Thursday 2 September 2021

KGL 3rd Regiment of Hussars

 I am continuing to slowly raise forces in order to conduct the 100 Days campaign as outlined in the V&B scenario book "Napoleon Returns". In order to do this I have been reviewing both my existing collection, and the Orders Of Battle (OOB) listed in the scenario book to see what additional stands I need to acquire. Fortunately I don't need to paint figures for every unit in the campaign - just ones that would be representative of the stand listed in the OOB. 

Label added on stand with bonus paint smear.

Greatly assisting in this project has been the set of unit labels for "Napoleon Returns" from Keith McNelly's excellent Volley and Bayonet site. Keith's site is an invaluable resource to Volley and Bayonet players. I have printed off the labels and started the process of identifying existing elements in my collection to populate the respective OOB for each of the three armies required. 

Full frontal Hussars! Only eight of the twelve figures could fit.

The most recent result of this project has been the refurbishment of one of my older stands that I acquired many years ago, but required quite a bit of work to restore as the original head swap conversions had parted way from the bodies.

According to PSR the saddles are correct for the Crimean War.

The base figures are from  Esci Set 230 British Light Dragoons (PSR review here) with the heads coming from Esci Set 227 French Line Infantry (PSR review here).

Only after basing the figures did I realise that I only put one figure on with a carbine 

The paint job seems to have been based on Haythornwaite's "Uniforms of Waterloo in Colour" which aligns well with the information from the "Les Uniformes pedant la campagne des Cent Jours Belgiue 1815" website (click here for the uniform plate for the 1st Squadron 3rd Hussars KGL).

The main differences appears to be regards the colour of sash barrels for troopers, and the colour of the saddle cloth. Since the Esci horses have the wrong saddlery for the Napoleonic era anyway, I wasn't going to correct it, nor was I going to change the coloured barrels on the sashes. So it is possible that all my troopers are wearing the officer sash instead of the correctly colored trooper sash:) 

Now with added black wash on the horses and troopers:)

Previously I had used these figures as generic light cavalry, often representing sub par cavalry, as I wasn't sure what nationality they were:), but their tabletop performance had always been first class.I hope with their recent refurbishment that this will continue:)

8 comments:

  1. Good to see you back Brain, hope all is well. Nice unit too!

    H

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    1. Thanks Hugh! I hope to make more regular postings... at least for a bit.

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  2. Hi Brian -
    It has been a while. Nice looking unit, these yellow and red barrel sashes adding just that fine dash of colour.

    I was interested in your comment that in formwer times this unit you treated as generic or 'representative' of something. As I have become more interested in Army level gaming I've formed a similar convention. So in my recent Waterloo game, the Garde light horse was represented by the Chasseurs-a-cheval de la Garde; and the heavies by Horse Grenadiers. Keeps things simple, I find. :-)

    Kindest regards,
    Ion.

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    1. Thanks Ion!
      I think the only practical way to game big battles is using stands that represent higher level elements in the ORBAT. Plus it does reduce the number of figures to paint!

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  3. Nice bit of head swapping to create this fine looking unit.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James,
      The tricky part was making a hole in the head that would match up with the metal pin I put in the body of the figure. I have to repeat this operation with a least three other stands of Hussars!

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