A beautiful unit. Congratulations! I remember my first encounter with this regiment was in about 1975 when I got a book on the armies of the retreat from Moscow by Philip Haythornthwaite from the local library – full of colour plates of everything from the French regiments of the line to Bashkir and Kalmuk irregulars.
One plate featured the 3rd (Dutch) Regiment of the Old Guard. I always thought they would look beautiful on the table and finally, I see the proof!
As someone who at the time saw Napoleonic wargaming as limited to British, Scots, RHA and Hussars, and French line or light, Old Guard, foot artillery and Curassiers (yes, Airfix! and the Prussian landwehr set weren't quite on the scene yet), the Dutch seemed a great option for painting up the Airfix Old Guard set. I never got around to it . . .
However, there was also a picture of an Austrian infantryman (IR27 Chasteler I think because it had yellow facings) and that was it for me. It may have taken me years to come back to it but something about the Austro-Hungarians had me hooked.
Sadly, a friend (yes, it really was a friend, not a euphemism for me) spilled a pot of Humbrol #30 Dark Green on one of the pages while my brother was painting some French up as Russians (hey, we were about 13 and 11!) and the book was returned in a pretty sorry state . . .
