"Austrian Headgear in 1809" Topic

Inspired by the new Perry miniatures I am planning to tackle the Austrians again almost starting from scratch. (Previous force transferred allegiance to a new commander – for a consideration.) Therefore, before I start buying infantry I wonder if anything new has been found out about what they wore on their heads during the 1809 campaign.
Traditional wisdom seems to be that the German infantry were still in helmets, the Hungarians had the new shako, and the Grenz were still in their own design of shako. However, I have recently seen some references that suggest that the situation could have been quite different with a wider distribution of the new shako to Germans and Grenz.
Can anyone throw a light on this?

What are the references?

My references are quite scattered from Osprey to Hourtoulle for the 'traditional' view, but I have seen passing references to different views in anything from posts on TMP to descriptive lines about new figures. (Case in point is that the Perrys say that their new Hugarians can be painted as Grenz, whereas I thought that they did not get the new shako until after 1815.) It would be useful even if someone could say definitively that 'we just do not know' and then I could make an educated guess myself.

From my readings, and from some conversations with David Hollins :

Germans in helmets, Hungarians in shako. However, it seems that by Wagram some (or many?) Germans regiments started receiving shakos. Since shakos were distributed on a 'per regiment' basis, there would not be battalions with a mixture of both the helmets and the shakos.

Practical answer; I put the vast majority of my Germans in helmets, with a few battalions in shakos for variety's sake. Hungarians in shakos (well I have some in helmets, but that's because I got a very good price on Ebay a couple of years ago ).

Iannick
clashofempires.ca

My understanding is that the shako was first available in 1806 but helmets were only replaced as they wore out. I also read that helmets were only lasting about 6 years.
Apparently the Hungarians were first in line to receive the new shakos. And then came the German regiments. If helmets only lasted 6 years, then any regiment issued helmets in 1803 or earlier would need new shakos by 1809. Any newly created regiments after 1806 might also have been issued the new shako.

As to which specific german regiments had helmets, I don't know. I would follow Lannicks advice with the majority of Germans in helmets and some in shakos. Although if you already have a shako army, myself, I wouldn't have a problem using them in 1809 since no one knows for sure who had what.

The 1809 campaign began in April, so would German units at the front (or en route) be receiving new headgear at that particular time? That seems very unlikely, given the disasters that befell the Austrian lines of communication during the subsequent retreats. I would suggest keeping the German infantry in helmets, although possibly any units coming up from major distrubution centres might have been supplied prior to departure.

Clearly you need to paint up two sets of heads, with rare earth magnets inset at the joint, in anticipation of future research revelations.

As no one exactly known but probably in 1809 all hungarian and some german in shako I would think what the following project is.
When you want to fight later battles: all hungarians in shako and most germans in shako with some in helmet.
If you want to fight earlier battles, all gemans in helmet and some hungarian in helmet