THE RAMBLINGS OF A FRENCH CANADIAN WARGAMER

Monday, October 14, 2013

My first Duchy of Warsaw Poles

Well, I finally found the time to base and photograph my very first unit of Poles, from Murawski Miniatures. They are meant to represent the 1st battalion of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. As with almost all of my Napoleonic collection, the uniforms used are those of the 1809 campaign, which suits me well as I prefer the Polish uniforms of the 1807-1810 era. The Polish uniforms of 1807-1810 had varied facings and lapels based on the Division the Regiment was from :

Regimentfacing(1)lapelsbuttons
1 to 4 (1st division) scarlet  yellow   yellow
5 to 8 (2nd division) crimson crimson   white
9 to 12 (3rd division) white  white   yellow
(1) worn on collar, cuffs and turnbacks.

This can make for a colourful order of battle, and just great looking units. My force will be based on the OOB from the battle of Raszyn, an ideal battle for someone with a sizable Austrian army like yours truly. 

I painted these using my newest technique of a grey undercoat, 3 layers technique and a final coat of army painter. This method was used for my biblical army and some of my FIW, but it was the first time I was using it with Napoleonics. Before, I was mostly using a technique of black undercoat and black lining. I think it came out great, and the colours looks very realistic to me. I also tried a new way of painting yellow using mostly ochre colours instead of actual yellow. Again, I find it looks more realistic. 

I also painted 2 skimishers to go with the unit, however I'm still unsure of what basing I will use for my skirmishers stands from now on so I have yet to base them. I ordered some bases style from Litko to do a few tests.

Those damn Poles have more stuff on them than christmas trees! ;-) Looks great, but they are a bit more work than your usual Austrian soldier. But that's just me being lazy, I'm very pleased of the figures and my painting. 

So here it is, le 1er Bataillon du 1er Régiment d'infanterie du Grand Duché de Varsovie. As usual, flags by GMB, bases from Litko.







 
The 1st Regiment was part of the 1st Division and as such had yellow lapels and scarlet facings. The drummers and Sappeur's uniforms are conjectural and a bit of artistic license from my part, but from my readings we can safely assume the Poles were quite extravagant in their uniforms. It seems they would even vary from one battalion to the next! Which is always something that makes a miniature painter happy...

The figures were as advertised; lots of character, crisp details and just a joy to paint. I especially enjoyed painting the faces, and it seems all the figures have a personality of their own. And I decided to mix both full and campaign dress in the same unit to create a lot of diversity.

18 comments:

  1. Lovely work Iannick and those are wonderful castings. I particularly like the fellow lifting his shako (great moustache).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! He's obviously preparing for Movember! ;-)

      Delete
  2. Great looking unit, the diverse poses are excellent and the paintwork is very nice and colored...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great looking unit, I am also surprised that you used AP on them, but I can see that it was done sparingly. I will look forward to seeing them in person.

    John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks John. I used AP all over the figure because I just love how strong the varnish is, but I painted it on and so was able to avoid pooling and such.

      Delete
  4. Wonderful looking unit, showing off this great range of figures to excellent effect!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great looking unit, really colourful!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Marvelous looking figures, and a very nicely painted unit. I agree with you in prefering the earlier, more colorful Polish (GDW) infantry with the Divisional facings. Yopu can add the 13th infantry to the roster as well - early on they had white uniforms with sky blue facings.

    Did the first regiment have white flags? Most of the ones I've seen were crimson with the white Polish Eagle (the 13th had a partially light blue flag), IIRC.

    I think you're pretty safe with some artistic license on the drummers for these early troops. A lot of the Polish cavalry (which are fun to paint as well - see my own 13th Hussars!) had the trumpeters in white jackets... one suspects the drummers might have been similar in some infantry units???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the first regiment had a white flag from 1807 to 1812 (IIRC).

      Interesting note on the white cavalry trumpeter, as I indeed saw a plate of a Polish Infantry drummer with a white coat at Raszin. I assumed it was a drummer of the 4th division with reversed colours, but maybe white was indeed popular with drummers. There's so little info on Polish uniforms of the early era.

      Delete
  7. Outstanding brushwork on the Polish infantry.

    I have always been confused by the reinforcing cross tape on the czapka top. Was it colored or black? Most illustrations I've seen either cleverly avoid showing the top of the headgear or show the tape as black. I guess it would make sense to have the cross tape the same material and color as the top edge tape.

    What are your thoughts? If the czapka edging is colored, so is the top cross tape. If edging is black; same for the cross tape?

    Really like your blog!

    Thanks,
    Jon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!

      Yes, edging and cross tape seemed to have been the same coulour. I've seen blank, white, yellow cross tape....I picked what I liked.

      Delete
  8. Lovely sculpts and a paintjob to do them justice! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  9. sweeeeeet. Your basing really gets to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well thank you. Basing, the most underrated aspect of miniature painting. It can make or break a unit/army.

      Delete
  10. Oups I almost missed this entry... How could I! You're vivid colouring style fits them perfectly. I can only cheer up to have you complete a full brigade of those beauties!

    Nico.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete