Milhaud's Horsemen

It started innocently enough.  I had just a few minutes so I did not want to start a bulk painting session (I hate stopping part way through something if I can help it...just me).  So I picked up the nearby French cuirassiers. (I just love the French cuirassier uniform!) to put on a few colors. Well, I just had to finish them....

 The horses I had done previously - I do a large lot of horses for various units all together for production efficiency, for which why I am considered a quick painter, I guess.  I know I have painted better in the past but age and lacking eyesight has taking a bit of a toll I think)

One of these units is the 11th Cuirassier.  It is famous for not having the cuirass as these were in short supply and so were without during the Waterloo campaign.

I modeled this unit from the trumpeter torso, scraping off the lace. I think these were from the Dragoon set but nevertheless the horse furniture was the same.  I stuck on cuirassier helmets and the 11th were born. Well, OK I was one helmet short so my favorite trick: the bandaged head...poor boy must have lost his helmet when getting his wound!

For my III Cavalry Corps (Kellerman's) for the campaign, the 11th are added to the Wagnerian darlings (also known as the 1st Carabineers) and a dragoon element.  I get to be selective in my OB ratios picking and choosing out of all the historic units within each large formation albeit trying to maintain correct proportions of each troop type.

Like something from a Wagnerian production, the 1st Carabineer is a quite the show. Surprising how with an altered helmet and only a different color scheme, it can made from the same miniature as the cuirassiers!

The other cuirassier unit done completes Milhaud's IV Cavalry Corps which led Ney's fruitless charges at Waterloo.

Milhaud's Cavalry Corps

 The last picture is the comparison of the look between the cuirassiers with the cuirass and that without the armor.

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Commentary note from author:

Yeah, OK.  Perhaps nine chaps on horses hardly constitutes a cavalry corps but neither does only 360 if one is so inclined.  That is 12 regiments @ 30 a piece; which while looking very impressive on the table, that table would need to be mighty big, and the game take a long time to play - moving that many figures alone would be many minutes! AND STILL it is ONLY 360 to represent thousands of soldiers. In the same vein as 'Volley and Bayonet', 'Snappy Nappy', and other rules of the like, I am going for the Waterloo on a 8 x 5 foot table with room and time to spare.
Personally I feel the games still look good and are fun to play without too much 'Napoleonic Rules Burnout' common with many Nappy games.