Swiss Mobilisation

Waiting for Russians!

Marching through the Russian forests

The 3rd Swiss are complete and ready to take the field.

Now, I could say lots of seemingly plausible things about how collecting vintage figures makes it next to impossible to reconstruct historic orders of battle, and that armies consisting of an eclectic mix of styles, nationalities and periods are more or less inevitable in a project such as this. However, nobody forced me to paint my DK Swiss as actual Swiss, and I certainly didn't have my arms twisted to paint French chasseurs and Dutch Grenadiers as Swiss either. So let's be honest: it was the spectacle I was after!

Having said that, Napoleon's Swiss regiments provided much more than just bling battalions. Although they had a somewhat mixed record in Spain, including the surrender of a couple of battalions to the Spanish at Baylen in 1808, in Russia they fought like tigers. On several occasions single Swiss regiments more than held their own against entire Russian divisions.

Enemy in sight!

As my French have now reached close-order parity with the Prussians, the logical choice for the next unit would be a French skirmisher battalion. However, I still don't have any cavalry. Completing Ian's cavalry has given me a bit more confidence in this area so perhaps the next post should be devoted to thundering hooves and flashing sabres. I'm very tempted to try some hussars, but this may be a little too ambitious!

WM

Form Square!

The 3rd Swiss will advance!

On a Swiss Roll

Swiss Fusiliers. But what to do next?

Now that Ian's cavalry are on their way back to Blighty, I've turned my attention back to the Swiss!

With only three main colours to worry about (Red, White and Black), they were very quick to paint.

The big decision now is whether to give them a fourth company of either grenadiers or voltigeurs. If I did both I'd be left with 6 DK 176's spare, which would be be a very inefficient use of the figures!

One to ponder......

Have a good one!

WM

Wrestling with Redcoats

DK 176: Swiss Line Infantry Battalion

Ian's second squadron of Prussian lancers are well under way, but I'm sorry to say they're not quite finished and would have been too late to take part in the spectacular fight which  has broken out at Mont Saint Jean in any case. As a result I've decided to post something that I started working on a few weeks ago when it seemed that Ian's cavalry were never going to arrive.

One of the things one quickly begins to accumulate when collecting vintage figures are various problem castings that it's difficult to know what to do with. In my case the worst example was a set of sixteen DK 176: Swiss Line Infantry. These rather promising figures had everything going for them except one thing - a complete lack of musket butts! What made this especially annoying was that they were just what I needed to go with Chuck's 1809 French standard bearer. Even more importantly, I wanted some redcoats!

After considering various options involving milliput and superglue, which didn't look very promising from a strength point of view, I decided there was nothing for it but to have a go at making some of my own using a soldering iron. I've never dared to do this before, but having consulted an expert (yes, that's you Roy), I equipped myself with some self-fluxing solder, a soldering iron, some micro-files and a pair of flat sided pliers. 

DK 176 with modifications!

The hardest part was to get a blob of solder attached that was long enough. However, once this was achieved a bit of pinching, cutting and filing was all that was needed to get the right shape. The result of my first attempt is in the next photograph.

The next thing I had to know, of course, was what Chuck's DK 7: French Line Infantry Command, Standard Bearer would look like standing next to him. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to squeeze the lettering onto this, but let's just say that it's a relief to know I won't be doing any more of these for a while!

DK 7: French Line Infantry Command, Standard Bearer

Well, one thing led to another, so pictured below him are the DK 7 drummer and charging officer figures needed to round off the command group. The drummer has been slightly modified to create the swallows nests favoured by the 3rd Swiss Regiment.

I chose the 3rd despite the fact that, "as any fule kno", almost all the depictions of the 3rd show they had the peculiar habit of wearing their pom poms slightly off-centre and wore their shako cords even more eccentrically. My excuse is that, as neither Marcus Hinton or Duke Siefried catered for such peculiarities, I didn't have any choice, and besides, not all the pictures of them show them like this! The truth, of course, is that I just couldn't resist their snazzy black facings and white piping.

Normal Prussian Lancer service will resume in the next post.

WM

DK 7: French Line Infantry Command, Drummer

DK 7: French Line Infantry Command, Officer, Charging