03.03.07
Eureka Arquebussiers de Grassin (AdG)
Brent Nosworthy has a nice article about the AdG in the Seven Years War Association Journal (Winter 2003 issue – available from MagWeb)and says the following:
A January 1st 1744 ordinance authorized Simon Claude, Chevalier de Grassin, a captain in the Picardie regiment, to raise a corps of light troops. These would become to known as the Arquebusiers de Grassin. This grant was in return for the distinguished action and zeal Monsieur Grassin had shown as a “partisan” in the Bohemian and Bavarian campaigns.
Formed at Metz, the corps was 1200 men strong, containing 900 fantassins (a contemporary term for “infantryman”) and 300 cavaliers (cavalrymen). The cadre of this corps was provided on January 30th through the amalgamation of the compagnie franches de fusiliers de Dulimont, de Vandal, de Bayel, & de Bidache as well as the compagnies franches de dragons de Rhomberg and Bidache.
The same issue has a nice section on the flags of the AdG, although I was a bit surprised to find that light infantry carried a flag.
The fine folks at Eureka Miniatures produced a nice selection of the AdG for their 100 Club recently and I was able to take advantage of the deal to build up a light battalion of around 24 figures for OSW gaming. I think the figures are *very* nice – highly detailed, proportioned well, and available in a number of poses. My only complaint was that the mold lines on some of the figures were visible which is surprising for new molds. These lines came off quite easily, however, and so it is not a bad problem.
The photos below are something of an experiment. I used Liquitex Black Gesso for priming and then took the pictures, hoping the detail would show up better. My first pictures were fairly disastrous as I did not have the camera settings adjusted properly and came up with what looked like silhouettes of the miniatures. I then adjusted the settings for a spot metering on the figure itself and this captured the detail. (Clicking on the image will bring up an 800 by 600 image.)
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