Wednesday 7 August 2013

Green stuff, strawberries and infamy

I received my Perry order to finish (well, almost) the crazy stupid 100 Days Order of Battle.  Along with more Prussian and British light cavalry, I ordered more of the nice Perry French Generals.  I love the uniform.  The ultimate Napoleonic image.

However one pose - shown in the photo from the Perry website as d'Erlon - was, while OK, and hard to see from this angle, has his sword resting on his arm at a odd-ish angle. And the sword was bent and could not be put quite straight again.
FN2 Mounted Corps Commanders ( d\'Erlon, Reille and Lobau ).
Sooo...

...off with the sword.  I was hit with inspiration and quickly got out the 'green stuff' and started to model what I hoped would be a good representation of a basket of small red fruit held in his hands resting on the pommel of his walking horse.

This was to be Marshal Grouchy as he was said to have been eating strawberries, hearing the cannon fire to east but, having his orders, refused to march to the sound of the guns leaving Napoleon to his fate at Battle of Waterloo (la Belle Alliance).

Once painted I hope that it will show the horse (being ridden by Reille in the Perry photo) seemingly startled by the thunderous noise and Grouchy looking to his left as he continued northward in his slow pursuit of the Prussians.

Hopefully any of the poor 'chop work' and sculpting will be covered by my thick paint brushwork.