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. 

French 9th Chasseurs

 The last of the line chasseurs, I chose 9eme regiment as I wanted an excuse to open my Foundry pink triad again:

The figures are again Perry, this time chasseurs in a standing pose, with the flag from GMB:

I was happy with the way these turned out and especially pleased with the pink contrast against the green:

I included three elite company figures again, this time in shakoes. I like the way the figures with the covered shako also lends a bit of variety:

That's seventeen regiments now completed with seven more to go:

I'm just finalising the Guard chasseurs at the moment, and will hopefully have a post up for them within the next few days.

French 4th Chasseurs

After painting nearly a thousand 15mm samurai figures it was nice to get back into some 28mm Napoleonics. First up the 4e Regiment of Chasseurs for whom I had painted the horses for these some time ago, so it wasn't a big job to complete the dozen figures to go on them:

The figures are Perry Miniatures and the flag is from GMB. Thankfully no more of the same disintegrating flag issues I experienced last year, and my lungs still seem to be functioning normally so I'm still not sure what caused it:

I also included a an element of elite company figures in this regiment, just to mix things up a little:

That's seventeen regiment of 28mm French cavalry now completed, with seven more still in the queue. The last regiment of chasseurs are nearing completion, and then it will be couple more regiments of Guard.

15mm Samurai Army Completed

Before I get stuck back into some 28mm French Napoleonics I thought I'd gather the recently completed 15mm Samurai Army together for a quick parade:

In this case I am using the word "completed" advisedly as I have done enough for essentially all the options in the DBMM army list and really can't see myself having to paint any more. First up a couple of pictures of the Samurai foot:

The Samurai Bow:

And the Samurai general:

Under DBMM the Samurai cavalry is supposed to be double-based with their Ashigaru foot followers. Rather than doing this on a permanent basis I decided to simply create magnetic sabot bases so I can easily separate them for use with other rule sets:

There is also quite a large amount of Ashigaru pike and bow:

With a couple of elements of arquebus-armed Ashigaru:

The figures are all Eureka except for a few Museum Miniatures pavises and some Ashigaru figures which I included in the camp elements:

The Sohei monks were a welcome change of pace and are the only troop type rated as regular in the army:

As I mentioned in a previous post the total figure count is 976, with 909 foot figures and 67 horses. I have already used the army twice with one loss and one win, although it must be said the win was against an arguably much weaker foe:

I'm just putting the finishing touches on some 28mm French chasseurs at the moment, so hope to have a few pictures of them posted before too long.

15mm Sohei Monks

The Samurai army has now been completed with the completion of a contingent of Sohei monks. The bulk of this force is comprised of nineteen elements of warrior monks armed with naginata:

The Sohei monks were an influential order of Buddhist monks who were involved in many of the Samurai conflicts of the medieval and early renaissance period as allies of various clans. They apparently had saffron-coloured garments with white scarves, which is the theme I employed for these figures:

They are essentially an ally within the DBMM Samurai army list with their own ally-general. Unfortunately Eureka do not have a figure specifically for this purpose but I had a spare Samurai general who will make the command stand easy to distinguish:

The army list also allows for four elements of Sohei bow. Again, Eureka do not have a specific bow-armed monk figure, but I thought their early Ashigaru bow would suffice especially painted up in the same theme:

And that is the Samurai army finally completed. It ended up (as usual) being far larger than I had anticipated, with 976 individual figures completed in all, comprised of 909 foot figures and 67 horses.

Next up will be some more Napoleonic French cavalry. These have been primed but collecting dust for the past six months, so it will be good to get stuck back into them.