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Hi all,
I'm not a military buff and so I haven't a clue as to what the ranking of
the Imperial soldiers are supposed to be. I gather that the one with the
white trimmed hat is an admiral and the foot soldiers are obvious, but what
are the others. Does the color of the epaulets and the hats mean anything?
I'm thinking that lego probably just mixed in the different hats and
epaulets without following a system, but I'm not sure. Is there anyone who
can enlighten me on this? I was trying to come up with a ranking system for
mine, so any info would help. I'm hoping it might save me from making up a
system!
Thanks
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Tom,
I don't think there was ever a formal ranking system, you'll have to sort
one out for your own armed forces.
There are two torsos: the grunt's, with the crossed white sashes, and the
officer's (so I use them ;-) with the buttoned back top coat, showing off
the inner lining.
Pants depend on where and when you're serving. In Australia, in my time,
the pants were buff/white (circa 1800). Later (circa 1850) they were black,
but I think there was a lot of regional variation.
There are three uniform hats: the shako, the unmarked bicorn, and the white
embroidered bicorn. All the bicorns have provision for plumes. Now since
my red coats are army (blue coats being navy), the Governor of Port Block is
likely to get a tad tetchy if you call his hat and admiral's hat ;-)
I have seen plumes in red and white
I have seen epaulettes in blue, red, brown, gold and white. I tend to use
gold with the red coats generally. For the blue coats, I leave the
epaulettes off (or go red) for junior officers and go with the white for
tough guys. For naval garrison troops, I go with the red. Grubby pirate
captains, and earnest naval captains that have been at sea a long time both
look good in brown epaulettes.
For variation, in the army, I have tended to let NCOs wear the officer's
coat, but still the shako and backpack.
Now mind you, some of my guys are pretty darn stupid, and they're just as
like to go out wearing anything at all, and occasionally nothing at all (if
its warm enough).
No doubt your army will have better (and stricter) dress codes :-)
Regards
Richard
Still baldly going...
Check out Port Block at http://www.hinet.net.au/~guinan/
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In lugnet.pirates, Richard Parsons writes:
> Tom,
>
> I don't think there was ever a formal ranking system, you'll have to sort
> one out for your own armed forces.
>
> There are two torsos: the grunt's, with the crossed white sashes, and the
> officer's (so I use them ;-) with the buttoned back top coat, showing off
> the inner lining.
By the way, there were soldiers, officers and admirals (being a finer coat
than officers. They (of course) came in redcoats and bluecoats.
2 Cents.
Aaron>maniac@vol.com
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In lugnet.pirates, Tom Reed writes:
> Hi all,
> I'm not a military buff and so I haven't a clue as to what the ranking of
> the Imperial soldiers are supposed to be. I gather that the one with the
> white trimmed hat is an admiral and the foot soldiers are obvious, but what
> are the others. Does the color of the epaulets and the hats mean anything?
> I'm thinking that lego probably just mixed in the different hats and
> epaulets without following a system, but I'm not sure. Is there anyone who
> can enlighten me on this? I was trying to come up with a ranking system for
> mine, so any info would help. I'm hoping it might save me from making up a
> system!
> Thanks
The shako-topped and backpacked soldiers are obvious as you say. The tricorn
seems to represent officers, but doesn't have to (the Caribbean Clipper crew
for example), and the bicorn hat and foldback uniform coat represent
"admirals".
You end up with too darn many officers (kinda like the castle line, where every
other guy seems to be king). For ships, you can fill out your crew with
striped-shirted guys. Color-coding is one way to go: red stripes with red
coats, blue stripes with blue coats. Certainly cuts down on having to obtain
expensive soldier figs. Or go more british navy and switch all your redcoats
to the shako-backpack configuration to make them marines, and bluecoats as
officers.
Epaulettes. I tend to use them to indicate units or specific crew. This
unit/crew gets blue ones, that one gets red, this one gets white, etc. One
unit is getting white epaulettes and white pith helmets. I don't think I'm
going to cut up any epaulettes for the one-epaulette non-post captain look,
however (what a silly convention).
In short, make up your own conventions - whatever appeals to your sensiblities.
If I could get masses of non-gold epaulettes, I'd use the gold ones to indicate
officers, but it isn't practical as long as I want them on all my soldiers.
Bruce
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Bruce Schlickbernd wrote
> For ships, you can fill out your crew with striped-shirted guys.
Color-coding is one way to go: red stripes with red coats, blue stripes with
blue coats. Certainly cuts down on having to obtain expensive soldier figs.
Or go more british navy and switch all your redcoats to the shako-backpack
configuration to make them marines, and bluecoats as officers.
This seems to suggest that all members of naval ship crews should be
uniformed - I don't know about that. At some point crews did become
uniformed, but up to 1800 (at least) only officers wore uniforms. There may
have been a dress code, but not uniforms.
The point is that ship crews can be raised from standard pirate figs.
Obviously skull and crossbones bicorns and maybe the pirate with the knife
tucked into his shoulder belt wouldn't fit in, but otherwise: wait until
they're out of their gourds at some port of call, bop them on the noggin,
and drag them off to sea aboard one of His Brikannic Majesty's vessels. Once
you're out of sight of land (and when they come to) they can either sign on,
or get off ;-)
And red coated marines aboard Brikish vessels might also sport black top
hats, as a reasonable facsimile for one of the (slightly tapered, rimmed)
hats actually used in the period.
Regards
Richard
Still baldly going...
Check out Port Block at http://www.hinet.net.au/~guinan/
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On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Richard Parsons (<FnuowG.DAE@lugnet.com>) wrote at
07:02:39
> Or go more british navy and switch all your redcoats to the shako-backpack
> configuration to make them marines, and bluecoats as officers.
Yep. I'm with you there. Blue coats being *naval* officers, that is.
There are obviously officers in the marines as well :-)
>
>
> This seems to suggest that all members of naval ship crews should be
> uniformed - I don't know about that. At some point crews did become
> uniformed, but up to 1800 (at least) only officers wore uniforms. There may
> have been a dress code, but not uniforms.
>
> The point is that ship crews can be raised from standard pirate figs.
I think the ships did carry clothing, but for replacement purposes only.
So you wore the clothes you carried on board. And if you were pressed,
that was the ones on your back.
>
> Obviously skull and crossbones bicorns and maybe the pirate with the knife
> tucked into his shoulder belt wouldn't fit in,
I think you're probably allowed a knife, once the ship is cleared for
action :-)
> And red coated marines aboard Brikish vessels might also sport black top
> hats, as a reasonable facsimile for one of the (slightly tapered, rimmed)
> hats actually used in the period.
Ahh! Hadn't thought of that. Jolly fine idea.
--
Tony Priestman
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Richard Parsons wrote:
> Obviously skull and crossbones bicorns and maybe the pirate with the knife
> tucked into his shoulder belt wouldn't fit in, but otherwise: wait until
> they're out of their gourds at some port of call, bop them on the noggin,
> and drag them off to sea aboard one of His Brikannic Majesty's vessels. Once
> you're out of sight of land (and when they come to) they can either sign on,
> or get off ;-)
And then of course for the Atlantic half of the world, you can stage a
re-enactment of The War of 1812...
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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In lugnet.pirates, Richard Parsons writes:
> Bruce Schlickbernd wrote
>
> > For ships, you can fill out your crew with striped-shirted guys.
> Color-coding is one way to go: red stripes with red coats, blue stripes with
> blue coats. Certainly cuts down on having to obtain expensive soldier figs.
> Or go more british navy and switch all your redcoats to the shako-backpack
> configuration to make them marines, and bluecoats as officers.
>
>
>
> This seems to suggest that all members of naval ship crews should be
> uniformed - I don't know about that. At some point crews did become
> uniformed, but up to 1800 (at least) only officers wore uniforms. There may
> have been a dress code, but not uniforms.
>
> The point is that ship crews can be raised from standard pirate figs.
You are absolutely correct from an historical viewpoint - however, I usually
write these kind of things from a gaming standpoint. That way I know who
belongs where. But my admirals wear their bicorns front-to-back rather than
side-to-side, so what do I know. :-)
Bruce
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Bruce Schlickbernd wrote
> But my admirals wear their bicorns front-to-back rather than
> side-to-side, so what do I know. :-)
Mmmm, so do I.
http://www.hinet.net.au/~guinan/aga-02-n.jpg
http://www.hinet.net.au/~guinan/aga-06-n.jpg
Not at all sure about the historical accuracy, but it just looks more
dashing, no?
My army chieftains wear them side-to-side. They're not _supposed_ to be as
dashing, are they ;-)
Richard
Still baldly going...
Check out Port Block at http://www.hinet.net.au/~guinan/
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