Austrian Flags of the War of Austrian Succession

Captured Austrian Colors at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg in 1745.
Richard Knotel, artist

One of the attractions of building armies for the War of the Austrian Succession is the variety of unusual flags that were carried by the Austrian army during this period (1741 to 1748). The famous print by Richard Knotel depicts the Bayreuth Dragoons parading all of the captured Austrian colors after the Battle of Hohenfriedberg in 1745. Instead of the familiar SYW Austrian flags with the yellow field and alternating red, yellow and black flames, we can see some flags bordered in a checkerboard pattern or triangles rather than flames.

It is these different flags that has drawn me towards the period and the decision to build and paint my own WAS Austrian army that is distinct from my Austrian SYW army. Yes that is correct, Fritz now has two Austrian armies.

The death of the Austrian emperor Charles VI was the event that triggered the War of the Austrian Succession in 1741. His daughter, Maria Theresa, inherited the thrones of Bohemia, Hungary and Austria as the queen of each of those lands, but Salic Law prevented her from having the title of Emporess of the Holy Roman Empire ("HRE"). In order to get around the Salic Law restriction, it was Maria Theresa's plan to have her husband, Charles of Lorraine, to be elected the new Holy Roman Emperor.

Her enemies (Bavaria, France, Prussia and Saxony, among others) started the war that threw a spanner in the works and so the Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria was crowned as the new HRE Charles VII (not to be confused with the late Austrian Charles VI) in January 1742.

Some silly law required Austria to remove all imperial insigna from its flags, including the colors black and gold. Thus new flags were issued to the army in 1742. 

The Flags of Charles VI

We are getting a little bit ahead of the story, so let us go back to Charles VI of Austria and his flags. It was common practice that when a monarch died, new colors were issued to the army that bore the royal cypher of the new monarch. In this case, the old flags prior to 1740 has the initials "CVI" on them to indicate Charles VI. Normally, new flags bearing the initials "MT" for Maria Theresa would have been issued to replace her father's flags.

However, time and money (the lack there of) delayed the replacement of the flags and so many Austrian regiments went in the field bearing the old CVI flags. John Ray has given me permission to post two pictures of Austrian flags from his collection (images are copyright of John Ray and may not be used without his permission) and these depict flags that were likely from the time of Charles VI, but still in use during the WAS.

War of Austrian Succession flags from the collection of John Ray
(C) John Ray

The striped flag as shown in the Richard Knotel drawing. Flag and figure from the collection of  John Ray.
(C) John Ray

 John states that "my view remains, that flags possibly as far back as the late 17th Century may have been carried. Not in quantities as many were ravaged by war and time wear. However, given most hobbyists only show two flags to represent the many within a regiment, it is not inappropriate to use the last of the older flags a regiment may still of had.

Dr. Stephen Summerfield in his book "Austrian Infantry of the Seven Years War" concurs that Charles VI flags were still in use during the early part of the WAS. His book provides a nice variety of flags illustrations from the reigns of Leopold I (early 1700s) and Charles VI. So if you are interested in using some of these early flags in your Austrian army, then this book is worth having in your reference army.

Flag Sources for Wargamers

The actual Charles VI flags, alas, are not readily available for wargamers from the companies that provide paper flags for wargame armies. One vendor, Pete's Flags, did two sheets of WAS flags, but the company doesn't seem to be trading any longer. Hopefully I am wrong about this and if anyone of my readers has information to the contrary or contact information, then please provide the information in the comments section of this blog posting.

Nigel Billington has copies of the M1743 model flags and a couple of the Charles VI flags in his reprint of the book "Uniforms of the Seven Years War - Austria, Uniform Reference No. 2" . My recollection is that the original book was published by Greenwood & Ball in 1975, authored by J. Braithwaite.

The pictures shown below were found in a google search on the internet. I believe that they are images of Pete's Flags. The standard bearer figures look like Front Rank Austrians.

An attractive set of flags. The striped flag is from the Charles VI era and the green flag is the M1743 flag.
(c) Pete's Flags 2015

The green flag clearly shows the CVI initials of Charles VI
(c) Pete's Flags 2015

Mid-period 1743 Flags

In 1742, the Bavarian Elector Charles Albert was elected Holy Roman Emperor, so because the House of Hapsburg no longer held this position, it had to remove all imperial devices from its military flags, including the colors yellow and black in the flames pattern.

Dr. Summerfield indicates that on October 19, 1743 all German and Hungarian regiments would carry a liebfahne with a white field and the Madonna in the center, and an ordinairefahne with a green field, edged with red and white flames on the flag. The flags resembled what we commonly refer to as the "Hungarian" flag, however in this case, all regiments carried this new flag, called the M1743 flag.

Summerfield also notes that as long as existing flags were serviceable they were not replaced by the new pattern flags. The picture below is from the New York Public Library Collection, which is available on line. Again, Summerfield's book is a good reference source as it has seven illustrations of various M1743 flags.

The model M1743 regimental "ordinairefahne" with the "MT" initials.
New York Public Library

Late Period M1745 Flags

HRE Charles VII died in 1745 and his replacement was Franz I (Charles Francis of Lorraine), the consort of Maria Theresa.  Consequently, all of the imperial insignia could be restored to the Austrian flags.

The new flags are the ones that we are familiar with as used by the Austrians during the Seven Years War. The M1745 liebfahne was white bordered in black, red and white triangular flames. On one side it had the Madonna and on the reverse side was the was the Austrian coat of arms - the black double eagle.

The M1745 ordinairefahne had the familiar yellow field, bordered with alternating black-yellow-red flames and the double eagle insignia on both sides.

Here is an image of my new basing system for my WAS Austrian army. This is the Luzan Regiment and you can see that it carries the M1745 liebfahne. GMB Designs provided the flag.

Conclusion

I hope that this article is helpful to anyone with an interest in the Austrian army, or anyone who would like to build a WAS Austrian army.

Here is a work in progress of the Deutschmeister Regiment. I hand painted the flags.
The figures are Minden Austrians painted by Scott Alexander.

Russian Flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment

My hand-painted flags for the Russian 4th Grenadier Regiment.
CLICK TO ENLARGE

I finished painting a battalion of Russian grenadiers in their green coats and needed a pair of flags to finish off the unit. Unfortunately GMB Designs does not make the grenadier flags (yet?) so I decided that I would have to make my own flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment.

Per my usual method for hand-painting SYW era flags, outline Here, I went to Kronoskaf to find images of the Colonel's and Ordannance flags for the 4th Grenadier Regiment.

Kronoskaf - 4th Grenadier Regiment

You can view the history of the regiment, its uniforms and its flags on Kronoskaf.

Fritz Grabs the Colours at Zorndorf - A Vignette

King Frederick II of Prussia, after Carl Rochling (picture shown on the book cover above)

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Over the past week or so I have been working on the famous Carl Rochling vignette of Frederick the Great grabbing the colours of the von Bulow Regiment (IR46) at Zorndorf. If you are an enthusiast of the Seven Years War then you are probably familiar with the painting.

The vignette stands in front of the painting as shown on the cover
of the Osprey book about the Zorndorf Campaign of 1758

The vignette created from converted Minden Miniatures

The rear view showing the "battlefield debris" of sorts.

A side view. The casualty is also a Minden figure and the drum is
one of the "master" equipment bits that is used to make new drummer figures.

Another front view showing the conversion of the fusilier NCO figure.

How I Converted the Minden Figures for the Vignette

The pictures below illustrate the figures used and the process by which I created the the two figures of Frederick and the Fusilier officer from Minden Miniatures figures for my vignette.

I started with the Prussian fusilier NCO figure and made a small cut underneath the left foot so that I could push it flat to the ground. The right foot was cut from the base and a small saw cut was made behind the knee so that I could bend the leg back a little bit. The back right foot will actually be raised off the ground more than is shown in the picture in order to create a natural walking stride.

The Prussian officer holding a sword was used for my Frederick figure because the figure is already holding a sword in the right hand, per the Rochling picture. I drilled a hole in the left hand so that the flag pole will fit in it. Ideally I would have lopped off the left arm at the elbow and made a new arm, raised a little bit higher, with greenstuff epoxy putty. I am not a figure sculptor so I had to make do pretty much with what was available.

I then filed off the lapels and gorget of the officer and used more epoxy putty to button over the lapels of the coat. I added a little bit more putty to the front skirt of the coat so that it would close more towards the center of the figure. I probably could have closed up the lower part of the coat below the waist a bit more.

Finally, a new officer's sash was built up with putty, front and back of the figure. Frederick usually wore his sash outside of his coat rather than underneath the coat.

On the left, the fusilier NCO figure and on the right, the Prussian officer with sword.

Side view of the fusilier illustrating the change in the legs and the repositioning of the head.
The officer figure has a new sash around the waist on the outside of the coat, rather than being worn inside the coat.

Eventually, the base of the fusilier figure broke off, having been weakened by the cuts to the base, so I had to make a new base for the figure. I drilled a hole into the left foot and inserted a flat head tack or nail into it as a pin. The flat head of the pin provided enough extra flat metal to allow me to build up a new base with putty. The new base was not particularly pretty, but you won't be able to see it once the figure is painted and based onto the stand.

You can see how the fusilier NCO's head has been removed and then repositioned so that it is looking to the right rather than straight ahead. Its legs have been altered so that the left leg is now on the ground, rather than raised; the opposite is true for the right leg with the foot off the ground rather than on the ground.

It All Comes Together Now

Now it's time to take a test pose to see how both of the figures fit together. The fusilier is now looking to his right at Frederick. The fusilier's base still needs to be flattened out a little so that there is more rise of the heel off of the ground. Frederick looks pretty good by now. I did a test of the flag by taking a flag that was already made up - this being a Saxon flag that Mark Allen painted for me several years ago for a Saxon Project that is waiting in the wings. 

A front view illustrating the conversion of the officer figure into Frederick holding the colours

A Word About Saxons

I should point out that Crann Tara Miniatures is about to release a range of Saxons in the Pirna era uniforms. In the event that you can't wait for the official Saxons, then the Minden Prussian infantry with the Swedish cuffs are a near perfect substitute for early Saxons, noting that their grenadiers wore a Prussian style mitre, truth be told.

At any rate, my delay in launching my Saxon army has been fortunate because now I can use the new Crann Tara Saxons, but I will still use some Minden figures, the cavalry in particular, for my Saxon army in the future.

Let's Get Back to the Vignette Story

Everything seems to fit into place and work nicely. I finished off the stand with a Minden casualty figure and added a drum for battlefield debris effect. So now it was time to paint the elements.

A side view of the Frederick conversion. A Saxon flag painted by Mark Allen
is held by Frederick, temporarily, to show how the figure will hold the Prussian flag.

The painting of the figures was relatively easy. I purposely made Frederick's eyes a little bit "bug eyed" to give him that steely resolve that Carl Rochling captured so well. Frederick is definitely starring intensely at the enemy to his front.

I have talked about the von Bulow flag in a previous post on this blog HERE which you can check out for more details. Basically, I use the Kronoskaf flags Kronoskaf as a template over which I repaint the entire flag.

So here is a picture of the finished vignette:

The finished vignette with the hand-painted flag (using a Kronoskaf image as a template). A casualty and a spare drum are placed on the stand to embellish the overall look.

How I Base My Figure Stands

The base was made using my usual basing technique. I use Red Devil Premixed Spackle compound (i.e. wallboard paste) and mix some brown acrylic paint into the one quart container, using a little bit of water to thin out the mix. Then I trowel the brown spackle onto the base and around the figures. If you accidentally get some spackle onto the figure, then take an old paint brush, dip it in water, and then brush the spackle off the figure. Spackle turns highly runny when it comes into contact with water, so it is easy to "wash it off" with water.

Next I dip the base, while the spackle is still wet, into a tub of extra fine railroad ballast that you can purchase from any model shop. Wargame products companies such as Gale Force 9 and a few others also sell small plastic jars of the ballast. I let the stand dry for about 4 to 8 hours, though it actually begins to harden within an hour. The reason for waiting is to give the spackle more time to set and to make it less subject to the effect of apply damp paint to the base.

I use Geo Hex Brown paint, dip my large brush into the pot, and then "stipple" the paint onto the base, leaving some of the original gravel color showing. Stippling is when you put paint on the brush and sort of punch it downwards onto the canvas, or in this case, the terrained base.

Next I glue on some tufts (grass and some field flowers) onto the base with white glue and let the glue dry before applying the static grass. Dab some white glue on the places where you want the static grass to be, but leave some bare patches of gravel for greater effect. It always brings a tear to my eye whenever I see someone apply the entire base with static grass - it just don't look good!

Sprinkle the static grass by hand over the base, applying extra grass, and then turn the stand upside down and give it a good shake. I also tap the back of the base with my index finger to shake off the excess static grass. Now turn the base upright - pucker up and just blow across the topside of the base so that the static grass will stand up. You will still see some of the white glue showing through the grass at this point, but let the glue dry for awhile and the white disappears.

von Bulow Regiment - Minden Miniatures

The von Bulow regiment, second battalion actually, is shown below. I just finished painting and basing the unit a couple of days ago. Frederick would be proud to lead these fellows into battle I think.

The second battalion of the von Bulow Fusilier Regiment

The full battalion of 32 figures. Minden Miniatures and Kronoskaf pattern flags.

More Hand Painted Flags for IR46 von Bulow

Two smaller regimentsfahn (left) and the larger practice version on the right.
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Yesterday, I knocked out two more flags for the von Bulow Fusiliers, sized a bit smaller than the larger first practice flag that I painted earlier this week. These will be placed on my newly-painted second battalion of the von Bulow Fusiliers that I completed earlier today. I had forgotten to order the second battalion flags from GMB Designs, so I decided to go ahead and give it a go at painting my own flags.

You might recall that I painted some Russian Observation Corps flags recently using the Kronoskaf flags as a template of sorts. I cut and paste the flag images from Kronoskaf, make a mirror image reverse side version, and then stick the two halves together in Word. Once in Word, the flags are scaled down to a size that will fit in with my Minden 30mm figures.

The next step is to start painting over the Kronoskaf flag with acrylic paint, covering virtually all of the surface with new paint to create a hand-painted flag. The hardest part is painting the royal cyphers inside the black flames. They are so tiny that painting them to a decent standard is difficult, more so than with a larger flag surface to work with.

The command stand for 2nd Battalion IR46 von Bulow Fusiliers.
The figures are from Minden Miniatures, of course.

The reverse sides of the flags are shown above.

Here is the Full Cleveland image of the battalion:

The second battalion of von Bulow. I had to place one of the stands behind the flag stand
in order to get all of the figures into the picture. There are 32 figures in the battalion.

I will be basing the unit today, using pre-mixed spackle paste with brown acrylic paint stirred into the pot. The stand goop is spread around the bases of the figures and then the stand is dipped into a tray of "very fine" railroad ballast. Once the base completely dries (in about 4 hours), I will dry brush some brown paint onto the base (I actually use the "stipple" technique for the paint highlights). Following that, the bases are finished off with tufts of grass and flowers and static grass on the ground.

I will post pictures of the completed and based battalion (as well as the whole 2-battalion regiment) tomorrow, so return tomorrow for the update.

I think that IR46/2 will be one of my favorite battalions in my Prussian army because I painted everything in it: figures and flags. There is something very satisfying about doing all the work myself rather than paying a professional to hand paint the flags for me. A unit seems to have no "soul" unless you have invested your own time and effort into bringing it to life with your own brushes.

The von Bulow regiment is part of the Pommeranian Army of Prussians that will fight against the Russians. I now have 5 Prussian battalions (32-figures instead of 30) for this new army. My goal is to paint 10 or 12 battalions and then simply use the cavalry regiments from my other Prussian army (the King's Army).

Making Flags from Kronoskaf

Colonel's (left) and Regimental (right) colours of the
3rd Regiment of Observation Corps Musketeers, shown with
Minden standard bearers for the Observation Corps.

Click on all pix to enlarge

Yesterday I made my own flags for the 3rd Regiment of the Russian Observation Corps Musketeers using the flag images that are available on the Kronoskaf web site. If you are unfamiliar with Kronoskaf and you have an interest in the Seven Years War, then you owe it to yourself to click on the link below and visit the site.

Kronoskaf SYW Site

The link takes you to the home page of the site. Click on the link called "Armies" and then select from the list of countries that are available for articles. In this case, click on "Russia" which will take you to the page of articles on the Russian army of the SYW. There is a list of combat arms such as cavalry, artillery and ordanance, infantry (with subcategories for musketeers, grenadiers, Observation Corps, light troops, etc.).

The Observation Corps flags can be found Here

Regimental flag of the 3rd Regiment Observation Corps Musketeers.
(Kronoskaf flag image)

I have had some success taking the basic flag image, creating a two-sided flag, and then embellishing the flag with hand-painting the emblems and designs on the flag. The end result is a hand-painted flag that looks very nice. I have posted the original Kronoskaf flags on this thread so that you can compare them to the ones that I hand-painted.

Reverse side of the Observation Corps colours.

The process is as follows:

1. click on the flag image and download the image to your computer. I use an Apple system so my procedures apply to the Apple world, but I would imagine that Windows based systems use similar procedures.
2. open up you Downloads file and select the desired flag image that you want to customize
3. click on the image and using your cursor, outline the flag but cut off the flag pole and finial part of the image.
4. click on the Tools drop down menu and select "crop".
5. save the edited image under a new file name.
6. Open up a new Word document and insert the new flag image in the document.
7. click on the flag image - there will be a sort of arrow in each corner of the flag, use your cursor to click on one of these and use to resize the flag to a serviceable size. I find that 1.5" square or slightly larger is a good size for each side of the flag.
8. once you have sized the flag, then click on the flag agains and select "Copy" from the Edit drop down menu.
9. clikc your cursor next to the flag image in your Word document and select "Paste". You will now have both sides of the flag next to each other, creating a two-sided flag.
10. Now you can print off your flag on a color printer

Once the flag is printed, then cut out the flag and double check to make sure that the size of the flag fits with your miniature standard bearer figure.

1. glue the flag to the flag pole with white glue (I use the "Elmers" brand of school glue). I spread the glue across the paper using a tool called a "clay shaper" which you can buy at a craft store such as Michael's or Joanna Fabrics. It has a paint brush style handle with a synthetic rubber tip - use one of the tools that has a flat edge. Using this tool, you don't have the problem of glue drying on a paint brush after you are finished using it because the glue wipes right off with a piece of tissue or even your finger tipe.
2. press the halves of the flag together and use a small paint brush handle or a pencil to shape furls into the flag. Note that flags tend to flap and furl on the downward diagonal axis away from the flag pole. Many gamers tend to use a furl that is parallel to the staff. Don't do this - it is unrealistic and does not look as good as a flag that is furled on the diagonal axis.

Now you are ready to paint the surface of nearly the entire flag image.

1. start with the "field" of the flag and paint the surface with an acrylic paint color that is similar to the color on the printed image. In the case of my Observation Corps flags, I used a P3 brand green paint called "Knarls Green" as my basic shade color. Paint all green areas green, but leave a very slight amount of green near the flag emblems unpainted and let the original color show through. Later in the process I will add highlights to the colors on the flags.
2. All of the cloud designs on the flag are painted over with a light grey paint (IWM brand "Light Grey" or a similar craft paint was used on my flag).
3. The black double headed eagle is next. I take some basic black paint and mix in some white paint until I get a dark grey/light black color. I paint strokes of the dark grey on the feathers to add a dimension/depth to the eagle. Later, I will go back and mix up a slightly lighter version of the dark grey and paint some highlight strokes on the wings to really make them "pop" and get noticed.
4. Red areas are painted with a Reaper brand "Blood Red" color and then highlighter with Reaper "Bright Red". If you want even more depth to the red, add a second highlight (your third variety of red) of "Fire Red" Reaper paint to the red bits.
5. Now to the gold sunburst image that is behind the eagle. I paint the whole sunburst P3 "Rucksack Tan" as the base shade color. Next I paint strokes of P3 "Mouldy Ochre" color to highlight the basic rays of the sunburst. Finally, I mix some white paint into the Mouldy Ochre paint to create a highlight color and carefully add strokes of this color over the Rucksack Tan strokes. Be sure to leave some of the shade color on the edges of the highlight brush strokes. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the highlighting of the yellow bits, so I took some Reaper Master Series "Candlelight Yellow - 09408" and put dabs of this color on the tips of the sunburst rays.
6. Next I outline the yellow bits on the edges of the central emblem of the flag. I think that it is St. George, but I'm not sure and it doesn't really matter. The lines are so tiny that I only used the P3 Mouldy Ochre paint color and did not bother with shades or highlights for the lines. There are some white bits on St. George so I dabbed some white paint on these but tried not to touch up the tiny St. George image too much because sometimes too much is "too much" in appearance.
7. Now I work on the flames that are in each corner of the flag. These are red on the regimental flag. I paint the whole flame Reaper Blood Red and then add the Bright Red and Fire Red highlights to the flames.
8. Time to paint highlights onto the green field of the flag, using Reaper "Leaf Green" color, paint brushstrokes of the colors on every bit of the flag that is where you would expect to see lighter colors such as the top part of the furl. The recessed portions of the furl are left untouched (i.e. in Gnarls Green). Now if you are really confident in your highlighting skills, then add some white paint to the Leaf Green paint color to create an even lighter highlight and add a few brushstrokes of this mix to the raised areas of the flag which you have already painted Leaf Green. Use this second highlight color sparingly.

That completes the repainting of the regimental flag for the 3rd Regiment of Observation Corps Musketeers. The colonel's white color is done in a similar manner on the emblems and designs of the flag. For the field, I often leave the field in the white color from the printed image, but add a few brushstrokes of light grey here and there to some of the folds and creases of the flag where you would expect to shade the white. Use the grey sparingly. I few lines are all that you need. Again, too much will overwhelm the visual impact.

Colonel's Colour - 3rd Regt. Observation Corps Musketeers
(Kronoskaf flag image)

As you can see from the images of my painted flags, you have basically hand-painted your own flag. All that you have done is paint over the printed image with your own acrylic paint. The effort takes about 1 to 2 hours per flag, but I think that it is well worth the time spent.

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