Brunswick Oels

I have wanted to add this unique unit to my Peninsular British forces for a while now, and finally had the time to tackle it. Their all black uniform makes them very distinctive, and the shako plume created an interesting challenge as well.

A bit of history

The Black Brunswickers, as they were known on account of their black uniform (ostensibly worn to indicate mourning for the lost duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, seized by Napoleon and incorporated into the new Kingdom of Westphalia) had a colourful and interesting history throughout the Napoleonic wars.

The regiment, originally 2300 strong including two regiments of infantry, one Jäeger battalion and a mixed cavalry contingent of hussars and uhlans, was raised by Duke Charles William Ferdinand’s heir, Frederick William, rather than submit to the French seizure of his duchy. They supported their Austrian allies against the French but after the defeat at Wagram, rather than accept the armistice, William led his troops into Germany, seized the city of Brunswick, and then, in the face of the approaching Westphalian forces, conducted a remarkable fighting retreat across Germany before being rescued by the Royal Navy and brought to England.

On arriving in England they were incorporated into the British army, travelling to the Peninsula and reaching Portugal in the early part of 1811. At this time the infantry were renamed the Brunswick Oels Jäegers, leading to some confusion as to whether the entire unit were light infantry, but in reality nine companies continued to operate as line infantry attached to the 7th Division while the Jäeger companies were distributed to the 4th (one company) and 5th (two companies) as skirmishers.

Their war record in the Peninsula was not stellar, viewed as inferior troops by this time as they were cut off from their recruiting grounds and tended to make up the shortfall with recruits not wanted by the King’s German Legions. As a result it became a motley collection of prisoners of war, Poles, Swiss, Danes, Dutch and Croats. Having said this, they gave a good account of themselves and served in most of the major battles after 1811, including Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca, Vitoria, the Pyrennes, Nivelle, the Nive and Orthez.

They returned to Brunswick in 1813 when William was able to regain his title, and were present at Quatre Bras in 1815 where the Duke was fatally injured by a musket ball.

My build

The only Brunswickers in plastic are a rather uninspired set by HaT and a set all at attention (although nicely sculpted) by Strelets, so I opted to convert some Emhar British from my unpainted cupboard instead. It was a relatively simple conversion, swapping the heads for the French style shako and sculpting some plumes, as the kit was mostly British in the Peninsular War and both uniforms had lace on the front. These guys are the line infantry that fought with the 7th rather than the detached Jäegers, which wore a dark green jacket and were rifle-armed. They carry no flag as this was the case in the Peninsula for this regiment.

French Napoleonic Mountain Gun

I was inspired to try and build a French mountain gun, disassembled and carried on mules, as I have some Pyrennes games that may call for one of these batteries. Visual reference was slim on the net, but I did find a couple of later era mountain guns on mules that gave me a starting point at least.

A bit of history

The Grande Armée mountain artillery units were not permanently organized, but rather were handled by regular foot artillery. There were two basic types of mountain guns employed, a French system on a "chevrette" carriage (not quite clear on this, but I think a carriage without wheels) and a Piedmontese wheeled carriage. Both were broken down and carried on mules, as was the portable forge, ammunition and other items required of the battery. The Piedmontese wheeled gun, although not built by the French, proved to be the more popular because the piece was higher and less likely to overset when fired.  Eighteen mules were needed to carry a two gun 3-pounder section.

Mountain artillery was employed with good results in Italy, the Tyrol and in Spain after unsuccessfully trying to move regular artillery over the Alps during the Marengo campaign.

For more information:

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/07/09/french-artillery-napoleonic-wars-i/

The Build

Normally I am done a project before I think about posting, never mind recording, a WIP. I decided to make the unit modular so the mule models can be used separately as well, and possibly allowing other nationalites to be inserted as the figures. I confess, the gun itself, especially the carriage, is a bit of an invention based on a Gribeauval carriage, as I could find no good reference for mountain artillery that was broken down and carried such as these guns were, other than that posted above.

First step was to gather up these bits from my parts box. I used some old Airfix French Napoleonic artillery horses as they are a bit smaller and sturdy-looking, good for conversion to mules. Here I have already elongated the horses' ears and thickened their muzzles with putty.

This picture is just me glueing the bits onto the mules and attaching them to their washer bases. I used balsa wood for the boxes and have sculpted a rough carrying pad for the backs.

Next step was sculpting the belts, harness and ropes holding everything in place. I have three mules, one for the cannon, one for the carriage and one for the wheels. Ammunition would be on other mules but these will do for my model so it doesn't take up too much real estate on the gaming table. The blue tacky stuff is just to keep the horses supported while I do my sculpting.

Here they are with the basing applied.

Primed and ready to go.

Now the handlers. I converted some later war Hat French artillery to earlier war, as the poses worked. I probably could have kept them as later war (this is for 1813) but then they wouldn't really look matched to all of my French in the pre-Baudin uniform. I found the shakos small on this set so puttied them up larger with shako covers. Other conversions were the lengthening of the tails, attaching muskets, and modelling the open front jacket to show the vest. My sculpting is always pretty rough - these are gaming models and my skill limited!

I enjoyed the problem solving around this part. I glued a thin flexible magnet strip to the base and placed the figures where they would go.

Then I applied my basing material (a plastering compound) on the base up to the edges of the stands...

And finally I removed the figures while the compound was still wet and allowed the base to dry. I firmed up the edges of the holes with white glue, and now I am ready to paint. Because the figures are on metal washers with a magnet base, I can pop them on and off as needed.

And a few photos of the finished piece

Here is the unit attached to its magnetic base. I had hoped the assembly would be a bit more seamless, but it works!

 

The wheels, bucket and tools were scrounged from various sets, with a bit of sculpting for the straps and harness.

Other sculpting on the Airfix horses to make them more mule-like was the elongated ears and a thickening of the muzzle. On the Hat late war artillery figures I sculpted longer coat tails, a vest where it shows, and added the shako cover and new pompom, building up the shako a bit as the Hat shakos looked a bit small.

Most of the harness here was sculpted, other than that originally on the horse for pulling a limber. And I cut down and shaved the cannon to make it a bit smaller, although still probably it is large for a 3-pdr.! Poor mule...

Again, the gun carriage was cut down in size considerably, to be more the dimensions of the one in my reference. The cover is just pure invention, an extra piece I had kicking around.