"Best line infantry uniform?" Topic

I don't know about others but I find blue uniforms with red and white bits a bit bleurgh to paint after all this time. Same old same old. I've painted French, Prussians, Dutch-Belgian, Austrians, and British and frankly the prospect of several hundred line infantry is quite a gloomy thought. Prussians are great if you like black and white TV.

So if you were starting today, who would you pick, on the above criterion? I don't mean (eg) British because Highlanders look cool, because your whole army wouldn't be Highlanders. I am thinking who has the least boring line infantry?

French infantry 1792 – 1800

Well, this may sound odd, but I'm enjoying painting my Austrians right now. I've started adding "a lot" of shading these days, and now they are about my best looking troops on the field. I only game in 15mm and most of my Austrians are Old Glory, with some BH in there as well.

I will try to post some pics one of these days to show what I'm talking about.

But as for other troop, I've always liked the Russian uniforms when they wear the white trousers.

Cheers, Dean the Tyn Man

I always liked the Black Brunswickers, they're a stark, somber contrast to what the other armies of the time were wearing and as we know anything, facing colours included, goes with black! The Spanish army had many colourful uniforms that evolved over time… as did Naples.. but who wants to play them?

+ 1 for Austrians. Plain white sounds boring, but there's a wide range of facing colours. More even than British.

Pity about the flags though. White or yellow, that's about it.

Now if there was a nation like the Austrians for facing colours and like the Russians for flags, I'd be in there like a shot.

Brunwickers!!!

"Now if there was a nation like the Austrians for facing colours and like the Russians for flags, I'd be in there like a shot."

Saxony is about as close to that as you'll get to that.

For me my favourites are and always have been Wurttemburg, closely followed by Hesse, Saxony, Bavaria, and Baden

Wurttemburg and Bavaria.

Yet another vote for Wurtemburg and Bavaria!

I vote for the Saxons:

Nice flags too:

Taken from link

I still go for the good old French line infantry preferably in Bardin uniform. But of course the Bavarians have a smashing and very different uniform too.

I was thinking Saxons in the earlier uniform, when men wore hats not buckets :)

Early Spanish also deliver similar white uniform with colourful facings and pretty flags with a range of odd uniformed light troops and garish cavalry.

Would Bavaria keep cropping up if we actually painted them dark blue instead of the anachronistic and incorrect cornflower blue? :)

Mamelukes, the early ones, in whatever colours took their fancy…..

For Europe, the Bavarians in the wrong blue any day

I know what you mean about the French.
Post 1807 Prussians are also boring.

I'd have to say early Prussians, Saxons or Neapolitans for colour.

Bavarians or Brunswickers for style.

I'd say Prussians, but then I guess I like "boring".

For colorful, Neapolitans.

Bavarian

Ottoman Egyptians.
Uniform for Cairo Janissaries and Nizam-i-cedit, Sekhans as uniform or non-uniform as you want, and Fellahin in assorted shades of villainous disrepute.

Never bored with the Ottomans/Mameluk armies Just dump out the paint collection and pick a color. After them….. thinking 1805 Russians.
side note: Battle of the Pyramids 1798 time at the next Los angeles convention. Table legs groan under the weight of massed Mameluk cavalry.

1806 Prussians, and then Bavarians and Wurttembergers!

Battle of the Pyramids?

Intrigued, but LA is a long trip. Still recovering from NY overnight two days ago!

What scale and what figures for the Mamelukes?

15/18mm Ottomans: AB – rather frustratingly – do only the elites of line, light and horse: Jannisaries, Balkan Sekhans, and Mamelukes respectively.

Fighting 15's do the very nice Black Hat miniatures range. Lovely crisp sculpts, decent match for ABs.

Vexillia carries "The One Tree" range. Purposely made to match ABs for size, but the sculpting is only okay. It's a very complete range, though.

Bavarians, cornflower blue.

Pre 1806 Prussians, early French and French Revolutionary Wars

Persians.

Norwegian and Danish Army including 1808-1809 campaign, great looking uniforms and Flags.
Small armies as well so you could really paint all of them 😊.
The Swedish adversary army on the Norwegian front 1808-1809 also quite nice uniforms. Could even make a great campaign game throwing in the Swedish conspiracy and coup d'état together with the Danish Prince August taking over the Swedish throne, secret negotiations depending on the outcome of both the Finnish and Norwegian campaigns etc.

Re Bavarians in cornflower blue, the correct shade of blue is surely that seen on BMW badges? That is a piece of the Bavarian flag with a tyre around it. Is there some research that suggests a darker shade?

It's still another army in blue coats of course. Saxons, yes. Like Austrians but more facing colour bling on show.

"Now if there was a nation like the Austrians for facing colours and like the Russians for flags, I'd be in there like a shot."

Wouldn't that describe Russians 1805-07? Different facing colors for every regiment, plus the issue of the 1803 Inspection flags was by no means universal yet so many regiments still had the 1797 flags – i.e. TWO unique flags per regiment.

Re-reading the history of the 1806-07 campaign now, and the toughness and aggressiveness of the Russians is impressive, even burdened with all their command issues. If the Prussians hadn't blown it and had existed in any numbers to back Bennigsen, Napoleon's star might well have peaked in 1806…

Have a look at Perry 's painted figures. You can paint w yellow, green, dark blue and black fronts / cuffs/collars. One regiment with (3 BN) one without white piping, Norwegian army done! The Bavarian cheuvauxlegers can easily be converted to dragoons (1814 uniform though). Red jacket w yellow, green and dark blue fronts / collar/ cuffs. Red saddle cloth w white piping. Helmet w slightly extended mane front and rear.

I would have to go with Bavaria as the most distinctive and attractive (except for the somewhat silly raupenhelm headgear) among the significant armies. However, there are a couple candidates from the really minor states that are equally distinctive, namely Nassau and the Principality of Neuchatel. The latter, of course, fielded only a single battalion in yellow coats (the exact shade seems controversial). Nassau infantry wore green coats with distinctive buff-colored cross belts; they also originally wore helmets, rather than shakos.

I am a fan of the 1806 Prussians and 1806 Saxons.

Least boring line inf?

Napoleonic in Egypt, replacement uniforms.

David B

Poles of course. Best looking troops of the Napoleonic wars.

Poles of course. Best looking troops of the Napoleonic wars.

…blue uniforms with red and white bits…a bit bleurgh

Principality of Neuchatel

Very interesting, although as they're only one battalion uniform fatigue is never really going to set in…

Russians 1805-07? Different facing colors for every regiment, plus the issue of the 1803 Inspection flags was by no means universal yet so many regiments still had the 1797 flags – i.e. TWO unique flags per regiment.

Now that's talking my language…nice fit with my 1805 Austrians too. But just green coats, right?

Swiss perhaps

Poles of course. Best looking troops of the Napoleonic wars.

…blue uniforms with red and white bits…a bit bleurgh

Perhaps, but the headgear was pretty unique and distinctive, which sets them apart from other blah uniforms – same with the Bavarian Raupenhelm, apart from the coatee color, whether a lighter or mid shade of blue with contrasting facing colors, it was the headgear that gives the uniform another quality, in my opinion.

If you're talking about line as a type (as opposed to light or grenadiers) I'd go with 1813 Prussians for sheer variety. Yes, they had line infantry in standard uniform colors, then they had an equal number of reserve regiments that functioned the same as line with many different uniforms, then some freikorps like lutzow and helwig, then landwehr in huge numbers that acted as line troops. and the Thüringen battalion…

Of the French line troops ….
Neufchâtel, Paris Municipal Guard and the Mountain Chassuers always stood out.

Biased, because I'm enjoying painting Austrians presently. May change choice to Saxons, since Westfalia's Paul Hicks sculpted Saxons are next in queue. Meanwhile, here are 4 battalions of Foundry Austrian Grenadiers with Victrix mounted officer and Victrix flags, based for Empire, other than the mounted officer, all painted during July 2016:

Another vote for Bavarians in cornflowerr blue, Raupenhelm and all, followed by Prussian reserve infantry and Spanish

I have such respect for anyone who actually chooses to work in white for uniforms….especially to that standard.

Give me boring old blue (if you make it as dark as it needs to be) red (if you tone it down) or green (but there are dozens of Vallejo greens and what seems quite right for 95th, does not do for dragoons of Boney, none then does for Lithuanian Tartars etc)

I have always wanted to do those Perry Bavarian infantry suddenly hit by a volley or canister (but they must be in cornflower blue…it looks just like what I always grew up thinking Bavarians just looked like).

Like Boney's artillery train. A really fetching light grey/blue, in my memory, not what I saw in la Musee de l'Armee…..however authentic that was

After 1808 the Spanish army became very ad hoc. Brown became very common, but you would find blue, gray and green uniforms. What ever the British sent or the Spanish could manufacture themselves. Unless somebody wrote an account or took the time to sketch a regiment's uniform it makes it difficult to know what they were wearing at any particular time. So brown being the easiest color that Spain could produce would probably be the most common. Men at Arms #332 gives you a good idea how varied the Spanish army became once their white uniforms wore out. So if you prefer an army where your not constantly painting the same color over and over, the Spanish are a good choice.

Here's a print by Knotel that show some of the variety that Spain had from 1809 until the British started sending a more standard blue uniform in 1812.

I like the kingdom of holland troops

I think the secret is to alternate regiments…

battalion of Brits, then a battalion of French, battalion of Highlanders, another battalion of French, battalion of Cacadores, another battalion of French…