The first of five cuirassier regiments, the 1er French cuirassiers fought extensively throughout the Napoleonic Wars including Austerlitz, Eylau, Essling and Wagram and Waterloo:
I have had these Foundry figures for close to fifteen years and they are some of the original Perry sculpts created before they branched out on their own. They have been languishing in my painting queue for the past two and a half years and had accumulated a layer of dust over the primer, so it was high time they were completed:
Apart from the lack of variety in the trooper figures, all being comprised of one pose, the figures were good to paint and the figures themselves had little flash and required only minimal cleaning up. Perhaps this is because the molds weren't that old when I actually purchased them:
The other thing that struck me is how heavy and sturdy they are, and the metal that Foundry have used seems quite strong which is a good thing.
After having spent the past couple of years painting 15mm I had forgotten how much more effort 28mm Napoleonics seems to require in comparison, but it was good to complete some French cavalry and to finally give these figures some attention. One cuirassier regiment completed then, with four more to go.
Your heavy cav look great, Lawrence. Painting 28mm? That is a surprise!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan. I'm going to see if I can give the French army some much-needed reinforcements while I have the motivation, then really want to move on to some Eastern European renaissance armies I have ahead of me. That said, my 15mm Ancient group has already said that we will be putting on a few medieval games during 2021, so no doubt I'll be getting stuck into one of these armies at some stage which would at least be guaranteed some game time.
DeleteNice job on the cuirs, well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. They took a while but I was happy with the result.
DeleteGreat work Lawrence. FIVE regiments of cuirasses? How big is your French 28mm collection?!
ReplyDeleteCheers Keith. I think there would be around two and a half thousand figures in all, with around fifty line and light battalions and twenty cavalry regiments. I'm only around a quarter of the way through though, and my aim is to try to get enough core units done to start to put on a few games with them.
DeleteNow that is a good number if cuirassiers. I have six myself (although two of those are carabiniers). Of course they have only been on the table once! The good thing about those old Foundry figures is that they were robust.
ReplyDeleteI realised when I was looking through my pile I don't have any carabiniers and my immediate reaction was to place an order for a couple of regiments, but I managed to exert some self control and thought I'd better get through this lot first. The Foundry figures will withstand a lot of handling, and there is a marked difference between them and the much softer metal the Perrys use. The trick I have found with the latter is not to cut away any of the grass tufts connecting horses' hooves to bases. If you leave them in place as no doubt intended they make for a much more robust figure.
DeleteThey came out extremely well, Lawrence. Are you doing the cots folded on top of the portmanteau in the facing color (red here)?
ReplyDeleteSo that's 12 figures per regiment, right?
I have these same Foundry figures in my collection (I just *painted them when I bought them about 22 years ago, ahem!). They are indeed HEAVY cavalry, with a lot of mass to them! Some mine are in the "Charging, sword arm straight forward" pose, which is a bit more dynamic.
Thanks Peter. Yes, the coats are in the facing colour which I'm hoping will provide a bit of variety between regiments. Next up will be some more Foundry in the charging pose, which is nice as I found I could also position the upper half of the bodies in slightly different angles to give the figures some subtle variation.
DeleteVery nice - you can never have too many Cuirassiers!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stryker, although I do wonder whether all five will ever make the table at the same time.
DeleteAusterlitz, Eylau, Wagram, Friedland, Borodino... :-)
DeleteThere's nothing to stop us playing a section of one of those battles I suppose Peter, once I can get everything properly organised (and paint the rest of my Russians and start on some Austrians). Looking at a few more years down the track before that happens, though.
DeleteLovely work on these splendid cuirassiers! Quite inspirational as well as I have 48 perry plastic cuirassiers looking at me from a tray! Very nice and something of a change from 15mm!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Cheers Iain. Yes, I read your comment on your blog that you have a few ahead of you, so I'll be looking forward to seeing them once you have had a chance to get stuck into them.
DeleteTerrific looking unit Lawrence.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray, they are the archetypal French cavalry so it was nice to get the first unit of them completed.
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