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Re: A challenge for Strelets

count me in I would love to see a French band. i have a couple of small ones from the old staff set augmented by the SHQ figures, to go along with several bases of drummers led by the excellent drum majors made by Franznap.

Also have mounted musicians for the carabiniers (inc kettle drum) and dragoons that i got a few years ago from a guy who had a small but excellent ranges made in resin but sadly no longer seems to be around

Re: A challenge for Strelets

If Strelets were actually going to make a band they should follow this as a guideline.

A contemporary German print showing the MINIMUM! complement of a French Napoleonic infantry band, c.1810 +/-. Please take note of the handling and design of the contemporary instruments, some of which are no longer in use today while others have changed their look. From left to right: - serpent (held almost horizontally here), bassoon, four clarinets, cymbals, big drum (today called bass drum but looking entirely different from modern bass drums, more like an enlarged military snare drum, and carried quite low, in front of the abdomen and thighs), jingling johnny (topped by a small eagle), triangle, flute, trumpet, trombone (in this case with rear-facing bell), and horn.

https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension%3D849x10000:format%3Djpg/path/s0f3d0a9406ee39f7/image/i8a9c9b65c7e5cd11/version/1585999720/image.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.nowikoff.de/gie%25C3%259Fformen-moulds/54mm-figuren/&h=258&w=849&tbnid=oN2vxAVoeg5xfM&tbnh=124&tbnw=408&usg=AI4_-kRDJkYBOeXrtQ0_5G94N3d-SnS03w&vet=1&docid=FMUdmFDZ4o-6CM&hl=de


And here we have British Napoleonic bandsmen as shown on two plates representing bandsmen of The Duke of Gloucester's or 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (Scots Guards) regiment in 1811.

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/images3/scotsguardsband1811large.jpg

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/images3/scotsguardsband1811blarge.jpg

Note that these two plates do NOT show the full complement of the band but represent each instrument in use just once, the only exception being the clarinet which was represented twice for the simple reason that the separately listed 'Master of the Band' was playing a clarinet as well (bandmasters did not use conductor's staffs at the time but played an instrument as well, mostly the clarinet; conductor staffs were a post-Napoleonic development and were used first by civilian bandmasters). Several of the instruments shown would have been represented at least twice.

In c. 1805, the complement of the Scots Guards band was as follows: 1 Small [or 'Octave'] Flute [also known as a 'Piccolo'], 3 Hautboys [oboes], 1 Small Clarinett, 6 'Grand Clarinetts' ['Small' and 'Grand' were differently pitched], 2 Bassoons, 3 Trombones, 2 Trumpets, 2 French Horns, 1 Serpent, 1 Bass Horn, Drums, Tambourine and Cymbals (s. Trevor Herbert/Helen Barlow, Music & The British Military, Oxford 2013, p.304). I.e., 25+ bandsmen.

The 1811 pictures also show a 'Triangle', and the drums used were of three kinds: a single 'Kettle Drum', a 'Small Drum' (which most probably would have been a 'Tenor Drum' without a snare, contrary to the ordinary military drum), with elongated shell, and a 'Great Drum' (also known as 'Big Drum' ['Grosse Caisse', as the French called it] or 'Long Drum' at the time, today's bass drum; note the elongated shape of this 'Great Drum'; others were shaped like ordinary military drums but bigger. So, again, these drums look different from modern bass drums).
The band may also have had a jingling johnny (known as 'Turkish Crescent' or, as the French said, 'Chapeau Chinois', or 'Bonnet Chinois') but jingling johnnies apparently were considered sort of regimental bands' standards rather than true instruments. So, despite being very much en vogue with both military and civilian bands at the time, they were never mentioned in musical scores (contrary to great drums, cymbals, and even triangles). They were shaken up and down or pinwheeled to give (or support) the beat and produce kind of a jingling drone.

The French carabinier trumpeter and kettledrummer as well as the French dragoon band were made by Napoleon Figurines, owner and sculptor Eric Bahlouli. It's really a great pity he quit business.

Re: A challenge for Strelets

Handlewithcare
If Strelets were actually going to make a band they should follow this as a guideline.

Quite a challenge then.

It sounds as if more than one 'Band' set may be required.:grimacing: :musical_score: :trumpet:

Re: A challenge for Strelets

'So what we need now is a Military Band.
They should include Bass Drum; French-Horns; clarinets and the 'Jingling Johnny'.'
You mean like the ones in set 013?

Re: A challenge for Strelets

Evening, yeah it is a good idea but Strelets has already done a French Napoleonic band. All for some more eg the Guard and massed drummers with drum majors.

Keep up the good work

Re: A challenge for Strelets

Bands are always welcome for whatever era. Even for WW2 for example a German band, especially a mounted band which I have seen on newsreel of that time. We keep dreaming.

Re: A challenge for Strelets

I would buy in order:

WWII German band, standing, playing.

WWII American Army band, marching, playing.

ACW Band generic for North or South, marching, playing.

Just get us the figures with the correct instruments and we can buy multiple boxes if needed to create the correct number of each instrument.

Bands are very popular in both HO 1/87 scale and in 54mm 1/32nd scale and have been for decades in the case of HO scale and over a century in the case of 54mm.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: A challenge for Strelets

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
I would buy in order:

WWII German band, standing, playing.

WWII American Army band, marching, playing.

ACW Band generic for North or South, marching, playing.

Just get us the figures with the correct instruments and we can buy multiple boxes if needed to create the correct number of each instrument.

Bands are very popular in both HO 1/87 scale and in 54mm 1/32nd scale and have been for decades in the case of HO scale and over a century in the case of 54mm.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog
I agree.

Whilst miniature bandsmen have a limited use on the tabletop in a wargames army (other than drummers on foot and mounted trumpeters), martial music is such an important part of the military spectacle in the sense of real world/dioramas/collections of model soldiers, that the relative lack of bandsmen in 1/72 is quite surprising.

With all the sets that are now available of ACW troops on the march, I'd have thought than an ACW band would sell well? I'm not sure that I'd buy a WW2 German marching band, but I might well buy a Napoleonic or ACW one.

Re: A challenge for Strelets

in vero strelets ha già realizzato un gruppo di banda francese nel set 013

Re: A challenge for Strelets: set 013

Set 013 - Napoleon's General Staff (1) - was produced in 2005. The set included 7 musicians, a bonus Russian C17th Streltsi drummer, and Napoleon resting his foot on a drum. At a pinch therefore, eight musicians and a spare drum.

The contents of set 013 did not constitute a band, and as the PSR review questions, it is not clear anyway why this disparate group of musicians was included in a Command set.

Whatever the case, set 013 is now out of stock just about everywhere. Time therefore for a new and dedicated band set(s)?

Re: A challenge for Strelets: set 013

While my collection is for wargaming, I have two uses for a band. I do like to make set ups of my collection to take photos, and so non-combat poses can be useful for those instances. But for wargames, I give a morale bonus if troops have a mascot, dog usually; medic; commander figure; mess facility; and musicians in reasonable proximity. So having a band would be helpful. Place them near the regimental or perhaps divisional command post to provide a morale bonus.

German bands often seem to be pretty close to the front lines in WWII, and I think were at regimental level.

In the US Army bands were a divisional asset and typically were assigned as clearing personnel to aid in the removal of the wounded when not actually playing music.

Military musicians were considered non-combatants. That is why they wear distinctive and fancy uniforms to identify them as non-combatants, and don't carry weapons, and why little boys could be drummers, since, in theory, they would not be shot at.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog