French Cavalry Brigade Parade

The complete "Brigade", so far..........

HELMET cuirassiers

Fusilier conversations

French 1st Hussars and Staff Officers

French 1st Hussars, the complete "regiment"

The colonel leads from the front

Eagle and escort

Heavy Cavalry General and ADC.

 This is only the second cavalry regiment now completed. They are mostly Italeri with trumpeters and the NCO holding his carbine from HELMET Soldiers. Many of the figures have their arms or wrists swivelled to add variety. The elite company have Andrea metal heads but I modified them with Greenstuff as the colpacks seemed under-sized. The officers horses are mostly from the British Light Dragoon set, slightly modified, while the colonel rides a Hat Roman horse with a Historex leopard skin saddle.

These made an appearance at the (fairly) recent Leipzig Lawn Wargame where their performance was...........pathetic! During the Emperors' enquiry following the disaster; the facts that they did not fight as a complete regiment and their eagle was not present were offered up as reasons (excuses.)  It will be interesting to see how well they do against British opponents.

The last picture shows the Heavy Cavalry brigade commander and his ADC that appeared few blogs ago, now painted.

A few more French cavalry to finish then back to the infantry and artillery.

Thanks for looking, any comments welcome.

Eric
   

Lancers Completed

A number of domestic issues have meant that progress has been slow of late, however I have at last managed to complete the squadron of French line lancers started some while back. These are from the 5th Regiment with interesting light blue facings, they are all from adapted Helmet kits with a variety of horses most of which are Ebay purchases.
I did a fair amount of research on this arm of service, and as is often the case, the resulting evidence is confusing - to me at least. Most sources suggest that the second rank were armed with sabre and carbine, not with a lance. This seems to be based on the reasoning that a lance is pretty much useless in a melee, so the second rank would support their lance carrying colleagues, This makes some sense I think, but I cannot understand how such a regiment would manoeuvre on the battlefield or move about in column of route. So I have compromised with the elite company all have lances while the remainder of the company are "half and half." Ant thoughts gratefully received.

The final picture shows work in progress on a French general of heavy cavalry and his ADC. These are from a variety of bits and pieces including Historex and Helmet kits and metal heads and one sword picked up at toy soldier shows.

Thanks if you have read this, please feel free to leave a comment, next up some Italeri hussars.

Eric

More French

I took advantage of some warm spring sunshine yesterday and took some pictures in the garden. Firstly a company of Old Guard Grenadiers marching in greatcoats, they are all Hat figures with Airfix heads apart from the officer who is metal from Tradition. These were fairly simple conversions and happily used up most of the marching bodies left over from the Young Guards painted earlier.

Working on the basis that you can never have too many Guard units, actually I think you can, I have also started a company of Grenadiers in campaign dress with Airfix heads on mostly Hat bodies. I really like this version of their uniform, but am currently concentrating on French cavalry, hence the final two pictures, an officer of Chasseurs a Cheval and the beginning of a unit of line lancers.

I try to pick up a many items as cheaply as possible from Ebay, so I can use a variety of horses, some like me getting very old, and odd figures that might be a bit bashed about but still have another life ahead (ha ha in the case of the Airfix Guards) of them.

More French next time.

We have also completed the barn for the La It Aint farm, the title keeps changing, with around 3,000 roof tiles it did become a labour of hate, so I'll put some pictures up soon(ish).

Thanks for getting this far, and do feel free to say hello or something!

Eric

Painting Update, French and British

A selection of pictures this time: Photo's 1 and 2 1st Cuirassiers, 1st Squadron who apart form the trumpeter are conversions of CTS Mexicans with Italeri dragoon heads and greenstuff additions. I have just started on the 2nd Squadron, but they take an age to complete.

Photo 3 are the completed Young Guards shown unpainted last time, two companies are now finished.

Photo 4, the start of a squadron of British 15th Hussars, with photo 5 being a close-up of the officer. They look sort of pretty when complete, but take ages to paint.

And photo 5 shows the start of a squadron of Chasseurs a Cheval of the Garde, I need to do more in the uniform actually worn at Waterloo, but quite like this earlier version wearing the pelisse.

I'm working on a set of rules that are based around each unit starting with a score of, say, 100 points and adding and subtracting based on various factors, for example, plus points for advancing, presence of senior officers etc., and minus points for such things as attacked in flank, receiving devastating incoming fire. I'm keen to avoid removal of casualties and too much accounting, with large numbers of figures and only two players I don't want the game to bog down, so hopefully this will encourage movement and manoeuvre, adding to playability(?)

More on that later, in the meantime, the usual request for feedback and comments, just drop by and say "hello".

Thanks

Eric

More Work in Progress

Some rather bad pictures (apologies) of some British Lifeguards and Voltigeurs of the Garde.

The Household Cavalry come from the HELMET range, They were quite time consuming to make, as sadly is the case with mounted kits, but I eventually was fairly happy with the result. They will eventually comprise two squadrons,36 figures, and form part of the Household Brigade - much yet to be done.

The Voltigeurs are from HAT and are still very much work in progress, there will be two companies, 46 figures plus a standard bearer (no eagle) and a mounted officer, HAT head, HELMET body; legs and bits and pieces, with Historex arms. (All H's together) and a stack of Greenstuff. Next up for the French will be a company of Garde Grenadiers using the marching figures from the HAT Elites in Greatcoats pack, and Airfix heads. Hopefully some (better) photos when work is under way.

Please feel free to comment, negative or positive, or just say "Hello"

Thanks
Eric