Napoleonic French Hussars

 

My French cavalry has historically been skewed towards the heavies, as for many years the options in 1/72 were limited to Cuirassiers from Airfix & Esci and the Esci Lancers. In building my French army I was keen to have a good array of light cavalry. Having previously completed sets of both Chasseurs a Cheval (Italeri) and Line Lancers (HaT), I wanted to add some variety and colour, and what could be more colourful than the glamourous hussars. This set is again from Italeri, and is brilliant. You get 17 mounted figures for your money, the sculpting is clear and crisp and there's no flash. Each regiment had its own uniform, with differing colours of breeches and pelisses. I have chosen to paint these as the 7th Hussars, and they will form the organic light cavalry component of my FRecnh III Corps

Napoleonic Prussian Artillery

My burgeoning Prussian forces were somewhat lacking in artillery support, so I have attempted to remedy that through the HaT 8007 Prussian Artillery set. You get 4 cannons plus crew in the box with a choice of three different gun barrels which is nice. In this case I have used what I believe is meant to be the 6 pounder on the basis that these would have been the most common (the other options are a longer barrel 12 pounder and a howitzer). The spare gun barrels will go in the bits box!

This is an easy set to build and paint, but I have to say I don't like the crew figures at all! The poses are OK, but the sculpting is just weird - the figures are very thin and seem to have very long legs and the end result are some very gangly gunners. There really aren't other options in 1/72 plastic so these will have to do.

Blucher's boys now number 12 infantry and 2 cavalry regiments, with these bringing the number of guns supporting them up to 8. Sehr gut!

 

Napoleonic French Carabiniers

The Carabiniers a Cheval formed 2 regiments of Napoleons heavy cavalry. Whilst regarded as an elite formation, their combat record was mixed. At Friedland in 1807 the 1st Carabiners were defeated by the Russian Life Guard Cossacks, and in 1809 at Wagram they suffered at the hands of Austrian Cuirassiers. They performed well at Borodino but suffered terrible losses along with he rest of the Grande Armee during the retreat from Moscow. With their ranks filled by young recruits the Carabiniers were a shadow of their former selves by 1813 and at Leipzig they were routed by Hungarian Hussars. The brigade of Carabiniers fought at Waterloo and took part in Ney's massed cavalry attacks against Wellington's infantry squares, suffering heavy casualties.

Despite their uneven record their appearance was very striking, and since a big part of the appeal of Napoleonic wargaming (I think) is being able to play with some very pretty toys, I was determined to include the Carabiniers when I found them in the big pile of unpainted plastic at the back of the cupboard. 

These figures are from Italeri, and are very nicely sculpted indeed, though this is not shown to its best advantage due to my inferior skills with a paintbrush. Hopefully their performance on the tabletop will exceed what they achieved on the battlefield!

 

Napoleonic Prussian Line Infantry

My initial efforts in painting up some Napoleonic armies were mainly the French (obvs) and the Austrians (clever Dave realised that plain white uniforms would be quick to paint). I have also painted a few British, but the Prussians were for many months entirely absent from my burgeoning forces. When I decided to change this I painted what I had, which were some venerable Airfix Landwehr filled out with a rogues gallery of other figures that looked vaguely suitable after a swift paintjob conversion. The assembled force was of poor quality conscripts and some second-rate infantry who would not stand up to a determined French attack for long, so I purchased some reinforcements in the shape of the excellent HaT Prussian Jagers, some HaT 1805 Russian Infantry, whose ENORMOUS plumes make them reasonable Garde Zu Fuss substitutes, as well as some HaT Prussian Infantry In Action and Prussian Command sets. These are really well sculpted figures, and the multi-part ones with separate arms fit together really nicely in a way that the HaT Napoleonic French Command set just doesn't.

The first unit of the line infantry completed is below, painted with white collars and cuffs as the 2nd (1st Pomeranian) Infantry. 

 Painting these was a faff. I have discovered I have a deep dislike for painting figures with rolled greatcoats across their chests, so God help me when I finally do a Russian army.

The Battle That Never Was

 

I recently planned to do a large Napoleonic battle pitting the might of the Grande Armee against a combined Austro-Prussian force. It was basically an excuse to get as many miniatures on the battlefield as possible and have them knock lumps out of each other. I had set the battle up in my spare room and was ready to go, when news of a family emergency meant that the spare room had to be returned to guest room-mode and so the little men and scenery were packed away and the battle never happened. I did take a few photos of the set-up, so for your delight and delectation I present to you The Battle That Never Was:

The battlefield from above. French are on the right, Prussians lower left and Austrians upper left.

The French left flank - infantry, lancers and artillery of I Corps supported by the Guard Light Cavalry preparing to assault the Prussians in the town beyond them.

The French centre - II Corps supported by Kellerman's cavalry and the Guard reserve artillery gaze across the fields towards the Austrian lines and the redoubt on the hill.

The French right flank is made up of the Young Guard whose objective was the farm held by Austrian Grenzers.

The Austrian redoubt, scratch-built by yours truly. I have more Austrian gun crews than guns, so the cannon in the redoubt are actually British. Were they Austrian the carriages would be painted yellow and would be double bracket rather than have a block trail.

Clarkson's Farm (?) garrisoned by the Grenzers. My buildings come from the excellent book European  

Buildings: 28mm Paper Models for 18th and 19th Century Wargames by Paperboys on Campaign.

The view from the Austrian left flank behind Clarkson's Farm, with light cavalry (actually Strelets Light Brigade, clearly they took a wrong turn for the Crimea) and Grenadiers in support.

A view from behind the Prussian lines, deployed in depth with Jagers in skirmish order at the edge of the woods and cornfield, backed up by artillery, infantry and Landwehr in assault columns, some hussars and on this side of the log bridge (scratch built using wooden kebab skewers) some Kurassiers. 

The Kurassiers again, adding a welcome splash of colour to the generally drab Prussian Army of the Rhine. Beyond them on the far side of the road are the Garde Zu Fuss and Prussian Grenadiers.

The town with Jagers on the outskirts. A Prussian general has taken up position in the churchyard. If I had got to fight the battle I think it would have been a tough nut to crack for the French.

And that's it. The battle never happened. 

Maybe next time!

Still no sign of him - he's probably off eating strawberries. Instead we have a couple of bases of Sappeurs, the French combat engineers. These were fairly elite troops sued not only for constructing defences and building bridges but also used to spearhead assaults against enemy positions, such as the successful attack on La Haye Sainte and the advance of the Guard at Ligny. 

 

Line Sappeurs from the HaT French Command set, with a HaT Young Guard officer to lead them and the numbers made up by an Airfix French infantry figure (rear rank, centre) who's had a head swap to give him the required bearskin. 

Imperial Guard Sappeurs. The axe-wielding figs are Esci, the spontoon carriers are Airfix (I know that IRL they didn't carry spontoons, but they were spare figures and it kinda fits with the axes as scary, somewhat anachronistic melee weapons), the officer is again HaT Young Guard, but with a head swap to give him a plumed bicorne. I thought a Guard officer ought to have a little more finery than his comrades of the line .

 I don't know! Strelets do a Grouchy figure in their Napoleon's General Staff II set, which can be seen on the always excellent Plastic Soldier Review at Plastic Soldier Review - Strelets Napoleon's General Staff (2), but I don't have that (yet...)

What I do have is some rather nice Young Guard from HaT, two boxes of which were a Christmas present from my best friend. Two boxes of 48 figures each makes four 24-figure regiments.

These are intended for the latter part of the Napoleonic period, and wear greatcoats which obscure either the finery of their uniforms, or possibly the lack of them. I have painted two regiments with blue trousers and the other two with white. I have added drummers and NCOs from the HaT French Command set (the drummers are horrible and their separate two piece drums in particular are an abomination). I look forward to seeing them on the battlefield.

The Young Guard advance in march columns with skirmishers deployed