Start of Napoleonic French

[The_Wrong_Khovanskiy]

Absolutely awesome armies!

[Glorfindel]

Welcome !   I've admired your work many times on the Tac Command site so am keen to see what you can do with the Pendraken Napoleonics.
I've not seen the Phoenix conversions before - really like the fiery glow.

A great start with the Napoleonics.

Concerning Colpacks, it looks as though this was reserved for Horse Artillery Officers and Trumpeters up until 1 Jan 1813 when it was officially
withdrawn (together with all the Hussar styling).   This is from vol 2 of 'Officers & Soldiers - Artillery & the Gribeauval System'.   That being said,
I understand that 'withdrawn' items could be worn for years after the official end date, particularly if no alternative had been offered due to a
shaky supply situation and if it is a popular look.

I should caveat this - I am not a Napoleonic expert by any means.

Anyway, hope this helps.



Phil

[DHautpol]

Great work, they look really nice.

[Ace of Spades]

Looking good!!!

Cheers,
Rob

[FierceKitty]

Seems apposite.

[mmcv]

Superb work! Welcome aboard

[Apoc]

Thanks all. Will be working on a few non-napoleonic bits on painting desk next to get some distance while i infinity debate with myself who to collect as opponents for the french, then hope to expand this.

And what are the base figures for the nurglings?

All figures are GW/conversions other than the fishing bait maggots (terrain bits etc scratchbuilt). Almost all from the GW 10mm warmaster daemon range, long OOP, i just snipped the strips of figures into individuals. Nurglings are from the same range. Main motivation being money-saving: not common figures now, so putting a huge tent etc in the middle of units fills a lot of space (core inf units are down to almost 1/3rd the model density of regular GW!) – that aside just draws on the carnival of chaos theme from Mordhiem.

Concerning Colpacks, it looks as though this was reserved for Horse Artillery Officers and Trumpeters up until 1 Jan 1813 when it was officially
withdrawn (together with all the Hussar styling).   This is from vol 2 of 'Officers & Soldiers - Artillery & the Gribeauval System'.   That being said,
I understand that 'withdrawn' items could be worn for years after the official end date, particularly if no alternative had been offered due to a
shaky supply situation and if it is a popular look.

Thanks Glorfindel, that's much more detailed than anything i'd gleaned! (and good to see you, i'd noticed a couple of other names i recognise from Taccom around on these forum too!)

[Steve J]

That made me smile Alexander .

[John Cook]

Question if anyone knows and this is a suitable place to ask: i'm thinking of getting some limbers for my horse artillery – did horse artillery limber drivers wear busbys and dolman/pelisse as per the horse gunners? I've seen this in the italeri 1/72 plastic kit, but elsewhere have only seen limber crew in shako?

Hi, The limbers were drawn by soldiers from the train d'artillerie.  They were not gunners and wore a distinct uniform.

[Westmarcher]

John is correct. This has jogged my memory regarding my own French limber drivers within my long defunct Napoleonic collection which were also painted in their own distinct uniform of lighter blue. This means that the limber drivers featured in the Pendraken catalogue are portrayed in the wrong uniform colour. It also appears that regardless of Line or Guard, Horse or Foot artillery, all of the French limber drivers apparently wore shakos (not a busby for the Garde Horse artillery as I thought). To add to John's information, I found the following link which has two interesting illustrations of the Horse Artillery of the Garde and limber drivers. The first is on page 6 and includes a Garde train driver in the background - in this he appears to have some "chicken gut" lacing on his breeches in a similar manner to the Garde Horse Artillery crew. On page 11, there is another illustration with both Garde train and HA crew in their respective uniforms on a limber. But this slightly puzzles me as I didn't know that French HA limbers had provision for seated crew members. Fortunately, the Pendraken 1809 range limbers don't either so this shouldn't be an issue.

http://www.planete-napoleon.com/docs/Artillerie_de_la_Garde.pdf

[Apoc]

Excellent, thanks so much both – ill stick with the Pendraken French limber then (in a lighter blue) for my next pendraken order.

[John Cook]

On page 11, there is another illustration with both Garde train and HA crew in their respective uniforms on a limber. But this slightly puzzles me as I didn't know that French HA limbers had provision for seated crew members. Fortunately, the Pendraken 1809 range limbers don't either so this shouldn't be an issue.
http://www.planete-napoleon.com/docs/Artillerie_de_la_Garde.pdf

I'm confident that picture is wrong.  There is a photo of, what purports to be, a French Napoleonic horse artillery limber with provision for seated crew, in the old Osprey booklet on Napoleonic artillery.  There has been quite a lot of discussion about this limber on various forums over the years and as I remember it was established that it is not Napoleonic limber and the inclusion of the photo was a mistake.  The French Gribeauval system limber, and used by the Year XI pieces, was of A-frame construction with a pintle to which the trail of the piece was attached.  It had no provision for either an ammunition chest, that was carried between the trail of the piece, or for seated gunners.  During the Napoleonic period, French horse artillery gunners were all individually mounted and foot artillery crews marched.  There was also a long two-wheeled ammunition caisson, towed by a similar A-frame limber but Pendraken don't make one of those yet. 

[Westmarcher]

Good stuff! 

[Apoc]

Been a while, picked up a few extra figures from Pendraken in person at Fiasco recently and have made progress on more line inf:



Cuirassiers almost done and working on hussars.

[fred.]

Welcome back!

Those figures look fantastic - great painting and a great a photo too, the black basing (which I assume is temporary) sets them off really well. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Those are superb! 

[pierre the shy]

Lovely work Apoc, I'm sure they will serve well - en avant! 

[Techno 3]

Very nice !

[paulr]

      

[Corso]

Must not be tempted, must finish 6mm project first...