Jemima Fawr's Miniature Wargames Blog

As ponderous as an Austrian army corps on campaign, this series is finally trudging to it’s destination and the loyal camp followers can finally… do whatever it is that camp followers do…

For this last instalment I’m looking at the Grenadier Battalions of the Austrian Army of 1809.  Again, all models are by AB Figures and the flags are by Fighting 15s.

In peacetime, each Austrian infantry regiment would raise two companies of Grenadiers, which in wartime would be split off and combined with the grenadiers of one or two other regiments to form a Grenadier Battalion.  Most battalions were formed from three regiments and comprised six grenadier companies.  A few however, were only formed of two contingents, with a total strength of four companies.  Grenadier Battalions normally stayed together for the duration of a campaign before being split up again at the end of hostilities.  They were known by the name of their commanding officer.

Here is the list of Grenadier Battalions for 1809.  The name of the battalion would change in line with new commanding officers, so the name changes are marked (e.g. ‘Hohenlohe/Hromada’ means that the battalion started the campaign as Grenadier Battalion ‘Hohenlohe’ but ended the campaign as Grenadier Battalion ‘Hromada’).  The regimental contingents making up the battalion are listed in brackets.  Regiments marked ‘(H)’ are Hungarian:

Grenadier Battalions Serving With the Main Army in the Danube Valley

Nissel/Berger (#15 ‘Zach’, #28 ‘Frelich’, #57 ‘Joseph Colloredo’)
Bissingen (#3 ‘Archduke Charles’, #50 ‘Stain’, #58 ‘Beaulieu’)
Brzeczinksy (#24 ‘Strauch’, #30 ‘De Ligne’, #41 ‘Kottulinsky’)
Cappy/Oklopsia (#12 ‘Manfredini’, #20 ‘Kaunitz’, #23 ‘Würzburg’)
Stark/Demontant (#7 ‘Schröder’, #18 ‘Stuart’, #21 ‘Rohan’)
Hohenlohe/Hromada (#1 ‘Kaiser’, #29 ‘Lindenau’, 38 ‘Württemberg’)
Peccaduc/Legrand (#9 ‘Czartorysky’, #55 ‘Reuss-Greitz’, #56 ‘Wenzel Colloredo’)
Wieniowsky/Frisch (#10 ‘Mittrowsky’, #11 ‘Rainer’, #47 ‘Vogelsang’)
Georgy (#17 ‘Reuss-Plauen’, #36 ‘Kollowrath’, #42 ‘Erbach’)
Hauger/Portner (#40 Joseph Mittrowsky’, #44 ‘Bellegarde’, #46 ‘Chasteler’)
Puteani/Jambline (#14 ‘Klebek’, #45 ‘Devaux’, #49 ‘Jordis’)
Leiningen (#25 ‘Zedtwitz’, #35 ‘Argentau’, #54 ‘Froon’)
Mayblümel/Trenck/Locher (#8 ‘Archduke Ludwig’, #22 ‘Koburg’, #60(H) ‘Gyulai’)
Scovaud (#4 ‘Hoch-und-Deutschmeister’, #49 ‘Kerpen’, #63 ‘Baillet-Merlemont’)
Hahn/Habinay (#2(H) ‘Hiller’, #33(H) ‘Sztarray’, #39(H) ‘Duka’)
Kirchenbetter (#34(H) ‘Davidovich’, #37(H) ‘Weidenfeld’, #48(H) ‘Vukassovich’)
Scharlach/Purcell (#31(H) ‘Benjowsky’, #32(H) ‘Esterházy’, #51(H) ‘Splényi’)

Grenadier Battalions Serving In Italy & Hungary

Albeck/Chimany (#13 ‘Reisky’, #43 ‘Simbschen’)
Salomon/Welsperg (#16 ‘Lusignan’. #26 ‘Hohenlohe-Bartenstein’, #27 ‘Strassoldo’)
Janusch/Gersanich (#19(H) ‘Alvinczy’, #52(H) Franz Karl, #61(H) ‘St. Julien’)
Mühlen/Zedtlar (#53(H) ‘Johann Jellachich’, #62(H) ‘Franz Jellachich’)

Above:  Grenadier Battalion ‘Bissingen’.  This battalion was made up of grenadiers from Infantry Regiments #3 ‘Archduke Charles’ (sky blue facings), #50 ‘Stain (violet facings) and #58 ‘Beaulieu’ (black facings).  As each of my units represents an entire brigade, I have chosen this battalion to represent Hammer’s Grenadier Brigade of D’Aspré’s Division.

I have to admit that I wasn’t over-enamoured with these charging poses and there was no suitable standard-bearer, so I had to convert one of the rank-and-file for the job.  After painting this unit I bought marching poses for the remaining three brigades.

Above:  Grenadier Battalion ‘Brzeczinsky’.  This battalion represents Merville’s Grenadier Brigade of D’Aspré’s Division and was made up of contingents from Infantry Regiments #24 ‘Strauch’ (dark blue facings), #30 ‘De Ligne’ (light pike grey facings) and #41 ‘Kottulinsky’ (sulphur yellow facings).

Note that each combined grenadier battalion would be issued with a spare Ordinährfahne flag for the duration of its existence in wartime.  As discussed in Part 1 of this series, Grenadier battalions only carried a white Leibfahne during a very brief period from 1805-1806 (i.e. the Austerlitz Campaign), when they briefly became the 1st (Leib) Battalion of each infantry regiment.  These reorganisations were cancelled in 1806 and the Grenadiers reverted to their earlier status.  AB Figures don’t make a marching German Grenadier standard-bearer figure, so I simply use the Hungarian Grenadier standard-bearer figure and paint on white breeches and black gaiters instead of sky-blue pantaloons – easy. 🙂

Above:  Grenadier Battalion ‘Frisch’.  This battalion represents Melgum’s Grenadier Brigade of Prochaszka’s Division.  The battalion comprised contingents from Infantry Regiments #10 ‘Mittrowsky’ (parrot/poplar green facings), #11 ‘Rainer’ (rose pink facings) and #47 ‘Vogelsang’ (steel green facings).

Above:  Grenadier Battalion ‘Hahn’.  This battalion represents Steyrer’s Grenadier Brigade from Prochaszka’s Division.  The battalion was made up of grenadiers from Infantry Regiments #2 ‘Hiller’ (Emperor yellow facings), #33 ‘Sztarray’ (dark blue facings) and #39 ‘Duka’ (poppy red facings).  These were all Hungarian regiments, so the troops are wearing their tight sky-blue Hungarian pantaloons, have pointed Hungarian cuffs and the battalion has a Hungarian-pattern Ordinärfahne, with the Arms of Hungary at the centre.

Right that’s it for now!  There will be more Austrians later this week, in my report from our weekend refight of Massena’s counter-Attack at Wagram.  In the meantime, here’s another Hungarian general I painted yesterday; I had a sudden brainwave and used the AB Figures ‘Prussian Hussar ADC’ figure, as his panache-style feather plume looked just the job!  I decided to paint him wearing the campaign-dress pike-grey pelisse and I have to say that I’m very pleased with how he came out (sorry for the poor lighting).

Once in a while, a you find a blog post that gives you that ‘Eureka!’ moment and gives you a whole new perspective on the hobby…

This probably isn’t it.  It’s just another post about my Austrians…

Again, all models are by AB Figures.

Above:  Archduke Charles and friends.  I actually painted these about 20 years ago, and got a few things wrong.  Firstly, I painted Archduke Charles’ collar red, edged gold, like the cuffs.  However, in the field Austrian generals seem to have worn a plainer tunic with a plain white collar, such as that worn in the portrait of Archduke Charles on the right.

Secondly, I painted one of his friends as a general, with red breeches.  However, he lacks the green cockerel-feather plume of a generals, so should really be painted as a more junior staff officer or regimental officer.  The chap at the back in a covered hat and dark pike grey frock-coat could be either a general or a staff officer.

Above:  A close-up of the two officers at the back.  I do like the officer figure in the covered hat, as he’s very useful and in my collection has also been used as a British officer on Wellington’s staff.  He could equally be a senior officer or general of almost any nation of the period.

 Above:  Two Austrian corps commanders and a Hungarian divisional commander.  The chap on the left, wearing the white cloak represents Nordmann, commander of the Avantgarde Korps in 1809, which was actually just a very strong division, so I’ve only given him one escorting figure, namely a trumpeter of Hussar Regiment #3 ‘Erzherzog Ferdinand’ (identified by the dark blue pelisse and grey shako).

The officer on the right is wearing a ‘field service’ version of the Hungarian General Officers’ uniform.  This comprised a red dolman and breeches and white pelisse edged with black fur, all heavily laced with gold.  A pike grey pelisse and grey overall trousers could also be worn in the field (I’ve gone with the grey trousers, but left the pelisse white).  Headgear was a heavily-decorated shako with green cockerel-feather plume (upright white egret plumes are also recorded, but probably unofficial.  The central figure in the print at the top of this article is a Hungarian general.

Lacking a suitable figure with cockerel-feather plume, I’ve just used an Austrian hussar officer figure in the appropriate colours.  However, I’ve just noticed that the AB Figures Prussian Hussar ADC figure would be perfect as a Hungarian general with that style of plume, so will paint one this weekend.  A fur colpack (busby) could also be worn in parade order and there are examples of these being worn without plumes so a British or French hussar officer figure could also be used.

The general in the centre is escorted by the ubiquitous officer in covered hat and frock-coat and a ‘Staff Dragoon’.  The Staff Dragoons provided commanders with escorts, scouts and gallopers and went through a number of uniform-changes throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, from dark blue coats to bright blue, back to dark blue, to green and finally in 1809 to white coats.  Mine is an 1809 army, so I’ve painted him in a white coat.  However, I foolishly believed someone who told me that the facing colour was ‘Crab Red’ (a distinctly orange shade).  I’ve since discovered that he’d confused Crab Red (Krebsrot) with Madder Red (Krapprot).  Madder is a dark red shade.  Ah well…

It seems to me that most other wargamers paint their Staff Dragoons in blue or green uniforms for 1809, but here’s what Dave Hollins has to say about their uniforms (extracted from a web discussion):

Staff Dragoon Uniforms

“The 1778-9 unit wore a dark blue tunic faced poppy red (ponceaurot) with yellow buttons and the same was used in 1790, except the jackets were supposed to be bright blue (hellblau) in 1790 before reverting to dark blue in 1791 (in reality they were probably dark blue the whole time time).

From 1792 they wore a grass green or dark green uniform with black facings (yellow buttons changed to white in 1794).

In 1798 the existing Staff Dragoons became the 9th Light Dragoon Regiment, so a new Staff Dragoon unit was raised from drafted in from various cavalry units. They were supposed to be kitted out in dark blue tunics (probably old ones recut to the 98 pattern) , but an HKR order of 1799 puts them in the pike grey (hechtgrau) jackets faced madder red (krapprot) with yellow buttons.

In 1805, the uniform was pike grey with madder red facings and white buttons with Hussar saddles.

In 1809, they had white tunics with madder red facings and collars, but white turnbacks and Chevauxleger saddles. An official order acknowledged that the allocated men could only be supplied with madder red material for the facings/cuffs (they seem to be a mix of men taken from the Dragoons and Chevauxlegers).”

Above:  Another group of generals.  In Napoleon’s Battles, a divisional commander is represented by a single figure on a 25mm square base.  I’ll often use mounted colonels as well as general officer figures, just to vary things a bit, but here I’ve got some pukka generals, including that Archduke Charles figure again.  The general in the centre is wearing campaign rig of overall trousers with a dark pike grey frock-coat, though still wears his cockerel-feather plume and tops it off with the red-white-red sash of the Order of Maria-Theresa.

For officers’ waist-sashes, I normally painted them in non-metallic paints, as gold or silver cloth generally doesn’t look all that metallic in real life.  On my RAF No.5 Mess Dress I’ve got 9-carat gold lace rank-rings around the cuffs, but from more than 5 yards away, they look little different to the cheap yellow nylon version.  Consequently, I normally paint Austrian officers’ waist-sashes yellow rather than gold (and similarly, I do Prussian and Russian sashes white instead of silver), as I think it looks a lot better.  However, for generals I paint them in metallic colours to make them look a bit richer.

The officer in the centre is escorted by an officer and mounted NCO of the Staff Infantry Battalion.  These chaps did much the same job as the Staff Dragoons, but presumably more in a ‘camp’ capacity, rather than galloping around in the field.  However, I made the same mistake re colours as with the Staff Dragoon above; the facings should be Madder Red rather than Crab Red.  The turn-backs should also be white rather than coloured.  Here’s what Dave Hollins has to say about them:

Staff Infantry Uniforms

“From 1792 to 1801, they had a white uniform with no facings and just yellow buttons, although the officer had pompadour red facings and cuffs.

In 1805, they are quite similar to the cavalry – pike grey tunic with madder red facings and yellow buttons.

In 1809, the Staff infantry were drawn from the Grenzkordon (that’s the border guards all around the empire), who wore a white uniform with black facings and no colour on the turnbacks.  They just changed the black cuffs and collars for madder red.  Headgear was a shako.”

Above:  I’ve got stacks of Austrian artillery, but this is the only photo.  They all look much the same though, so it doesn’t really matter!  These are Cavalry Artillery, so I’ve put three figures on each base – I put four on the base for Foot Artillery.  It makes no difference in game terms, but does help to identify the different types, as the uniform for both Foot and Cavalry Artillery was identical.  If you look closely, you will notice that the 6pdr guns have the leather padded ‘sausage’ (wurst) attached to the trail, which the gunners would ride.

The shade of brown used for the Austrian artillery uniform got steadily darker from the 18th into the 19th Century.  At the time of the Severn Years War it was quite a light grey-brown and by the middle of the 19th Century it was a dark coffee-brown, like that of the Grenzer.  During this period it was apparently a ‘middling’ earth-brown.  It’s open to conjecture, but I’ve used Humbrol 29 Dark Earth.  Facings were poppy red, but some bases have an occasional figure with light blue facings, to represent attached ‘artillery handlers’.  Headgear at this time was an unlaced cocked hat, with the yellow & black national cockade and similar ‘rosettes’ at the corners.  In full dress they could also have a yellow & black plume, but these in most cases just have a sprig of oak-leaves inserted behind the cockade.

Austrian guns were painted ‘yellow-ochre’ with metalwork painted black.  The guns were also often painted black, but this looks rather rubbish, so I’ve done  mine as polished brass.  The exact yellow-ochre shade is open to conjecture, but I’ve done it with a base of Humbrol 63 Golden Brown and a highlight of Humbrol 154 Insignia Yellow.

Just one more article to go!  I’ve saved the best ’til last – the Grenadiers.

Those of you still awake and not having taken an impromptu holiday to northern Italy to get away from this blog will no doubt be overjoyed to see this, the 4th instalment of my Austrian army! 🙂

This time I’m looking at the militia forces: The Austrian Landwehr and the Hungarian Insurrection.  All the models are by AB Figures.

Above:  A battalion of the Lower Austrian Landwehr.  The Austrian Landwehr were initially raised in 1808 as a conscript militia, to serve as a reserve for the regular army and as garrisons for towns and fortresses while the regular army was away on campaign.  By early 1809 there were over 100,000 men serving in the Landwehr and later that year, with the French invading Austria, the Landwehr were called out to reinforce the army in the field.  The Landwehr battalions serving with Archduke Charles’ main army came from Lower Austria, Bohemia and Moravia.  However, their combat record was extremely poor and they suffered huge losses due to desertion.

The Landwehr were organised on a provincial basis and each province had its own coat colour, facing colour and cockade colour.  The rank-and-file in the main wore peasant coats and were poorly equipped, though officers and NCOs, as well as a few complete units and some individuals could be far better dressed.  Some units also included Volunteer Jäger who would equip themselves and would again be generally better-dressed.

The Lower Austrian Landwehr wore coats coloured ‘Ash Grey’ with red facings, topped off with a Corsican hat (Corsehut), turned up on the left side.  The provincial cockade was yellow-within-sky blue, though this was not often worn and the national yellow & black cockade could also be seen.

Above:  A battalion of Moravian-Silesian Landwehr.  Most Moravian Landwehr wore brown coats with red facings.  However some units, especially from the Austrian Silesia, wore light blue facings, as shown here.  The provincial cockade was red-within-white.  The officer’s mid-blue breeches also seem to have been a popular item of dress.

Landwehr battalions were authorised to carry flags.  These were officially to have the Imperial eagle on the obverse and the provincial arms on the reverse.  In addition, many carried hand-me-down Ordinärfahnen from the local infantry regiments.  However, I haven’t given mine flags; partly because at the time of painting I had no idea as to what their flags looked like but also because AB Figures don’t produce any Landwehr standard-bearers.

Above:  A battalion of Bohemian Landwehr.  The Bohemian Landwehr were remarkably well dressed.  The coat was a brown jacket with red facings and red braid across the chest, worn with bright blue breeches (some with red Hungarian knots on the thighs) and tall leather boots, all topped off with a ’round-hat’ (what we might call a top-hat).  The city and university Landwehr units from Prague were even more lavishly dressed, with plumed shakos!

Above: A battalion of Hungarian Insurrection Infantry from ‘below’ (i.e. south of) the Danube.

Unlike the Austrian provinces, the Kingdom of Hungary did not have a standing Landwehr and instead relied upon the Hungarian Diet (council of nobles) voting to raise an Insurrection during times of national emergency.  This had been done in 1797 and 1800, but in 1805 the fickle Hungarian nobles decided NOT to call out the Insurrection to oppose Napoleon’s invasion.  Nevertheless, in 1809 around 60,000 Insurrection troops (roughly 40,000 hussars and 20,000 infantry) were successfully raised.

Two regiments of hussars volunteered to fight with Archduke Charles’ Main Army (more of those later), though the bulk of the Insurrection fought with the Army of Inner Austria against Prince Eugène’s invading Army of Italy in a number of small actions across Hungary before finally being comprehensively smashed at the Battle of Raab on 14th June 1809.

Above:  A battalion of Insurrection Infantry from ‘above’ (i.e. north of) the Danube.  In 1809 the regulation uniform for the Insurrection infantry consisted of a short blue tunic and breeches, decorated with brass buttons, light blue ‘hussar’ lace and Hungarian trefoil knots (see the period print at the top of this article).  The exact shade of blue is debatable; Dave Hollins describes this uniform as ‘dark blue’, but then the accompanying plate shows an officer dressed in the same shade of sky-blue as the pantaloons of regular Hungarian or Grenze infantry.  I’ve hedged my bets and opted for a ‘middle blue’, which seems to be what was depicted by Ottenfeld in 1895.

The collar and cuffs were coloured by region: Crimson = ‘Above’ the Danube.  Yellow = ‘Below’ the Danube.  Light blue = ‘Above’ the Theiss.  Grass green = ‘Below’ the Theiss.  Of course, there is no guarantee that in reality, the mobilised Insurrection was dressed in anything like the official regulation uniform and it may be the case that many men were wearing civilian clothes or uniforms from earlier incarnations of the Insurrection, which had far more varied uniform colours, more reminiscent of the regular Hussar regiments.

The shako was black and plain apart from a yellow & black national cockade-pompom.  Belts were red leather.  Boots were black leather and hussar-style.  Officers do not appear to have worn metallic lace and instead wore more elaborate light blue lace.  However, there is the odd modern picture of Insurrection officers wearing metallic lace and these might be senior officers or perhaps an honest mistake.

The Insurrection are known to have carried flags.  Dave Hollins describes these as normally having the provincial emblem on the reverse, with a religious symbol such as the Madonna on the obverse.  Cavalry flags were swallow-tailed.  However, with only vague descriptions of flags and the lack of a standard-bearer figure, I’ve opted to go without.

Above:  A Hungarian Insurrection Hussar Regiment from ‘Below’ the Danube.  The regulation uniform for Insurrection Hussars was very similar to that of the infantry, though according to Dave Hollins the lace was white instead of light blue and instead of having provincial facing colours on the dolman jacket, the shakos were instead coloured by province.  These colours were the same as for the infantry facings, though regiments from ‘above’ the Danube had black shakos instead of yellow.  They were also issued with a blue pelisse, again decorated with white lace and edged with black fur.  Shabraques and sabretaches were black, edged in red and bearing the Imperial ‘FI’ cypher in white.  Belts were red leather and the shako had a black plume with a yellow base (apparently much more black than the regular army plume).

As mentioned above, two regiments of Insurrection Hussars fought with Archduke Charles’ Main Army in 1809.  These were the Neutra Hussars and the Primatial Hussars and I wanted to depict these regiments.  However, the Primatial Hussars are something of a mystery.  They were privately raised as a volunteer regiment by Archduke Charles Ambrosius, the Archbishop-Primate of Hungary and were therefore a somewhat different animal to the conscripted county Insurrection regiments.  There is no record of their uniform, though Dave Hollins has suggested that as a Volunteer regiment they might have worn red pointed cuffs on the dolman, which were the mark of the Austrian Volunteers (a mystery surviving hussar uniform from an unknown unit does have red pointed cuffs).

Of course, this did give me carte-blanche to go absolutely nuts and invent my own hussar uniform…  Archbishop Purple would be nice…  However, I decided to be sensible and paint a known Insurrection Hussar uniform instead.  As the Archbishop Primate of Hungary’s residence was in the town of Gran, which is ‘below’ the Danube, I opted for that region’s colour of crimson as the shako-colour.

Note that the Primatial Hussars are regularly confused in many books and publications with the regular Hussar Regiment #12 ‘Palatinal’.  The Palatinal Husars were at this time fighting in Poland with the VII Korps and were definitely not the same regiment.  However, they had once been an Insurrection Hussar regiment from the 1800 muster, having been ‘regularised’ in 1802.

Above:  A regiment of Insurrection Hussars from ‘above’ the Theiss.

The other Insurrection Hussars regiment with Archduke Charles was the Neutra Hussars.  The city of Neutra is ‘above’ the Danube and should therefore have a black shako… Which is rather boring… So I opted instead for the light blue shako of regiments from above the Theiss… 🙂

At Aspern-Essling, the Neutra and Primatial Hussars were brigaded together under the command of Generalmajor Kerekes in Wartensleben’s Light Cavalry Division of the Reserve Korps.  However, they broke immediately when faced with a French cavalry attack on 22nd May, prompting Archduke Charles to write in his post-action report that “The two regiments of insurrection cavalry… are good for nothing.”  By Wagram they had been split up, with the Primatial Hussars being sent away and brigaded with Hussar Regiment #10 ‘Stipsicz’ under Generalmajor Frelich in the Avantgarde Korps.  However, they did no better at Wagram than they had at Aspern-Essling.

That’s it for now.  Next time it’ll be the artillery and general staff.

Today’s riveting blog instalment is a continuation of the ‘grand review’ of my Austrian Army.  The usual disclaimers apply: This article may cause drowsiness.  Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while reading this blog.  If you find that you are affected by the subject matter, self-isolate yourself for two weeks with a pile of unpainted AB Figures and a few gallons of paint until the urges subside.

Today we have the light infantry – the Jäger, Grenzer and Freiwilligen.  I couldn’t find a decent battle painting of Austrian light troops to use as the header, so here are some Hungarian infantry (at Leipzig).

Above:  Some Jäger (literally ‘Hunter’ – skirmishers armed with rifled carbines).  The uniform for all nine regular army Jäger battalions was the same – a simple ‘Pike Grey’ (Hechtgrau) uniform with ‘Steel Green’ (Stahlgrün) facings and black Corsican hat, with black leather belts.  The regular Jäger battalions did not carry flags.

A lot of people tend to paint the grey uniforms of Austrian Jäger in a much lighter shade than this, due to the relevant plate in the Osprey Men-At-Arms book on Austrian Infantry.  This plate was in turn based on a plate published in 1895 by the artist Rudolf Otto von Ottenfeld.  However, this has been disputed by various scholars on the subject (provoking many internet flame-wars), as Ottenfeld was apparently basing his painting on the colour of a faded, 80 year-old surviving uniform rather than the colour produced by the original dye when it was new.  Based on the evidence presented, I’ve been persuaded by the arguments that Hechtgrau was a relatively dark blue-grey, which I’ve tried to replicate here.

Above:  Grenze Infantry Regiment #9 (Peterwardeiner).  This regiment had ‘Light Pike Grey’ facings and yellow metal buttons.

In theory, the Grenze Infantry uniform should have changed following an order in August 1808, to a ‘Black-Brown’ coat with black belts.  However, this order was very slow to implement and according to Dave Hollins in his book book ‘Austrian Auxiliary Troops 1792-1816’, Grenze Infantry Regiment #9 didn’t adopt this new uniform until 1813.

The uniform was essentially identical in style to that of the Hungarian line infantry, with pointed cuffs decorated with a single button and ‘bear’s paw’ of white lace, tight sky-blue pantaloons, embroidered with trefoil-knots and piped down the seams with mixed yellow-black cords.  Aome units used simple plain yellow cords as a cost-saving measure (in any case, yellow/black doesn’t look very good when painted at this scale, so I now just stick with plain yellow).   Items unique to the Grenzer were their traditional hooded red cloaks (here rolled on top of the packs) and the stovepipe-shaped klobuk cap.  The klobuk was officially replaced by the standard 1806 Pattern infantry shako along with the change in uniform.

It’s worth noting that there was something of a mix of uniforms during the transition period, with some regiments wearing the new black belts with the old white uniforms or wearing the old white belts with the new brown uniforms and either klobuk or shako, depending on what had been issued.  Officers, with privately-tailored uniforms, might then also be ‘early-adopters’ of the new uniforms (the officers and standard-bearers here are Hungarian infantry figures, so have the 1806 Pattern shako while the rest have klobuk).

Above:  Grenze Infantry Regiment #12 (Deutsch-Banát).  This regiment had ‘Light Blue’ facings and white metal buttons.

Grenze Infantry Regiments carried flags, but I’ve been unable to discover exactly what type of flag, so I’ve gone with the standard 1806 Pattern flag bearing the Hungarian arms in the centre (for no reason other than the fact that I had a load of Hungarian infantry flags spare)…

In his book ‘Armies on the Danube 1809’, Scott Bowden gives a list showing those Grenze Infantry Regiments which had transitioned to the new brown coat by 1809.  Regiment #12 is one of these.  However, Dave Hollins’ more recent works dispute this, stating that no regiments changed from white to brown until 1810 at the earliest, with most changing in 1813-14.  According to Hollins, Regiment #12 was the first to transition, doing so in 1810.  However, I’d already gone with Bowden’s list…

Above:  Some skirmishers from Grenze Infantry Regiment #13 (Wallach-Illyrian).  This regiment had Light Pike Grey facings with white metal buttons.  I’ve also got a formed version of this unit, which was painted some 25 years ago and is looking a bit battered…

Again, I mistakenly painted this regiment in brown coats.  However, Hollins states that this didn’t actually happen for this regiment until 1814!

Above:  The 1st Battalion of Vienna Volunteers.  The Austrian Army of 1809 fielded a number of Freiwilligen (Volunteer) infantry units and these were usually used to beef up the light infantry element of each Army Corps.  Most numerous among these were the battalions of the Archduke Charles Legion, followed by the Vienna Volunteers and the Moravian Volunteers.  While the battalions of the Archduke Charles Legion and Moravian Volunteers were spread (like the Landwehr militia) across the entire field army, four battalions of the Vienna Volunteers were concentrated in VI Korps, hence this choice of unit.

While most Volunteers were armed with muskets, some units (or portions of units) were classed as Jäger and were armed with rifles (and in some cases with Girardoni repeating air rifles or Crespi breech-loading rifles).  I haven’t painted any Volunteer Jäger just yet, though I will get around to painting the Waltrich Jäger (i.e. the 1st Battalion of the Archduke Charles Legion) for my IV Korps at some point.

Volunteer units were dressed in a wide variety of uniform styles and colours and in many cases very closely resembled the Landwehr.  As in the Landwehr, men who supplied their own uniform were generally better dressed than the rest, who would typically be dressed in very plain knee-length greatcoats.  However, some units were very well-dressed indeed and one of these was the 1st Battalion of the Vienna Volunteers, who all supplied their own uniforms and dressed to a common standard.

Flags are known to have been carried by most Volunteer units, even by units classed as Jäger.  Some carried flags of their own design or bearing the arms of their home region, though a great many of these remain unknown.  However, some (such as the Vienna Volunteers) were issued with spare regular army Ordinärfahnen, as shown here.  AB Figures don’t do a Freiwillige or Landwehr standard-bearer, so I’ve converted an infantry figure who had a broken musket.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  Next time I’ll cover the Landwehr and Hungarian Insurrection.

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.

I was going to post up some more Cold War stuff this week, but Erik Salvador has been prodding me on Facebook to post my Austrian Napoleonics, so here they are, starting with the Infantry Regiments.

These have all been painted in the last four years or so.  Prior to this I had a very small Austrian army painted in the 1990s (3x Infantry Regts, 2x Hungarian Infantry Regts, 1x Grenze Infantry Regt, 1x Jäger Bn, 1x Chevauxleger Regt, 1x Hussar Regt, 2x Kürassier Regts and some guns and generals – all looking a bit battered now) that was just enough to provide the Austrian contingent at the Battle of Austerlitz, but not really enough to be an army in its own right.  That was a shame, as the 1809 Danube Campaign is probably my favourite Napoleonic campaign (my house is called ‘Aspern‘…) and I remember very fondly those first teenage Napoleonic 1809 battles fought with Sidney and Chris Jones’ wonderful collection of 25mm Minifigs figures, when I first joined WASP in the 1980s.  However, I quickly discovered that I hated painting white uniforms and the project soon ground to a halt…

So in 2016, with the Waterloo Bicentennial games well out of the way, I was determined to get my Austrian army painted.  I set myself a fairly ambitious goal… The entire order of battle for the Battle of Wagram at roughly 1:100 ratio for Napoleon’s Battles rules, with the secondary goal of painting enough to play the Battle of Aspern-Essling and the tertiary goal of at least painting enough for a corps-sized game or the smaller actions of the campaign, such as Eggmühl, Raab and Neumarkt.  Four years on, I’ve managed to finish the III Korps, VI Korps, Reserve Korps and Advance Guard Korps for Wagram and my good buddy Martin has shown solidarity by producing the VI Korps.  The II Korps is now under the brush…

When the weather improves and I can get out into the garden for some photography, I’ll set up the whole formations en masse, but for now here are the individual units.  All figures are 15mm AB Figures, which are now available in the UK from Eureka Miniatures UK, following Ian Marsh’s (Fighting 15s) decision to give up the UK end of the AB Figures/Eureka franchise for a quiet life (though he still has a lot of figures left, so have a look there first if you want a bargain).  Thanks for all the superb service Ian!

In terms of painting, I use only Humbrol Enamels, with metallics by Liquid Leaf.  Yes, it’s old school, but it works for me; I know exactly which paints to use for which job and I can buy them locally from a few shops.

I undercoat everything with heavily-thinned Humbrol matt enamel black and then paint the white uniforms with a bottom-coat of Humbrol 64 Light Grey.  I then block-in the white, starting with the cross-belts first and then the coat and breeches.  This may seem bizarre and somewhat counter-intuitive, but I find that it works better to do the belts first and then leave grey shadows around them, rather than paint the coats first and then accidentally fill in the shadows that I’d intended to leave underneath the belts.  I then add a second layer of white as a highlight – this intensifies the underlying first coat of white and makes it brighter on the highlights (belts, folds, etc).  I’ve tried to illustrate this method with the closeup photo below.

Grenadier Battalion ‘Melgum’ in closeup

The flags are all printed by Fighting 15s.  These were formerly known as ‘Flags for AB’, but Ian will still be selling these despite the departure of the AB Figures side of the business.  The subject of Austrian flags is slightly complicated and many pixels have been expended on the subject, so here’s the simple version:

Up to 1805: All Austrian line infantry battalions carried two flags.  The 1st (or Leib) Battalion would have one Leibfahne (white flag) and one Ordinärfahne (yellow flag).  The other battalions of the regiment would have two Ordinärfahnen.  Grenadiers were not issued with flags, but in time of war would be massed into independent grenadier battalions and might receive a spare Ordinärfahne if one was available.  Grenadiers would never receive Leibfahnen.

1805-1806:  Following the ‘Mack Reforms’, all battalions of line infantry regiments carried a single flag.  The Grenadiers briefly became the Leib Battalion of a regiment and therefore carried the Leibfahne, while all other battalions carried an Ordinärfahne.  This brief interlude was the only time that Austrian Grenadiers were permanently issued with flags and was the only time that they carried Leibfahnen.

1806-1808:  Following the disaster of Austerlitz, the infantry reverted to the old organisation and reverted to the pre-1805 system of flags, so two flags per battalion and none for the Grenadiers except in wartime, when massed Grenadier battalions might receive a spare Ordinärfahne.

1808 Onward:  The number of flags was reduced to one per battalion, with the Leib Battalion carrying a single Leibfahne and the other battalions carrying a single Ordinärfahne.  Grenadiers were still not issued with a flag in peacetime, but massed Grenadier battalions would receive a spare Ordinärfahne.  With the reduction in flags there were now a lot of spare Ordinärfahnen sloshing around, so massed Grenadier battalions could now pretty much guarantee to receive a flag and spare flags were also issued to Landwehr and Freikorps.

As I only paint one ‘battalion’ per regiment, the flags are issued randomly, with every third unit getting a Leibfahne.  My Austrians are geared for 1809, so each battalion receives a single flag and the Grenadiers NEVER receive a Leibfahne.

Anyway, here are the Infantry Regiments.  Note that these are all ‘German’ regiments, who in 1809 were mostly wearing the 1798 Pattern crested helmet, as opposed to the newly-introduced shako.  The Hungarian regiments had apparently all transitioned over to the shako, as had a few German regiments.  My next batch will all be wearing shako, as I’m sick to the back teeth of painting those bloody helmets…

Above:  Infantry Regiment #1 ‘Kaiser Franz’.  The facing colour for this regiment was Pompadour Red (‘Pompadour Rot’) and the button metal colour was white.  At Wagram this regiment served in Lilienberg’s Brigade, as part of St Julien’s Division of III Korps.  The regiment was not present at Aspern-Essling.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #7 ‘Karl Schröder’.  The facing colour for this regiment was Dark Brown (‘Dunkebraun’) and the button metal colour was white.  I used Humbrol 29 Dark Earth for the facing colour, but upon further reading it should probably be more of a dark red-brown, akin to the coats of Grenze infantry (Humbrol 160 German Camouflage Red Brown).  At Wagram this regiment formed part of Grill’s Brigade, in Vukassovich’s Division of III Korps.  The regiment was not present at Aspern-Essling.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #8 ‘Erzherzog Ludwig’.  The facing colour for this regiment was Poppy Red (‘Ponceau’) with yellow metal buttons.  At Aspern-Essling this regiment formed part of Grill’s Brigade of Neustädter’s Division of IV Korps.  At Wagram the brigade was commanded by Swinburne and was part of Rohan’s Division of IV Korps.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #12 ‘Manfredini’.  The facing colour for this regiment was Dark Brown (‘Dunkebraun’) and the button metal colour was yellow.  Like IR #7 above, the brown could probably do with being a shade darker.  At Wagram this regiment served with Grill’s Brigade of Vukassovich’s Division of III Korps.  The regiment was not present at Aspern-Essling.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #22 ‘Koburg’.  This regiment’s facing colour was Emperor Yellow (‘Kaisergelb’) and the button metal colour was white.  This regiment was brigaded with IR #8 (above) at both Aspern-Essling and Wagram.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #38 ‘Herzog Ferdinand von Württemberg’.  This regiment had Rose Pink (‘Rosenrot’) facings and yellow metal buttons.  At Wagram this regiment formed part of Bieber’s Brigade of St Julien’s Division of III Korps.  The regiment was not present at Aspern-Essling.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #46 ‘Chasteler’.  This regiment had Dark Blue (‘Dunkelblau’) facings and yellow metal buttons.  At Aspern-Essling this regiment formed part of Riese’s Brigade, of Reinhard’s Division of IV Korps.  At Wagram it was still part of Riese’s Brigade, but that brigade was on temporary attachment to Nordmann’s Avantgarde Korps, which came under the command of IV Korps.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #50 ‘Stain’.  This regiment had Violet (‘Violett’) facings and white metal buttons.  To be honest, I’d have preferred a deeper, more purple shade of violet, but Humbrol don’t do a decent purple.  I do have a stash of Vallejo acrylic purples for jobs like this, but I think I was being lazy on the day in question… The regiment was absent from Aspern-Essling, though at Wagram served as part of Weiss’ Brigade, in Radetzsky’s Division of IV Korps.

Above:  Infantry Regiment #56 ‘Wenzel Colloredo’.  This regiment had Steel Green (‘Stählgrun’) facings and yellow metal buttons.  This regiment was absent from Aspern-Essling, though at Wagram formed part of Grill’s Brigade of Vukassovich’s Division of III Korps.

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

Lastly, this blog has this week hit a milestone with it’s 50,000th view!  OK, it’s taken 22 months to reach this point, but I’m easily pleased!  So Jemima Fawr is not exactly ‘Viral’, but I think we’re beyond Fungal and can perhaps now be classed as a Persistent Yeast Infection…  Thanks to all for following my tedious ramblings…