From SidneyR: Flemish Horse, 1688 and Count de Vichet (84 points)

The second submission for the challenge is the remaining troopers from the Flemish regiment of Horse of Pfilips de Vichet, accompanied by Count de Vichet himself. They will be joining my Flemish, Spanish and german army from 1688, focused around the fictional town of Laarden in the Spanish Netherlands, but leaning on history for the uniform and flags of the units concerned.

The figures are a mix of 25mm Wargames Foundry troopers, Dixon Miniatures officers from their Grand Alliance range, and some English Civil War horses from Wargames Foundry drafted in to make a little variety. Bases by Warbases (in 3mm laser cut MDF), and the lovely (admittedly mid-17th Century) flag is from “Flags of War”. Count de Vichet has suffered an arm swap to make him look significantly more heroic, but that’s the only conversion from the original figures, although the feathers are almost all green-stuffed.

Many thanks for the various Challengers helping me on the spelling and the pronunciation of the elusive Flemish name of Pfilips de Vichet. One of the fascinating things about the army of the Spanish Netherlands from the late seventeenth century is that there are many tantalising hints regarding the very significant forces raised in the period, but the hard and fast details remain often lost or out of reach (at least to an English speaking audience). I need to head back to my research notes to dig out whether I’ve mis-spelled de Vichet’s name incorrectly (in which case, many apologies to Flemish speakers across the globe, and the modern-day scions of the de Vichet family in particular), or whether this is a mis-translation into English from a Flemish text.

Whatever the answer, I’ll probably go into more detail in my accompanying blog post on the unit (to follow). The figures were fun to paint, having a simple colour scene, and lots of plain cloth to shade - and all without too much gold lace. For those enjoying these figures, rest assured there are some more to come in other Flemish and German regiments of Horse. And apologies to anyone who doesn’t like the late seventeenth century!

And here’s the full formation, with Count de Vichet acting as the commander of a brigade of Flemish Horse.

___________________________________

What an absolutely glorious unit of cavalry! Beautiful work Sidney. I really admire your mixing and matching of ranges to get a completely unique squadron of horses and mounts.  Your subtle arm swap for de Vichet and the plumage amongst the wide-brimmed hats provides a perfect flourish. Bravo!

I look forward to the expanding order of battle from the environs of Laarden!

84 points for you sir, including a few added for your 'green-stuffing', 'arm-extending' and 'flag waving'.  :)