Tuesday, February 28, 2006

A Couple of New Recruits


The pikeman (left foreground) still needs his pike of course.

The mould that produced the Gunner in the green coat was an absolute bugger to cast. I think I had to try about something like eight times, and vent the mould in about four places to get it starting to work satisfactorily! Anyone got any hints or tips they'd like to share?

I think he looks nice now, though...

Can anyone tell me when the Saxon Army abandoned the pike in favour of the bayonet?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't recall the source; but I believe that it was in the very late 1690s. At any rate, by the time the GNW rolled around in 1700 they were no longer using the pike -- at least generally (an occassional unit might possibly not have its replacement muskets yet).

The Russians WERE still using the pike and your figure could easily be Russian. Of course the Swedes were too -- but they had turnbacks on their uniforms.

Hope that this helps. And, oh yes, while the most common uniform color of the Russians was green with red cuffs (well look at your figure), they had many other combinations as well -- at least according to Osprey's MAA books on Peter the Great's army.


-- "Bluebear" Jeff

Bloggerator said...

G'Day Jeff, thanks for that. I was just flicking through my copy of Knotel las night in bed (as you do...) and came across a not there that has 1693 as the year pikes got dropped by the Saxons.

Maybe this bloke could be a Dane? BAck to the books on that.

I've not done a lot of research on the GNW before and always assumed it was an affair between Russia and Sweden. Now I'm finding out there were Danes, Prussians, Saxons and Poles in the mix, too...

Anonymous said...

Hi, Greg,

If I remember right, the Danes adopted double-breasted coats for their infatry around 1700, so they're out! Pity, really - one of the few excuses to have a yellow-coated regiment.

John

Bloggerator said...

Bother! It'll have to be Saxons then! The coats aren't really right for that either.... at least for the 1720s and 30s, but I'll just have to persevere.