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.

25mm French Imperial Guard Grenadiers

 Another Warrior unit rolls off the production line.  This time it is a French Guard Grenadier battalion.  I started these a long while a go and they have been sitting unfinished in a box.  Whilst my Warrior mojo was in full swing I decided to get these finished and based.

This is my second guards unit of an eventual formation of four.  As always with Warrior figures these crude little castings come to life with a splash of paint.

Epic Waterloo - French Imperial Guard

 My Warlord Epic Waterloo 15mm French army is nearing completion.  While I was waiting for the bulk of the figures to come back from the painter I purchased an Imperial Guard set and began painting them.  They are lovely figures but are a real test for my eyes.  The figures appear to be 13.5mm, rather than 15mm  and consist of ranks of 10 figures, with 80 figures making a battalion.

Here are two battalions of Imperial Guard Grenadiers.  Fortunately they are in campaign dress which simplifies the painting, although you could really go to town on the detail with the right brush and decent eyesight!

The officer figures are also from the Epic range, but Napoleon is a 15mm Minifigs casting.  I bought him before Warlord brought out their senior commander sets.

I am now in the process of organising and basing the rest of the French.  Pictures to follow shortly.

Ros French Imperial Guard Grenadiers

My main effort for the last couple of weeks has been the refurbishment of my Ros Prussian army, however, as I paint with gloss paints there are periods when I am waiting for paint to dry, so I have a number of  'background' projects. 

Over the last week or so I have been dabbing paint on a unit of French Guard grenadiers and have given them a Ros command group. They are now finished. I rather like them as they look very determined:

Regarding the Prussians, I have six units on the work bench; three reserve battalions, two rifle battalions and a Warrior landwehr battlaion. I think that once they are all completed it will be time for a Spring Parade!

Something different

One of my new year's resolutions was to try and finish off some of my long abandoned projects. I have a load of 1970s larger Minifigs. Many were started and then shelved as I moved on to other things. Last year I painted some 5 or 6 of these units, this year I hope to do better.

As a starter I have now finished off these guards, that just needed some of the white belts, brass work and bases to be painted. They are now finished:

Not my favourite figures, but they don't look too bad with a dab of paint applied.

Britains Deetail French Imperial Guard

On occasions I get the urge to paint something different and I find painting larger scale figures quite satisfying.  I have good number of Britains 'Deetail' figures, that even in good condition look quite ropey and, although I should imagine serious collectors shudder at the thought, I like to paint mine so that they are more presentable.

I have enough French guards (with a few repairs) to form a wargames unit; so last weekend I decided to paint them.  This is the result:

The standard bearer is a converted line infantry officer:

This scrap line infantry figure has had a new pack added, a pom pom (from a map pin) and a new arm with musket and he has been painted as a line voltigeur:

Day 2 - Siege of Sevastopol - The French Assault

Having conferred during the night Lord Raglan and French commander General Pelissier agreed that the French should have a go at assaulting the Mamelon. Accordingly all supplies and action points would be allocated to this attack. 

At 9am four French regiments rise out of the forward trenches and advanced towards the Russian position.  

Immediately the light infantry on the left come under fire from the 32 pdrs up on the Mamelon. They waver under the hail of shot and pull back to the safety of the trenches. However, the Zouaves, Algerians and a French line regiment continue on, but soon another French unit is forced back.

The Zouaves reach the wall and begin to break in causing some Russian casualties.  Then the Russians counter attack. The Zouaves are all but wiped out and in the next turn all of the French pull back towards the safety of their own lines. 

The French are severely bruised, but they have destroyed one Russian regiment and damaged another.

The French artillery begins to bombard the Mamelon, this time aiming for the Russian infantry, causing more casualties. A second French assault is also unsuccessful and two of the French units are destroyed.

French reserves move, including a Guard Regiment and reorganise themselves for another assault.

  The Russian take advantage of the lull and move up more infantry into the Mamelon, just in time to receive the second French assault.  This time the French have a little more success, although one of the French line regiments is destroyed by a mix of artillery and musket fire.

The French guard and a line regiment reach the defences and storm into the Mamelon, sending a Russian regiment to destruction:

  however the other French units are not so successful and are forced back.  The Guards are now on their own inside the Mamelon.

The Russians immediately counter attack and the French Guard are overwhelmed and destroyed.  The Mamelon is now back in Russian hands.

The two remaining French regiments, which includes the battered Algerians, rally and once more charge up against the defences. 

They are met with a hail of musket balls and canister from the guns up on the Malakoff. The French attack fails and the remnants of six battalions limp back to the French lines:

As night falls the allied commanders confer and decide to try again in the morning. Once again the allies throw a strong 9 for resupply. During darkness they will bring up fresh troops for the morning assault and have sufficient to replenish the guns. The Russians again are not so lucky, throwing just two. They decide to use all their points to resupply the guns on the Mamelon and Malakoff defences.

French Grenadier Guards

These figures are another of my ebay finds.  I have done little to them apart from painting their bases and mounting them on new stands. I think that they are actually Franco Prussian War types, but look OK serving in the Crimea.

The command stand figures are all painted by me and wear bearskins rather than the undress hat worn by the others.

Something New - French Grenadier Guards from Old John

Thanks for all the positive feedback, which has encouraged me to crack on with a few more units.

I got these figures from John Cunningham 'Old John' some months back and they have been sitting on my workbench half painted as other projects came and went. John describes these figures as moulded in the Hinton Hunt style, and they do look very similar. They are crisply cast and very nice to paint. The standard bearer is a conversion from one of the marching figures, with a home made standard.

The last picture is a comparison between thse figures and some Hinton Hunt British Guards.