Montag, 28. September 2020

How did Mahratta infantry in 1803-1805 really look like?

 One of my biggest interests is the history in India from 1750 to 1850. Even my first figures which I asked a sculptor to make me, where Wellingtons Sepoys. 

Over this time, I had several sculptors working on this range over the years. Many of the figures I used in our Cuddalore 1783 diorama. You see the photos from it on the link.

One of my ideas for future projects is the battle of Assaye. The question was always, how did the Mahratta infantry really look like. Usually they were described as simply white, as shown in this painting of the 19th Light Dragoons.


But this is wrong. After the fall of the French in India, many French officers took service with Indian princes. The most famous of them was Benoit de Boigne. I buy every book  about the subject, I can lay my hands on. In the past the Nafziger collection was a great source of books for obscure subjects.

See here an extract of  "European military adventurers of Hindustan from 1784 to 1803".



The Telingas (Regulars) were clothed in scarlett uniforms, obtained from Calcutta.

In a French book about De Boigne I found this contemporary drawing.


Very difficult to see the details, but I tried to catch them. Yes it was me, not my 9 year old daughter....


In the end, what you see here is in my eyes the cut of a British Sepoy uniform (sent from Calcutta). Maybe they worked over it in time, to make the jacket longer as we often see in Indian paintings. Usually the Indians also paint the British with uniforms like a frockcoat. 

But here is another Indian painting, showing shorter uniforms. This time a longer shako (or Turban)



The question remains, is the last painting really from the period of de Boigne? For me it looks like in the late 1810s.

One thing is sure, the uniform of the regulars was red. And in my eyes the looked like Indian Sepoys. 
If anybody can offer more inside into the subject, I would be glad to learn more about it. 

Samstag, 26. September 2020

And some more Prussian Hussars

 Don't worry, it isn't going forward this way, but I had no time for another post:-)


Yesterday, Leonid sent new photos. Too good not to show them around.






Sonntag, 20. September 2020

Seven Years war Prussian Hussars

 Here now the latest project from Leonid for our Hobbyfriend Holger. After many Generals we now change to dismounted Prussian Hussars. A subject, we wanted for a long time to create small skirmishes, vignettes etc. 



Much more will follow. There will be around 12-15 figures with horseholders.

Donnerstag, 17. September 2020

Some news about Hagen and a new shop

Liebe Hobbyfreunde, 

 wir selbst sehen uns vorrangig als Sammler, Modellbauer, Spieler usw. - deswegen halten wir auch nichts von den Grabenkämpfen zwischen den Herstellern und möchten uns auch nicht daran beteiligen. 

Es ist aber immer wieder interessant, welche Stilblüten die Gerüchteküche in der Sammlerszene hervorbringt. So wurden wir zwischenzeitlich mehrfach unter anderem darauf angesprochen, ob wir beabsichtigen unseren Shop zu schließen. 

Deswegen möchten wir einmal kurz die Fakten schildern, damit den Gerüchten nicht noch weiter Vorschub geleistet wird. 

 Fakt 1. Den Shop "Hagen-Miniatures" wird es selbstverständlich weiterhin geben, Uwe Wild und Andreas Brune haben sich NICHT verkracht und das Hagen-Miniatures-Konzept wird genau so weiter geführt, wie wir es vor sieben Jahren begonnen haben. 

 Fakt 2. Zum 01. Oktober 2020 öffnet der neue Shop "Blackwatchminiatures". Dies ist ein gemeinsames Projekt von Massimo Costa, Patrick Ullrich und Uwe Wild. Über diesen Shop werden ausschließlich von Massimo Costa modellierte Figuren angeboten. Nähere Infos zu diesem neuen Shop erfolgen sobald er online geht. 


 Dear hobby friends, 

we see ourselves primarily as collectors (model builders, gamers, etc.) - that's why we don't believe in trench warfare betweenmmanufacturers and we don't want to participate in them. It is always interesting to see which style blossoms the rumor mill produces in the collector's scene. 

In the meantime we have been asked several times whether we intend to close our "Hagen-Miniatures" shop. Therefore we would like to briefly describe the factsso that the rumors are not further promoted. 

Fact 1. The "Hagen-Miniatures" shop will of course continue to exist, Uwe Wild and Andreas Brune have NOT fallen out and the Hagen-Miniatures concept will continue exactly as we started it seven years ago. 

Fact 2. The new "Blackwatchminiatures" shop will open on October 1st, 2020. This is a project by Massimo Costa, Patrick Ullrich and Uwe Wild. Only figures modeled by Massimo Costa are offered through this new shop. More information about this shop will be given when it goes online on this blog.

Dienstag, 15. September 2020

1870 Wörth - The charge of the Cuirassiers

is done - here the result. Again Massimo is at his best when sculpting cavalry. There is real action in the poses.

Donnerstag, 10. September 2020

Solferino - the diorama

Three weeks ago Massimo visited me and together we drove to Hannoversch Münden.There we visited our friend Patrick to take a look at the Solferino diorama.Massimo completed it with the last missing figures, putting the French artillery on it. While he glued the figures on the diorama, I made a short walk through the museum...