Friday 8 April 2022

French Gendarmes d'Elite

I am normally in the habit of purchasing fifteen figures for Guard cavalry units. Even though I knew the Gendarmes d'Elite had a full-strength establishment of around 450 men and likely only around 200 or so on campaign (with just one squadron of 110 present at Waterloo), this meant that even at a ratio of 1:40 six figures would be overkill. I can vaguely recall this unit was part of a large order from Perry Miniatures which I was uncharacteristically making up on the fly, so habit no doubt kicked in and I purchased my usual fifteen figures. Here then are my fifteen figures of the Gendarmes d'Elite:





















The flag as usual is from GMB:





















I went with the more traditional bearskin rather than the helmet which made an appearance at Waterloo, as it looks more Guard-like in my opinion:





















The big question now is, do I increase every other French unit by a factor of 2.5 to match? Perhaps, if I live to 150. 

Next up, a regiment of carabiniers.

20 comments:

  1. One of my favorite French cavalry units and yours are splendid. Picking the bearskin was the right choice.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan, it had to be the bearskin. There are more than enough helmets among the other cavalry regiments.

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  2. Oh those are very nice! I have avoided the guard so far…too much of a slippery slope for me. Will you do the carabiners in the white uniform or the cornflower blue of 1815? I have done both regiments in the white, but the blue always looks impressive.

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    1. Thanks Mark. Just finishing them now, in the white. To be honest I was thinking they looked a bit "off", but the white seems to have pulled it all together. I do love a cornflower blue though.

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  3. More great work there Lawrence.....your constant output of beautifully turned out Napoleonic cavalry is causing me unwanted twinges of collection expansionism....not helpful at all!! 😁

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    1. Thanks Keith, and apologies for that. It will be coming to an end soon though, I promise.

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  4. Lovely work Lawrence. You have a good touch with the paint brush that really make your figures pop!

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    1. Very kind of you to say Richard. The contrasting colours help as well, of course.

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  5. First class unit...and job!

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    1. Cheers Phil. They were indeed a first class unit, even if there weren't that many of them.

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  6. Great looking unit Lawrence, French Napoleonic cavalry is always inspiring 👍

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    1. Thanks Matt. They do have a certain class, and a fair bit of variety thrown in to keep things interesting.

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  7. A lovely unit, Lawrence. The surplus figures can make a 2nd Grenadier a Cheval (or pre-1810 Carabinier) regiment if you ever need them and don't look too closely!

    Definitely the bearskin, though. They wore that for all but a few months of their existence.

    Evidently these men were one tough lot!

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    1. Thanks Peter. I hadn't thought about using the surplus as an early Carabinier regiment. Otherwise I might rotate them, so they all get a bit of game time. I agree, when one thinks of the Gendarmes it is the bearskin that first comes to mind.

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  8. Lovely finish, the bearskin was of course the correct choice, but expanding all the other regiments to match, that way lies madness!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain. No, I don't think I have it in me to do that. Even the thought of adding another four figures to each line battalion to bring them up to 24 is more than I can contemplate.

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  9. Another good looking unit Lawrence, the rate you turn them out at that standard is amazing.

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    1. Cheers Tony. The horses were all done late last year so had been sitting awaiting the completion of the riders, so not as quick a pace as it might appear. I'm still quite happy with the rate of output though.

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  10. Terrific painting Lawrence, I would love top have seen how the busby's stayed in place during a charge (horse grenadiers also), I have trouble keeping my gardening hat on in a strong breeze! I am with you on oversized to scale units,I love the mameluks of the guard but mine are way over scale to the squadron attached to the guard chausseurs but hey this is all about having fun not absolute accuracy.

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    1. Apologies as I have only just seen this comment (I am not great at looking back over old posts. I definitely need to get myself some (perhaps a dozen) Mameluks to add to the retinue.

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