"TYW Imperialist Captain" Topic

Well, here's my first foray into painting after a year's hiatus from the craft.

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Feedback is always welcome. Just be aware that I haven't done the top cote & matte yet, so parts are shinier than they will be. And I haven't done the final full photo shots.

Very nice!

Beautifully painted.

Er, aren't the pistols just a little out of scale?

JW

He's very nice indeed. (IIRC,plumes should be red, as well as sashes. So the next Imperialist you paint should probably have all red decoration.)

The pistol is surprisingly not that far out of scale. Horse pistols of the era could range to 60cm or more in length. That's roughly two feet Imperial, so this one is not too far out off the mark.

As for the plumage, red sashes, plumes, and ribbons were often used as field signs for the Imperials, but it was by no means hard and fast. I opted for the red sash over red feathers.

Thanks for looking!

It was pretty hard and fast. IIRC, Wallenstein imposed the death penalty for breaking the rule re red decoration.

"It was pretty hard and fast. IIRC, Wallenstein imposed the death penalty for breaking the rule re red decoration."

I'd be interested in seeing your sourcing on that.

I'm getting tired of people making absolute statements on TMP and then failing to back it up with at least some primary or secondary source. Give us something huevans!

The order in question was issued by Wallenstein on May 4th 1632. Of course it is likely that at least 99% of TMP:ers have no means of verifying if the above source even exists much less checking it's content…
There is a partialy quote in "Sveriges Krig 16311-1632, Appenix II" and the footnote refers to A. Mell's "Die rote Feldbindel der Kaiserlichen" (Zeitschrift für Heereskunde issue 37-39, Berlin 1932)
The colour dates back to at least to the 1540's and the Schmalkaldic war (Borkowsky, "Geschichte…." p. 104)and Wallenstein was not the first Imperial commander to enforce it's use in the TYW as is shown by Don Balthasar Marradas instructions to Hatzfeld dated May 18th 1626. (Krebs, p. 303)

Wallensteins order is often mis interpreted, there was no death penalty as such for failing to wear a red field sign. However in action the order made it lawfull to kill any man who did not wear the Imperial field sign.

Thanks Daniel. I have studied the period for over 10 years and have never read a death penalty attached to the red field sign, either.

Well, returning from the library, I do have my "source" – page 27 of the Osprey on Lutzen 1632. The paragraph mentions a death penalty, but is a little ambiguous as to whether it was just the sash which was to be red, or all distinguishing decorations.

As usual, DS has a far better source of information and has already provided it.

With regards to the Osprey Lützen book it is possible that Brzezinski is basing his description on another source than the one I refered to above. Or that he interpreted that source somewhat diffrently. 17th Century German is not the easisest language to dechiper. From one point of view the allowance to kill any man not wearing the proper field sign in battle could be described as enforcing the the use "on pain of death".

Just updated my blog with finished photos. I might need to do another matte coat now that I look at it. What do y'all think?

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There we go. Finally figured out how to link photos.

Very nice Faust;

Thanks for sharing.
Joep