My small Dutch army for late XVII c. wars

 Hi mates, 

As you know, I paint Spanish and French for late XVII c. wars, Well, some time ago I started a parallel adventure ... I realized that the Franco Dutch war of 1672-1678 cannot be properly played without a Dutch army, so I needed more Grand Alliance nations and started I started looking for solutions.

The answer was to find some regiments already painted (good quality) by another painter, and then inter mix those units with more painted by myself, to save time and because I am too lazy to start an army from scratch these days 😅

I found a fellow painter, Peter Walker, whose blog I strongly recommend  (http://peterw3169.blogspot.com/), who was selling his collection, and I acquired part of it, specifically two infantry and two cavalry units, to which,  I added the army commander, another officer, artillery, a guards regiment on horseback,  and converged grenadiers, and I have yet to add the Dutch Blue Guards and Coerland dragons in the future.

So this post is little more than an army showcase so far.

the units are the following:

William of Orange, as you saw him in the previous blog post.

Grand Alliance's converged grenadier unit, with grenadiers from several regiments (Dutch, English, Austrian...)

Dutch officer,  featured on this blog a few months ago, Northstar 1672 conversion. I also use him as Spanish officer because he has no sash with national colour, he change nationality .

                                                         Dutch artillery, Warfare Miniatures

"Gardes Van Zijne Majesteit" or Gardes du Corps, these are lovely old School Foundry sculpts, this regiment is more suitable for League of Augsburg War than Franco Dutch War.

Regiment of Graaf van Wittgenstein in 1674, possibly present at the battle of Seneffe 1674. In 1676 the colonel was Albert Ferdinand Graff van Berlo. painted by Peter Walker.

regiment nº 10 of cavalry, fought at Seneffe his colonel was heyden in 1688. Painted by Peter Walker.

Regiment Schwarzenberg painted by Peter Walker, based by me

Regiment van Palm (Salisch 1688) Regiment op Holland 1673, painted by Peter Walker, based by me.

I hope you like this Dutch contingent, I think the miniatures although painted by 2 different painters, have cohesion and look like an army.

28mm William Prince of Orange, 1672.

 

Hello guys,

In this post I want to introduce you to my "command base" of my small Dutch army for  the Franco Dutch War of 1672-1678: William III of Orange, as commander-in-chief of the army, accompanied by a musketeer and a mounted trumpeteer.

my inspiration was this painting:

            mounted trumpeteer on the left, on foot, and William on the right, dressed in green

The miniatures are from Warfare Miniatures and North Star 1672; 

-William is from Warfare Miniatures, unmodified, I have only added some shoulder ribbons (from Front Rank), the miniature is a good sculpt, very recommended. I have painted it inspired by the aforementioned painting. he is riding a white horse. For the painting I used Vallejo and Foundry paints, especially for the horse, I used the Foundry Triad of "Artic Grey" until reaching white, I am satisfied with this triad because it makes smooth transitions between triad colors, and as the paint has little covering power , leaves a subtle transition from grey to white. As a negative point of these paints, is that painting over the dark gray primer is very time consuming because they cover very little and several layers are needed ... so my strange advice is: paint the first layer with a grey (Vallejo) and over it, paint the Foundry triad.

                                               

-The musketeer is a Dutch musketeer from North Star 1672, painted as a member of  Konigsmark regiment, inspired by the fantastic illustration in Bruno Mugnai's book, "WARS AND SOLDIERS IN THE EARLY REIGN OF LOUIS XIV VOLUME 1 :The Army of the United Provinces of the Netherlands 1660-1687" this book is an absoluty MUST for all of you interested on Franco Dutch war or Dutch military...   The painting was fast and simple as it is only in blue. I used Foundry blue triad.

                                                       Konigsmark's musketeer on the left.

Finally, the horseman with the trumpet is from Warfare Miniatures, from Gardes te Paard, with his characteristic uniform, with the loose sleeves,  sold by Barry Hilton's great range of late XVII miniatures.  I painted it in red, like in the painting in a different color than the rest of his unit, typical of the musicians of that time. I was not brave enough to paint the "W" and the crown over it in the back of the trumpeteer's coat... maybe in the future, when I paint the whole cavalry unit.

                                                

On the cornet "pennant" or whatever is called in English the cloth that hangs from the trumpet/Bugle I have tried (within my limited possibilities) to hand-paint the Orange-Nassau coat of arms, I hate painting those little things and I am a huge fan of decals and pre made flags, but in this case I had no choice but to paint it free hand, please don't judge me harsly.

The base is mdf with a little bit of DAS PRONTO putty in order to place William on a somewhat higher ground.

Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Spanish General, War of Devolution 1667-68

 

Hello mates,

In this quick post I just wanted to show you my latest addition to a parallel project I am doing, which is the War of Devolution, a transition conflict between 30 Years War/Franco Spanish War and Franco Dutch War, I mean transition in terms of uniforms and equipment, because it occured in late 1660' decade.

The general I have painted is Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Francisco de Moura Corte Real (13 December 1621 – 26 November 1675) was a Portuguese nobleman who served as Viceroy of Sardinia and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. Despite being Portuguese, his family remained loyal to Spain when the Portuguese revolt began in 1640.

The miniature is a full conversion from a North Star 1672 French pikeman lower body, and 1898 miniatures "Don Juan Jose of Austria"  upper half body. I am quite pleased with the look of the miniature, in my opinion it has the look of a 1660' military leader, with the blackened armor and the distinctive collar of that time, just before cravattes became more popular.

the other miniature is a Walloon ensign, in Dutch or English armour, I used muted tones for the coat, as I have seen these kind of colours in contemporary paintings.

the miniature is a pikeman from North Star 1672.  The flag was made by the very talented Mats Elzinga, using Castel Rodrigo's coat of arms in one side of the flag, and Spanish royal coat (of 1667) in the other side of the flag.

I made a blog entry with a piece of history for this conflict here:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-defense-of-dendermonde-1667.html

Under Castel Rodrigo's administration, the Spanish Netherlands suffered a French invasion during the War of Devolution.  After the peace of the Pyrinees in 1659, Spanish forces in Flanders were at its minimum, and no soldiers were sent from Spain or Italy in the last 4 years, so Marquis of Castel Rodrigo had to resort to Imperial troops and some German regiments in order to bolster the defenses of the Spanish Netherlands.

Despite his efforts, when the Louis XIV invaded the country with 70.000 troops,   the governor had only 20.000 troops, and he placed them in the most important fortified cities,  so the first year of the war, a lot of villages and towns fell into French hands in a Baroque "Blitzkrieg". In 1668, Spain signed peace with Portugal and sent several thousands men to reinforce the Army of Flanders, also the rest of the countries, feared a full French conquest of the area and forced the Sun King to sign a peace treaty in favourable terms.

More French late XVIIc. reinforcements from EBAY

 Hello friends,

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to witness one of the few times that worthwhile miniatures appear on Ebay !!

Normally when I am on eBay I usually see poorly painted miniatures  or directly absolutely horribly painted miniatures at a high price... but this time I was very lucky and found very well painted miniatures and at  a good price.

Of course I prefer painting my own armies, but sometimes, it is nice to have miniatures painted by good painters, it saves time (but not money!) and armies grow faster and are playable sooner.

I guess these miniatures were painted by Artmaster Studio, and have now ended up for sale on Ebay (fortunately, at a lower price than a high quality commission would cost).

The units I won in the auction are the following:

-Regiment Montcashel (1690)

-Squadron of Gendarmes Dauphin (1670' onwards)

The regiment of foot is the Irish regiment of Montcashel, although perhaps I may swap the flag and  change and put instead Dillon regiment flag, also Irish and also the service of France, both  (Montcashel and Dillon) were part of the Irish brigade that in 1690 was put at the service of the King of France. 

The reason for using the Dillon regiment is that it fought, among other places, in Catalonia during the Nine Years War, and many of the battles that I play in my wargames, take place there.

The cavalry unit is a squadron of Dauphin gendarmes, this company was created on December 13 1665 for the Grand Dauphin (son of King Louis XIV). It initially counted 300 men.

These two units will reinforce my existing French army of the League of Augsburg War :)

Cheers!

French reinforcements: Regiment de Montroux 1690

 Hi guys,

Today I bring you a "new" regiment for my French army of the League of Augsburg War,  I say "new" because it was painted in 2015 in an old school manner, using Wargames Foundry miniatures, which are smaller in size than most of my other miniatures from other manufacturers.  The only new thing is the flag, from regiment de Montroux, from "Flags of War". So this post is no more than a flag swap!

Initially, these guys were going to be my Gardes Suisses, but their uniform was not suitable for that task, so they were stored for years until I decided to send them to battle with a new name and a new flag set!

I had to re launch my regiment so it needed a new name, I looked from an actual French regiment in red uniform faced in blue, and I found it! From Robert Hall's Flags and Uniforms of the French Infantry under Louis XIV 1688-1714 ...  Montroux Regiment, or Regiment de Montroux, a French (Italian) regiment made up of Piamontese prisioners of war put into French service in 1690, it fought with its 500 men in Flanders during the whole conflict, in the main battles, also in the War of Spanish Succession.

I usually prefer taller miniatures and I don't like using tricorns prior 1700' but as I had the miniatures and they were painted, it was a shame not to use the unit.

Cheers!

28mm XVII c. encampent

Hello guys,

I have just finished a project of a XVII c. military camp, primary for my Gerona 1684 campaign, but generic enough to be used by any army during the whole pike and shot era, or even later, so I will use it in my 30 Years War battles too :)

I painted it using as inspiration, contemporary paintings, some of them from the most excellent book "Pieter Snayers: Battle Painter 1592-1667" a true gem, for all who look for information and inspiration about XVII c. warfare.

The core set of my encampment is the nice box of "terrain crate" from Mantic, absolutely inexpensive, just 27 euros for 4 tents, sleeping bags and campfires...  also some spare bits from Games Workshop and other manufacturers, all together can make a nice Renaissance or Baroque military camp for almost every European power. 

I painted the tents with an airbrush, in a cream color, applying soft lights from the top. Later, I sealed it with satin varnish, to protect the previous work.  I gave it an oil wash as a filter, and then, a day later, I painted small dots of oil colors that were then spread from top to bottom with the brush moistened in White Spirit. After that, I painted the few details that the tents have and matt varnished all. Simple and fast.

The other details were painted as usual, but with simplified methods like drybrushing (after all, they are scenery).

In the base I left a big area clear in order to place my different miniatures there,  some examples from different periods and nations:

                                                      Drum and map

                                                      Holy Virgin Mary "Chapel"

Bar-tent

Some inspiration here...

I hope have liked this little scenery project

Cheers