"Von Donop's Grenadiers" Topic

Sorry but the title is wrong. These are Von Bose Grenadiers.

Drawer 2…Von Bose Troops

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1565_zpswkrfrhzp.jpg.html]

[/URL]

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1564_zpsnfpcrtcn.jpg.html]

[/URL]

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1567_zpsbrellpw6.jpg.html]

[/URL]

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1570_zpsqd2dhexb.jpg.html]

[/URL]

Tried a couple of close ups here:

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1573_zpsu9oaeuqa.jpg.html]

[/URL]

[URL=http://s222.photobucket.com/user/nevinsrip/media/IMG_1574_zpsyijogq4f.jpg.html]

[/URL]

Nice looking unit.
I like the animation of the figures. Who makes them ?

It's nice to see grenadiers skirmishing in open order. So often we only see them marching stolidly like automatons.

Well done!

They are all Perry Hessians.

Nice castings, good paint job, great mounting job!

I hate to be a spoilsport, but the Hesse-Kassel Regiment von Bose (called von Trumbach until the change of command in 1778) was an infantry regiment (called musketeers by the Hessians), not a grenadier regiment, and therefore all the troops except the Grenadier company wore the Hessian cocked hat. FWIW von Donop was also an infantry / musketeer regiment.

Hesse-Kassel sent only one actual grenadier regiment to America. This was the regiment von Rall / von Woellwarth / von Trumbach / d'Angelleli. The other four grenadier units were called battalions, not regiments, and were composed of grenadier companies from the musketeer and fusilier battalions. Each of them had four companies of grenadiers. Being combined elites, each such battalion sported multiple facing colors. One of the grenadier battalions was composed of the grenadier companies from the four fusilier regiments, one was composed of the grenadier companies from the four garrison regiments, and the other two were composed of companies from the musketeer regiments. Although only six musketeer regiments served in the American rebellion, the remaining two grenadier companies came from the Hesse-Kassel Guard foot regiments and were in fact the only Guards to serve in North America. The von Bose grenadier company served in the von Block / von Lengerke grenadier battalion; the other three companies had scarlet, crimson and buff facings.

To be even more nit-picking, the von Bose had white lapels and a black or very dark blue collar, and white small clothes.

The most recognized source for the Hesse-Kassel uniforms is a set of detailed contemporary hand-colored prints. There are various Web sources for this, but a very accessible one is vondonop.org.

On the main points these prints are considered to be very accurate – I.e. the variations in the small clothes (waistcoat and breeches could be buff or white, congruently or differently; although most lapels were the same color as the facings, not all were; most collars were black or dark blue, but some were the facing color; most lapels had simple buttons, but a few had lace patterns as well), and broadly speaking, the facing colors. All stockings were white, but the grenadiers wore knee-high black gaiters. However, there have been some color shifts in the 200+ years since these prints were water colored, so secondary sources are recommended for some of the facings. This is most marked for the drawings of the grenadier companies, in which the facing colors are rarely a perfect match of the musketeer drawings. The secondary sources indicate that the musketeer drawings are the more accurate ones.

The majority of the musketeer companies had unpiped lapels, but several had piped lapels. Some of the musketeer battalions had piping for their grenadier companies but not the musketeer companies. This was the case with the von Bose, whose nusketeer companies had unpiped lapels but the grenadier company is shown with lapels piped red. However, none of the von Bose had piped cuffs.

-- Rawdon -- I think the figures in the photo ARE the Grenadier Company.

Yup. I got all my Hessian info from Hessian Bob.

I hounded him unmercifully, until I had 17 pages of uniform instructions, photographs and examples.

Every set of figures (all 300 castings) was carefully labeled and sent to Fernando's Painting Service. By the way, I think that they did a very nice job for the princely sum of $ 1.40 something per figure. I caught a sale back in, who remembers when. A long time ago, I know that.
It may be wrong, but I'll take my chances with Hessian Bob any day.

My apologies if this is only the Grenadier company. At 29 figures I made an apparently unwarranted assumption that it was meant to be a battalion / regiment. I'm impressed! This is a ratio of 1:4 at authorized strength and less than 1:3 – close to 1:2 – at typical field strengths. Your total regiment must be close to 150 figures!

I'd be interested to hear from Hessian Bob on this. I and a friend of mine have thoroughly mined the available contemporary sources, and since he is an ex-pat living in Europe he has also visited the relevant museums. One thing to be aware of is that Lefferts is generally considered to be completely unreliable on German uniforms.

Bill does not do wargaming figures, but diorama stands. So the confusion is natural.

Rawdon , I should have said that I was not basing for wargames. I just build models and terrain for my own sanity.
I rarely even paint the figures myself, as I am better suited towards terrain.

And actually, it's 30 figures. I counted the wounded guy being helped by a comrade as two. I generally base 6 figures to a stand. 5 (30 figures) or 6 (36 figures) stands to a unit. No real reason for this, other than it looks good to me. I am not a button counter either. I'll go to the best source available (HB for this project) and stick with it. You can drive yourself crazy sweating small details.

I didn't even look at Lefferts or Mollo or anyone else. What I got was from HB. Now, remember this was maybe 12 or more years ago. New discoveries may have surfaced and new information may have come to light since then.

If their is a grievous error, then it means that I mixed the instructions up. Entirely possible.

Sometimes I'll make mini command stands of four, as I did with most of the Hessian units, because of the abundance of flags available. I have all the GMB flags and several others
from various sources. I've yet to get around to deciding what goes where though.