Friday 19 January 2018

From SidneyR: More Flemish Horse: the Count of Bucquoy's, 1688 (85 points)


My fifth submission for the challenge is the first half of the Flemish regiment of Horse of the Count of Bucquoy. 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 Lords, and later Counts, of Bucquoy were important holders of high office in the Hapsberg dominions of the Spanish Netherlands, including the hereditary title of the Master of the "Hunt of Artois". The third Count, Charles II Albert de Longueval (1607 – 1663), was also a holder of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of Calatrava (both senior orders of Spanish nobility), and was a general of the Spanish Cavalry in the Low Countries in the later stages of the Thirty Years War. The regiment of Horse recruited by the third Count, then passed to his son, the 4th Count (being one of thirteen children of the third Count). So, there's noble pedigree a-plenty in the regiment, and the location of the Bucquoy lordship (now a commune in the Pas-de-Calais, but formerly part of the Hapsberg territories in Flanders), makes the unit a good fit for my fictional free-Flemish city of Laarden in 1688.



The figures in this submission are all 25mm Wargames Foundry from their Marlburian range, including the horses. They’re painted with Vallejo paints and the bases are by Warbases (in 3mm laser cut MDF). The regimental officer, probably not the Count himself, has suffered an arm swap to make him look more inspiring, but that’s the only significant conversion from the original figures, although the feathers are all made from green-stuff.


The figures were fun to paint - with the red cuffs contrasting well with the buff/ off-white of their uniforms. I’ve chosen to equip them with pistols (as I did with the Flemish Horse regiment of de Vichet). From the performance of Flemish horse in the Nine Years War, I don’t anticipate that their tactical doctrine would have been the same as the hard charging French cavalry using a sword as their primary weapon. The Armies of the Spanish Netherlands struggled in recruiting high quality cavalry formations, relying mainly for battlefield cavalry on Lorraine and Burgundian horse regiments recruited from Hapsburg affiliated territories along the French border south of Luxembourg. Equipping the regiment of the Count of Bucquoy with pistols as their primary weapons, and allowing them to perform a caracole maneouvre, makes sense to me, restricting cold steel melee weapons to the French and more aggressive Lorrainer Horse.



I’ve also added another ‘routed base’ into the submission. This is the third base (of 6) I had prepared in advance for the ‘Flight’ round but did not get finished in time for the first themed round. I’m hoping to finish up all 6 by the end of the Challenge. The figure are a mixture of Wargames Foundry, Perry Miniatures and 1st Corps. There's some conversion work on the mounted officer trying desperately to rally his shattered regiment of Horse. I added deep buttoned cuffs to his coat with green-stuff, and feathers and a large cravat.  




There are still three more of these "Flight" bases to come, so hopefully I can get these painted later in the Challenge.

Points wise, there's six 25mm cavalry figures = 60 points for the Flemish Horse.  The Flight base adds 10 points for the mounted officer, and half points for the three prone figures and the prone horse (so, I'm guessing 2.5 points for each for another 10 points).  So all-in-all, 80 points.


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Absolutely superb work, Sid. You are hitting it out of the park with your Laarden project this year and these equestrian chaps are terrific additions to your ever-growing collection. While the cavalry are lovely, I really have to say that my favourites lately have been your 'Flight' bases. I'm a sucker for vignettes, so I appreciate the 'stories in miniature' these little dioramas allow. On top of the excellent painting, I very much enjoy reading the historical background of this lesser-known period (doctrine, recruiting, etc.) as it places the figures within a broader context. 

For this series of figures let's peg it at 85 points to allow a bit for the conversion work. Lovely stuff, Sidney!

17 comments:

  1. I do look forward to these Friday treats from Sidney - lovely painting as always :)

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  2. Excellent work, Sidney! While I do like the history lessons and the troops, my favorites are the vignettes you make both for unit markers and table dressing. It'd be an absolute joy to game on your table!

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  3. Beautiful work - love the routed bases

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  4. Gorgeous work Sydney I always love the style in which you paint and the detail in your basing is just wonderful

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  5. Lovely work as always Sidney - I look forward to our visits to Laarden each week.

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  6. Yum yum!!! Nice work once again Sidney.

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  7. Sid, your brushwork always impresses and inspires, such quality and skill, just really awesome. Well done.

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  8. Lovely conversions and painting and really interesting history, it's a period I've skimmed over, end of civil war /thirty years war straight on to Eugene and Marlborough so I've missed this byway, so thanks for sending me down it!
    Best Iain

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  9. The gorgeousness continues from the brush of Mssr Sidney. Not only am I impressed by his skills, but also his ability to stay focused on one period and scale!

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  10. Cracking work indeed Sidney! Beautiful figure painting and great basing!

    Christopher

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  11. Sidney, when are you going to describe in detail how you get your look and feel.... We need some guides like you did for WW1 stuff, but with more detail on what you are doing rather than just colours. I keep trying to emulate your style and just have no clue.... Awesome work as usual!

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  12. These are very nicely done, Sidney!

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  13. Sterling work Sidney! That’s simply top of the shelf painting. The cavalry is a real eyecatcher but your ‚routed base‘ is the icing on the cake.

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  14. That buff and rust scheme is lovely.

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  15. Many thanks, everyone, for the very kind comments. I hope I can keep submitting something every Friday during Challenge VIII (now that IS a challenge!)

    Just picking up on a couple of comments:

    @Iain (caveadsum1471) - like you, I'm as guilty as anyone in missing the lesser travelled road (for English-speakers) of the War of Devolution, the Franco Dutch War of 1672 and the Nine Years War of 1688-1698. They are really fascinating in their own right, and are an incredible history-arch which traces the life, achievements and (arguably) failures of Le Roi Soleil. And there's some cracking battles along the way...!

    @ByronM - thank you very much, Byron. I'll be sure to add those to my blog during or shortly after the Challenge, as a step-by-step guide.

    Thanks again, everyone!!

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