Mameluke Band

Napoleon's Mamelukes need little introduction.  Upon his escape from Elba, Napoleon ordered the reformation of the Mamelukes, to consist of one squadron to be attached to the Chasseurs of the Guard.  Sources appear to disagree on whether this squadron fully materialised and, if it did, whether it was actually present on the Waterloo battlefield and, if so, in what capacity.  120-odd Mamelukes may have charged with the Guard Chasseurs...we can't say for sure.  If they did, it's highly likely that the men were French rather than Turks or other men of Asian origin.   

These rather lovely figures are from Gringo40s, who have a small range of off-beat Imperial Guard types (I recently painted some of their engineer figures).  The also do Mamelukes and I believe Lithuanian Tartars are forthcoming.  The Mameluke figures are on a mix of walking and charging horses.  The walking figures include various musicians and I thought it would be fun to put together a small band.  The figures aren't cheap - the kettle drummer costs £5.95 and the other ones are £4.50 each, but I think they are beautiful sculpts and make a nice little vignette.  The other figures in the range include a "normal" drummer, an eagle-bearer, a standard bearer and a charging trumpeter.  I wanted the kettle-drummer to be centre stage, and thought another drummer figure would look a bit odd so I bought the cymbalist and the chap with the "jingling johnny".  This Asian instrument was used by Ottoman armies from the 17th century and made its way into European bands in the mid-1800s.  Apparently it is still carried by bands in the German Army and the French Foreign Legion.

For uniform reference I used the Osprey MAA on the Mamelukes and the relevant volume of the Histoire et Collections series on the Imperial Guard.   I didn't want the figures to be identically uniformed, but I used the same general scheme of red trousers and light blue to tie them together.  I decided to paint each of the horses as slightly different greys, given that the riders are all musicians.  The horses are all in the same pose, although the kettle-drummer's horse has more furniture and ornamentation.  By 1815 it seems that most, if not all, Mamelukes were actually Frenchmen, but I decided to use the Foundry "Mediterranean Flesh 125" palette to suggest some sort of different skin tone.  These were fun, if complicated, figures to paint.  The sculpts have lots of detail which makes them somewhat fiddly to paint, but I'm pleased with how they turned out.  Did Napoleon have a Mameluke band at Waterloo?  I've no idea, but if some Mamelukes were there I'm sure they would have had some musicians...

3 figures.  Painted August 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Imperial Guard Engineers

I'm still photographing AWI bits and pieces so here is a small vignette of the engineers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard  (or to give them their proper French name, "le génie de la Garde impériale").  A small corps of engineers was created in 1804 as part of the Consular Guard and a 140-odd strong company of sapeurs was added in January 1811 to act as specialist firemen (apparently, according to one source, in response to a bad fire at the Austrain Embassy in Paris which).  These troops were initially part of the Old Guard, but as the corps expanded in numbers new companies were assigned to the Young Guard.  By 1814 the engineers numbered a complete battalion, of which the first company was in the Old Guard and the second to fourth companies were in the Young Guard.  The engineers do not appear to have ever fought together as a regiment.  As you'd expect for troops of particular expertise, detachments were used as required.  The corps numbered around 600 men at the time of Napoleon's abdication.  During the Hundred Days about 200 men were mustered to re-form the unit, of which just over a hundred appear to have been present in the Waterloo campaign under a Major Boissonnet.  The uniform was very similar to that worn by the regular army's engineers, save that the latter's shako was replaced by the brass helmet you see here.

These figures are from Gringos40, who have released a wide variety of figures in 28mm and 40mm.  Their Napoleonic range has various esoteric Imperial Guard types: mamelukes, Gendarmes d'Elite, the Marins and engineers, and a couple of personalities.    The engineers range has several poses, including skirmishing and marching figures and command.  I thought the figures you see here would make a nice little vignette to represent the presence of the engineers, perhaps being drafted in to ferry ammunition and powder to the Imperial Guard's artillery.  Whether these troops were actually present at the battle of Waterloo I don't know; I suppose they might have been off building or repairing a bridge somewhere.  However, these are nice figures and it seems a pity not to find a use them.  Gringos40 also do a sapeurs fire engine set which I must check out some time...

These are large 28mm figures.  From base to the crest of the helmet is 35mm and they look quite big side by side with Perry and (particularly) Foundry Napoleonic figures.  I thought about putting some more boxes and crates or barrels on the base, but then decided that would be too busy and, given the amount of "rear echelon" stuff I have for my French Waterloo army (with much more planned), I wanted to keep the base size of this vignette as small as possible.  As with my other Imperial Guard figures (who now have a new label all to themselves) I used the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with a cheeky final highlight of "Deep Blue 20B".   More AWI next, I promise.

3 figures.  Painted June 2015.

 

 

 

3rd Chasseurs, 1st battalion

This is the first battalion of the Imperial Guard's Third Regiment of Chasseurs (the second battalion being here).  Painting the Guard units that made the final attack on Wellington's position at Waterloo has been an aim of mine for the past couple of years.  Like so much of my 1815 project, it's rather slow burning - it will be next year now before I paint up the commander, General de Division Michel.  In the "General de Brigade" Waterloo orbat, the 3 battalions of the 3rd and 4th Chasseurs form a "brigade" under Michel.

As I've mentioned before, the route I've taken with the 3rd and 4th Chasseurs is to start with the 4th and work backwards, making each battalion look less scruffy than the last.  So the 4th sport a variety of different headgear and a mix of white and blue trousers, while the dress of the battalion here is now completely uniform and the appearance is much closer to the parade ground look of the Imperial Guard.  I wanted to keep some element of uniformity for the brigade as a whole, and that's why all 3 battalions are wearing greatcoats.  The 1st and 2nd Chasseurs will be in full dress rather than greatcoats.  Like the earlier battalions, the paints used for the dark blue were the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with a final light highlight of "Deep Blue 20B".  I have added brass fittings to all the muskets (I think I left some of them white metal on the earlier battalions) - I understand that one of the things that differentiated the Imperial Guard from other infantry was the brass fittings on their muskets.

Others more versed in Napoleonic lore than I may know whether all regiments of the Guard carried eagles.  I recall reading somewhere that only the first battalions of the 1st Grenadiers and the 1st Chasseurs had eagles, but that could be wrong.  To be frank, I didn't bother checking as I knew that I wanted the first battalion of all my regiments to have an eagle (save for the 4th, which is only 1 battalion anyway and which I wanted to look quite ragged).  I suspect that as recently raised units the 3rd and 4th Chasseurs may not have had any flags at all; but it seems a great shame to have Imperial Guard units without proper flags, even if that may not be historically accurate.  As I find is often the case with Perry Napoleonic figures, the eagle was too short to accommodate the GMB flag, so I had to add some extra length to it.  Unfortunately I rather messed it up, which is why the bit of pole just below the flag is noticeable bigger and bulkier.

Save for the brigade command stand, this is probably it for the Imperial Guard for a while.  These Perry figures are fun to paint - quick and easy to do.  I'll have a couple of other things to post before I go on holiday - some more AWI militia and my first completed unit of 1860s Paraguayans.  At the moment, though, I'm hurriedly trying to paints things for various people - Bill's KMM figures and "Project X", the latter of which will be flying to NZ with me...   

24 figures.  Painted July/August 2013.  Flag by GMB.

 

 

3rd Chasseurs, 2nd battalion

A couple of years ago, I painted the 4th Chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard and at the beginning of this year I had the urge to paint another battalion.  One of my aims for this year is to paint the complete chasseur division of the Guard for the Waterloo campaign.  The orbat provides for 6 battalions - 1 each of the 1st and 4th Regiments and two each from the 2nd and 3rd.  The Perries give you multiple options, with figures in greatcoats and in full dress, both in standing and advancing poses.  You then have the special figures in scruffy hats which are designed specifically for the 3rd and 4th Regiments.  In order to utilise all these figures, I decided to start off with a very scruffy 4th Regiment and work backwards with each battalion looking less scruffy than the last.  Therefore, this second battalion of the 3rd Regiment uses mostly the specific figures with varied hats but also incorporates some chasseurs in bearskins.  The first battalion of the 3rd Regiment will be completely in bearskins.  Readers will notice that it's the rank-and-file who have the bearskins, and not the command figures.  I expect that any bearskins that were going would have been nabbed by the officers, but never mind.

The 3rd Chasseurs appear in the "General de Brigade" scenario on the final attack of the Guard at Waterloo, where it consists of two battalions of 24 figures each.  For the greatcoats, I used the same recipe as with my French artillery and the 4th Chasseurs - the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with a final light highlight of "Deep Blue 20B".  I gave more of the figures grey or greying (as with the sappeur) hair than I did with the 4th Chasseurs, as I wanted these chaps to look like grizzled old veterans.  The bases are the larger ones from the Perry plastic boxes, with the edges painted brown to match the rest of my collection. Not much more to say, really.  I don't know when I'll get around to the 1st battalion, but that will then be one "brigade" finished and all the chassuer battalions I'd need for the GdB scenario mentioned earlier.   I do like these figures.  There's something very satisfying about marching French infantry in dark blue overcoats - probably because they're quick to paint! 

24 figures. Painted January/February 2013.

General de Brigade Baron Nicolas Philippe Guye

This is the second Young Guard command stand I painted last year, for the brigade under Baron Guye that comprised the 3rd Tirailleurs and 3rd Voltigeurs.  Again, these are Foundry figures and this time one is clearly a general (or even a marshal with all that fancy braid down his front) rather than a mere senior officer.  He is accompanied by an officer of Tirailleurs.  I can't find out much about General Guye.  He appears to have been born on 1 May 1773, became a General de Brigade in Janury 1810 and an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in March 1814.  Apparently he died on 15 July 1845.  Many of the Waterloo orbats refer to Guye as a "Maréchal de Camp".  I understand that this rank is pretty much the same as "General de Brigade", and that the latter name was used for this rank during the Napoleonic Wars.  For the sake of simplicity, I've referred to Guye here as a General de Brigade.  He wears the light blue markings of that rank on his sash.  It's a bit unfortunate that these two figures are both on the same horse sculpt.  I did try to find a different one from the various mounted figures in the Foundry packs I had bought, but none of the other horses seemed to work.

So I now have 2 generals to command my non-existent Young Guard, and no generals to command my existing Middle Guard.  I am very much hoping that someone, whether Perry Miniatures or Victrix, do Young Guard in plastic.  Perry do marching figures (and the chaps sitting on their packs), but I'd quite like a dramatic firing line for use in the Plancenoit fighting.  I bought some skirmishing figures which Foundry advertised as "Young Guard", but I didn't examine them sufficiently beforehand and they don't have epaulettes, which makes them useless for 1815 Young Guard.  (I've painted these as normal light infantry, and I'll post on them at the weekend).

Given I don't have much to say about old Baron Guye and his Tirailleur chum, I thought I'd take this opportunity to muse aloud about what I want to get done this year.  Of course the arrival of Son No.2 is now imminent (in fact he's due tomorrow), and I really don't know what long-term impact that's going to have.  But here's what I've planned out for the year.  Much of this depends on Perry AWI releases, as I foresee mainly AWI with a bit of 1815 this year:


- AWI British: I already have plenty of British regiments painted up in metal, but there are a handful of larger units that I intend to do and re-do in plastic when the Perry set is released in March (I have in mind these regiments: 17th, 40th, 57th, 63rd).
- AWI new Perry metal releases: so far the Volunteers of Ireland, northern militia for Bunker Hill and a couple more Continental regiments.
- AWI highlanders: lots of King's Mountain figures for both myself and their manufacturer, Bill Nevin (these are quietly progressing in the background at the moment).  I need to decide how to arrange my own figures for these; I have in mind some more skirmish-level actions that involved the 71st.
- AWI American cavalry: I started working my way through Eureka's Continental dragoons and then got side-tracked (I have a Carolina militia unit almost finished; it just needs a flag).
- 1815: Middle Guard - I want to finish Michel's division of the 3rd and 4th Chasseurs.
- 1815: 1st Brigade/1st Division/I Corps - again, I'm half-way through the 54th Line from Quiot's division and would like to finish at least the 1st brigade this year.
- 1815:  bits and bobs from Westphalia Miniatures - these guys are producing some amazing stuff that I really want to paint up sooner rather than later.
 

2 figures. Painted September 2012.

Just to finish, here are a couple of pictures of some of what I got up to over Christmas (the beginnings og the 54th Line in the background):

General de Brigade Jean-Hyacinthe-Sebastien Chartrand

Last year I painted 2 brigade command sets using figures from the Foundry French Napoleonic range.  Foundry sell various "generals" and "mounted officers" packs, which seem to contain a mix of pre- and post-1812 uniforms.    Initially I didn't know what to do with the pre-1812 figures, but a bit of research suggested that they would be ok for officers of the Imperial Guard, many of whom seem to have continued to wear cut-away coats rather than the Bardin coat.  So I picked out various figures to turn into the two brigade command stands that one requires for the Young Guard units that were present at Waterloo.  This is the first of those.  Now, I have to confess to being rather confused about how the Imperial Guard was organised in practice at Waterloo.  The regiments don't appear to fall easily into a division/brigade organisation like everything else.  Officers who are listed as "brigade" commanders in one orbat appear as a "division" commander in another; and to add to the confusion, because Imperial Guard officers held a higher rank than their equivalents in the regular army, their rank isn't a clear indication of what body of units they commanded.  A further problem with the Young Guard is that sources can't agree on whether the 2 brigades each contained a regiment of tirailleurs and voltiguers or whether all the tirailleurs were in the first brigade and all the voltigeurs in the second.  All very confusing.

In the end, I decided to follow the splitting up of theTirailleurs and the Voltigeurs across the 2 brigades.  So the first brigade, under General Chartrand will have the 1st Tirailleurs and the 1st Voltigeurs, whilst the second brigade will have the 3rd regiments of both.  Chartrand was born on 22 January 1779 and joined the army at the age of 14 (I love his christian name, particularly "Hyacinthe" - to English-speakers, Frenchmen sometimes have rather feminine sounding names...).  He rose swiftly through the ranks and by July 1813 was colonel of 25th Line Regiment.  He was promoted to General-de-Brigade later that year.  He appears to have met an unfortunate end, being executed on 22 May 1816 for rallying to Napoleon's cause in 1815.  The mounted officer here is not dressed as a General de Brigade, rather as a colonel of the Tirailleurs of the Guard (the cuffs are correct for this; if he was a colonel in the Voltigeurs he would have pointed cuffs like the legere infantry).  I have no idea whether Chartrand was actually ever a colonel in the Young Guard, or whether his rank was sufficient to have him assigned to the Young Guard's first brigade.  The foot figure is another Foundry sculpt, and it's not clear to me whether he is wearing the pre-1812 coat or the Bardin jacket but with the buttons undone (there are a couple of figures in the range that clearly have their coats unbuttoned).  I thought I'd portray him as the latter; a rather flustered adjutant of the Voltigeurs (note the correct pointed cuffs) who has lost his horse and has come to tell Chartrand that the situation at Plancenoit isn't going too well.  The uniforms aren't perfect for who these people are supposed to be, but they were the best use I could think of for these particular figures.  And it gives me an excuse to paint some more Young Guard (all I have so far are some Voltigeurs having a rest)!

2 figures. Painted August 2012.

4th Chasseurs

I painted these figures a while ago but forgot to post pictures. This unit represents the 4th Chasseurs of the Imperial Guard and utilises the 2 special packs of figures that Perry Miniatures released for the 3rd and 4th regiment of Grenadiers and Chasseurs. These Middle Guard units were hastily raised in 1815 and apparently suffered from supply issues - hence the lack of bearskins and the variety of headgear. The 4th Chasseurs formed part of the final attack on the centre of Wellington's line at Waterloo. Losing heavily from artillery fire and volleys from the British Guards, the 4th appears to have been pretty much wiped out.


In the "General de Brigade" orbat I'm using for 1815, the 4th Chasseurs appear as a 24 figure unit in Michel's brigade, with 2 battalions of the 3rd Chasseurs. Perry Miniatures do a very nice Michel personality figure, so it is tempting to work up the rest of the brigade at some point. Perry give you several options for the Guard Chasseurs: standing in full dress, standing in greatcoats, advancing in full dress, advancing in greatcoats, and advancing in greatcoats and funny hats, as used here. For the Waterloo orbat you need 6 battalions of Chasseurs, 2 each for the 2nd and 3rd and then one apiece for the 1st and 4th. I'm thinking that having started with the 4th I could work backwards and progressively "smarten up" each regiment. So whilst the 4th Chasseurs use just the special "ragged" figures, the 3rd Chasseurs' battalions would consist of a mix of hats and a few bearskins. One battalion of the 2nd would have greatcoats and bearskins and then the other and the 1st Chasseurs would be in full dress. That way I could use all the various packs produced by the Perries! I did think about making the 4th ultra scruffy by painting the greatcoats in a variety of different colours, but decided that I want my Guard units to look like the Guard and so all greatcoats will be painted dark blue (I used the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with some extra highlights of "Deep Blue 20"). However, I did decide to mix up the trousers a little.


On the workbench at the moment is more AWI - French infantry and some civilians. Next week I'll post about my newly-completed 15mm regiment, being the star of a new period!


Blogger update: I still can't post comments on other blogs, it seems, despite fiddling around with cookies, settings and other things. I hope Blogger sort this out because it's getting to be very annoying. I'm very much enjoying what other followers are doing at the moment and it's frustrating not being able to say so!


24 figures. Painted February and March 2011.

1st Voltigeurs

These are the Perry Miniatures "Young Guard resting on their packs" figures. They are wonderful little sculpts, full of character, and I just couldn't resist painting a few up; it's packs like these that make it difficult for me to escape the lure of the Perry 1815 range. These figures are very much for decoration. I can't imagine anyone would use them in a tabletop "combat" situation, and I certainly don't intend to: I think you can just about get away with using "at ease" standing figures, but not ones that are sitting down.  With hindsight, I wouldn't have placed the muskets on the ground, as you see here.  Since painting these figures I've seen other units where the muskets are tied together in front of the seated troops - that's more realistic and I would have done the same if I'd given this more thought!

So the idea is that these figures will represent where Barrois' Voltigeur brigade is on the table whilst they are waiting in reserve. Once the regiments move into action, I would replace this unit with full regiments in a different pose. As these figures are largely decorative, I couldn't see the point of painting a full 1:20 regiment (the "General de Brigade" Waterloo orbat gives a total of 112 figures for the 1st and 3rd Voltigeurs!). I thought about painting 24 figures, but then settled on 16 on the basis that I just couldn't see the point of painting any more. After all, few Napoleonic tables are ever large enough to accommodate troops held in reserve anyway, as there is often barely enough space for those in combat. I have one figure left over, so may well at some stage paint up a similar 16-figure unit to represent the Tirailleurs.

When I originally wrote this post the was missing its flag because I bought flags for the Tirailleurs instead of the Voltigeurs.  I've now added a newer photo with the correct flag.  The figures are based on the larger plastic bases that come with the Perry plastic French infantry set. I had these left over as I'd based the 72eme Ligne in fours rather than sixes. You need the larger bases for these figures as the muskets take up extra space. I am not a huge fan of green coloured bases, so I painted the edges of these ones with GW "Bestial Brown".

16 figures. Painted January 2009.