An update on these with WIP on the officers, which are conversions based on Spanish napoleonics by Perry. Perry have a number of different command packs for the Spanish which can easily be converted to look like they are wearing Swedish uniform, either the m/1802, the m/1806 or m/1807, with or without plastrons (the Spanish uniforms seem to have gone through similar changes during these years).
I will do enough for at least two 24-man battalions of the Hälsinge regiment. These have a very simple blue and white color scheme, which is good as I need to do so many of them. Thanks to Chad for the templates for the flags!
Pancratist 
They look great! Very inspiring. I wonder, Hälsinge regemente had three battalions present at Oravais, two regulars (indelta) and one reserv (vargering) battalion (plus the jägers with Uppland regemente). Will you paint the reserv battalion? What I’ve read the only regulated dress was an overcoat in greyish-brown and a hat and plume (ståndare) like the indelta.
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Thank you! At the moment, my plan is to do battalions no 1 and 2. And that will probably take some time, but in the future I may well do more. Where did you read this about the reserve battalion? It does seem logical, as I assume reserve battalions were recently raised and would not have worn old uniforms. Do you think they wore civilian clothes under the overcoat? The more I read about this subject the more it seems clear that the Swedish army must have been in a pretty sad state at this time.
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Hälsinge Regemente is my local regiment and I paid it a special interest therefore. I’ve read the book of the Regiment’s history, “Kungliga Hälsinge regementes Historia” (several authors), which gives a good account of the regiment’s campaigns through the centuries and its organisational evolution. Vargeringen (the Reservs) was a system to quickly replace casualties in the regular batallions. If you are familiare to the Indelta-system you know that two or three homsteads would form a “rote” and equip one soldier with his uniform and weapon and so on and a small cottage and a few acres of land. They provided help when he was away on exercises or in wartime. Two “rotar” pooled together to equip a Reserv man. What I’ve read is that the Vargeringsbataljonen was raised in April 1808 and marsched to Gävle, where it stayed until the end of August 1808, when it was shipped to Finland with the two regular batallions. They arrived in Kristinestad 28th of August and was immediatly drawn in to the skirmishes at Lappfjärd and Ömossa and then shortly there after took part in the battle of Oravais. The Vargering seems to have had the ordinary musket (m/1761), the greatcoat and hat. Else, I think it must have been civilian clothes. They were untrained but got some months of training and exercises in Gävle. There are no remarks of that they were of inferior fighting quality. At Oravais, they supported the cannons of von Schwerin, but later the details get blurry and the formations get mixed up, so it is hard to follow exactly what happens.
I’m a miniature painter myself and have been thinking along the same lines as you, a great game of the battle of Oravais, but I was thinking what figures to use for the Reserv batallion. I have looked through Perry’s but none with a greatcoat or the shorter “kapott” that the Swedes used. Some of the Danish? Let me know if you find any or a way to convert.
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Thank you, thats very useful information! Regimental histories often have many interesting details. I have thought about converting some figures to make Swedes/Finns in greatcoat (kapott). I think you could use either these ACW figures: https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/acw50-early-federal-militia-firing-line-in-shakos-overcoats-and-full-kit/
and perhaps these AWI “ethiopians”:
https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/aw-177-ethiopian-regiment-command-this-regiment-was-made-up-of-ex-slaves-who-fought-for-the-british-equipped-and-uniformed-by-the-royal-navy/
“Ethiopans” will also soon be made by Brigade Games, so maybe they could be used too.
Obviously you would have to add heads with Swedish hats.
Cheers,
P
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Thanks! I’ll take a look!
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