Gendarmes: a bit of a comparison.

Heavy French and Italian cavalry 

When I finished the Swiss pike, my original intention was to launch straight into a pile of 200 landsknechts to give them some more opponents, however, I also had quite a large lead pile of cavalry to do, first off was a couple of units of Swiss and Italian mounted crossbows (that don’t feature in this post) and having done them I decided to try some of the many Gendarmes and early 16th century knights that were also sitting in the box. I had figures from 3 different manufacturers which I had accumulated over the past 6 months, a dozen of the SteelFist Gendarmes, 6 charging and 6 with upright lances, 6 late 15th century knights from SteelFist, 8 Gendarmes and 8 archer types from Eureka, and finally 24 Foundry Gendarmes (only 12 of those finished so far).
So, having painted all of the above in this last few weeks I thought I’d give you a brief comparison.

Steel Fist Gendarmes
So first, the Steel Fist figures.  I can find very little to say about this companies figures apart from unstinting praise, beautiful sculpts, great and enormously varied poses, high quality casting and metal, they are excellent figures. They produce 2 different sets of Gendarmes, one charging, one with lance upright. All the figures and horses are different, with separate heads and weapon arms,  and sheathed swords. plumes are also separate,  so the permutations are enormous. If you wanted to get super adventurous you could swap in some of their Landsknecht heads or maybe Perry ones. The horses are all individual barded mounts, if you want to find it, there is amazing detail on them.
 My only very small  issue  with these figures is that you might need to drill out the odd neck to get a better fit with whichever head you choose to place on whatever body.  These are outstanding figures.The best way to buy them is as a set of 6, this way they come in at £5 a figure. Not cheap, but generally you get what you pay for in this life. 

Steel Fist again, remarkable figures- side-show Bob leading the charge.

Now the bad news. Currently the Gendarmes are out of stock and unavailable due to the current emergency. I will be getting another dozen as soon as life returns to normal. I urge you all to do the same (but not until I have my order in).

Earlier Italian Knights from Steel Fist

Somewhere along the way I bought 8 earlier knights on unarmoured horses.  these tie in well with the Perry plastic set, I replaced one of the heads with a Perry one. Not as flamboyant as their later brethren, but similar in style and quality, separate heads and lance arms.
All of the Steel Fist figures look BIG. Nothing wrong with that, and they are the same size as Perry medievals.

Eureka Miniatures Gendarmes, with heavy cavalry support

Next up are the Eureka miniatures. Lovely figures, well cast, great, crisp detail, separate lance arms, alternative sword/hammer/mace arms and weapons, these are really well thought out figures, separate plumes, lovely Barded horses- you can create a lot of variation with these figures, price for these is £28.25 for a set of 8 which is very good value. I will be getting another 8 of the Gendarmes. They also produce Archer/coustillier types which are nice, although without the massive variations of the Gendarmes. Good figures. My only comment would be that are a little bit small,not a lot, but a little,  certainly when compared to Perry and SteelFist. In their own units alongside each other they look absolutely fine, but I would be reluctant to mix them in the same units with the other manufacturers.

Eureka again, very varied and clever designs

Foundry Gendarmes

 Finally we have Wargames Foundry. Wargames Foundry are... well, Wargames Foundry. Consistent, high quality sculpts to good standard. They are sort of benchmark figures. Separate cast lances and sword scabbards, the latter of which fit really neatly into a lug on the figure. Cast on heads. The figures are fine, albeit a tad dull. All in a sitting lance upright pose, little animation, and I guess if you have read this blog you know I like a bit of animation.
There are basically 3 or 4 head variations on 2 body types. Then the horses......I’ve never been a huge fan of Foundry horses, to much shaggy pit pony for my liking. I bought 7 different mounted packs of the Gendarmes....and there is only 1 barded horse type and 4 unarmoured horse. However, I can live with that, what was a bit of a shock was the casting quality. It was bloody awful. Massive lumps of flash, mould lines, the works. 24 figures and horses took me about 4 hours to clean up and assemble, which is a bit poor, and after all, Foundry are charging premium prices for 30 year old sculpts. I bought them on a deal which was great, but if I had paid full list price for them I would have been disappointed. Compared to the more modern figures their age is showing, but, they paint up as fine as they always have.

Another view of Wargames Foundry

Foundry head on

All of these figures were a joy to paint, and I’m really pleased with them, I set them off with a bunch of Pete’s Flags, which, let’s be honest, always make average painted figures like mine look brilliant.
Flags, faces and bases....that’s all you need.

All banners from Pete’s Flags.

Duff-up in John's shed: The Austrian's first outing

Things start to go wrong on the Austrian right- the line is in the process of being shot to bits

I slipped up to Cambridge to John's shed for the day in order to get the Austrians actually on a table for the first time. There wasn't a massive amount of thought put into the game, it was just a bit of an excuse for a duff-up. John is easing his way back into Napoleonics after a lengthy lay-off so we wanted just a quick, low intensity game that wasn't going to tax the brain an awful lot.

Close up of the attack columns on the left. Everything fine at present (sausage roll in support)

It was a pretty straightforwards set-up, a village complex on the (Austrian) right, some skirmish buildings and walls on the left,  a few woods in the centre. No big artillery platforms anywhere, French defending. We didn't have a huge amount of time so the French deployed quite far forwards,which didn't help the Austrian cause much. In retrospect we probably could have been a bit cleverer with the terrain, 

Panorama of the early stages

The only decent area for cavalry was in the centre which unbalanced things somewhat. I concentrated the Austrian's new shiny hussar brigade there and the French had a regt each of Chassuers, dragoons and cuirraisier plus a horse btty.  Each flank had an infantry division to take the respective village areas. The one on the right had a dragoon regt attached.

We used a variable morale system for the infantry, all btns were treated as 1st class line until they took their first morale test,where-upon they rolled to discover their true class: Austrians: 1 to 3- 2nd class line. 4 to 10 1st class line.

French: 1 to 4 -2nd class line 5 to 7 1st class line, 8 to 10, veteran.

French young guard: 1 to 5, veteran. 6 to 10 Elite.

All cavalry was line and all artillery was 1st class.  

The Austrians fielded 1 infantry division of 2 Grenzer, 5 line btns with a 6lb btty and 18 skirmishers, these took the left flank. In the centre was a hussar brigade with 14 squadrons of hussars each of 6 figures.

On the right was an infantry division of 6 line btns with a dragroon rgt of 6 x 6 man squadrons plus a 6lb btty and 12 skirmishers. All btns were 48 man strong. 

5 battalions: should be enough to take a village, surely?

Connoissuer French attempt to outflank the Austrian left

The French had a 2 infantry divisions each of 6 x 36 supported by a 6lb btty, 24 chassuers and 18 skirmishers. One of each occupied each flank.

In addition they had a young guard division of 4 x32's plus a heavy cavalry outfit with 1 x 32 of dragoons and 32 cuirraisier with a 3 gun horse btty.

All in all, I think the French were too tough for the poor old milkshakes.

The Austrian right develops

The Austrians trundled forwards, because of the speed of our set-up it meant the Austrians couldn't really get any artillery preparation, however they manfully pitched into the attack against each village. They actually did ok, they got forwards,got the guns into position and started to work  towards their objectives.

In the centre the massed hussars nullified the french cavalry, a typical ding-dong Grand Manner cavalry scrap continued through the whole game.  A lot of folk can't cope with the cavalry system in ITGM but the more I read of historical accounts the more they turn out like ITGM battles. Units go forwards, battle it out, retire, new ones go in, the original ones rally, go back. Its all about having local reserves. Both sides (typicaly) won the combats they should have lost, and lost the ones they "were certain" to win. The rest of the cavalry was squeezed on the extreme Austrian right, and this went a bit more to the script, with the Austrian dragoons making short work of a chassuer regt, which forced a couple of French btns into square and took them out of the fight for the village. 

A recent new acquisition: Classic Connoissuer infantry painted by Doug Mason, skulking in square.

On the left a grenzer btn waddled in line through a wood on the the extreme flank, it never got anywhere for the whole game but it did tie down 2 French btns (a bit) so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Meanwhile the asault against the skirmisher buildings and the walled compound went in. John concentrated a lot of fire on one unit (always a mistake in my book) but the size of the Austrian units allowed it to be shrugged off. I had some success at first and things were looking rosy.

6lb battery supporting the Austrian right

The French artillery btty retreated when charged and the lead 2 Austrian units crunched into a lone French btn manning the wall. In fact I had a bit too much success. The French btn routed after the first round of combat, with relatively light casualties. I would have much preferred for it to have stuck around for at least a second round of combat as I had 2 more btns to re-inforce with and the French had one. This would have allowed me to ruin 2 French units, as it was it meant the French just pulled back a bit, I couldn't exploit, and the 2 units I had in the front line were badly shot up. They took more and more fire from the flanks and that was about it for my attack on the left village.

Hussars and Grenzer demonstrate in the centre

The right hand flank told a similar story, despite the dragoon's success I couldn't get sufficient  force to bear on the village, I was reasonably successful at clearing the walls but couldn't find room to deploy those big Austrian firing lines. When I finally did, it being Austrian, it took so long to deploy that it was shot down before it could do much damage. Again, the Austrians after initial successes just couldn't finish off those Frenchies.

High point for the left. The Austrians couldn't get over that wall.

Things were coming to close, dinnertime was approaching, and the Austrians had run out of steam. We called it a day.

So in the end it was a suitably inauspicious start for the Austrian army, but then, as we all know, all troops get beat the first time out!

(Good Lord!! I've just noticed...60,000 hits!!- does that mean I can have drink?)

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bits and pieces on an idle saturday

Massed French Cavalry: 3 Cuiraissier regts, 1 Carabinier, 2 Polish Lancer, 1 Polish Cuirassier, the Zastrows, Westphalian Guard Du Corps, 3 chassuer regts all supported by 4 Horse batteries

- All from mine and John Lander's collections.   

Been a busy week, for a multiplicity of reasons, work plus I was away for a long weekend. I only mention this because the proposed house move (its been proposed for at least 10 years) may actually be taking shape. While I was away we found a property which sort of ticks all the boxes (there are a lot of them to tick). However, amidst all the discussion of domestic arrangements there was only one thing I was actually focusing on, which was the early comment made by my missus, while looking at the 2 outbuildings, which was "Of course, you'd better have the bigger one".....

We'll see...Long way to go yet, I don't even know for sure if the owner wishes to sell (its unoccupied).

Meanwhile, the Hungarians are getting a bit of attention, might finish them this weekend. Not mad keen on how they have turned out, no idea why, it might just be the figures.

Next up will be another helmeted unit, followed by artillery, which will give me a small corps of sorts, 6 btns, skirmishers and artillery. Enough to tack on to some Prussians or Russians for a game.

Whilst at John's the other week we did talk about expanding my Austrians....via a purchase...watch this space.

So for a diversion; a few pics of some French cavalry, a big old Cavalry Corps, (well, more like 2 really) with 7 armoured regts, 2 lancer, 3 light and 12 guns.

A good mix: Back rank (yellow facings) Connoissuer figures. Middle rank(red facings) Old Glory, Willie figures officer and trumpeter (a FANTASTIC figure) and Foremost. Front rank (blurry) Old Glory,and Foremost. 

Not  a bad turn out. John and I have a decent amount of French heavy cavalry apart from dragoons of which we only have 2 - there are a couple more lancer regts knocking around, plus several light regts of French and allies. Believe it or not, I would actually like at least 1 more French Cuirassier regt, if for no other reason than  because 3 is such a rubbish number. One day.

2 of the French armoured regts, both painted by the late Ian Stables

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While we are waiting...

Mameluks: From Mike Ingham's collection at the WHC...Amazing conversion work by Doug Mason
Nothing much happening on the Austrian front. Everytime I go downstairs I glance at the door in case there's a delivery note and I didn't hear the guy knock, but no big parcel from Elite as yet. Despite my impatience the reality is that it probably won't turn up until next week, all things considered. I'm just itching to get started on the white chaps.
I don't have many pics of Austrians, so, I'll put a few pics in here which have NOTHING to do with them.
I just love this unit. I've always coveted it, The figures are Mike's, converted and painted by Doug Mason when he was in his prime. My photos don't do the figures justice at all. They are extra-ordinary conversions. Every figure is different, arms and bodies built up with solder, weapons re-made. I think they were originaly Connoisseur, but I can't tell which figures were used as the basis

All the horses have been re-modeled, reins replaced by brass wire, the horses themselves have in some cases been taken from two different castings and then "cut and shut"..seamlessly. The manes and tails have been teased with a soldering iron to give them more movement

These pictures also don't show up Doug's painting to it's full advantage, the detail on the weapons and horse furniture is painstaking.

Amazing work...

Hey- ho, while I wait for these Austrians to turn up you'll just have to make do with more pics like this.

I have not been idle though, I'm painting up the Connoisseur Grenzers at a fair rate, and have been using them to experiment on techniques to use on this Austrian project, to be honest I don't think I'll change much, I'll paint them the same as I would most things, they look quite good and I'm happy with the speed I can do them. They won't get based up though until I can mix them in with the Elite kit, so you'll have to wait.

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Vittoria, the (inevitable) outcome

The man without whom all this wouldn't have been possible: Gerry pondering on how to inflict further carnage.
Having examined the terrain and OB's, before going any further I should take this opportunity to thank Gerry (and Anne) for inviting me up to their's to play this game in the first place. Gerry and I had a great time on the table but an equally fine experience was to be had off it; some excellent dinners, and a lot of tea...and beer,.... and wine...I had a splendid time, all due to their unstinting hospitality, so many thanks, it was much appreciated.

9lber's from Alten's division pound Cassagne's infantry. KGL move up in support. (Connoisseur figures from the WHC)
The opening few turns of the game were fairly cagey, the only Allied troops deployed at the begining of the battle were the Potuguese and Spainish units and Dalhousie's division on the west side of the Zadorra. The 3 British cavalry brigades made an aggressive move to quickly cross the river in the south-western corner of the field While the infantry steadily moved up to the river line. There was desultory counter battery fire from both sides.
Having gained some inteligence by examining the troops on the allied side it was quickly obvious that the British would be one's delivering the flank attacks. I threw a couple of battalions out from Arinez plus the divisional cavalry to spoil and slow down the British cavalry. On the north western flank I extended the French line by moving half a dozen battalions to meet the Spainish threat there. The other moves meanwhile were to move the French cavalry ( Tilly and Soult) down to the Arinez area to counter the British cavalry. Meantime the 12 pdrs moved off to support the northern flank, planning to take up position between Maransin and Cassagene and form a hefty gun line in that sector.
D'Armagnac and Boyer remained in reserve.
This situation continued for 3 or 4 turns while the British cavalry attempted to ford the river and the French Divisional cavalry extended the French lines to the south, they were in for a shock however when two and a half divisions (Stewart, Cole, Ponsonby and Longa) emerged from the hills on their flank.
I started to shift further forces south from the Tres Puentes area, this looked pretty solid against the Spainish and I didn't need all of Laval to hold it. The attack against the Spainish was going moderately well.
The French were holding their own in the artillery battle and both sides skirmishers were popping away over the river. The Portuguese were taking a long time to cross.
Meanwhile the roads were clogged with fleeing baggage moving east.
"SPLAT" The Speedbump hussars meet the Horseguards
This situation continued as the British cavalry formed up, there were a couple of minor skirmishes as Soult's hussars moved up, which the French lost, meanwhile the British infantry poured onto the southern flank.
The firefight against Morillo's Spainiards was going well, a couple of dodgy morale rolls and soon most of the division was in retreat. The French were having trouble chasing them.
None of this however could do anything to impede the British cavalry. Tilly's Dragoons couldn't get into the sector in time and took up position east of Arinez. It was down to Soult's Lights to do the job...no chance. They were ridden down in short order by the British Heavies, a couple of fleeing squadrons pinned a French line firefighting Dalhousies' infantry as it crossed the river...this wasn't good, The line and a another supporting unit were charged and broken through by the rallied British cavalry. Suddenly there was a minor crisis developing west of Arinez.

Cassagne's infantry occupy a farm. Figures are the fantastic original Dave Allsop Old Glory French....Never bettered
Still the Portuguese made no headway, but that wasn't really their job, they were just there to pin. The artillery and skirmish battle continued unabated while Laval's infantry struggled through the baggage to get to Arinez.
Then, around turn 7 came the next British blow. Another two and a half divisions appeared on the northern flank. D'armagnac moved up to counter this and the French formed a solid, (but thin) line supported by 4 batteries of artillery along the river line.
This was then followed by ANOTHER two and half divisions including the Light Division pouring out of the mountains north of Vittoria, The French were seriously outnumbered here.

British cavalry mass before the 12 pdrs on the northern flank. They were cannistered down in droves
This was the situation as the game reached turn 10 to 11.
On the southern flank, the British were building up a solid line to assault Arinez with the French heavily re-inforcing the area east of the town,cramping the British deployment with Sarrut and the dragoons. Lamartinerre was slowing moving up to support this,hampered by roads full of baggage.
Arinez itself was under shrapnel fire with a number of Daricou's btns massed behind the village. To the west and north of Arinez was a sorry tale. The charges of the British cavalry had cut down 2 btns plus a lot of cavalry, 3 (untouched) btns were routing back and had carried off a battery. Daricou's units were huddling in square waiting for these to clear and then rally.
Fortunately the British had nothing to immediately exploit this, but the situation wasn't good.
On the western Zadorra it was business as usual with the Portuguese doing the hokey-cokey back and forth across the river.
To the north-west the Spainish were hard pressed but this was really a side-show.
Further along the Zadorra to the east D'Armagnac was wheeling into the left of the line to face off Bradford. This was a stalemate for ther rest of the battle.

Maransin's infantry deploy, my small contribution: Perry and Victrix
Maransin with my little Perry fellahs was firefighting across the river and doing ok-ish, but even by rotating the btns as they were worn down, it was obvious the French would run out of units before the British.
The same situation was developing (but faster) in Cassagne's sector. Here btn after btn was fed into an uneven firefight with riflemen, the Footguards and a cannistering RHA btty. Both of the latter were eventually seen off but at a high price. The French were simply going to run out of units.
On the eastern end of the battlefield the strategic axe for the British was falling in the shape of the Alten and the Light Division. Alten was gunning down the Spainish Guard infantry while the LD raced towards the exit road supported by the KGL cavalry. I don't think they actually fired a shot all game apart from the odd skirmisher, but they were descending onto the exit road at a rapid rate and there was nothing to stop them apart from a few squadrons of Spainish Guard cavalry.
The writing was very much on the wall for the French at this point.

French Dragoons get on the flank of the highlanders. It was about to get messy for the Black Watch
There were isolated areas of success for the French; Against the Spainish things were going well, and the btns facing the Portuguese were dishing out casualties. Around Arinez a few British btns were getting worn by fire, and pinned by repeated dragoon charges. Eventually one of the highlander btns was caught in the flank and ridden down along its length, while the other 40 man was shot to bits, as were a couple of British squares. However, the occasional British rout never evolved into a whole-sale series of routs although it easily could have done.

The damage was done to the French on the Northern flank. By the end of the game the French were wavering, they simply couldn't cope with the fire combination that the British could bring down on them.

Picton Volleys his way to the river, and takes up the slack for the British. In the background the battered Footguards retreat
All in all it was a highly enjoyable couple of days. Its not often that one gets the opportunity to play a one on one game on such a large table, and with that many figures (It was being replayed last week as a 3 a side game) and going it alone in such a scenario, is a bit different. You need to remember A LOT of stuff, the challenges are slightly different, and the simple physical side of moving around a large table (or series of tables) is a bit tiring. A straight-fowards line 'em up scenario would probably be easier as a 2 player game, but its a small point.

As a scenario...hmmmm ... Apart from Bautzen I don't think I've played in such a one-sided game at the centre. The Brits really do hold all the cards. Not helped by playing against Gerry who is not exactly a bad player....In terms of player pyschology Gerry as an opponent is hard to beat at the best of times. His only "weakness" (if it can be called that) is that he likes to generate a plan, then get "all his ducks in a row", and then execute it, so sometimes it's possible to throw him off balance (except he has usually taken your moves into account). The trouble in this game was that there were few (no) opportunities for this.
Anyway, anyone reading who has managed to get this far, and has enjoyed this lengthy account even a 10th of how much I enjoyed playing it, should be happy!

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Vittoria: Part II: The French

Swiss, French and Berg infantry move off the heights of Tres Puentes (all figs from the WHC collection)
Ok, so in the previous dispatch we saw the British OB. Without further ado lets have a look at what the French have to defend angainst this onslaught:

Army of the South:

1st Division: Laval.
1 x veteran line
4 x 1st class line
2 x 2nd class line
18 skirmishers
2 x 6 light cavalry
1 x 8lb foot btty

3rd Division: Villatte.
2 x veteran line
4 x 1st class line
2 x 2nd class line
18 skirmishers
2 x 6 light cavalry
1 x 8lb foot btty

4th Division: Conroux
4 x 1st class line
4 x 2nd class line
18 skirmishers
2 x 6 light cavalry
1 x 8lb foot btty

5th Division (part): Maransin
4 x 1st class
12 x skirmishers

Maransin's Division deploys: My boys get an outing. Perry and Victrix from my own collection get a day out at "Wembley"
6th Division: Daricou.
1 x veteran line
3 x 1st class line
3 x 2nd class line
18 skirmishers
2 x 6 light cavalry
1 x 8lb btty

Dragoon Brigade: Tilly (staff officer)
4 x 8 dragoon
4 x 8 dragoon
6pdr horse btty

Light cavalry Brigade: P. Soult (staff officer)
4 x 6 light cavalry
4 x 6 light cavalry
6pdr horse btty

Army of the Centre:

1st Division: D'Armagnac.
3 x 1st class line
2 x 2nd class line
12 skirmishers
3 x 6 light cavalry
8lb foot btty

2nd Division: Cassagne
2 x veteran line
5 x 1st class line
18 skirmishers
4 x 6 light cavalry
8lb foot btty

4th Division: Sarrut.
2 x veteran line
3 x 1st class line
1 x 2nd class line
18 skirmishers
4 x 6 light cavalry
8lb foot btty

6th Division: Lamartinerre
4 x 1st class line
2 x 2nd class line
18 x skirmishers
4 x 6 light cavalry

Boyer's dragoon brigade (staff officer)
4 x 8 dragoons
6lb horse btty

Spainish Guard (King Joeseph)
3 x 32 2nd class line
3 x32 militia
6 x skirmishers
2 x 8 light cavalry (militia)
2 x 6 dragoon (militia)
8lb foot btty (3 guns, militia)

Reserve artillery:
2 x 12pdr foot btty.

All btns are 36 man except where stated.
All French foot artillery is 3 guns and a howitzer
All French horse artillery is 3 guns

The French can deploy anywhere South and east of the river Zadorra.
The Spainish Guard and the Reserve artillery must deploy in the environs of Vittoria.

Fleeing baggage clogs the French lines
So, thats it for the French....not great.
A quick look after the battle shows they are outnumbered by some 20 odd infantry btns. (8oo figures all told)
Plus the British have over a thousand veteran or higher classed infantry to the French 360. (plus all Brits fire as vets, in a game of firefight rather than melee)
The Brits have more skirmishers, plenty of which are rifle armed.
The French have slightly more artillery, but the British beinng all elite more than compensates for this (and they can fire shrapnel)
The French have slightly less light cavalry and it's penny packeted all over the place
The French have a bit more heavy cavalry.
The French have some 50' to defend and the Brits can pick their spots to attack.

The Deployment
The only inteligence the French possessed was that the British were attacking from the west, and that they could expect strong flank attacks from the south and north.
Faced with this, frankly, I was at a bt of a loss. Defend too strongly tothe west and risk the army being cut-off, defend the flanks and give the british a free ride over the river and still get taken in the flanks.
In the end I went for a rather predictable defence. A crust everywhere, with a central reserve as a reaction force.
One area where I thought I might do some good was in the North western corner where I thought I might be able to flatten out the line and remove an "apex" at Tres Puentes" subsequently I placed a strong division there (Laval) in the hope of mounting some sort of counter-attack. This sort of worked.
The other major problem was the village of Arinez.
I felt I had 3 choices here.
1:Sit and defend this "Apex" (slow suicide, the village was vulnerable to 2 sides and would be shrapneled to bits)
2:Mount a "picket defence" of a few btns plus cavalry slung out to impede the british advance.
3: Use a "minefield" tactic and not actually defend the village but mass troops behind it utilising it as an obstacle and making it untenable for the British to occupy.
In the end I chose the second when the the "minefield" was probably the sensible option.

Westfalian and Baden troops counter attack north of the Zadorra
The British Plan seemed pretty simple (and as it turned out, effective):
Pin the French on the western Zadorra using the Portuguese and Spainish, then administer the flank attacks using the quality British forces, cutting the retreat route safe in the knowledge that the French simply couldn't be strong everywhere (or was that anywhere?)
Part 3 will reveal the outcome!

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4th French Hussars

4th Hussars deploy on the Bunny-mat
Currently painting up the Wurtemburg mounted jager, which is going fine. When I have some pics I'll do a fuller piece on them.
Meantime, here's a few photographs of a favourite unit. When I was about 13, some 35 years ago(!) the first ever metal cavalry unit I bought and painted were some Minifig French Hussars. I had the old Almark painting guide which showed the uniform of the 4th regt. All that resplendant red and blue! Irresistable! I painted them up, and at the time, I thought they were the bees knees. The figures (I think) are long gone, and I didn't do too a bad job of them (my memory can be highly selective). So, a few years ago when I wanted to paint a French Hussar regt, naturally, the 4th regt were the obvious choice.
I had plenty of Connoisseur hussars but wasn't that keen on them. They are in the late cylindrical shako and I wanted the earlier, bell-top shako.This coincided with the discovery of the Firing Line range of heads, so I decided on a bit of a conversion to make up an original and unique unit.

Elite coy, new heads, bent arms and drilled out sabres
There was no trumpeter for the Connoisseur Hussars (or 90% of all of PG's cavalry), so I bought 4 of the FL early French chasseurs Trumpeters and a standard bearer, they are perfect for hussars dressed just in the dolman.
The Connoisseur officer is wearing the pelisse as a jacket which is quite nice, with new heads they become all different. One in colpack for the elite coy, one in bicorne worn fore and aft, and one with a bald bare head. Suddenly 3 completely different looking figures. They are all in the pics.
For the final officer I wanted something a bit more fancy, so dug out a Connoisseur Guard Chassuer officer and gave him a big plumed shako'd head- Suddenly he became a line colonel on a grey horse.

HELLO!... (I never knew Leslie Philips was a French hussar?)
The rest of the trooper figures were given plumed shakos and one with a bonnet de police, another the obligatory bandaged head. The swords on the original figures are held down, tight to the leg, so these were cut away, the arms bent out away from the body, hilts drilled out and replaced with beaten pins for sabres. They seem to get a bit more "movement" this way.
GMB as ever, provided the standard.

Horses are mixture of Connoissuer, FL and some Connoisuer personality horses
So, with a relatively small amount of work it's pretty easy to produce a unit which is unlike any other. Bespoke wargames figures on a budget!

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