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Thursday, August 4, 2022

Flagging French Cavalry

One of the early decisions made when I sat down to plan a French army was what to do about cavalry standard bearers.  Do I order one standard bearer for every unit I plan to field, some of the units, or none?  Since I had no French cavalry flags at the ready, the decision was to include standard bearers for perhaps half of the units.  Standard bearers with no flag look a bit forlorn.  I should know.  Most of my SYW cavalry have no banners waving in the breeze.  Armed with that decision, I sat down to make up the Christmas order to Eureka Miniatures.  As I type out these words, memories of poring over the pages of the Christmas catalog and making lists come rushing back.  Oh the joy!  Not much difference with the exception that fifty years have passed since those formative days.

Anyway, having recently completed the first tranche of French cavalry units to field for Bassignana (up to seven units now), David (Not by Appointment blog) asked if some French cavalry flags would interest me.  Of course, they would!  Having seemingly kept a watchful eye on the mustering out of my French cavalry on the blog, I received an email with the standard for one of my recently released units.  After an exchange of emails, another flag for one of my units appeared.  And another.  And another.  David was creating these little masterpieces at a rate unsustainable to my painting throughput.  I may have more French cavalry banners than I do painted cavalry units; or unpainted ones!  This is especially true since not all of my painted cavalry units field a standard bearer.

In talking with David, one of his concerns is the small size of the cavalry banners.  He much prefers seeing the large flags of the infantry regiments.  Yes, cavalry banners are much smaller than their foot colleagues by design.  This concern is pronounced with flags for 15mm figures when compared to 25/28mm figures.  With Eureka cavalry, this is even more pronounced.  Many of the Eureka cavalry have short standards.  No space on the pole to attach a larger flag without replacing the pole.

Would much of the detail put into a cavalry banner be lost to the eye when printing and when displayed upon the gaming table?  Judge for yourself on four of the newly flagged cavalry units.


David's artistry in his flag work is still on display even in these small cavalry flags.  The banners provide a splash of color to the cavalry unit and help identify the command stand at a glance. 

Brilliant work, David, and thank you!  Now, I need to go off and make a new Wish List for Eureka Miniatures and include more cavalry standard bearers among the unit orders. 

47 comments:

  1. Great work on the standards. You units look great.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! David’s flags look great even if they are small.

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  2. Very striking and another fine example of blog community spirit - Nice job David.

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  3. A great resource from a very generous chap! The standards really raise the whole unit!

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  4. Great looking flags. There is nothing better than seeing cavalry charging with banners flying

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    1. Yes, the flags look great even when reduced to a small size. Charging cavalry with banners fluttering, yes!

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  5. Splendid looking flags that round out some great units!
    Best Iain

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  6. The standards look great. Definitely worth adding. Great work by David.
    Chris/Nundanket

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  7. Pretty sure they fight much better with David's splendid flags.

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  8. Well done. A flag on a wargames unit is like a tie with a business shirt…not always necessary, but just finishes the look.

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    1. I prefer flags on units to ties on me! A flag does finish off a unit nicely.

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  9. At least somebody around here can keep up with your prodigious painting production…

    Nice job all around. 😀

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    1. Thanks, Stew, but my painting output has slipped over the summer. Maybe I can get back into the swing of it this fall?

      Glad you like the results!

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  10. These all look great Jon and David is a very talented digital artist. I was commenting on a blog (possibly Der Alte Fritz?) recently that I have never owned any SYW figures nor played in more than one or two SYW games in forty years of wargaming... One thing that genuinely had me considering dipping my toe into this period were the beautiful range of flags David creates and displays on his blog!

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    1. David is talented, for sure. Before I chanced upon David's works, I was creating my own based upon the SYW work at Kronoskaf. I prefer David's...

      Have not gamed or collected SYW? No time to start like the present! If you are ever interested in a sampler before diving in, I can set up a remote game.

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  11. They re lovely flags and definitely complete the look. I agree, there is nothing more fun than making up a list for the next round of purchases.

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    1. I agree! David does terrific work. One benefit of David's flags is that you can enlarge or shrink them without any loss of detail.

      Ah, project planning is one of the joys of the hobby!

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  12. You can never have enough flags Jon………

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  13. Thanks for all the kind words on the standards. The troops look terrific, Jon. :-)

    Cheers,

    David.

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    1. That was me, David of NBA, commenting last, by tthe way; I couldn't log in to Google for that last comment!

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    2. You are most welcome! Thank you for the wonderful flags and extreme generosity.

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  14. Wonderful work there Jon and David's flags work a treat. I try to make my flags as large as possible to make them pop when on the table, as otherwise they can look a bit lost at the smaller scale I play with.

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    1. Thanks! I try to make the flags as large as practical too. The flag size for Eureka cavalry is constrained by the length of the pole. On some mounted figures, the pole is quite short.

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  15. Lovely cavalry. I do like to see oversized flags. Let's face it, scale-wise everything is out in wargaming. So emphasize the aesthetic.

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    1. Thanks! I agree that for flags bigger is better but I face a constraint on pole length.

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  16. Great looking cavalry troops. I agree - cavalry units look better with flags. Makes them more recognizable as units.

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    1. Thanks! They do look better with a flag and aid in recognition.

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  17. Cracking stuff Jonathan…
    The flags really bring them to life…

    All the best. Aly

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  18. Quite aside from the detail, I'm flabbergasted by the photo quality. Inspiring stuff either way!

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    1. Glad you like the photos! For me, a light box works wonders.

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  19. Beautiful units which are definately enhanced by the wonderful flags👍

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  20. Lovely group of cavalry there Jonathan it does give a sense of mass.

    Christopher

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  21. Lovely standarts on excellent looking cavalry. French horse is stunning.

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