Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Trondhjemske Grenadier company.


Second unit for my Norway vs Sweden 1808-1809 project, I had done half the unit before I started on the light troops, but found out my bases were too big. In the end, I couldn't wait for the new bases to arrived and so saw and knife was used to cut 25x25mm bases into 20x20mm and a 100x50mm movement tray to 80x40mm movement tray.
This is a company(as I personally visualize each close order unit as a company) Of Trondhjemske regiment, specifically one of the grenadier companies. During this war, the line companies and most of the cavalry and artillery stayed in the towns, cities and fortresses. So the field forces consisted solely of Grenadiers and various light troops(sharpshooters, jaegers and ski troops) With a basic force consisting of 2 divisions of grenadiers(each division being 2 companies) And some companies of light forces.
During the battle of Trangen in April of 1808, Grenadiers from Trondhjemske engaged a force of Swedish troops, the grenadiers had to hold their ground while Norwegian light troops moved in behind the Swedish for a classic pincer move. But the grenadiers were starting to falter. That's when grenadier captain Nikolai Peter Dreyer, a man said to be ignorant and unable to du his basic duty as an officer, jumped up on a tree stump, he stood there for all to see, got two men to load muskets for him while he stood there on the stub and fired at the Swedish, stood there and got hit several times, in the end, he slumped down, and died a few days later of his wounds. But his grenadiers held.
in 1814 with Nationalistic fervour and Norway fighting for its freedom, he became a symbol.
I plan on doing all 4 grenadiers companies but will aim at 3 first. Nikolai Peter Dreyer will be their leader and I feel he should be level IV for bravery alone,(since apparently, he wasn't good at much else.)
I threw in two drawings showing Nikolai Peter Dreyer on his stub, an older one and a new one. Both showing him and his grenadiers in the wrong grenadier hats(as an officer, he should be using a round ha



 These took forever to paint, I only paint 4 and 4, but those 4 took at least as long as the 6 I normally paint.  The blue, red and yellow, are all painted with Andrea paints, so that's 6 layers for each of those colours, so I had to spend two days on each of the 4, one day doing those colours and the other day to do the rest. the flesh, black and white are also Andrea paints.




 Apparently the stub is still there were the battlefield was.

7 comments:

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Really pretty figures! The illustrations are interesting too.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Gunfreak said...

Thanks.

Bluewillow said...

Lovely mate, great history also, what brand are the miniatures?

Cheers
Matt
French Wargame Holidays

Phil said...

Cold, so cold...and beautiful, so beautiful...

Gunfreak said...

Thanks, it had rained during the night, so it was hard finding snow, and it was a balmy 3+.

Gunfreak said...

Thanks, they are Perry miniatures.

Gonsalvo said...

They look spectacular!