Friday 9 December 2011

Prussian Neumark Dragoons - Dresden 1813

Regiment of the Day


Today we look at the Neumark Dragoons, which formed part of 9th Brigade under Von Kleist's Corps at the battle of Dresden, 1813.

"Here, I must give the greatest credit to the Lithuanian Dragoons, incl. the Volunteer Jager Squadron, who had performed to the highest standards during the entire campaign ... for the way in which they carried out the next manouevre could not have been done better on the parade ground. I had them turn right about by troops, right wheel in squadrons and charged the [French] battalion in echelon ... We had to jump both the ditches which lined the road ... The French were in column and hurrying towards Wiederitzsch ... we got among them and there followed a great bloodbath ..." - Wilhelm Ludwig Victor Graf von Donnersmark


Here we have a small, but truly excellent unit of the period.

During the engagement at Liebertwolkwitz in 1813, the Neumark Dragoons distinguished themselves with a number of aggressive charges against the enemy.

At one point during the battle, it is reported that a Leutnant von Lippe of the Neumark Dragoon almost captured the King of Naples - Jochim Murat himself, and was heard challenging Murat to surrender at the point of his sabre.

That event is worthy of a much larger diorama with larger scale figures for sure ... but for now, this equates to a measly single stand of 15mm figures in Grand Tactical scale.

Neumark Dragoons - 1 measly base of cavalry, wearing what looks like their pyjamas.  Figures by warrior miniatures. Now, last article I was talking about painting swords dark, and only highlighting the blade edge in bright silver.

You can see the effect here in this close up - I think the contrast does look a bit more spectacular than plain silver swords.

Light blue Litewka jacket - quite an interesting surface to paint. I have gone for a 3 layer shading on this one, which at first I thought was a little OTT perhaps, but I reckon these turned out well. Simple dry brushing effect on the oilskin shako though.

Horse shading on these is quite subtle - sometimes its easy to make the horse look a little too cartoony .. but this subtle highlighting is more my preferred style.

Charge !   Uniform details are very simple on these guys.

Excellent little unit this one. Gone for a quick and simple basing scheme as well - just light rocks during the gluing phase, and then a single layer of dark green static grass over vallejo earth brown textured paint to finish it off.  All done.

I know as well - no cavalry standard yet. Still researching that one. No rush.


Found this one here online - its for the 6th (Neumark) Dragoons during this 1813 period, but I am not sure if this unit of Neumark Dragoons in Klux's 9th Brigade is the 6th Neumark .. or some other Neumark.

Any pointers on this one ?

2 comments:

  1. Looks good, Steve. Nash (cited earlier), lists the following Dragoon regiments in 1813:

    #1 Queen's
    #2 First West Prussian
    #3 Litthauishes (??)
    #4 Second West Prussian
    #5 Brandeburg, "Prinz Wilhelm"
    #6 Neumark

    So I think you're pretty safe in assuming this is the correct regiment!

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