent version of Santa or his helpers - red and white.

Royal Navy Midshipman, full dress

This is another of the 1748-pattern British Royal Navy uniforms. Around 1758 a white collar patch with button and twist loop was introduced. For daily wear aboard ship a much less formal dress was worn, often more or less the same as the slops worn by the crew.

Thanks to Moshe again, as this was another of the templates I designed for him.

Royal Navy Captain, undress uniform

Until 1748 there was no regulation uniform for the Royal Navy and officers wore whatever they wished. In that year the first regulations for officers' uniforms were laid down, after a petition to the Admiralty in 1746 for a regulation uniform by officers who wished to be identified as officers in the Royal Navy and to be assured of the respect due to those in the service of the Crown. Regulation clothing for ratings was introduced only in 1857 but since at least the early 18th century a sort of uniform was produced by the supply of purser's "slops", mass-produced ready made clothing that sailors could buy from the ship's purser.

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.

Order of the Golden Lion of Katzenstein

With the blessing of Reich Duke Wilhelm of Beerstein, David Linienblatt has produced a crisper and clearer version of the star of the Order of the Golden Lion of Katzenstein, which is offered here to those recipients of the Order who would like a new version for their blogs.

Trooper, Saxon Garde du Corps 1756

According to Johannes Eichhorn and Eberhard Boltze (details differ slightly). Text to follow sometime...

French infantry officer in summer campaign dress, North America

Wearing a gold-laced waistcoat with brown leather dragoon-style bottines, plush breeches and the gorget marking his rank, this officer is from one of the red waistcoated French regiments in North America like La Sarre, Guyenne or Bearn.

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...

French Line Infantry North America, Summer Campaign Dress - Other Ranks

Text to follow soon plus more French in summer campaign dress...

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.

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.