French Imperial Guard Cavalry - Warrior Miniatures

 As a bank holiday project I decided to reorganise and base the Guard cavalry.  I had an unpainted lancer regiment, so I painted these and added them to the organisation.  They were the 2nd Guard Lancer regiment, the Dutch lancers in red.

In all there are five regiments, The Chasseurs a Cheval, The Grenadiers a Cheval, The 1st and 2nd Lancer regiments and the Empress Dragoons.

The cavalry are providing an escort for the great man himself, with his staff.  the Chasseurs are the close escort.

Apart from the Red Lancers, all of the figures are the stunning work of Jeffers.

I also finished off the line artillery, adding one of my batteries.  I believe there are 3 or 4 more in a box somewhere.

The French army is almost finished, although I am painting six battalions of Guard grenadiers and the are four more line battalions which may turn out to be the Young Guard.

25mm Warrior Miniatures French Army - The Light Cavalry

 Another phase in the merging of two armies and rebasing is complete. This time it is the French light cavalry. Consisting of three light lancer regiments, two of chasseurs and two of hussars, they make a splendid sight on the table. Also, another horse artillery battery joins the army.

A closer look at the lancers:

One of the chasseur regiments:

The stunning hussars:

And, finally the horse artillery:

I have started on the infantry, which I hope will prove to be an easier task than rebasing the Austrians. I should mention that the majority of the excellent painting is by Jeffers and I am simply tinkering around edges.

The Great Plastics Revival - French Infantry and Artillery

 Over the past couple of months, I have been working through the mountain of French Line and Guard infantry and artillery.  The figires are a mix of Airfix, HaT, Revell, ESCI and Italeri.  

First off, we have the line infantry, with 11 battalions and three batteries of guns:

Airfix line infantry:

Esci line infantry

And the Imperial Guard, consisting of, five Old Guard battalions, two of Young Guard and three gun batteries:

I'm now starting to sort out the Prussians.

The Bavarians arrive and some old favourites

 I have managed to sort out around half of the Bavarians - the easy ones.  The rest will require considerable work and there is a regiment of dragoons that will need a complete repaint.

Here are four infantry battalions:

Another quick task was the basing and touching up of two old favourites.  Some Airfix foot artillery:

And some Airfix French infantry:

I'm not sure what I will do next.  There's a lot of French infantry and artillery to do and large box of Austrians.  Further down the line I willl look at the Prussians and Russians.

Just for fun

 These figures were first painted in the 1980s by me and have been working their way around our extended family until they were finally given back to me four decades on!

A bit of touching up was needed but they still look rather nice:

Epic Waterloo French Line Artillery

Continuing the process of basing my Epic Waterloo French, last night I mounted three batteries of French Line Artillery on their bases.  The artillery figures are the most fiddly of the mouldings, made up of three parts, which when painted require a bit of filing to get them to fit together. Once assembled they have to be aligned with four holes on the bases.  With my fat fingers they often fell apart before I could secure them.

But, I got there in the end and lined up they look quite impressive.  I did not paint these figures:

More French Gunners

The second set of gunners that have been sitting patiently for around ten years to be finished is this group of Minifigs Guard Horse Artillery. At long last they are completed and ready to take to the field:

Minifigs 25mm French Napoleonic Line Artillery

I actually started painting these figures in 2011 and almost completed them, but for some reason they were set aside, along with some guard horse artillery. I have dug them out many times over the years intent on completing them, added a bit of detail, but they were always set aside for more important projects. Well, last night I finally finished them and they are ready to join the the rest of their colleagues:

The Beautiful Daughters!

Started before Christmas, last night I finished off this pair of French line artillery units. I have to say that I am really pleased with the way they look. The figures are from the Ros 25mm range and these particular specimens are originals that I purchased in 1976. At last they take to the field in their correct uniforms:

Peninsular Warriors - French Horse Artillery

These splendid fellows were a real joy to paint and add some mobile heavy metal to my French Peninsular forces. Strictly speaking, these are Guard Horse Artillery; their line brethren wore shakos, however, they will serve well supporting my French cavalry.

This group completes my French artilley, with one horse and three foot batteries:

Peninsular Warriors - French Artillery

Having completed the bulk of the Allied force, I am now turning my attention more towards the French, with this batch of  figures covering the foot artillery.

My plan is for the French to initially have three foot batteries and one horse artillery battery.

The French line foot artilley, all by Warrior Minitures:

French Artillery - Minifigs Recasts

I received some samples of new figures in the Minifigs S Range recasts from Old John. These aim to fill some gaps in the original range and provide new figures where they were not included in the range at all. First up is a splendid group of French artillery, with shakos and the early war plume. They paint up very well and look the part alongside their mates from the rest of the range:

Back in production - French Artillery

After an enforced break from painting due to a job change, a move to a new country and the festive season, I have once more dug out my Crimean troops. For the moment I am concentrating on French and Turkish forces.  Just before Christmas I purchased a fairly large batch of Crimean War and Franco Prussian War (FPW) Minifigs S Range troops, that are well painted and look quite good. In some cases I have had to repaint parts and I have also had to base them to match existing units, but they are mostly good to go.

First up is a unit of French Artillery. These are FPW, but not dissimilar in uniform to later Crimean troops. I re-based them and painted the hats, which were bright red.

Among the other figures in this batch are French Dragoons, Chasseurs d' Afrique, Imperial Guard and line infantry. There are also two British units that I am currently working on.

French Artillery

After a break, during which I have changed jobs, moved house and shipped my army to a new location, I am back in production.

Adding to the French army ranks is this rather nice set of figures, which I found on Ebay, from B&B (I think) figures. They are a good match height wise compared to the other 20mm figures, but are very stocky, but I really like them:

I am working on a couple of French staff officers from the same source and a bunch of Cossacks from three sources, Douglas, Irregular and Tumbling Dice miniatures.