The Austrians are coming - The Deutschmeister Regiment

Its been a looong time since  I posted newly painted regiments. Mainly amongst other reasons I was painting SYW Russians whos uniforms look all the same anyhow... but now as I succumb to the Habsburg bug yet again (Yep, I count the Great Italian Wars Landsknechts under Maximilian/ Charles V to the Habsburgs as well!), I paint the Seven Years War Austrians.

My first regiment were the IR 1 the "Kaiser" Regiment which were quite  generic in their uniform a bit red the rest white, white and more white ...

Therefore the second had to be somewhat different! I choose the Deutschmeister, IR 4 (I know the numbering came later, but its useful). The Name stuck after their first colonel Franz Ludwig, Duke of Bavaria, who was actually a Hochmeister Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order, the "Deutsch-ritterorden", hence the name. From their regimental history it becomes quite clear that they quickly became distiguished, a Leib-regiment, they fought the Turks and along with Prinz Eugene from Savoy, they pop up all the way through the main theatres from 1700 onwards.

So I made the decision to paint them a bit differently. The Austrians regulated and re-organised their appearance of their army at the end of the war (1762), basically to make them more"uniform", but also to save money - Maria Theresia was (or still was) like most of her allies and opponents more or less broke. So all the colourful trousers and  coats insides dissapear and all we have left is (coloured) cuffs and lapels only with some pompoms on the hat to distinguish. What I realised then was that most of the suppliers sell the later variant (with the pompoms) which is funny as it just covers the last two years. So out with the dremel and and in dark blue they got drenched, my Deutschmeister would wear the "old" unifrom!

The regiment distinguished themselves at the Battle of Kolin 1757 for repulsing the Prussian Line. Also Major Count Johan Soro with a battalion of grenadiers repeatedly attacked, despite having received a shot in the leg, he remained at the head until he fainted. The brought him back to the field lazarett were he again clear returned back to the regiment, where he finally lost his leg through a cannonball! - So I decided to let him be the leader of that regiment and "dremeled" his right leg to a "wooden" one. I somewhat know that I need such dedication in my new Austrian army, haha!

Also as my regiments need 24 minis and  I wanted to field them in Austrian Succession style AND Seven Years (after Lobositz) style I added a 4x4 of Grenadiers. (It also Gives ma a good excuse to raise 5 regiments to have a single Grenadier one ... I know ...)

the whole lot

The command base with Count Soro in the front, in the back a generic command base

The Grenadiers upfront

The Grenadiers back

Austrian war of Successions modus of deployment

Seven Years war modus of deplyment