At long last I give you the...
1er Régiment de Chevau-Légers Lancier de la Garde Impériale (Polonais).
The official start date for the painting on these was May 14th 2024, so a mere 4 months and 29 days from start to finish for the painting. Of course, if you include the time prepping the figures (they were a bear to prep), you might as well round up to 6 months!
The figures are Hinton Hunt for the most part. I had to sneak in one Der Kriegspieler trooper, and Count Krasinski is an Art Miniaturen sculpt.
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| I love this dynamic pose, but the weight of the figure was too much for the back ankles of the horse to be steady, so I put in a support post and disguised it as a bush over which the horse is jumping. The Art Miniaturen castings are somewhat rough, but sizewise they fit very nicely with the Hinton Hunts. |
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| 15 troopers, a major, trumpeter and eagle bearer complete the regiment. |
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| Prepping the figures was a real challenge as the molds had clearly deteriorated by the time these were cast, and there was a lot of flash and undercuts that had to be cleared. Facial detail was also quite rough. |
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| Probably the worst casting flaws were in the belts holding the ammunition pouch and carbine hook. I did my best, but what is there is almost all paint, as the detail was either gone or so rough to not be helpful. |
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| The eagle bearer is a converted trooper whose lance had broken. His carbine was removed and arm repositioned to hold the guidon. |
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| The white kurtka of the trumpeter was probably never worn in the field, but I couldn't resist the temptation to paint him in full dress! |
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| The guidon is a hand painted paper flag, stiffened with white glue and then varnished. They end up being quite robust and it allows me to paint the flag initially on a flat surface and then just fold it around the pole. |
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| The troopers! I tried to accomplish most of the shading with a black-brown ink wash ala Alastair Morrison. The horses, being brown to start with had a black was for shading. |
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| So much fiddly detail on these lancers! |
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| General de Brigade as well as Colonel of the regiment, Count Wincenty Krasinski. I'll be painting Major d'Autancourt as well, who will be the acting Colonel, allowing Count Krasinski to fulfil his roll as GdB. Hopefully the Regiment of Dutch lancers will join them in a year or two to complete the Brigade. |
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| Quite a fancy lad! |
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| The troopers view of their Colonel leading from the front! |
Up Next - British Light Dragoons and a few odds and ends including more riflemen, and a Bavarian ammunition wagon with team.
In closing I will leave you with some work in progress pictures of the backdrop for the wargames table. Still lots of work to do, but the basic design and colors are there.
They look the business, absolutely lovely, great work on them, very nice indeed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. I like to whine about how long they took, but I was definitely having fun along the way!
DeleteWow that was some struggle but I'm sure it's worth the effort and they will sweep all your enemies from the field. I'm glad you did the trumpeter in full dress as it's such a stand out uniform, and anyway we all more less paint our little men for the parade ground, or salon, rather than the battlefield. I intend doing mine likewise if I ever get round to doing my composite Guard regiment - they are some way down the painting queue.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob. I do need to create a scenario that features some cavalry clashes to put these gentlemen through their paces. The early Peninsular war fights have been almost all infantry.
ReplyDeleteThere's some candidate cavalry fights for this unit at: http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Polish_Guard_Lancers.html
DeleteI'll check it out. Thanks Rob.
DeleteThis is absolutely stunning work David - Bravo! I found painting six of these a right faff so eighteen is very impressive indeed. As for the Brigadier, simply wonderful...
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian. I think it will be some time before I can bring myself to paint another Polish Lancer, though the beautiful red uniforms of the Dutch Lancers are calling...
DeletePolish lancers - what is there not to love? Lovely job with the pigment.
ReplyDeleteI can think of a few things I didn't like about them! But of course they say you have to sacrifice for art's sake. Do you think they could have come up with a more complicated uniform? :)
DeleteI really enjoy reading your blog and I admire your magnificent achievements. I hope you will accept my remarks concerning your Polish light horse lancers.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote "Do you think they could have come up with a more complicated uniform?". You are absolutely right. In the Imperial Guard, all the riders wear the aiguillettes on the right shoulder. When the Poles received the lance after the Austrian campaign of 1809, the lancers placed the aiguillettes on the left to avoid it hindering the handling of the lance, only the officers kept the aiguillettes on the right. The standard bearer is an officer, he should wear the aiguillettes on the right shoulder.
Concerning the eagle of the Polish light horse lancer regiment, it is a square standard and not a guidon. Only the "auxiliary cavalry" (horse hunters and dragoons) had a guidon. After the change of the arrangement of the emblems and the adoption of the tricolour flag with three vertical stripes in 1810, all cavalry received a standard, without distinction between cavalry and auxiliary cavalry. Thus the Polish lancers always had a square standard.
https://histoireetcollections.com/fr/uniformes-equipements/2592-la-garde-imperiale-t3-9782913903975.html
I think there is an English version
https://www.napoleonandglory.com/p/drapeau-du-1er-regiment-de-lanciers-polonais-en-1808-taille-reelle
Thanks French Follower. As always your information is very thorough. I do have the book you reference but found conflicting information on whether a guidon or square flag was used around 1812, so opted for the guidon, though that may well be incorrect in retrospect. I would not have caught the aigullettes being on the wrong side for the eagle bearer, but if the troopers wore the aigullettes on the left to avoid entangling their lances, I can't imagine the eagle bearer would not have done the same!
DeleteHere is the page I found indicating the guidon was still used in early 1812: https://tmg110.tripod.com/frarmy7.htm Whether the research is sound I am not certain.
DeleteSince you have the book I am referring to, you will find the standards of the Polish light horse lancers on page 38. The site you indicate has made a bad copy-paste from the guidon of the Mamelukes of the Guard.
DeleteIf you have the booklet:
https://histoireetcollections.com/fr/uniformes-equipements/2621-la-garde-imperiale-t2-9782352500322.html
you will see that only the first two historical regiments of the cavalry guard (the horse grenadiers and the horse hunters including the Mameluke squadron) have a golden eagle in the center of their emblem and that this eagle is different between the two regiments. The chosen motif is different from the first two. It is that of the Mamelukes, whose squadron is placed after the regiment of horse hunters of the Guard. On the site you indicate, the same pattern was given to the grenadiers, the horse hunters, the mamelukes of course but also to the lancers and dragoons who were deprived of them.
We cannot imagine that a cavalry regiment would receive a guidon. It would be a disgrace to receive an emblem of "auxiliary cavalry".
On the other hand, before Napoleon limited the number of eagles to one emblem per regiment by decree of December 25, 1811, each infantry battalion, each cavalry squadron had one since the decree of July 10, 1804. The eagle was then entrusted to a non-commissioned officer normally to the most senior sergeant major. If you keep your eagle bearer with the aiguillettes on the left, you will have to make him a non-commissioned officer because as you will see on your booklet, the lieutenant standard bearer wears his aiguillettes on the right like any officer. Whatever the reason, he cannot deviate from the regulations.
Hah, all good points, though I suspect deviating from the regulations was pretty standard practice. At least it is from most of the uniform references I have read. We do live in an idealized toy soldier world though.
DeleteThe site that I am offering you details the various movements for using the lance.
Deletehttp://les-polonais-sous-l-empire.over-blog.com/article-34944673.html
I'm sorry but there is no English version of the text, although it is very informative.
We understand from the drawings why the spearmen wear the aiguillettes on the left. Wearing the standard is much simpler. The other cavalrymen of the Guard (grenadiers, mounted hunters, dragoons and elite gendarmes) retain the aiguillettes on the right including the eagle holders, guidons and standards, officer or NCO.
I looked very hard for the DK trooper, but I couldn't spot him! They are magnificent. How you did them in only 4 months is beyond me. It took me the best part of a year to paint only 12 of these figures. I've been avoiding painting any more of them ever since.
ReplyDeleteBest regards, WM
Hah! I hear you WM. That is exactly why I am going for a few regiments that just require sprucing up at this time, though I do get to add a guidon bearer for both British LD regiments. Glad to hear the DK doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. You'd notice him in person as he is definitely a wee bit thinner and smaller. Maybe he is the only survivor from Russia and the rest are new recruits...
DeleteSplendid work indeed David….
ReplyDeleteA beautiful looking regiment… Well worth all the time you spent on them.
I suspect the Neapolitan army of Joachim Murat had something more complicated.
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly. You may be right there about the Neapolitans. Yet another excuse not to paint them!
DeleteOr maybe the perfect reason to start an army…
DeleteJust think how pretty it would be 😈
Oh you really are a bad man!
Delete