League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

Hi All
I would like to build an Italian army [not neapolitan]

They had metal lozanges on their shakos, the pictures of them show they had black gaiters, would they have worn these on campaign ?

Is their any suitable figures out their, any help would be gratefully receaved.

Keith

A quick google search gave me this link that this guy has painted Perry french up as italians.

Not sure if it is any use to you but i'll post it anyways.

http://chair2squeaky.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/01/

IanB

Hi Keith, my stubborne General

You like to do them in Full Dress or Campaign-Dress?
Italy as a somewhat geographical backwater of Napoleonic Europe
tended to use the older style uniform longer than most other french aligned states.
http://empire.histofig.com/-Garde-Royale,211-.html
So I would suggest to use the
Victrix VX0005 French Napoleonic Infantry 1807-1812
Grenadiers wear mostly Bearskin hats.
As soon as I am at home I take a closer look at it.

Hope that helped somehow
Günter

IAN
Thanks for the link, chap has a good point about value for money.



GUNTER

I am not sure whether to do campaign or full dress, Depends on what figures are available.
It was an honour to serve as one of you general's and I look forward to doing so in the future.

Keith

Below are two of the best links I've found for the Italians . . . hope they help a bit, Keith:

http://napitalia.org.uk/eng/histind.shtml
http://www.histunif.com/italie/italie2/ital000.htm

Cheers,

Bryce
Thanks, they are good sites, I think I will do the army around 1809 to tie in with my austrian's and French.
I also think it would be best if they were in campaign dress, so from the links that means they are in shako's even the grenadiers [bearskin were for parade dress only].
It appears even the guard regements wore shako's .

Any more info would be gratefully receaved .

cheers

Keith

Ray.

Thanks Ray
Got some very good colour pictures for 1812 Italians [ and a whole lot more].
I think I will give the grenadier company bearskins as the army I am doing is 1809 ish, I would like to do a guard battalion, would the Victrix old guard be ok ?

Thanks again

Keith

Italian LINE infantry wear uniforms of French cut, but in Italian colors. Pierre Perconte has the best reference set on the web (http://www.histunif.com/italie/italie2/ital000.htm) but it is in French. Still a gold mine of information.

For the 1st-7th Line, Victrix 1808-1812 French are appropriate. Note that the Italians did not have Eagles at this time - they were originally supposed to have lions, but that didn't work out, so they got Eagles after the 1809 campaign. The Italian Lozenge-pattern flags were not issued until after the 1809 campaign, so they fought under their Republican standards. Napitalia's units reference (http://napitalia.org.uk/eng/histind.shtml) is good for the 1809 LINE infantry, but the light infantry are for 1812.

Italian LIGHT infantry wear a uniform of French light infantry cut, but they wear a czapska instead of a shako. The czapska is also different from the one worn by Poles - it's rotated 45° compared to what the Poles wear. As far as I know, nobody makes an Italian Light Infantry for 1800-1809. I also do not know if anybody makes Czapska heads in 25mm/28mm either. You'll have to do a lot of conversion work here. I have several articles on the Light Infantry if you want.

The Dalmation Light Infantry wore a single breasted coatee, but the cut was otherwise in French fashion (except the elite companies only wore epaulettes). That would require a bit of work, but you might be able to do them best using 28mm Nassauers and then adding epaulettes as necessary. You also may need to do some head swaps to get the grenadiers right. Earlier in the period, they wore Corsehuts. That would be a lot of head swap work, but you can get the heads from Victrix Landwehr plastics.

The Italian Royal Guard uniforms were the exact same cut as their counterparts in the Imperial Guard. Use Guard Grenadiers for the Italian Grenadiers and the Grenadier Velites, and use Guard Chasseurs for the Chasseurs and Chasseur Velites. There were no young guard in 1809. Histofig has a series of plates on the Italian Royal Guard here: http://empire.histofig.com/-Garde-Royale,211-.html

The Italian units campaigned pretty hard along with the rest of the Army of Italy in 1809. Since they weren't at Wagram (except for the Royal Guard), it's most likely they fought in campaign uniforms. You can do some in full dress (the Guard should be in full dress), but campaign dress is more likely. Stuff wore out, after all.

Thanks Rob

Keith

Keith T wrote:Thanks Rob

Keith

No problem. The Army of the Kingdom of Italy was the first wargaming units I raised back when I was 16 (I got typecast as both Eugene and the Prince of Orange since I was so young). Eugene de Beauharnais is one of my heroes, and I have always been fond of both the French and Italian Armies of Italy.

I added a few plates and addendum above.

Thanks again Rob
I got into the Italians after playing my first big game at Derby a few weeks ago with Barry and his team.
On both days I had a small Italian division, loved the look of the white uniforms and the red/green/white flags.
I could not have asked for better opponents, nor a nicer bunch of players, their was friendly banter all day and very plesent evenings in the bar afterwards .
So far I have painted 8 line infantry in a weekend, this is a lot slower than my normal style but I want to take my time and enjoy makeing and painting these Victrix figures.
I am makeing little cameos with the figures [4 on a base] eg. two soldiers talking together, a soldier picking up a purse from the ground watched by another etc
Thanks again for the info.
Keith

Well I set out to do about 4 battalions, I have done 9.

2 battalions 1st line rgt[victrix][
2 battalions 2nd line rgt
2 battalions 1st light rgt
1 battalion guard chasseurs
2 battalions guard grenadiers
all above 24 figures per battalion.
plus
1st chasseurs a cheval[perry miniatures]
and a battalion gun[perry miniatures]
general of devision and a brigadier[victrix metal].

I tried to upload some photos but no luck..
All flags from GMB
Great fun, glad I did them, now to see how they fight.
Keith

hurry up Keith, let's see 'em!

Ray.