‘Imperial & Royal’: My 15mm Napoleonic Austrian Army (Part 2: Cavalry Regiments)

As mentioned last time, I’ve been badgered into posting up some pictures of my 15mm Napoleonic Austrian army.  As mentioned, they’re all AB Figures and I paint them with Humbrol Enamels.  Flags are by Fighting 15s.

I should also point out that these are just the units that have been painted since 2016; I did have a small Austrian army before that (Infantry Regts #2, #3, #4, #32 & #44, Chevauxleger Regt #1, Kürassier Regts #1 & #4, Hussar Regt #3 and Grenz Infantry Regt #13) but they’ve not been photographed and will have to be added later.

Anyway, here are the regular cavalry regiments:

Above: Kürassier Regiment #7 ‘Lothringen’.  I had originally intended to paint Kürassier Regiment #6 ‘Moritz Liechtenstein’, but unfortunately mis-read the uniform facing colour table and painted the wrong regiment… KR #6 had black facings, not blue… But what the heck… In 1809 KR #7 was fighting alongside KR #5, with the VII Korps in Polish Galicia.  Note that the Kürassiers displayed their facing colour on a patch either side of the collar, so from the rear the collar appears white; unlike the Dragoons and Chevauxlegers, who had fully-coloured collars.

Above:  Chevauxleger Regiment #3 ‘O’Reilly’.  This regiment was one of the white-coated Chevauxleger regiments (Regiments #1, #2 & #4 wore green coats, while #3, #5 & #6 wore white) and the only way to tell them apart from an identically-uniformed Dragoon regiment was the horse’s bridles, which in the case of Chevauxlegers had straps crossed to form an ‘X’ over the horse’s forehead.  The regiment had Poppy Red facings and yellow metal buttons.  One mistake I made with these was that the sheepskin shabraques had by 1809 standardised on black wool, but I referred to an earlier image and did them with white sheepskins (with only the officer having black).  At Aspern-Essling the regiment served with Provenchère’s Advance Guard Brigade for II Korps.  At Wagram the regiment had been transferred to Wartensleben’s Light Cavalry Brigade, in Nostitz’s Division of the Reserve Korps.

Above:  Chevauxleger Regiment #5 ‘Klenau’.  Again, this was one of the white-coated regiments and had light blue facings with yellow metal buttons.  At Aspern-Essling this regiment served in Vécsey’s Brigade, as part of Fresnel’s Division of I Korps.  At Wagram they were serving under Stutterheim, though still under the same division and corps.

Above:  Hussar Regiment #4 ‘Hessen-Homburg’.  This uniform is probably one of my favourite Napoleonic uniforms, probably due to the contrast between the bright blue shakos and the yellow and black cockades.  So good I photographed them three times.  They looked even more garish in their full dress of carmine breeches (see the print on the right), but sadly these are in grey campaign overalls.

It’s worth mentioning that the green pelisse jacket is really too deep a shade of green and should be more yellow, as per the print on the right.  The officer’s lace should also be silver not gold, as per the chap on the right… 🙁 That’ll teach me (yet again) for going by the Osprey book and not reading further before painting…  There has been a lot of academic froth thrown back and forth as to whether the uniform colour was ‘Parrot Green’ (‘Papaeiengrün’) or ‘Poplar Green’ (‘Paperlgrün’).  I’ve also seen the colour translated as ‘Sap Green’.  Of such matters are Napoleonic forum flame-wars deservedly regarded as a Centre of Excellence for internet bovine ordure…

This regiment was not present at Aspern-Essling, but at Wagram served with Vécsey’s Brigade of Nordmann’s Avantgarde Korps.

Note that Mr Barton intended for these figures to have their arms bent into more dynamic poses, which is what I’ve done here (VERY carefully…).  For example, the officer figure as cast is holding his sabre out straight to the side and the ‘flounders’ on his shako are similarly cast sticking straight out.  He is clearly meant to have his arm bent to the front and the flounders bent to a more realistic ‘flapping in the breeze’ position.  A few careful bends makes them look much more dynamic, I feel.

Above:  Hussar Regiment #10 ‘Stipsicz’.  This regiment had another striking colour scheme, this time of a light blue pelisse with grass green shako and yellow metal buttons.  Hussar Regiment #7 ‘Liechtenstein’ had an identical uniform, except they had white metal buttons and silver officers’ lace.  At Aspern-Essling this regiment served under Frelich’s Brigade of Klenau’s Division of IV Korps.  At Wagram they were still commanded by Frelich but had been assigned to Nordmann’s Avantgarde Korps.

Something else to note is that Mr Barton’s supreme modelling skills mean that each figure has a sprig of beautifully-modelled oak-leaves behind the cockade on his headgear (traditionally worn as a field sign by Austrian troops).  I like to paint these grass green, but then add a very light dry-brush of sandy-brown to pick out the details and make them look a bit more like dead leaves.

Above:  Uhlan Regiment #2 ‘Schwarzenberg’.  All four Austrian uhlan regiments wore the same uniform, which started out in the 1790s as ‘Grass Green’, then changing to ‘Steel Green’ and becoming ‘Dark Green’ by 1815.  I’m not sure which stage they were at in 1809, so I’ve played it safe by going for the ‘middle period’ of Steel Green.  Facings were Poppy Red with yellow metal buttons and a yellow & black girdle.  Regiments were identified by differently-coloured tops to their czapka caps.  Uhlan Regiment #2 had Grass Green as their distinguishing colour in the early period, but Dark Green later, so I’ve assumed that they matched the colour of the uniform (I’ve seen others do them with a bright grass green top, contrasting with a dark green uniform).  Uhlan Regiments #1, #3 and #4 had Emperor Yellow, Poppy Red and White respectively.  Note that some sources show the lance-pennants to have narrow opposing stripes of black and yellow in the centre (see the print on the right), but I went for the easy option of plain black over yellow, without the fiddly stripes.

At Aspern-Essling the regiment served in Hardegg’s Brigade of Klenau’s Division of IV Korps.  At Wagram they had transferred to Schneller’s Brigade of Vukassovich’s Division of III Korps.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  More to come.

This entry was posted in 15mm Figures, Napoleon's Battles (Rules), Napoleonic Austrian Army, Napoleonic Wars, Painted Units. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to ‘Imperial & Royal’: My 15mm Napoleonic Austrian Army (Part 2: Cavalry Regiments)

  1. Martin Radcliffe says:

    Excellent once more! Austrian cavalry were a gaudy bunch! Always liked the uhlans particularly.

    • jemima_fawr says:

      Cheers Martin! Yes, I think the Uhlans were my favourite unit in my mate Sidney’s army and I once did them in 25mm (foolishly disposed of when I joined the RAF).

  2. Martin Radcliffe says:

    I had the very same regiment in 25mm many years ago- when I still had the eyes and patience for Napoleonics!

    • jemima_fawr says:

      Yeah, but I had them by Warrior Miniatures… I was young, naïve, needed the money, slipped in the shower, etc… 🙁

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