French 3rd Regiment of Line Lancers

The last of the three line lance regiments, and an excuse to break out my Foundry pink triad again for the facings:

The figures are Perry this time, unlike the last two regiments which are Wargames Foundry. The flag is from GMB again:

I also included some elite company figures to provide a bit of variety:

I can't remember whether the Perry figures came with lances or not when I prepped these some time ago, but I ended up using the sturdy North Star wire spears which fit nicely and look the part with the GMB pennons attached:

I also purchased three of the Perry casualty figures which I thought I would paint up while I was in the mood, making this a fifteen figure unit in total although only twelve are likely to make the table at any one time:

Only the Polish lancers to go now, which I hope to have completed within the next week.

French 2nd Regiment of Line Lancers

 Here are a few pictures of my recently completed 2nd Regiment of Line Lancers, chosen mainly because I thought the yellow facings would make a nice contrast against the green:

The figures are again Foundry, purchased over twelve years ago so it was nice to see them completed:

The lance pennons are from GMB:

Nice to use, and not too fiddly to apply although I like to paint the edges to mask the white seam:

The regimental flag is obviously also from GMB:

That is now twenty-two of twenty-four regiments completed, with just one more regiment of line lancers and the Polish Lancers still to go. I can hear the call of the medieval Spanish getting louder.

French 1st Regiment of Line Lancers

The first of the line lancer units in the queue, the 1st Regiment were converted from the 1st Dragoon regiment which, I subsequently remembered I have also completed. No great problem as if they ever make it onto a table at the same time, the 1st Dragoons can make way and become the 3rd Dragoons (or I might simply go back and just change the label on the command stand and be done with it):

The figures are Foundry, and the flag from GMB as usual:

The lance pennons are also from GMB. They would have been easy enough to make myself, but I like the subtle shading on the GMB flags and pennons which gives the appearance of material fluttering in the breeze:

The figures were actually quite difficult to glue on to the horses as the contact point wasn't obvious with these figures. With the added steps of gluing pennons to lances and lances to figures I got myself into a bit of a mess at one stage, with lances stuck to the back of my hand and pennons which I subsequently realised I had affixed upside down.

I also went a little darker than the green I used for the dragoons. I realise it could perhaps be a shade or two lighter, but am not unhappy with the result.

That's the first of three lancer regiments completed then, with the other two hopefully following within the next week and a bit. I hope I'm not boring people too much with this procession of French cavalry but I want to get all 24 regiments completed before I become distracted again, especially as some 15mm Medieval Spanish are threatening to jump the queue.

French 1st Carabiniers

 Next off the production line is the 1e Carabiniers a Cheval. With only two Carabinier regiments in the French army, at least I can say I have now painted half of them:

The figures are again Foundry, and were nice clean castings again with next to no cleanup required:

The flags are again from GMB. The light blue I have used looks rather more vivid in these pictures than is apparent in normal light:

At around the halfway point I was a little disappointed with the way they were looking, but once I applied the different shades of white it really pulled all the colours together and I was pleased with the final result. Much more pleased than I thought I was going to be:

That's twenty French cavalry regiments now completed, with just four regiments of lancers left to go:

I also completed three more figures to add on to the 8th Cuirassier regiment:

My original purchase included three casualty figures. Although they added a bit of variety to the unit they were not overly practical from a gaming perspective, so I completed these to use alongside the other charging figures in that unit:

Next will be the first of the line lancer regiments which I am hoping to complete over Easter.

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.

French Guard Chasseurs a Cheval

 I must admit I had been putting off painting the Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde, partly because the uniform looked quite fiddly and also because they are possibly the most iconic French cavalry regiment of the Napoleonic period and I was somewhat wary about mucking them up. As it turned out I did not find them any more difficult to do than an hussar regiment:

The figures are Foundry and were enjoyable paint with very little cleaning required, while the flag is from GMB: 

The officer is a quite dynamic figure and looks to be based upon Theodore Gericault's iconic painting of Alexandre Dieudonne:

The only negative with Foundry figures after the last few regiments having been Perry Miniatures is that all the trooper figures are in the same pose and so lack variety. However, once you have worked out how to paint one Foundry figure it is easy to repeat the same approach across the rest of the regiment:

One can also mix things up a little by varying the horse colour, where this is appropriate:

Eighteen regiments now completed, with six to go:

Next up will be another Guard regiment in the form of the Gendarmes d'Elite.