Prussian Kurassiers von Bunting - Jena Auerstadt 1806

Regiment of the Day

Today we have the fabulous Kurassiers von Bunting, which fought as part of von Schmettau's 3rd Division at Jena Auerstadt

Original plate - by R. Knoetel ?

 
Within the Prussian cavalry the Kurassiers enjoyed higher prestige than dragoons and uhlans. The men and horses in Kurassier regiments were bigger and stronger, a factor important not only on parades. They were the battle-cavalry who on battlefield charged en masse crushing the enemy with sheer force.

3 bases of heavy cavalry, figures by AB. Once again, the AB range provides a variety of well sculpted figures and truly amazing horses that would look as good as any 25mm figures. The challenge then is to give them a decent paint job. This is one of my earlier efforts .. still learning here :)  Some details on the paint job are also a little different to the Knotel plate - all my Prussian plumes are black over white, which may or may not be entirely accurate. Saddle cloth should probably be red with white or silver trim as well. These will do for now ...

Yellow jackets (same for all Prussian Kurassiers in this period), and red facings. Grey breeches used throughout. Not overly sure on the saddle cloth details for this unit - so I have gone for a white/grey saddle cloth with red wolf's tooth outline.  I am not using a dip for these, but rather Vallejo black glaze, and brown glaze for the face details. I highly recommend these products, as they do a sweet job of getting pigment into the shaded areas, and they dry super fast with no mess.

Minimal shading on the horse figures here. When painting horses, it really does pay to exaggerate the highlighting details on the raised portions of the horse - that hasn't been done in this case, and you can see that the horses look a little 'flat' See some of my later work for a contrast in horse painting styles.

Rear view. You can see here how the shading on the yellow jackets came out - really superb when you look at the officer figure. However, there is no great skill to this - the Vallejo black glaze automatically does all the work for you :)

Another shot from the rear. Oh dear ... looks like I missed the flag for this group. Another flag on the painting queue, which requires some research. Hopefully I will be able to post an update to this unit soon, with their newly issued cavalry standard. Another little detail I have missed on these - the careful observer will note that the hair is dark !  tsk tsk ... all my other Prussians (and Saxons) from this period have appropriately powdered hair, as was the regulations of the day.  OK then, in my scenario, the Kurassiers just happened to be enjoying a warm bath whilst the remainder of the Division stood piquet duty. The bugle call summoned them to the battlefield with haste, leaving them little if no time to powder their locks prior to battle.  -1 on all combat rolls for fighting out of regulation dress !

The Kurassiers von Bunting gallop forward at the orders of GM von Schmettau. I have given von Schmettau a dapper yellow jacket of the same hue as the Kurassiers. Highly speculative ... but in my 15mm world, von Schmettau actually won this yellow jacket in a pistol duel that occurred over a matter of honour during a social function in Magdeburg some time in the Autumn of 1802. He has worn it ever since as a matter of pride !