"Maurice de Saxe Vignette Painted" Topic

Here is the Maurice de Saxe at Fontenoy vignette produced as a joint venture between Minden Miniatures and Westphalia Miniatures. Euroland buyers can obtain the vignette from our UK distributor, Crann Tara Miniatures:

Visit my blog for more pictures:

link

Crann Tara Miniatures web store:

cranntaraminiatures.co.uk

Crann Tara Miniatures blog:

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Der Alte:

Ah, that uhlan out-rider brings back fond memories. I have a 24 figure "battalion" of de Saxe Uhlans & Dragoons tucked away here with the rest of my 1745 French army. Poor beggars haven't seen the light day of since about 1989.

Thought about doing poor, gouty, de Saxe "in harness" but that would have been a rather major scratch-build, time better spent painting "fighting troops" back in the 70s…

Brilliant piece

Great looking little piece – "Get those cavalry committed over there"

Jim,

I really like the way you paint your figures. I wanted to ask if you start with a black undercoat.

Matthew

Very nicely done.

I have largely switched from black primer to grey primer, although equipment is always primed black.

Horses get a black undercoating of acrylic, then dark umber and then a rust color for highlights.

Maurice was painted with several coats of navy blue until I got the effect that I wanted. His vest is blood red with a bright red highlight. Flesh starts with a red brown base, then ruddy flesh on the nose, chin and cheeks, the regular flesh highlights.

The gold lace uses Rucksack Brown and then a yellow highlight color.

Jim,

Great looking vignette! That's the way to go a battling.

Jim

Excellent Work!

Here is an updated picture with the base finished plus an escort of Volontaires de Saxe that I painted over the weekend.

Thanks for sharing the way you paint the figures. The new figures look good too.

Matthew

Great for sedan chair racing conversions!

Looks fantastic…when will it be available in North America?

To be conservative, I would say that the set will be available within 2 weeks in North America. I have the Maurice figure, the horses and the wagon driver, but the wagon is on order from the caster in Europe.

I hate to do "pre-orders" but if you drop me an e-mail and indicate that you want a Maurice vignette, I will add your name to the list, but you will not be billed until the whole kit is available and ready to ship.

altefritz1740 (at ) yahoo (dot) com

Now if you live in Euroland, you can order the set now, as Graham at Crann Tara Miniatures had the presence of mind to order the coach component weeks ago so he has all of the parts on hand and can ship now.

Jim

That piece is enough to make me wish that I gamed in that scale, rather than 15mm.

If you ever get the chance to see Maurice's tomb in the Protestand church in Strasburg, you should doso. I am not normally a fan of the Baroque, but the tomb is magnificent.

Thanks Jim, will email you

That looks great. Nice to see character sets for the SYW.

Excellent model and figurines and outstanding painting as usual.

Btw on contemporary paintings, while Maurice's light carriage appears indeed as a two axles contraption (contrary to some far more recent images), the driver (again, contrary to some far more recent images) is not a uhlan but (like the men leading spare horses) a man in yellow livery – probably a member of Maurice's civilian household? Note the paintings differ on several details: color of the team horses, postion of the driver(s)…

detail:

and

detail:

(source: Praeteri Fides site link)

Would not be hard to find a seated or riding driver in miniature, but what were the details of Maurice's servants livery?

Different artists will have different interpretations:

Shouldn't there be some "actresses"?

Shouldn't there be some "actresses"?

Not so close to the front, Maurice would certainly not put daughters of Venus in jeopardy on the fiels of Mars.
To the rear, on another hand…

(source link )

To be really nitpicking, would not uhlans directly attache dto the Marshal be Blalcks from the companie colonelle?

"what were the details of Maurice's servants livery?"

From the yellow coat colour in both paintings, Saxon royal livery (yellow faced sky blue with silver lace) would appear to be a possibility.

So, how do these figs compare for size with Perry or Eureka or Old Glory?

Does it matter?

Well, Minden minis tend to be somewhat slimmer than "traditional" 28-30mm figures. The closest match would be RSM95s, now traded by the Dayton Painting Consortium. The difference is mostly in head and hand size.

Once painted and organised in separate units this doesn't show up so much however, and for a stand-alone command vignette such as this one it shouldn't matter. YMMV

@ Musketier;

Now I see RSM figures as " traditional" style! More like the Willy's and Tradition figures of ages past! I agree with your take on the command figure. I've got to have Marshal Saxe!! Not so sure on the OR's. I'll have to see some.

I would wholeheartedly agree on the intuitive meaning of "traditional", but apparently the term is being used nowadays to distinguish the tradition of more recent decades from the return to more life-like proportions, as were indeed pioneered by the brands you mention.

Still, if the last twenty years can constitute a tradition, perhaps it means that the hobby is getting younger ?
(Hope springs eternal…)

@Musketier;

I concur, heartily!