French Chevau-Legers Lanciers

As the final preparation for my play test of a Napoleonic game at our regional convention, Bayou Wars, next month, I completed two regiments of French cavalry.  Both of these regiments are chevau-legers lanciers, six of which were raised from dragoon regiments by the decree of July 15, 1811. 

5th Regiment of Chevau-Legers Lanciers, which was converted from the 10th Dragoon Regiment

6th Regiment of Chevau-Legers Lanciers, which was converted from the 29th Dragoon Regiment

 

Both of these regiments are primarily vintage Scruby Miniatures and its follow-on manufacturer, Historifigs.  There may be a few Warrior Miniatures in the 6th Regiment.

 

They are each brigaded with a hussar regiment in two light cavalry brigades that are part of my French reserve cavalry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Napoleonic French Brigade Commander and Leger Battalion

While I'm awaiting the start of my SYW imagi-nation game Saturday morning (see last post), I've been trying to finish some Napoleonic French figures for a May play test of one of my convention games for Bayou Wars in June.  This week I finally finished a French infantry brigade commander and one of his battalions, the 1st Battalion, 36th Leger Regiment.  All of these figures are either venerable "true" 25mm Jack Scruby castings or newer Historifigs castings which are the immediate descendants of Jack's figures.

Almost all of my Napoleonic forces are organized around the composition of the Prussian, Russian, and French/Allied commands that fought over Berlin after the summer 1813 armistice.  The various uniforms may not be entirely accurate but they are close enough for me as I'm not a button and lace fanatic with my Napoleonics.

 

As the label states, this is General de Brigade Jarry, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 32nd French Infantry Division.  Jarry is a former leger officer (of the 36th Leger) who still wears his leger uniform even though he has been promoted.  All of my brigade and higher commanders are mounted on round bases of different sizes to distinguish them from the rectangular and square infantry, cavalry, and artillery bases.

The 1st Battalion, 36th Leger Regiment still has its carabiniers in black bear skin caps and its voltiguers in brown colpacks with yellow bags.  Nothing is too good for Jarry's old regiment!  All of my infantry battalions of any nationality are organized into four 4-figure stands which fits both my wallet and the rules I use - "The Sound of the Guns" by Larry Brom.



The bases are by Litko, which is almost all I use nowadays.  I used to cut my own bases but I've found out the savings in my own labor more than overcomes the slight increase in cost.  Plus the Litko bases just look so good!

The other battalion (4th) of the 36th Leger is being painted and the rest of the brigade, two battalions of the 131st Line Infantry Regiment, are awaiting their turn under the brush.

"True" 25mm Figure Comparison

On Friday, poster "FirstBrigade" was asking about what metal figures would match with 1/72 scale plastic figures. He was primarily interested in Napoleonic figures. You can read the thread here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=148784

I've been wargaming long enough that I have a good selection of what is referred to as "true" 25mm figures - Ral Partha, RAFM, MiniFigs, Scruby, etc. This picture shows a small selection of those figures compared with Italeri and Revell/Accurate plastic figures.

From left to right: RAFM F&IW Highlander, Italeri Napoleonic Russian Pavlov grenadier, MiniFig Napoleonic Prussian fusilier, Scruby (now produced by Historifigs) Napoleonic Prussian musketeer, Revell/Accurate AWR British infantry, and Ral Partha Colonial British infantry.

The black line is 1" (25.4mm) from the base of the background, giving a rough comparison of figure height. As you can see, only the Scruby figure comes close to the height and heft of the two plastic figures. But all of them will match well in separate units on the gaming table. Our group here in Jackson, Miss. (USA) utilize these brands (and others, such as Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler, Warrior, Custom Cast, and Hinchliffe) in our "25mm" medieval, horse and musket, Napoleonic, and colonial armies. You can see how they look on the gaming table by visiting our web site: www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer , clicking on "Pictures of Games," and then scrolling down and looking at the various battle reports.

I hope that this has helped.