Dismounted French Dragoons of the 18e Regiment

I was going to post some of my first 1914 Brits in greyscale but I really couldn't face any more monochrome this week so I'm going to run with these lads instead - all in their Napoleonic technicolour glory.

This batch of dismounted dragoons have been patiently sitting on my workbench, mostly done, for nearly a year now. They came as part of one of the Perry plastic boxed sets. I have quite a few of these in the parts bin and thought I should get some more fielded so to be better able to play Peninsular skirmish games. 

Additional 28mm Napoleonic French Unit/Casualty Markers

(Originally posted on the Home Page Feb 13, 2012)
As promised, here are a few more Napoleonic French unit/casualty stands. Each of these will attach itself with a battalion to keep track of the unit name/organization and various status levels in our 'Food for Powder' rules.

These are a mix of Foundry and Perry 28mm models.

I think for the next batch, in order to mix it up, I will incorporate musicians, some medicos and perhaps some looters.

28mm Napoleonic French Dragoons, 18e Regiment de Dragons

(Originally posed on the Home page January 22nd, 2012)
I've been plugging away at this regiment of French Dragoons since the beginning of the Challenge.

These are 28mm Perry plastics which I very much enjoy working with and highly recommend. At first it may seem a little daunting putting them all together, but once you get the process and a rhythm they assemble pretty quickly.

Their flash pink facings aside, 18th Regiment of Dragoons were very much a meat-and-potatoes 'working' cavalry regiment. In the early Empire period they participated in many of the major engagements (Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland) and then from 1808 to 1813 they saw hard service in the Peninsular campaigns.  They missed the Grande Armee's destruction in Russia, but were recalled to Germany where they were burned-out during the 1813 and 1814 campaigns for France.

This is the first time I've tried doing eyes on an entire unit...

I love painting Napoleonic cavalry but I find its the trumpeters that often make me 'snap my crayons'. Nonetheless, as French cavalry go, Dragoon trumpeters are pretty plain as they usually did not go overboard on reverse facing colours, gold braid, etc. but the ubiquitous chequered lace is always a challenge. Later this year I plan to do-up a Hussar regiment and I'm girding my loins for painting its trumpeter as those buggers' uniforms are insane.

While I was in the midst of assembling this lot I knew I would be running out of gas on painting Dragoon Green once these were done. So I broke down and commissioned my third regiment from a painting service. I hope to have that unit ready soon, touch them up ('cause I can't help myself) and base them to match this lot. Then I'll have a full brigade of the blighters, 72-figures strong, which should look the business arrayed on the tabletop.

Again, here's that loon Ney, leading the 18e and 1er regiments to Glory and some sticky end...

Next up will be an assortment of casualty/unit stands.

28mm Napoleonic French Battalion, 2/67e Regiment de Ligne

(Originally posted to the Home Page on January 14th)
Work's a little crazy and with keeping on top of the blog I find it's been challenging to keep my own projects moving along.  Useless whinging aside, I have a few things coming to fruition and this group is the first out of the gate.

Though this looks like a large entry its actually pretty small. I bought the majority of the figures for this unit on Ebay over a year ago and they've been sitting on the 'to-do' part of my workbench ever since. I remember it being a cracking good deal, but once I received them I found that the painting was a little...meh. It was a bit of a slog reworking them, as I hate fixing other's people's stuff, but slowly I got through them all. 

The majority of these models are from Wargames Foundry.

The original figures were block-painted so I tweaked them with some highlights, cleaned up transitions, hit a few with washes and rebased the lot. I also added a few of my own figures to help the unit better blend-in with my other stuff. My 'new guys' are a mounted commander and two junior officers on foot. The battalion colour is from 'Flag Dude'.

Anyway, these fellows depict the 2nd Battalion of the 67e Regiment de Ligne. They had the unique distinction of serving as marines at the Battle of Trafalgar, many of which were aboard the L'Aigle (where ironically they lost their eagle, but saved their colours). 

Later, in 1809, they were part of Massena's IV Corps and were heavily committed to the hard fighting both at  Aspern-Essling and Wagram.

The mounted commanding officer and his junior below are both Perry models.

The other dismounted officer pointing forward is a Sash and Saber casting which I always seem to enjoy as I find them quite characterful.

These three will give me... 20 points(!). Yes, my head practically snaps back from the lunge ahead... God's Holy Trousers, I've got to get some other stuff done...


Next up: French Dragoons.

The 2nd/66th (The Berkshires) - 28mm Perry & Victrix

 Here are some new recruits to bolster my British Napoleonic collection. This unit (composed of Perry plastics and a Victrix mounted officer) represents the 2nd battalion of the 66th Regiment of Foot (The Berkshires). I had mentioned previously that I was building a British force based on Colborne's ill-fated brigade which was severely mauled by French cavalry at Albuera in 1811 (approximately 70% casualties throughout the brigade).

On top of being a speed bump for Polish lancers, the 66th had the distinct misfortune of loosing both its Regimental and King's colours that day.

The 2nd/66th was all but destroyed at Albuera. Of the approximately 400 men that made up the battalion at the start of the day, it suffered 16 officers and 310 men killed or wounded. The following day, it was able to muster only 53 bayonets. The majority of the casualties had been killed and among the dead were the battalion major, and the ensigns Walker and Colter. Captain Clark was taken prisoner, but was able to escape later, wrote that one of the flags was saved, but he does not specify which one. The remnants of the 2/66th was formed into a provisional battalion with the 2nd Battalion 31st, which had saved its flags. It was noted in its last inspection in Roncesvalles in 1813 said “The Battalion of the 66th doesn't have flags, because their new ones were sent to Lisbon in 1812. It is the undeniable test of their loss at Albuera, and the King's Colours also exists still in Paris”.

Another document, a letter from Lieutenant George Cromption of the 66th, dated May 18, 1811 states, "Oh, what a day that was. The worst of the story I have not related. Our Colours were taken. I told you before that two ensigns were shot under them; two Sergeants suffered the same fate. Lieutenant seized a musket to defend them, and was shot to the heart, what could be done against cavalry?"

These flags, in fact four complete and two reduced to the flagstaffs with their spearhead and  some fragments of their cloths, were sent by Soult to Paris, where they were temporarily deposited in the home of Marshal Berthier, until their presentation in the Tulleries in August 1811, along with 200 flags taken from the Spanish in the past campaigns.

After 1814, these trophies remained hidden until 5 April 1827, when five were displayed in the Museum of Artillery. During the Revolution of 1830, a mob stormed the Museum and took weapons and flags from it, including the King's Colour of the 66th Foot. 

In 1831, the four remaining Colours, were placed in the cornices of the chapel of the Hotel des Invalides. During the funeral of Marshal Sebastiani on 11 August 1851 a fire broke out. The Regimental Colour of the 66th Foot was completely destroyed, while the King’s Colour of the 48th Foot was badly damaged with only its central shield surviving. 

In 1861, General Duffourc d'Antist donated to the Invalides his collection of flags. Among these flags was the King's Colour of the 66th Foot which had been stolen by the mob in 1830.

From what I understand, currently there still exists the shield of the King’s Colour of the 48th Foot, which is in a frame in storage of the l'Armée Musée, while the King's Colours of the 66th Foot, as well as the remains of those of the 3rd and 48th are suspended of the cornices of the chapel of the Hotel des Invalides, which is part of the annex to the l'Armée Musée.

(Information from napoleon-series.org)

16th Regiment of Line in 1806 Regulation White Uniform

'

The new lads from the 2nd battalion in all their off-white glory. A mounted officer behind the rear ranks is happily making the mens life a misery ...

For those who may have been following this blog last winter this unit has been languishing at the rear of my painting desk for several months now so I thought it high time to get it done and ready for action.

The 16th Regiment, deployed in line, ready for action.

These three units depict the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 16th Regiment of the Line. From 1806-1807, due to a lack of indigo dye, Napoleon issued a new uniform regulation that would see his line infantry begin a conversion from its standard blue uniforms to new ones in white. He initially chose 19 regiments in order to determine how they would hold-up in the field. It is not known exactly how many of these 19 regiments were actually issued the uniform but it is confirmed that there were at least eight regiments dressed in white by the end of 1806.

In 1806 the 16th was issued the white uniform with blue facings and turnbacks. John Elting mentions that this uniform was very sharp, being a hit in Paris, but (as could well be imagined) very difficult to keep clean in the field. I also chose the 16th as it saw heavy action in one of my favorite Napoleonic battles, Aspern-Essling. At that battle they were under the command of Molitor and were in desperate close-combat contesting the town of Aspern.

Napoleon ultimately changed his mind on the white uniforms. Some say it was because he was appalled at how the blood stood out on them after the battle of Eylau, but I think this is a little sensationalist as Bonaparte was a man not easily moved by the sight of carnage. I think it was merely due to the fact that French producers found a way to source blue dye to maintain the established uniform. Nonetheless the white uniform was popular amongst those regiments that received it and it was not until late 1809 that the last battalions were (begrudgingly) converted back to blue.

I decided to keep the third battalion in greatcoats to indicate their more conscripted status (something I will probably continue to do with all the higher numbered battalions in my regiments). A portion of the figures from these three units I bought in an Ebay auction. Nonetheless they were a little rough around the edges, in need of a bit of 'tweaking' and fleshing out to get ready for the table (shipment repairs, highlighting, washes, rebasing, drybrushing, etc). I also added new NCOs, colour party members and mounted commanders to all the battalions to tart them up a bit more. All of the flags, as usual, are from the indispensable Flag Dude.

28mm French Napoleonic Rear Area Flunkies

I've not been completely idle hobby-wise and have managed to finish this small vignette depicting a group of French infantry who are taking a break from assisting an artillery battery and chatting with a visiting orderly.

These are assorted Perry castings from their Waterloo range. This is the first time I've tried doing a leopard skin effect on a shabraque which was kinda fun. Ultimately my plan is to have one of these bases behind each of my gun models with ammunition caissons following on behind them. 

With a little luck I hope to have another one of these vignettes completed in the next week or so...

British Command Stands

Just a short post on a new British command stand I completed recently.

Figures are from the Perry range. In order to make the stand less Waterloo-specific, I cut away the 'Belgic' shako from the right figure and replaced it with a bicorne from a Victrix sprue. I still have some work to do on the white horse as I'm not too wild on its midtones. 

I'm working on a few Napoleonic vignettes right now so I should have something on them in a week or so.

28mm 95th Rifles in Battalion Order

Good Lord. They look like a 19th century version of U2. Apparently the British army had no barbers (nor enough shakos)...

Really, I thought I'd never do it - I thought I'd never crack. I was committed never to paint one of the most ubiquitous units in a British Napoleonic wargaming army: yes, yes, you guessed it, the 95th Rifles. To me 'The Rifles' are like the iPods of Napoleonic gaming - very trick, sexy, grossly over-promoted and seen freakin' everywhere. 

In my defense I did have a pile of unpainted Foundry riflemen from an age-old ebay auction AND I had several frames of the Perry plastic riflemen that come in each of their infantry boxed sets. So c'mon, I had to do something with them. Right? Right?! (sigh) Anyway, I've since stifled my toy soldier snobbery and have done up a unit of Rifles for myself. 

Over the past few weeks I've been reading about several actions where the 95th eschewed their regular skirmish tactics and instead fought in standard battalion formation. So I thought I'd depict a unit of Rifles that are madly scrambling to double-out into battle line while being under fire. I wanted to use as many of my current castings as possible, but the scale difference between the Perry's older Foundry stuff and their more current range is quite distinct. Since the Foundry models are significantly shorter I had to do something to make them blend in better. I decided upon an old trick by using a type of forced perspective where I've placed the shorter castings on trimmed down plastic base 'shims' and put them in the front rank.

Here is an example of a base with the plastic 'shims' in place.

The older Foundry castings go on the shims...

...and the newer, taller Perry model goes au naturale.

This way the shims partly mask the bigger dimensions of the taller models set in the back and the extra height helps to draw the viewer's attention away from the differences in scale. I still see the differences but I think for the most part it worked out okay.

Note: This man was shot for not having a mullet.

I added a dead horse casting I had in my bitz box to depict the officer just having his mount shot from underneath him. For the pistol laying on the horse's flank, I trimmed down the hand from a pistol in the Victrix plastic set and placed it in the vignette to show that the officer has just put his horse down, dropped the pistol and is now drawing his sword, all the while bawling out commands.

The end of the line has a sergeant pointing to where he wants the men to form up. The plastic Perry riflemen are great for giving that hustling sense of urgency.

Well, there you have it. I've now joined the ranks of those who just had to have the 95th in their collections. Actually, I'm pretty jazzed about taking them out for their first game. I can now just hear the whining, faintly annoying electric guitar playing 'Over the Hills and Far Away"... (shudder)