The Saxons of Bernadotte´s IX Corps at Wagram 1809, for AOE rules in 20mm

The Saxon army of the Napoleonic wars, specially up to 1809-10, is a true pleasure to build as it looks you are painting the figures of the Baron of Munchausen story. In fact the Saxons used at Wagram a bit outdated uniforms from the late XVIII century, still using bicornes and long coats. 

At Wagram the Saxons had two divisions ( left, Générallieutenant Zerschwitz division and right, Générallieutenant Polenz division) with the third division of Bernadotte´s IX Corps being the French Division of Général Dupas. 

Bernadotte is itself a hell of a character, treacherous to Napoleon sometimes (with Berthier in their middle...) and sometimes also efficient he ended up as King of Sweden and fighting Napoleon at Leipzig. Read more on the subject as its a fascinating issue. 

This Corps started with one Hat big box of 96 figures of Saxon Infantry. This number was not enough for all four brigades of infantry necessary and, as well as in cavalry, many figures had to be recruited in the ranks of Airfix, Esci, Revell and Italeri. 

Lets start with Zerschwitz division. The Grenadier brigade is represented by the Prince Xavier uniform. The figures are almost all Hat but there are some Airfix AWI Grenadiers mixed in as the box doesn´t carry the necessary 36 grenadiers (only 32) for this AOE brigade of six stands.

In the middle rank you can see two Airfix figures. A Prussian style backpack and a bicorne were added and made of GreenStuff. 

The Koenig regiment (IR1) represents the Zeschau brigade and is an almost all Esci Prussian with carefully painted front jackets. One of the good things about Esci is a very thin detail which can be simply painted over. This is not the case of StreletsR or Hat which have very deep detail making a simple and different paint job almost impossible which requires the service of the X-acto.

Now for the divisional cavalry. The Gardes du Corps are all Italeri Prussian Dragoons painted differently. The only add-ons were the pistol holders and blanket rolls on the saddle. 

The Carabineers look a lot like the Garde du Corps but with red saddles and yellow trousers. Again Italeri Prussians.

Price Clemens chevaux-legér regiment. Italeri again. 

The Hussar regiment of the first division is made of SYW Revell figures. The uniform of the Saxon (and Prussian) Hussars remained heavily influenced by the 50´and 60´of the previous century. 

The infantry component of the second division of General Polenz was slightly bigger than the first division thus seven stands per brigade. The majority of the figures, here representing Brigade Lecoq with the regiment Friedrich August (IR7), are Hat but you can see also a number of Revell Austrian SYW conversions with tricornes turned into bicornes. In fact Hat makes a mistake with too large bicornes as the Saxon bicorne was smaller. In the Revell conversions I went with big bicornes for them to go along with the Hat Saxons. 

The Brigade Von Steindel is here with regiment Prinz Anton ((IR3). The sapper is the Austrian Revell 7YW figure with a new bicorne. 

On the middle rank you can see another Revell Austrian, the one biting the cartridge, one of the most beautiful figures in 1/72nd scale ever made, with a new "Saxon" bicorne. 

The cavalry component of this second divison was smaller than the first and this Prinz Johann chevaux-léger regiment is half  Italeri Prussian Dragoons and half Esci British Scots Grey conversions. Fom the left you can see the Esci conversions in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th figure. The horse and cavalier body are Esci and the heads came from the Esci Prussian infantry.  

The officer is one of the conversions of the previous unit. The saddle was also enlarged but as the detail of the Esci figures is very soft you can paint over the horse´s skin and add a bigger saddle.

 In fact I have this theory regarding Esci: I think Esci made enough different boxes to provide almost all possible Napoleonic units, that is, if you mix and match heads and bodies, and that on purpose. Of course, Hat, Orion, Strelets, Zvezda and alike now make everything we need but even today, 40 years later, Esci Napoleonics continue to be nice figures and very "conversion friendly". 

The Corps artillery used a box of Hat Prussian artillery simply painted as Saxon, guns included. 

The limber was a complicated affair. The main structure is Revell SYW artllery with a block of Evergreen on top and some handlers. The horses are the eternal French Airfix. The drivers are Revell British dragoon bodies with Esci Prussian heads. The uniform of these two came from information provided by a number of fellow wargamers after placing that question on FB dedicated pages. Social media can be great when rightly used.  

I´m not completely convinced of the limber's color as the few pages of the book of Stephen Summerfield I found on the net shows it yellow. Even so I painted them along the guns in the Saxon characteristic almost-black color and brass fittings. 

The two divisional commander´s stands were inspired in the fantastic Franznap figures. For the Generals (in red pants) I used the Italeri French commanders of the AWI box with augmented bicornes. The battalion commander on the left is the Revell British officer with an Esci head and the Chevaux-léger escort of the right stand is an Italeri Scots Grey, again with Esci head. 

Next: the new RFR book on Crete is making me itchy....