Frei corps helmet crest

[deadtorius]

Hello all, looking in Osprey 176 Austrian infantry I found a description for a Frei Corps unit, the Limberg Volunteers. Uniform looks fairly simple so I thought I would make them up with minimal conversion. Their headgear is described as a helmet similar to the 1798 pattern with a horse hair crest. At first I thought this would be similar to the crest on a Roman helmet, but after pondering for a bit I wonder if it would look more like the crest on the French Dragoons or British heavy cavalry, long and hanging off the back a bit. I think Wurtemberg started off with a helmet with the long horse tail crest, or so I thought it had been described since horse hair is rather short compared to the tail.

Any opinions would be appreciated thanks

[DaveHollins]

I know I am just a useless troll, but as hazelbark and his mini-me clearly don't have a clue, i will answer this for you.

The Limburg Volunteers became the Archduke Charles Legion and a colour illustration is shown as a plate figure in MAA299, which is copied from a contemporary illustration of this unit at Wurzburg in 1796. The uniform is thought to come from those of the Belgian rebels of 1790 (or at least their suppliers) and the headgear is a Kaskett hat with a horse hair tuft, which droops away. The 1795 Schematis shows this unit in a forerunner of the 1798 Austrian helmet, but that was some plate drawer's idea, copied by Ottenfeld, who was then copied by Haythornthwaite in MAA176.

While Haythoirnthwaite can be excused as accessing material in the mid-80s was hard, I found the original pic in the Bildarchiv of the ONB in Vienna and then read up on the unit in Wrede, the Schematis and Krieg 1792. It takes a lot of work, which is why people like Hazelbark annoy me to the extent that I no longer do this research and have declined a few requests to do yet more from an illustrator and a well-known model sculptor. It might be worth pondering for those to back Hazelbark's view of the world.

[BrettPT]

This is interesting, thanks Dave.

While the style and sometimes personal nature of your postings may not always endear you to readers, you do know your stuff and your willingness to pass on knowledge is appreciated.

Cheers
Brett

[DaveHollins]

You might understand why I can be abrasive in my responses and perhaps others might appreciate that the windbags only succeed in driving out those previously prepared to do the work.

[deadtorius]

Than you for your response, most interesting indeed. Sounds a bit like the Perry miniatures who have a bread bag on their left side that I can not find in any drawings that I have looked at but both their plastic and metal figures have it. My guess was it was a body used for a different figure that they modded into an Austrian and they never bothered to remove it from the original.

Unfortunately I have already put the helmet on the bodies so guess they will be getting the incorrect head gear. Much easier for me since no one seems to make a 28mm casquet in plastic that I have seen anyway. Lucky for me we are not hard core button counters here. Thank you again for your effort and for posting the information, much appreciated.