Saturday, 22 February 2020

Lally's Regiment and a few others in 28mm

It's been a while since I've posted and, thanks to my patient wife, this technophobe has resolved some technical glitches so that I can get posting again.
My New Years resolution is to concentrate on getting my SYW armies to a point where I can play some sizable games as well as some FIW skirmishes. The first newly painted unit is Regiment de Lally, the most junior regiment in the Irish Brigade of the the French Army.
Given my family's association with this regiment I don't know why I hadn't painted it up before now. Captain (later Colonel) Robert Stack led a company of the regiment as part of the Irish Picquets at Culloden and was wounded. He was one of a number of  French officers who ended up in the Inverness Tollbooth for their troubles. He was later transferred to Carlisle Castle and while waiting to be exchanged he met his future English wife there.   

The regiment also fought as part of the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy where in the intense battle seven members of the extended family were either killed or wounded fighting for the French king. As usual, the flags are by GMB.

During the SYW the regiment served in India. Another member of the family, Captain Thomas Stack had command of a company, but was captured at Pondicherry and later exchanged. Seems there's a recurring theme about family members becoming prisoners of war.  

Having fought throughout the War of Austrian Succession, the Jacobite Rebellion and the Seven Years War, the regiment was absorbed into Dillon's Regiment in 1762 as part of reforms within the French army.

These are some of my most favourite poses of  the Front Rank figures. To me the stance of the fusiliers is saying 'Come and take me on if your think you can..I'm ready for you' in that typical Irish way. By the 1750s many of the rank and file were from other nationalities, such as the German states, France and Spain. However, the officers remained almost exclusively Irish, where patronage led to employment for much of the displaced Irish Catholic gentry.  
These individually based British officers are also fresh from the painting table. Some of the Southern Strategists are getting into skirmish gaming and I thought I had better have some officers to lead my small units for the FIW games we have planned. 

I made sure I had officers with colour facings that related to the units that already have painted.

The French also needed some skirmish leaders, so I recently painted these blokes up as well. The grey-coated figures are for French line troops, while the red coated officer is for  Irish Brigade troops and the blue-coated figure can be used for the Royal Ecossais regiment.    


No prizes for guessing the surname of this dapper officer of Lally's Regiment

Another one of my favourite poses...'Pot that officer over there, old chap. There's a good fellow.' 
In keeping with skirmishing the SYW, I recently finished tarting up these Redoubt Roger's Rangers. I had purchased them second-hand at a swap meet several years ago, but at that stage they had only been undercoated in black. 


  Thanks for taking a look. The next post will show some of the terrain building I been up to.

Until next time!