Friday 7 October 2011

2nd (Dutch) Line Infantry


This is the 2nd Line Infantry regiment of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. The 2nd was a Dutch regiment, as opposed to a Belgian one. It was in the 1st Brigade (Ditmers) of Chasse's 3rd Netherlands Division. This division, which contained newly-raised and untested troops, was posted on the extreme right of Wellington's line at Braine l'Alleud. Chasse himself had been a general in the French army prior to the country's creation. At around 3pm the division was ordered west to occupy a position in the centre of Wellington's line. The regiment joined in the attack on the Imperial Guard late in the day, bayonet-charging the 3rd Grenadiers. The General de Brigade rules orbat requires 24 figures, organised into 4 centre companies and 2 flank ones.


Something I hadn't realised until researching this unit was how few Netherlands line infantry regiment were present in the battle. If you look at the orbat for the 2nd and 3rd Netherlands Divisions (the 1st remained north of the battlefield, at Hal) you see that many of the non-Nassau units are either jaeger or militia battalions. The General de Brigade orbat (which I think leaves out some units from the 3rd Division) has the 7th (Belgian) Line in Bylandt's brigade, the 2nd (Dutch) line in Ditmer's brigade and then the 3rd (Belgian) and 13 (Dutch) in Aubremme's brigade, the second brigade in Chasse's 3rd Division. That's only 4 line regiments, which surprised me at any rate.


As I mentioned before, I had intended to add to some existing figures that I painted a few years ago when the Perries first released their Dutch-Belgian range. However, I decided that I had painted those figures's tunics in a blue that was not right. Adkin reports of "friendly fire" incidents when Chasse's division appeared on the field late in the afternoon and the troops on the ridge thought they were being outflanked by French infantry. I suppose in the heat of battle one shade of blue looks quite similar to another, but I decided I wanted my Dutch-Belgian infantry to wear the same blue coats as my French infantry to reflect how easily they could be confused for one another. So whilst I previously used Foundry's "Night Sky 62", this time around I used "French Blue 65" highlighted with "Deep Blue 20B". I used "Stone 57" for the trousers. I painted an extra 4 light company figures on skirmish bases and then decided I might as well paint the other 2 in the pack. They can migrate to the 13 (Dutch) Line in due course. Why did I paint this regiment? Simply because I had the figures in the leadpile and, to be honest, I like painting these slightly out-of-the-ordinary regiments for the Waterloo campaign. Next up is the 2nd Light Battalion of the King's German Legion!


30 figures. Painted September 2011. Flag by GMB.







12 comments:

Ubique Matt said...

As always, beautifully painted figures and interesting history notes.

Regards,
Matt

Rodger said...

Great info and very well painted figures.

Willie Anderson said...

Great looking units Giles well done!

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Glad to see you back, Giles. And how cool to actually see someone painting units of Dutch-Belgian troops from the Waterloo Campaign. Never got to that point myself years ago while painting corps-level 15mm forces. Anyway, well done. They look really nice.

Best Regards,

Stokes

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

The extra attention to the shading detail on the trousers is quite nice. Another beautiful unit.

Mike said...

Another very good looking unit. Looking forward to the KGL.

legatus hedlius said...

Splendid! I love the Dutch for some reason. You've caused me to base some more of my Jaegers!

Achilles said...

As always wonderful painting Giles! Although all that blue and gray are not a big break from the Prussians you last painted... ;)

Doc Smith said...

After all the Prussians and English in the 100 Days its good to see someone do some of the other allies other than the Nassauers. Like your little histories with them too. If they bayonet-charged the Old Guard - even the 3rd Regt - they can't be that bad!

Cheers,
Doc

Paulalba said...

Top painting Giles, Really interesting unit.
Cheers
Paul

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

As always Giles really wonderful painting and info!

Christopher

Kenneth Cleverley said...

Been stalking this blog for a few months now, managed to resist posting any comments, and then you post this...

These figures are a fantastic treatment of a really under-appreciated subject. All your figures are amazing.

I have been painting my own Dutch line infantry regiment, using the Perry plastic French infantry (not very appropriate, I know). Noticed they have the far more appropriate Austrian infantry in the pipeline now, oh well!