Irish Brigade Complete

 

As promised, here is a little post all about the now complete Irish Brigade. I shall mix a little bit of history in along with the photos.

 

The history of the Irish Brigade in French service stems from the various religious wars of the 17th centruy (I don't think people were very good at getting along back then). It all started with King James II being kicked out of England and into exile in France in 1688. This was over the English not being overly keen on a Catholic monarch, and after he had a son it seems they certainly didn't want him to stay and cement his dynasty, so off he went,  in an event known as the Glourious Revolution.

However, he still had some supporters and decided the next year he would try his luck in Ireland - it seems the parliament there were still fans. After some issues though he requested some help from his French mates, but they, quite understandably, asked for some troops in return, and just like that the Irish Brigade was formed. 

Comprising of 5000 men in five regiments, they entered French service and were amalgamated into three regiments straight away.. The Brigade was kept seperate from the "Wild Geese," another unit of Irish Men in French serice, at this early stage. They often get confused.

The Irish Brigade would go on to serve in the French army for just over 100 years and became an elite unit. Although it took on recruits of other nationalities over time, it retained a lot of it's Irish heritage such as uniforms and flags until nationalised into the French Army in the late 18th Century. 

The Irish Brigade I have painted is representative of it's service in the 1709 Battle of Malplequet as part of the War of Spanish Succession. 

 

The five regiments are all named after their colonels at this time, giving them names such as Dorrington's, Obrien's etc. The battle of Malplequet was a large and very bloody affair, vey much an Allied Pyrrich victory as they drove the French from the field. However, the Irish Brigade was reported to have driven all before it in the battle and even captured several English standards. 

I have really enjoyed painting these, when all put together I think they look immense - especially with those lovely huge flags. The War of Spanish Succession is one that is on my list in the future as it such a colourful era. Sadly, with so many other projects, I have no idea when I will get around to it. 

I am please to say this order is with a vey happy client. His next commission is four units of Swedish Life Guard for the Great Northern War including something I have never painted befoe - pike armed troops! Update for that before not too long.

Irish Brigade: Dorringtons Regiment

 

Another post about the Irish Brigade!

This time I have completed the fifth and final regiment - Dorringtons regiment. Without further ado, lets see a picture of the battalion in all its glory:

 

 Again, red coats, but with blue facings and yellow hat lace. 

This regiment was a little more time consuming than the rest as there was also yellow lace edged around the cuffs, pockets and waitscoats of the soldiers. Not a tricky thing to paint overall but it did mean they took a bit longer. Here is a look at the individual bases of the unit so you can see more detail:

The troops:

The centre company:

The left company with drummer:

The right company with the NCO and Grenadiers:

Some differences from the last regiment is you'll not the lack of reversed colours for the NCO and drummer. I am not really sure why, but it seems some regiments did and some didn't when it came to reversing colours. 

Finally, the command stand, again with the amazing flags:

At first glance, with the red coats and red cross on a white background, you could be forgiven for thinking these are English troops, but nope - definitely Irish. 

That makes the Brigade of five battalions all complete. I have laid them all out out together to photograph (which is very ticky!), and I plan on doing a post next week with some of the history of the Irish Brigade to go with the photos, so stay tuned. In the mean time they will be posted off to the new owner this coming week.

For the 2021 Hobby Bingo, it closes another box, making five in total for 50 points. I have yet to complete a line but I think I remain in second place at present. Hopefully, I will have a more prodcutive March to catch up.

Irish Brigade: O'Briens Regiment

 

Another regiment was all finished up today, this time O'Briens Regiment:

 

 

Once more, these are all from the excellent Ebor Miniatures range. The same colour scheme was as before (red jackets), but with yellow facings. 

Here are some more detailed photos of each individual base:

 These are the core troops of the regiment, consisting of 13 soldiers, three grenadiers and one each of an NCO and a drummer, both of which are easy to see due to their blue coats.

This is the base consisting entirely of troops. I think the yellow and red scheme is vey striking. 

Here we have the drummer with his escorting troops - these go on the left flank of the regiment. The drummers of this period are vey flamboyant, with reversed coats, livery and hopefully if you zoom in you can see the colonels coat of arms painted on the drum. 

The right flank is occupied by the NCO and grenadiers. The grenadiers have even bigger cuffs (if that is possible) and more pouches and a powder horn, presumable where they kept the genades. As per the drummer, the NCO has a revesed coat so he stands out. Presumably there was no such thing as a sniper in the war of Spanish Succession!

Last but not least, there is the commad stand. I love the flags that the client supplies, they really make the regiment stand out. The officers also wear much brighter red coats as well which I think really helps the base pop. 

I am already making good progress on the final regiment for the Irish Brigade (Dorringtons Regiment) and hope to be able to post that up soon. Once that is done, I'll get a post up with the whole brigade lined up.

Hobby Bingo wise, this ticks off a "10+ Model" unit, which puts me at four boxes complete and 40 points. I believe that puts me in second place amongst our little group of three.

Belated January Roundup

 

Just a quick post (albeit weeks late) to round up the first month of the year. 

So, we had the following miniatures all completed last month:

2 x Irish Brigade Regiments (42 minis in total - 28mm scale)

1 x Brigade of Scottish in Dutch Service (24 minis in 28mm scale)

1 x Unit of Roman Hastati (24 minis in 15mm Scale)

 

That's a grand total of 90 minis finished in one month - I have to say I am very, very happy with that. In terms of my target of the year of 600 minis, it gives me a great headstart and it adds up to 378 points (under the Analougue paiting system) towards my 2021 target of 2000 points. 

For the first month of the year - I'll take it!  

Hobby bingo wise, we weren't allowed any duplciation in January, but I was able to use those four units to close three boxes - a "unit of 10+ models", a "unit of 2+" models, and "any model." 30 points overall so far, which i believe puts me in the lead amongst the three of us taking part.

 

Galmoy's Regiment Completed

 

As part of the ongoing work to get the Irish Brigade done I mangaed to finish the Galmoy Regiment back in January. 

Quick overview: The Irish Brigade I am working on is five regiments strong and represents the Brigade in French service during the War of Spanish Succession. Each regiement is 21 strong and they are based for a game system called "Beneath the Lilly Banners." The main difference is the trapazoid shaped base for the command element.

Heres some completed photos of Galmoy's regiment:

 

Like the rest of the regiment it's in red uniforms. However, these have blue facings and yellow lace along with gold buttons to mark them out from the other units, which have green, yellow or white. 

The figures for the whole Brigade are all from the excellent Ebor Miniatures range. This is the second brigade of Ebor minis I have done (I painted some Bavarians for the same client last year) and I do like the figures. I will try and do a review of them one day.

The flags, I think, are stunning. I always get asked about them but sadly they are just provided to me for fitting by the client - I don't know where he gets them from other than to say they are custom made for him. 

Just two more regiments to go which I am hoping to get done in February so stay tuned for an update.
 

Completed Regiments

 

 

Time for an update on my progress so far. 

January has been a prodcutive month with two regiments completed for the War of Spanish Succession. 

First off we have a battalion of Scottish Troops in Dutch Service. A little change of pace as these are all in grenadier uniform:

 

 

These are all figures from Front Rank. Really nice to paint, the detail is lovely and chunky and they have some animated poses. My favourite is the guy getting shot. I really like the bright colour scheme. Just waiting for the banners to arrive now. 

Next up is a regiment of Irish Brigade that fought for the French:

This time they are Ebor Miniatures figures. A little slimmer than the Front rank stuff, but still really nice. This battalion is based a little differently asthey are for the rule set (Beneath the Lilly Banners). 

So that is 45 minis so far this year. The only down side is these are both commissions so onothing of my own yet for 2021. However, it also ticks off two boxes on the hobby bingo - the 10+ unit and the 2+ unit for a total of 20 points.