Welcome to the Strelets Forum. Please feel free to discuss any aspect of 1/72 scale plastic figures, not simply Strelets. If you have any questions about our products then we will answer them here.
Re: John Churchill (and Waterloo, Scots Greys and all)
Thank you Graeme, the house will do nicely (well, plenty of space for an ever-expanding model soldier collection)!
Regarding the Waterloo 'connections'. It is interesting perhaps to note that towards the end of the battle of Ramillies in May 1706, Hays Regiment of Scottish Dragoons encountered and scattered part of the French Regiment du Roi, capturing colours in the process. Hay's Dragoons were part of Lumley's English/Scots/Irish cavalry Brigade, and known as 'The Grey Dragoons' already by that time; they became the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons, and their success on the field of Ramillies gave them the status they then enjoyed as an 'elite' British cavalry unit...and the right (reputedly) to wear grenadier caps, later bearskins.
Scots Dragoons as part of an English/Scots/Irish cavalry Brigade defeating French infantry and capturing colours....and all in the middle of what is now Belgium*. Sounds familiar, surely?
[* As noted earlier in this thread, Waterloo and Ramillies are really quite close, geographically: Less than an hour's drive in today's terms, a couple of days march in early C18th Army terms]
A pleasure to see these. Praise indeed to Minuteman and thanks to him for sharing.
With regard to officers, even regimental officers, we are still in the somewhat alien territory of being pre-uniform. Uniform = livery, livery = servant in contemporary minds, so it seems it was the best Marlborough could do sometimes to get his regimental officers to wear red along with their men. Matching the men's regimental facings was probably an ambition too far in many cases!
Thus, rank is largely apparent from the degree of decoration and subject to the individual's taste. Any impressively be-laced and be-wigged figure can be painted up as a senior, field or general officer in this period, and Minuteman furnishes us with a wonderful example of this.
A pleasure to see these. Praise indeed to Minuteman and thanks to him for sharing.
With regard to officers, even regimental officers, we are still in the somewhat alien territory of being pre-uniform. Uniform = livery, livery = servant in contemporary minds, so it seems it was the best Marlborough could do sometimes to get his regimental officers to wear red along with their men. Matching the men's regimental facings was probably an ambition too far in many cases!
Thus, rank is largely apparent from the degree of decoration and subject to the individual's taste. Any impressively be-laced and be-wigged figure can be painted up as a senior, field or general officer in this period, and Minuteman furnishes us with a wonderful example of this.