French Imperial Guard Cavalry Corps - 28mm Perry

Bit of a monster post this one. A detailed look at my French Guard Cavalry Corps project for the 1813 era, which with recent addition of the Gardes d'Honneur is now complete. I had uploaded some pictures of some of these units 4 years ago(!), but thought I'd take some more consistent ones here, plus there are some changes. Note I haven't included the Horse Artillery or Generals in these pictures, but they are completed too, except for Murat.

This force is designed for a Leipzig refight at an approximate 1:100 scale. So these 72 cavalry represent the major formations of the 7357 cavalry of the Imperial Guard at the Battle of Leipzig:

Front row: Chasseurs a Cheval, Grenadiers a Cheval, Polish Lancers

Back row: Gardes d'Honneur, Empress Dragoons, Dutch Lancers

The squadrons of these regiments were mixed up in different ways in 1813, and to be strict these numbers would also include a few Berg Lancers, a couple of Mameluke figures and others scattered about. However for reasons of sanity this is my first attempt at an impression of this Corp that is more aesthetically pleasing, and less confusing in a refight that will already be large and confusing enough!

Following are detailed photos of each regiment. All the models are from Perry Miniatures.

Grenadiers a Cheval

The "Gods" or "Big Boots", and "Old Guard" of the Guard Cavalry. Heavy cavalry riding big black horses.

Empress Dragoons

Similar equipment to the Grenadiers but with green coats and metal helmets instead of bearskins.

Chasseurs a Cheval

Light Cavalry, "Guides" of the Guard and escort to Napoleon and other Generals. I've added a bit more detailing to piping and lacework of these, while I was painting the Gardes d'Honneur, and also redid the green with Vallejo Deep Green rather than Uniform Green to give it a richer hue.

See my previous post on these for commentary on the pelisses on these figures, which were extras supplied by Alan Perry (the figures don't come with them, but I wanted to brighten up this regiment so it looked more guard like!).

The top of the Colpack should also be black, unless they had removed the cover to the flamme which I'm saying they have...

(Edit: An update on this from 'Tassie' on TMP that I'll include here as some interesting information about this, he says: "I'm afraid that's not correct. The flamme / bag was completely detachable. It did not tuck inside the colpack or sit under a cover. Only the vertical sides of the colpack were covered in bearskin. The top of the colpack had a black leather surface and rim, practically identical to that of a shako. The flamme / bag was held in place and/or detachable by means of three fairly large iron hooks and eyes, ish 14mm long. If the flamme / bag wasn't fixed onto the colpack by these hooks and eyes, the black leather top of the colpack would be exposed, although as the bearskin rolled over the top of the leather rim, it all but obscured the leather surface, leaving only the middle portion visible. There's a photograph of a good, original First Empire other ranks' colpack, clearly showing the hooks and eyes, on page 230 of the book, Les Tresors de l'Emperi, by Vincent Bourgeot.").

Gardes d' Honneur

A newly painted unit. Four regiments of Gardes d'Honneur were raised in 1813 as an emergency measure due to the lack of cavalry after the Russian disaster. They were raised from the nobility who could supply their own equipment and horses.  The uniform differed from normal Hussar dress only in that the flounders of the cords on the shako were on the left rather than right side.  I've painted these as the second regiment, but the only difference in uniform between the four regiments was the plume tip, which was red (1st regiment), blue (second regiment), yellow (third regiment), and white (4th regiment).

This unit is a bit of a disaster story, which is why I've taken so long to paint them! The problem may not be immediately noticeable, but observant Napoleonic experts may realise what is wrong! See if you can guess what it is before reading onwards... ;)

I tend to assemble and paint quite a few models at any one time, and these I got and assembled along with many others. As noted above, I had some extra Pelisses supplied by Alan Perry and thought I'd add them to these figures as for the Chasseurs above.  I dutifully did so....

Only when I started to paint them did I realise the error. The models were already wearing their pelisses rather than having them slung over the shoulder, so they now had TWO pelisses! Aaagh. With epoxy glue there was no way these were budging.

And so rather demoralised by this, they sat in a box for quite some time...

But then I decided, actually with some clever paintwork I can mostly hide this mistake, and they didn't turn out too badly in the end I think.  They will also be very warm in winter. :)

Polish Lancers

The famous Polish Lancers. As mentioned in this previous post  I used a more pinky crimson colour over the red to try and clearly distinguish the colour from the red of the Red Lancers below.

Dutch Lancers

And lastly, here are the Red Lancers of the Guard.  Very bright colours in this uniform!

Phew and done, thanks for looking, all that now remains for the 1813 Guard is two more units of Young Guard to bring those up to 8 units, plus some specific Guard Generals.