С Новым годом!

May the New Year bring us peace, prosperity, freedom and the blessings of God Almighty.

And 1/72nd scale plastic army men too.

Thank you Strelets for all the fun you bring to an old man in America.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

This must be the unexpected surprise. I double checked the masters for the Dutch Firing line and the Spanish Infantry in square and neither set contain this drummer. I could be wrong, but I believe this may be a WSS set of Anton’s that was unknown to us. The drummer appears to be advancing, French, Bavarian, Austrian, or maybe Dutch in advance? So many exciting possibilities. This made my week. Happy New Year everyone!

A happy new year and I do hope that peace will return to Ukraine and other hotspots of war in this precious wrld of ours.

Happy new year Strelets team!

This sculpt is wonderful! How exciting to have the hope of an additional WSS set (aside from already previewed Dutch and Spanish sets). Based on the tricorne can we rule out Dutch (low brimmed hats previewed by Strelets) and Austrians (large cockades on their existing sets)? Could these be ‘later war’ French or British, or more Bavarians or even Spanish (I can’t find the previews of the Bourbons in square to be able to compare)?

Any further clues from anyone?!

Happy new year to you all, a new sculptors work ? if so very good in all respects.

What a marvellous surprise and start to '25!

This drummer is another excellent figure with wonderful detail. I am surprised to again see gaiters and buttons rather than stockings, but he's beaut nonetheless.

Thank you Strelets,
James

The gaiters and buttons make me think that this may be some late war French infantry, as they had largely become the standard by the end of the war.

Indeed a brilliant wonderful sculpt opens up many possibilities , yes could be late war French but maybe used for other nations in WSS like Savoy , Italian States asnd the smaller German States, well done Strelets
hoping for a lasting Peace and Victory in Ukraine
cheers Old John

That's interesting Asher, thank you.

I always considered that gaiters were more of a mid-century military fashion, 'turning up' from the Austrian Succession and beyond, but I see a few comments that they were used increasingly during the War of Spanish Succession. My use of these figures is for Great Northern War and Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 (plus Great Turkish War for those delightful cuirassiers). I have only ever seen and read about stockings for the former and on his marvellous Kronoskaf website, Richard Couture (perfect surname for the job) notes for Austrian infantry:

"Gaiters:
made of canvas and used only when the soldier wore linen breeches; in this case, the stockings were replaced by linen sox; the use of gaiters generalized much later"

So, I reckon that I'll most likely be slicing off those beautifully moulded buttons for my purposes—although I have not yet done so with the Austrians that I have prep'd and undercoated. I'm vacillating since it's difficult to bring oneself to remove detail from a figure:grimacing:

A good 'dilemma' to have.
Regards, James

I had missed this previously on Örjan Martinsson's Tacitus.nu website, regarding Danish infantry:
"In the beginning of this period the vest and leg clothing (breeches and stockings) were usually in the same colour as the facings and lining. But according to Schorr and Höglund were [sic.] these items red in all regiments from 1711. Karsten Skjold Petersen claims however that this did not happen until 1716 and that the vest and leg clothing before that were in the regimental colour. Although it occurred in the battle of Gadebusch that the soldiers' stockings were covered by red gaiters made of red canvas."
So, an example of 'occasional' use of gaiters in the Great Northern War...

That’s very interesting James. I’ll have have to check that site out. I hadn’t really considered the appearance of gaiters into question until now. I know that while doing some research on the Kronostaf website (great source btw) that French troops did start wearing them during the war but I haven’t checked out what other nations were doing at the time. I know Marlborough himself preferred to wear gaiters over riding boots, which makes me think that they existed in the British army in some capacity.

A splendid looking pose there. Happy New Year to yourself and everyone else in the community! Always enjoy studying and reading these posts (seriously, I have Excel files). :joy: