A quick display of the Napoleonic troops painted in the last
few (ahem...) many weeks.
The Westphalian corps fought at Borodino but were either lightly committed or perhaps ? punished for either their actions, or for their leadership, as they were given the unenviable job of "cleaning up" the battlefield at its conclusion, with all that entails.
A box of Warlord French line infantry in mostly overcoats serve for the Westphalians. While it might be considered a sin by the "true Napoleonic" fan to not paint up these boys in their full-dress white uniforms, I was very happy to just paint up a few of the command and have the single flag give representation to this contingent. I generally hate painting white, so the overcoats provide an easy escape!
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| My Westphalian Corps |
Only one box of the Warlord French Infantry provided enough for this corps gathered for the 1812 Russian campaign, some 10,000 or so.
[ As an aside, the box cover says 36 figures but my particular box came with an extra sprue as to give me 42 figures so I could do up the full 4 x 10 elements ]
I indicated the Westphalian leadership may have been lacking. Well, Jerome, King of Westphalia and Napoleon's brother, got in a snit, and left for the pleasures of his German palace putting Junot in command. Junot was apparently showing signs of his mental illness during the Russian campaign which will have him commit suicide a year later.
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| Perry's "Jerome" casting which has a very good family resemblance, I think. |
The Polish allies were some of the French's more staunch supporters, as the Duchy of Warsaw being pinned between Prussia and Russia. However unlike their German allies, the Poles did not really follow French military fashion for the most part and so had a different and distinctive uniforms. The most obvious being the square topped headdress. Much debated on how the top was decorated, after much research, and much of it conflicting even from respected authors, I finally decided on the "showy" white tape cross on the top and crown of the chapka as I wanted these to be obviously Polish on the tabletop.
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| The Polish infantry marching into action |
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| the distinctive caps of much of the Polish army |
Murawski Figures I used for the Poles and nicely detailed they are. Paul Hicks sculpts. I was given an extra casualty pack as complimentary compensation for an order mix-up [ very kind, that! ] and decided to use these to make a "mini stand" to place near any of my overcoat elements as to give a visual suggestion that they are Polish at the start of a game should I need more than the two elements I have painted.
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| the small additional stand giving credence for having the French in overcoat be a Polish contingent |
Along with the infantry, I have added hussars for the Westphalian light horse contingent and for the Saxons. The Perry box of plastic French hussars proves very useful as with only a few modifications many of the hussars of different nations can be constructed. For example the Westphalian 2nd Hussars are the full dress version as I decided to add the pelisse and tall plume and shako cords as these are distinctive uniform items for this unit; while for the Saxons I made them more "campaign dress" with covered shako and no pelisse. Perhaps more experienced and thus a better unit it could be conferred. As the Saxons did not use the "wolfsteeth" with their sheepskin saddle cloth and were smaller in nature, I could scrape off those bits as these are plastics. I wouldn't even try if in metal!
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| my Westphalian 2nd Hussars representing that corps attached light horse division in the Russian campaign |
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| my Saxon Hussars ready for action |
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| Showing how the plastics can be easily modified to give distinctive looks along with the colour differences. |
I think that concludes the French Allies contingents I need to fight most of the battles of the era's later years. Gotta stop at some point!
