"Scott's Grays" Topic

Where the Scott's Grays the only British heavy cavalry with bearskin helmets?

Scots Greys. It does matter, at least over here.

Yes

They went that a way ----->

Acutally my grays are aliens.

Willard Scott's pretty bald, as well as gray:

picture

As to the question, Wikipedia informs us (in stunningly apt fashion) that "They only heavy cavalry regiment to wear bearskins." More at:

link

Allen

Plenty of Busbys about but only the North British wore bearskins.

They weren't very practical:

Wellington was wearing one at a Grenadier revue once: it so affected his balance, he fell off his horse!

Grey – Gray.

I can see where the confusion's coming from.

Bill GRAY wrote the "Age of Eagle's" rules. I don't think he was a Scot though.

Blame the "great vowel shift" of the 15th/16th Century.

So, a large vowel movement?

^Insert your own consonant shift^

I was once working at an architect's office in San Francisco. I had brought some Napoleonic book to work to read on the bus or something. The guy next to me, my supervisor, mentioned that his ancestor captured Napoleon's flag at Waterloo.

I hadn't connected it before, but the dude's name was Bert EWART.

And yes – the only British cav in bearskins. Distinctive shape. Hard to convert figures. I guess that's why EVERYONE makes them.

In defense of reggie88 (I'm his faithful servant who has to paint them), surely Sir Walter Scott wrote about the charge of the Scots Greys at least once?

I'm embarrassed to admit that our central problem is, we have enough 15mm figures to make maybe 8 regiments of the Scots Greys (reggie88 and I are both of distant Scottish descent on our mothers' side, and make up for in enthusiasm what we lack in sober planning ability). Does any other army have similar-looking cavalry that these figures could substitute for? If I've had 2 pints of ale and look at them reflected off the base of a silver-plate serving dish cross-eyed with my glasses off? Were there any Duchess's Own Southwestern NorthEast British Dragoon Reenactors Provisional Regiment, on Appaloosas or Clydesdales?

Otherwise, we may have to have another Highland uprising, or just charge the French guns again and again and again…

In defense of reggie88 (I'm his faithful servant who has to paint them), surely Sir Walter Scott wrote about the charge of the Scots Greys at least once?

Doubt it, he was too busy inventing clan tartans. Lady Butler painted 'em though…

Back in the day, Stadden made (and Tradition still sells) Scots Greys in the 30mm range, as did/does Willies. We used to carve the bearskins to a smaller shape, and then use "green stuff" to make fore-and-afte bicorns of the line dragoons and dragoon guards fighting in the Peninsula. Very minor changes to the coat make them practical.

GdeP

Back in the day, Stadden made (and Tradition still sells) Scots Greys in the 30mm range, as did/does Willies. We used to carve the bearskins to a smaller shape, and then use "green stuff" to make fore-and-aft bicorns of the line dragoons and dragoon guards fighting in the Peninsula. Very minor changes to the coat make them practical.

GdeP

I was fortunate enough to visit their regimental museum in Edinburgh last summer. There was that eagle on display. I confess it brought a tear to the eye to see the fruits of Ewart's valor. Stopped shortly after at the Ensign Ewart Pub nearby to enjoy a dram in his honor. Even the wife thought the whole thing pretty cool, especially the dram.

"Doubt it, he was too busy inventing clan tartans"
Probably thinking of
"And close beside, the hardened mud
Still shows where, fetlock-deep in blood,
The fierce dragoon, through battle's flood,
Dashed the hot war-horse on."
a line from "The Field of Waterloo"

On Waterloo's ensanguined plain
Full many a gallant man was slain,
But none, by sabre or by shot,
Fell half so flat as Walter Scott.

:)

Well I didn't say it was a good poem!!

What it lacks in quality it more than makes up for in quantity

vaughan, accept my gratitude for finding the Walter Scott quote. So glad it wasn't from Abba, because I couldn't remember that verse.

"Doubt it, he was too busy inventing clan tartans."

Not him. Them fellers what did were Polish.

Allen

"Doubt it, he was too busy inventing clan tartans."

Not him. Them fellers what did were Polish.

Allen

Whichy is tragic of course.
How can one paint Jacobites when one can legitimately "make them up"? Why not, when the Sobieskis made them up too?
It's enough to shake one's faith in anal "accurate" figure painters.

I distinctly remember Ewart's sword next to captured eagle- broad as a shovel! I do not think it was a regulation blade…

Thank you lapatrie88 for defending my bad spelling.

I live in Canberra, Australia, and one of the original suburbs is named after a Scot who settled there in the 1830's or thereabouts.

The story goes that he claimed to have charged at Waterloo with the Scot's Greys.

After a few too many drams one night he 'reeneacted' the charge down Mt Ainslie which is a very steep and wooded hill and broke his neck…

"Does any other army have similar-looking cavalry that these figures could substitute for? If I've had 2 pints of ale and look at them reflected off the base of a silver-plate serving dish cross-eyed with my glasses off?"

Well so long as you have had the ale and you are looking at them cross-eyed etc., you could paint them as French Grenadiers a Cheval some of whom I think wore the habite-veste or single-breasted surtout at Waterloo (the Bourbons had been in the process of turning them into the Royal Corps of Cuirassiers when Napoleon returned. At that time they had been issued with cuirassier-style coats but not the armour). The saddle cloths are roughly the right shape so it won't be too noticeable in 15mm …

There are some pictures here: link

I've got Philip Haythornthwaite's 'Armies at Waterloo' which suggests that all the Grenadiers a Cheval wore the plain surtout but the link above suggests it may just have been some of them.

Bearskin caps…

I think every person with the surname EWART will lay claim that his/her ancestor took an eagle at Waterloo!

Having said that the film waterloo immortalised the Scots Greys for ever more… If it had been the Royal North lolly pop lickers who had charged knee to knee along with Ponsonby we would be collecting them too :-) Having said that, with the new French Heavies from the Perry's i am hoping above all hope that they will do some Scots Greys.. the metal ones are sweet, its just my purse that cant hack a regiment of them at this time

I'm mystified as to how figure makers can turn a profit on Scots Greys figures, given that nobody can possibly need more than 12 of them (or whatever, depending on your rules).

As for the question of what to do if you have too many, I'd just handwave a heroic defeat of old-style French carabiniers by British heavy dragoons into alternative history. Voila! Just as the Life Guards adopted cuirasses post-Waterloo, so too did all heavy dragoons after the famous skirmish of Nowheria in 1808.

Ergo after 1808, all British heavies wore captured carabinier bearskins until the 1812 uniform revisions brought in the Grecian style of hat.

The two local regiments where I come from were cavalry: Scots Greys and infantry: Black Watch. My father was in the Greys when they were using Centurion tanks. My first metal figures were Hinchcliffe Scots Greys (all 4 of them I could afford with my pocket money) painted in oils, in about 1974. And no, they don't look much like anything else. Sell 'em.

Wellington was wearing one at a Grenadier revue once: it so affected his balance, he fell off his horse!

Are they sure it wasn't because of his nose?

And I thought the thread was going to be about American War of 1812 troops under Scott wearing grey coats.

Wasn't the Scots Greys sword an amalgum of the 1796 Light and heavy cavalry swords, in that it was slightly curved, like the Light, but longer, broader, and heavier, like the Heavy cavalry sword.

John

Standard dragoon saber. I've seen Ewart's in Edinbourgh Castle. Straight as an arrow.

Does anybody have an authoritative source on NCO distinctions? I've been trying to do an SargeantEwart diorama. Gold in the jacket braid? I need a verbal description as well as pictures.

Many thanks

I'm mystified as to how figure makers can turn a profit on Scots Greys figures

It's the Old Guard Syndrome. Show me a Napoleonic British gamer without the Scots Greys and I'll show you one who has only just started or is the one ornery cuss in a million whose keyboard has just started warming up now.

A poor copy of the Austrian pallasch, without its balance, and with a hatchet point rather than a spear point.

I thought the same, Andygamer!! As far as Scots Greys figs go, I find they carve down to a watering cap/shako common amongst British HC prior to the Regent's fashion faux-pas!

picture of the Stadden figures in 30mm BdP from the collection of Jinny Esten painted in the 1970's as part of Fred Vietmeyer's old gaming group. Will

nice to see some stadden figures ready for the gaming table. thanks for posting that picture fb. fubar

Yes, the Scots Greys can readily be converted into other British Dragoon/Dragoon Guards types by use of pliers and blades, that is, squeeze the metal (or even plastic, as I did with Esci figures years ago) into approximately the shape of the comb on the helmet, then carve and smoothe with the blade, and get some variety by shaping the horse-hair crest- blowing in the wind, that is – differently for each figure. But SJDonovan's idea for the Grenadiers a Cheval is a good one; even if rider and saddle are cast together, it should be possible. Thanks for that suggestion.

Incidentally, in Scott's dreadful "Field of Waterloo", there's a line about Saint George, the patron Saint of the isle (i.e. of Britain). As clear an indication as one could wish that the British State, like other oppressive, artificial political constructs, has as part of its mission the suppression of minorities within its bounds (George is the Patron Saint of England, not Scotland, Wales or Ireland). How interesting that Scott is hailed as a Scottish patriot, when in fact he was a ruthless Tory apologist for a repressive government, and, as has been hinted already, a perpetrator of a fraudulent view of the history and culture of the land in which he was born. No wonder statues of him are on big, impressive structures in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, while in the capital, at least, the far greater figure of Robert Burns is ignored.

All right, ranting over.