Identifying a French Officer

 

At our local convention earlier this month I purchased this mounted French-looking officer from an estate sale.  At first I thought it was a Hinchliffe figure, but I don't think Hinchliffe ever made mid-1800s ranges.  Can anyone help with a manufacturer and range?

And the answer is -- An Old Glory mounted French Foreign Legion officer!  Thanks!!

The figure is wearing a thigh length coat, slightly "bloused" trousers, and a kepi.  It is a two-piece casting - separate rider and horse.  There was no manufacturer identification readily readable on the horse and the two came glued together when I bought them.

Viewed from the left side, the rider is not equipped with a sword.  I'm planning on using the figure on my Franco-Prussian War French corps command group stand to replace another mounted figure.

Many thanks!

Revitalized Frontier Miniatures

 

Some time ago I acquired a batch of 12 painted Frontier Miniatures French 19th Century light cavalry that were already based on 2" squares.  They sat in a box for a while until I got the "bug" to do something about them.  Since the base size doesn't match with the cavalry base size for the "Chassepot & Needlegun" rules I use, that had to be changed.  An overnight soak in water softened the adhesive enough that I could gently pry each figure off the old base.

I was able to identify them as French chasseurs a cheval in their 'trademark' green jacket and black sheep wool busby.  But I needed 16 to make a full regiment.  As part of the same acquisition there were 4 other apparently French light cavalry.  A little research in the two volume Ospreys on the French Army, 1870-1871 revealed that at least three of them were hussars.  The fourth looked close enough even though it had a white havelock.  Since Frontier made figures for several wars during the mid-1800s in which the French were involved and the figure fit in, I decided to use it as well.  Besides this regiment would be part of my post-Sedan "revolutionary" French Army so the exact uniform wasn't that much of a concern.

A little touching up of the paint, including repainting all four hussar kepis, and the regiment was ready for their new bases.

Please click on image for a larger picture.

3rd Mixed Light Cavalry Regiment with hussars on the left of the photo and the rest chasseurs.

I now present the 3rd Mixed Light Cavalry Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 15th Corps, Army of the Loire.  Because of all of the losses of cavalry at Sedan and Metz, the French were doing whatever they could to get their cavalry arm reformed.  This regiment is a typical example where squadrons from four different regimental depots were organized into a regiment.  In this case, three squadrons of chasseurs and one of hussars.  Temporarily they'll join the 3rd Spahi Regiment in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade.

And here is the 3rd Brigade, in all its 'glory!'

3rd Spahis on left, brigade command group in center, 3rd Mixed Light Cavalry on right
All figures are Frontier Miniatures!

I painted the brigade command group and the 3rd Spahis way back in April 2007, 14 years ago (yikes!).  It has taken this long to add to my French cavalry.  But the Germans are still stuck with one cavalry regiment, the 6th Magdeburg Dragoons, even though I have several that are complete but unpainted.  Just as the French have several more regiments complete but unpainted.  Can you tell I don't particularly like to paint horses!

Now to painting more German artillery, two Prussian and three Hessian batteries!

French 1870-1871 Zouave Regiment Completed

This past weekend I completed the 3rd and last battalion for my French 1870-1871 Zouave Regiment de Marche for the 15th Corps of the Army of the Loire.  After the fall of Sedan and Metz with the loss of the last original field armies, the French were forced to raise troops as quickly as they could.  Part of this reestablishment of the French field armies was combining depot units into 'ad hoc' regiments known as "regiments de marche" or march regiments.  These 'ad hoc' regiments did much of the heavy fighting against the various German forces covering the siege of Paris.

With the loss of the four regular Zouave regiments, their depots were combed and new recruits added to form one regiment de marche which was assigned to the Army of the Loire.  In my French force, it is part of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 15th Corps.  It, as are all my Franco-German War forces, organized in accordance with Larry Brom's "Chassepot and Needlegun" rules.

Please click on the photographs for larger images.

 And here is the 3rd Battalion, Zouave Regiment de March deployed in battle formation.

The figures are all Askari Miniatures French Zouaves from the French Army of Africa range.

 Here is the battalion "command" stand that shows the battalion sergeant carrying a tri-color field guidon.  The three blue dots on the rear of the stand designate that this is the third battalion of the Zouave regiment.  All of my French and German are distinctively marked so the players will know which unit is in which command.

And the entire regiment with the 1st Battalion in the center, the 2nd Battalion to camera right, and the 3rd Battalion to camera left.  The mounted colonel is between the 1st and 3rd Battalions.  All figures are Askari Miniatures except the colonel, which is a Falcon mounted officer.

And here is the entire 1st Division in their storage boxes.

 The 1st Brigade with the Regiment Legion Entrangere to camera right, the Tirailleur Algerien Regiment de Marche to camera left, and the combined chasseur battalion and one of the light artillery batteries at camera top.  The two regimental colonels are in the center.

The 2nd Brigade with the Toulon Regiment des Marins to camera right, the Zouave Regiment de Marche to camera left, and the other light artillery battery, the two brigade command groups, and the Mitrailleuse battery at camera top.  The two regimental colonels are in the center.

Because of the size of the base, the division command group is in a different box with the corps command group, the 2nd Division command group, and other corps level troops.

Now that the 1st Division is complete I can move on to my next project -- more WW2 German  and British infantry to battle in northwest Europe.

Turcos Are Completed!!

Finally this past weekend I completed my Regiment Tirailleurs Algerien (or Turcos) for my 1870-1871 Republican French army.  The Turcos were North African native troops (primarily Algerian) recruited into the French Army of Africa during the middle part of the 19th century.  They were very tough fighters.

There were three regiments in the Imperial French Army during the early part of the war but most of them were killed or captured at either Sedan or Metz.  During the Republican phase a 'regiment de marche' of Turcos was established from the various depot companies and survivors of the earlier fighting.  This regiment is what I'm representing.  The figures are Askari Miniatures from Al's 'French Army of Africa' line.  They are very well sculpted figures and were fairly easy to paint.  They are based for Larry Brom's "Chassepot and Needlegun" Franco-German War rules.

The 3rd Battalion, Tirailleurs Algerien (minus a battalion guidon)

They joined their previously painted 1st and 2nd Battalions to form the complete regiment.

From left - 2nd Battalion, regimental commander, 1st Battalion, and 3rd Battalion

The regiment forms the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 15th Corps, Army of the Loire (my Republican French corps) along with the Regiment Legion Entrangere (French Foreign legion) and a composite chasseur battalion.

As a note, the French African forces also included Tirailleurs Senegalais but they weren't involved in the Franco-German War, staying in west Africa.

Russians, Saxons, and French, O My!

Just completed some more 25mm units for my Napoleonic forces.

First up we have the 1st Battalion, Pavlov Grenadier Regiment, of the army of the Czar.  Due to its heroism in 1807, it was authorized to retain the miter helmet (and did so until WW1).  In April 1813, the Pavlovs were given guard status and transferred to the Imperial Guard and renamed "Pavlovski".  According to most valid data, in the 1813 period only the grenadier company wore the taller grenadier miter while the three fusilier companies in each battalion wore the shorter fusilier style miter.  But since Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspieler did not make a fusilier miter back in the 1970s when I acquired the figures, all of them are in the taller miter helmet.  The flag is from the Warflag site and is the 1803 pattern for the regiments of the St. Petersburg district.  I believe that during my time frame (1813) they were still using this flag and not the new issue guard flags.

This battalion will be the senior guard battalion in my small guards brigade, along with the 3rd Battalion (of vintage Scruby figures) and the Finnlanski Jager Battalion (of vintage Der Kriegspieler figures).  The 2nd Battalion will be completed at a later date once I get enough Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler figures.

Second is the Saxon foot battery #3 which will support my small 6-battalion Saxon division.  This battery has Miniature Figurine gunners and Scruby/Historifigs guns.  The battery had four 6-lb guns and two field howitzers.

Since the Scruby/Historifigs 6-lb guns are slightly under "scale" I've used their 8-lb models which, to me, look good.

Third is a regiment of the French guard cavalry - the Guard Scout Lancers or Eclaireur-lancier de la Garde Imperiale.  Although this cavalry component of the French Guard wasn't raised until late 1813 and into early 1814, I've had three of the stands since the mid 1970s.  Recently I acquired two more figures and was able to finally complete the regiment.  This is the first guard cavalry unit I have in my French forces, but it may not be the last.

The three stands with pennants on the lances are the original figures, being early Miniature Figurines with horse furniture sculpted on the riders.  The other stand with the officer are late Miniature Figurines with the horse furniture sculpted on the horse.  Since they are bigger than the early ones, I've added a "booster" base onto the older ones to get them up to the same height.

More Napoleonics in future posts, including a leger battalion from the Kingdom of Northern Italy and a Russian musketeer regiment in overcoats.

From ACW to FPW

Although I haven't made any posts lately, I have been painting away on my Franco-German War (as I call it) figures as well as mounting some ACW pictures painted by my friend, Larry the Marine.

After hosting a FPW game in late July, I got on a painting kick to finish some French and Prussian figures.  I already had one battalion of the French Republican Volontaires de l'Ouest painted.  I bought enough figures at Historicon to complete the other two battalions of the regiment.  Here is the 1st battalion, minus its flag which has since been prepared and mounted.

The Volontaires de l'Ouest were formed from the old Pontifical Zouaves and were probably one of the better regiments in the Republican armies to the south of Paris.  In my army, they form part of the XV Corps, Army of the Loire.  The figures are actually Union zouaves from Sash & Saber's ACW line since I couldn't find any appropriate zouaves wearing kepis.

Continuing with the FPW theme is the headquarters of IX Korps, 2nd Prussian Army which in my army is deployed south of Paris to keep the Loire rabble from interrupting the siege of Paris.

This HQ group utilizes a mix of Foundry, Castaway Arts, and Irregular (I think) figures to depict General der Infanterie Albrecht Gustav von Mannstein and his battle staff.  His uhlan aide is handing him a dispatch from a subordinate commander while his artillery staff officer keeps track of the battle through his binoculars.

Turning to the American Civil War, my gaming friend Larry the Marine recently painted a division of Union troops for me.  I'm organizing Union and Confederate forces for the Middle Tennessee campaigns of 1863 using the On to Richmond rules where each brigade is composed of 3 to 8 stands of figures.  Here is Beatty's 1st Brigade, Negley's 2nd Division, Thomas' XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland.

Beatty's battleline ready to give fire into the attacking Confederates.

Right flank of the line.

These are Old Glory 15s Union figures from which I have trimmed the bayonets as they are in firing poses.  I use 8 figures on all the bases of each brigade except for one upon which I place a mounted officer (the brigade commander) and 6 figures.

I've made previous posts showing some of my first Union and Confederate units which you can see by clicking on the "American Civil War" label in the list below.

French Heavy Artillery

My Napoleonic French army has added two new heavy (12-lbr) batteries to their artillery park.  These are 25mm Miniature Figurines (MiniFigs) guns and crews that I have acquired over the years and finally gotten painted and based.

In the rule set I use, The Sound of the Guns by Larry Brom, each battery is represented by a number of guns and two gunners per gun.  Each gunner represents two actual guns so a 6-gun battery would have three guns and six gunners.

Heavy Battery number one with four 12-lb guns and two howitzers

Heavy Battery number two with four 12-lb guns and two howitzers

 

My Napoleonic forces are developed around the 1813 Befreiungskrieg (War of Liberation) campaigns.  These French batteries are slightly under strength since so many guns were lost in Russia in 1812.