Mad as Hatters - Napoleonic Austrian Artillery hat fashions for 1790 - 1815

 The Austrian artillery of 1790-1815 wore a number of different hat styles, which means that as a 6mm modeller using Baccus figures, I will have to do a bit of mix and match....  plus an odd conversion or two, if I want to field an Austrian army from 1790-1814.

As far as I can tell, the correct hats (& suitable Baccus troops, if available) are:

1790 - 1803 Tricorn (later as full dress only) (SYW Austrian artillery).

1795 - 1806 Bicorne - worn "athwart" the head (later as full dress) (French Artillery in Bicorne?).

1790 - 1806 Rundenhat - worn with the rear brim turned up (service dress) (conversion needed).  Has a plume.

1798 - 1815 Corsehut - a style similar to that worn by the Jaegers, with the brim turned up on the left. (service dress) (conversion needed).  Has a plume.

1798 - 1806 Raupenhelm - similar to infantry (Wurtemburg artillery?).

1806 - 1815 Schiffhut - a Bicorne hat worn "fore & aft" (as it was easier to work the guns than the bicorne worn athwart.  (Baccus Napoleonic Artillery).

Obviously all of these changes would take time to implement, so gunners may wear earlier styles and be correctly attired.

To cover all of the Napoleonic period with correctly attired and hatted gunners, the minimum needed are:

1790-1803...1806 Tricorne (1795 onwards parade dress)

1795-1806... Rundenhat (service dress) - these are the ones that I have converted.

1806-1815 Schiffhut

Research - here's a couple of screenshot pictures from the CB-4 Austro Hungarian e-book by WJ Rawkins.  Officers & gunners.  The style is very "rakish"!

Having worked this out, I then had a go at producing a Rundenhat with rear flap.  The Baccus Austrian gunner gives me the body & face I wanted, I just needed to change the hat.  

I sliced the Bicorne* off Austrian artillerymen and replaced with a section of 1.5mm diameter plastruct rod.  Once the hat was firmly super-glued in place it was filed a little to give rounded corners and left to dry.  

I then sliced a very thin section of 2.5mm plastruct rod, whose 1.5mm diameter hole fits neatly over the bit you've already glued.  Before gluing, the 2.5mm "doughnut" was reduced a little with an emery board to a suitable thinness and sliced about 2/3 of the way across.  

This gave a "c" shaped piece to form the horizontal brim and a smaller "d" shaped piece to form the flap at the back of the hat.

Once the hat was dry I gave it a coat of PVA glue before attaching a white metal plume (ex-infantry bayonet!).

All of which accompanied by suitable language as the plastic slid off the figures or glued at an inappropriate angle!

The attached photos shows the "Mark 1" versions of all 4 Baccus Austrian gunners with suitable hats.

I also padded out my gunners by recruiting a couple of spare infantrymen in caskets (the infamous AWL01 "man with bag under right arm" figure).  One chap got his under-arm bag drilled out and a length of staple glued as a crowbar.  The other had the bag converted to a small barrel, but I'm not convinced this has worked out OK, so he may need more work.  Anyway - the possibility of padding out your gun teams with "handlager" exists.

Here's photos of the gunners and handlagers.  

As ever, I hope this inspires you to have a go at making some different uniforms!

* The Bicornes were cut off carefully to preserve both the Bicorne and head - I have plans for the Bicornes!