"Saxon Shako Covers - what colours?" Topic

Bonjour Chaps,

I'm soldiering-on with my Saxon army painting and have finished 4 infantry battalions so far.

Now painting the next 2 battalions and suddenly had a horrible thought that I might be painting the shako covers wrong!

I know that their are the rather odd hairy calf-skin ones but for the other shako covers what were the proportion of black to white/linen coloured ones?

Were the linen ones "French" pattern?

Anyhow I'd like to get this detail right so any guidance would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul

I have mine in a dirty linen colour; a grey-tan. My Saxon army is in 15mm so I don't worry too much over whether it looks French or not.

According to a painting of the battle of Podobna in 1812 – the Saxon infantry did wear black oil or waxskin shako covers, as well as white ones and also made form calf skin, so you have quite a variety to chose from.

Westfalia miniatures produce some nice plates for the Saxon army that are free to download: link

The plates no longer seem to be annotated but I have got an old version which states: "The most common variant of the Saxon Tshako seems to be the one without any Pompom and a black waxed cloth-cover. Also common were French-style Tshako-covers and the obscure calf-skin cover that was unique to the Saxon army." Elsewhere the notes suggest that the headgear in an individual battalion would probably have been fairly uniform (so most of the men would be wearing the same type of shako cover).

Hi Chaps,

Many thanks for the help.

Particularly pleased to receive SJDonovan's info on the Westfalia uniform plates as although I refer to these a lot I have never seen the notes that you've referred to.

May have to adapt my approach so that at least the majority in a company share the same headgear!

Cheers,

Paul

I had a look at the black and white photo, that still exists, seemingly most did have a black shako cover – some also the calfskin cover

Bonjour von Winterfeldt,

Thanks for this.

Helpful.

Cheers,

Paul

No, No, you are wrong, Where are your sources? have you even read the source material, in the works I listed. These ad homina attacks on me are tiresome, and its the same strawman argument every time. You are a digrace to the entire human race. Napoleons shako covers were the best by far, and he was reallyreallyreally, 'goodlooking'

Sorry, this just didn't seem like a Napoleonic thread without this.

John

Oh, LOL.

The "Guides and Research" section of the Calpe Miniatures website – calpeminiatures.co.uk – has details on this and many other aspects of the later Saxon uniforms.

Salute
von Peter himself
vonpeterhimself.wordpress.com

Chartreuse or Mauve. With feathers. Clash is the operative word. Paris is so dead this time of year. Don't you think?