johnnybach
Major General
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2010
- Messages
- 13,663
Cheers Ray - proves the worth of sharing whatever we find - as I'm very much a newcomer to this famous group of Cavalry too. I have long admired them - though had been unable to find suitable larger castings - to make them up for myself before. Glad I didn't now - as these are a far more convenient size for me now - and just magnificent castings, from both suppliers.
Again, as I understand it - the Wolf, Lynx and Bear-skin wraps - were rather surprisingly, reserved for the Senior Command Officers (See towards the end of that Wikipedia article). Doubtless your new books will disclose that too - with pics! ( which are MOST useful to me, of course - and maybe your painting guy in St Petersburg too.) An e-mail to him with pics of what you want - might save a lot of words. Language difficulties can't help much either?{sm2}
As regards most of the paintings you see - showing Hussars wearing cat pelts - well, I guess the artist's eye would have been drawn to those with the most colourful clothing - so they chose to paint those. As a painter myself - I find the same problem with almost every illustrated book I pick up. Usually, the MOST colourful uniforms are reserved for the Officers - with lots of gold and fur being evident. It's often very difficult to find illustrations of the ordinary soldiers - as they are LESS colourful. Speaking as a former soldier myself - we often used to refer ( in rather derogatory terms) to Officers as "Decorations" - meaning that we (happily), rarely saw most of them, most of the time that any work was going on - but they would frequently turn up in their best togs for parades and stuff like that.
I read that the junior officers in the Winged Hussars - often had 2-5 troops under them - so that ratio would probably be about right for any small groups.(Wiki article again). They would probably be Senior NCO's - in our understanding today. Groups around the Standards - or Drummers and Trumpeters - often had more junior officers too - so the ratio of these guys wearing cat-skins might be higher than we expect, nowadays.
Don't forget, however - that the ordinary soldiers probably also wore cloth wraps too (when it was cold). Having been to Poland during the winter - I can confirm it's mighty cold there in winter-time!{eek3} If you can't see an animal head or tail on them - they may just be wearing cloth throws over their burnished armour.
Again, if you haven't already done so, check out "Google Images" Ray, - there are lots of leads available there - and this is usually my first port of call - when I begin any research for uniform detail. The last pic I posted came from that source - though the guy on foot - wears no wrap at all.
Great subject though Ray - and thanks for getting me going with this project, by showing your current troops!
jb
