French cavalry commanders

Next up are the French (from the Empire or Napoleonic period). As you can imagine, this is my biggest army, featuring hundreds if not thousands of models, so I'm going to have to break it up in to lots of sections for presentation.


First we have my cavalry commanders.




Marshal Bessieres and an attendant ADC. The ADC is from the Italeri French commanders set, whereas the Marshal is actually a converted Russian General (also Italeri).

Murat in his flamboyant outfit. This is a conversion from the extremely useful Italeri French Hussars set. I have many of these sets, that have been used in various ways down the years. The tiger-skin saddle cover was built by hand.

Another view of Murat, with his Aide in the uniform of Neapolitan Hussars.

Eugene de Beauharnais, Napoleons step-son, with an officer of Italian cavalry behind him. Although not technically a cavalry commander, I like this model and often use it for other personalities. I converted it to look like a bit like a famous painting from the period by a French artist.

General Lasalle on the right, one of the most famous French cavalry commanders of the time.

Another view of Lasalle. The model was converted from another Italeri Hussar, using a Hat Mameluke for the baggy trouser-legs and a bicorne from another model. I think Strelets have made a Lasalle figure but I couldn'y obtain the set and thought it would be fun to make my own.

Heavy cavalry officers (from left to right, Zvezda Cuirassier, Esci Cuirassier with added Generals bicorne, Strelets Carabinier).

Dragoon officers; Zvezda, Strelets, Hat (converted). Although they don't match up well together, they look OK next to units of their own brand type.

Hussars! Always fun to paint due to the colourful uniforms. We have an Esci chap (actually a British hussar from the Crimean war period), then two Italeri guys.

Officers of the Imperial Guard cavalry; Empress Dragon (a Italeri French Dragoon with added cloak and plume), Hat Horse Grenadier, and Chasseur a Cheval de la Garde (yet another converted Italeri Hussar).

Line Chasseur and Lancer officers (with head swops)

Generic Corps cavalry commanders with ADCs (a Dutch lancer ADC on the left and a Westphalian Hussar on the right)

I hope you like these. I'll post another lot of French units next, probably makes sense to post the cavalry itself.

A tale of 35 armies - Introduction

Plans are afoot to collect, build and paint no less than 35 wargame armies for the French Revolution & Napoleonic period (covering the dates 1789-1815), all in 1:72 plastic!!!!
In fact, the project has been started for some time now with multiple armies already completed and just waiting to be photographed.

A note for the purists - these armies are primarily intended for wargaming using the rules for Et Sans Resultat! (ESR), which is a grand tactical gaming system. Battalions are represented but the main focus is on maneuvering at divisional level, with the intention that large battles of the period such as Austerlitz and Jena can be re-fought. I therefore decided to make 16 figure battalions that are somewhat abstracted and typically portray only the most common uniform type in that battalion. So please don't expect to see large 40+ figure battalions with historical ratios of Grenadiers, Voltiguers etc, etc. The aim is to create units & armies that could be suitable for as wide a time period as possible, rather than a specific campaign.

I've used a large range of manufacturers to build my collection, from Airfix to Zvezda, with large numbers provided by Hat, Strelets and Italeri. A Call to Arms, Emhar, Esci, IMEX, Mars, Odemars, Orion, Redbox and Waterloo 1815 also provided many recruits.

The size of the 35 armies will range from the very small to the very large, depending on their historical significance and the number of campaigns that they were involved in.

The full list of armies will hopefully be as follows, with an asterisk denoting whether the army is more or less complete (as you may know a wargames army is never completely complete!);

1) France (revolution period)*
2) France (empire period)*
3) G Britain (revolution period)
4) G Britain (empire period)*
5) Austria (revolution period)*
6) Austria (empire period)
7) Prussia & Saxon allies (from Valmy to Jena)*
8) Prussia (1813-1815)*
9) Russia (1799-1815)
10) Spain
11) Portugal
12) Sweden (inc Finnish troops)*
13) Denmark
14) Saxony (empire period)
15) Poland
16) Kingdom of Italy*
17) Kingdom of Naples*
18) Bavaria
19) Wurttemberg*
20) Westphalia
21) Piedmont (1st Italian campaign)*
22) Brunswick*
23) Switzerland
24) Dutch-Belgians (1813-1815)*
25) Hanover (1813-1815)*
26) United States (war of 1812)
27) Native American forces (war of 1812)
28) Haitian revolutionaries
29) Ottoman Empire & Mamelukes
30) Maratha Empire
31) Hesse-Darmstadt
32) Berg*
33) Baden*
34) Tyrol (1809)
35) Vendean/Chouan rebels (revolution period)

As a little taster here are a few pictures from a Waterloo game. Pretty much every model has been re-based since this game.

The French army arrayed for battle (almost my entire French collection).

The Anglo-Allied army on the Mont-St-Jean ridge.

Hougoumont, with the British guard units almost surrounded by the advancing French.

After an extremely close and hard-fought battle, the Anglo-Allied army retreating from the field in good order, with the exhausted French attempting to organise a pursuit.

The Six Napoleons

I suppose its only fitting that my first post should feature the great commander himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. Much of the events & battles covered in this Blog will centre around Boney one way or another, so its only fair that he gets to appear first.

Here are all my Napoleon 1/72 figures to date, which include a number of conversions. The observant will spot that there are actually seven Napoleon bases below, but two of them are the same model (the camel mounted Napoleon detaches from his mount and also sits on the white horse to the left, which is the base I use for the little Corporal in his Italian campaigns), and in any case I wanted there to number six Napoleons as this is the title for one of my favourite Sherlock Holmes stories!!!

From left to right these figures are Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon, at the Bridge of Arcole, in Egypt, at the battle of Austerlitz, at the battle of Borodino, and the battle of Waterloo.


The next photos show the converted Napoleon's.
In the 1st photo the only addition are the plumes in the raised bicorne. Both are Strelets figures.
The 2nd is converted from the Marshal Berthier figure in the Zvezda command set which a fatter stomach added to better represent Napoleon's more corpulent physique at Waterloo. The Imperial Guardsman is from the same set and ADC figure is from the Italeri command set with a converted bicorne.
The 3rd photo shows Bonaparte during the first & second Italian campaigns, again with a converted bicorne, this time added to an Italeri Austrian General, and mounted on a white charger. This is the Napoleon that sits comfortably on the camel as and when required. The other figure on this command base is a Hat Industrie 1806 Prussian Hussar.

Enjoy! Hopefully this will be the first of many posts showcasing my very large 1/72 Napoleonic collection.