Friday 20 April 2018

French Ligne Battalion

I have been keenly aware for some years now that my Napoleonic collection is a touch, disordered. My French field six regiments of cavalry (including both of the Carabinier regiments and the Imperial Guard mounted Chasseurs) but only two of infantry (half of one of these is Italian) and a single gun belonging to the Imperial Guard Horse Artillery. The British are in better shape, but they do have as many cannons as they have battalions of infantry. How did I end up with such a, mixed, collection you ask? That would be because I didn't actually buy any of the above figures; they were gifted to me by my generous father many years ago.
Alas, now that I'm supposedly an adult I apparently have to buy my own minis. Swallowing my reluctance I hoped on the internet and bought myself a number of lovely plastic kits from Italeri, HaT and Zvezda, to start the process of making my armies more sane. Here I present the first fruits of my endeavour, a French line battalion:




Grenadier Company

Voltigeur Company


The figures are a mixture of Italeri's French Infantry 6066, and HaT's Young Guard 8034. The Young Guard are painted as if they are regular line infantry wearing greatcoats. Each base represents a company, which puts the battalion at around 1 figure per 30 men. I've got the figures to paint up four more, so I should be well on the way to having a more balanced force once they're done. Let's hope I remember to take pictures...

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