Three regiments of Chasseur a Cheval for post number three. I'm quite fond of Chasseurs (as you may have guessed given the name of this blog!), so I painted up a good number. They're often overlooked in favour of prettier and more powerful troops by wargamers, but the humble Chasseurs were the most common subtype of French cavalry for much of the Napoleonic wars. Needless to say "humble" is the description others gave to them - the Chasseurs thought themselves equal to Hussars and I understand that quarrels between these two types of light cavalry were not uncommon. Napoleon created many regiments of Chasseurs because the less elaborate uniforms and smaller horses were comparatively inexpensive. They were used for scouting as well as for battle.
These are metal Perry miniatures. Not as much a fan of these as the Perry plastics, and arguably Chasseurs should have been one of the first plastic sets given what I just said about how common they were historically! Hard to get as much variety in pose with metals, and I've done nothing more than a few head turns. Also while painting I kept finding little bits of flash I had missed when cleaning up, so I will be more careful with cleanup on my next metal unit from Perry. Nonetheless they turned out ok I think. The castings are nice and still have some variety. Horses and riders are slightly smaller than the Perry heavy cavalry which is excellent and appropriate.
I chose the 16th (sky blue facings), 19th (aurore yellow facings), and 25th (madder red facings). I gave the officers matching coloured breeches to brighten them up a bit and so they won't feel so envious of the Hussars... Here's a useful link with facing colours of the various Chasseur a Cheval regiments:
The 25th.
The 16th.
The 19th.
All three regiments.
Marvelous painting job! Not my scale but I enjoy seeing the work of great artists like you
ReplyDeleteRegards
Rafa
Fantastic looking Chasseurs. A very impressive sight!
ReplyDeleteThey look great!
ReplyDeleteLovely work and great colors!
ReplyDeleteOne can't have too many chasseurs à cheval, hey?! Beautifully painted once again Mark, thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI have a particular liking for the 16th: sky blue facings and part of Lasalle's division at Wagram, what more could you want?!
Excellent painting!
ReplyDeleteThe very first unit I ever painted was the 4th Chasseurs with their yellow facings... and I'm also a fan of the 16th's light blue facings, They were my other regiment in my original (Scruby) army way back when, and are one of the 4 units in mt present army (Foundry figures for them).
As you're doubtless aware, some of the Chasseur regiments wore a dolman (no pelisse, of course) until relatively late (1809 at least) in the Napoleonic wars, and those are kind of fun, too. I like the facing colored pants for the officers, which was evidently a fairly common officer variant, as were belts in the facing color, and of course wearing the colpack even if they weren't officers of the elite company.
Hmm, I think maybe I need to add a 5th Chasseur unit... maybe with rose pink or amaranth facings? :-)
Cheers gents, and glad to see some others who appreciate their Chasseurs! And thanks for the info Gonsolvao. The yellow in these pics looks more like the 4th too perhaps, but it's a bit darker in real life, as are the figures in general. Photography is tricky! I used pink on my Line Lancers which will be my next post...:)
ReplyDelete