French 76th Regiment of the Line

 I recently finished up rejuvenating some vintage 1960s or early 1970s 1/72 scale Napoleonic Alberken (early Minifig) figures, representing the French 76th line infantry regiment's 1st and 3rd battalions around 1811.

Many of these figures graced the pages of the Bruce Quarrie Airfix Guide to Napoleonic Wargaming. They were from the collection of Richard Tennant who provided many of the photos for the guide, along with Don Featherstone.

I first heard of l'ordre mixte in the Airfix guide and always had a fascination with that deployment, so here I have put my own spin on it with some good sized 36 figure battalions.

Here you can more clearly see the supposed benefit of the formation that combined the firepower of a line with the impetus of a column.

The two Grenadier companies form the center of the line.

Voltigeurs to the front - these have to be some of my all time favorite castings, which were featured prominently in the Airfix guide.

Dick Tennant's penchant for detail is shown here with a corporals rank stripe on the sleeve and shako cords and bands literally just painted on.

My contribution to these figures was a good cleaning and touch ups and then the addition of shading, highlights, a protective coat of gloss varnish and a nice bright base to stand on.

GdB Jean Chemineau is modelled using a personality figure from Hinton Hunt meant to be Marshal Ney.  I hope he will forgive me for the demotion...

For Colonels I tend to use more modern castings.  Here is an SHQ casting playing the French Chef de Bataillon Portemont, of the 3rd Battalion.  Somehow he managed to find an 1812 style uniform before the rest of his regiment.

For the 1st battalion Colonel I have used a Franznap casting.

The Eagle bearer of the 1st battalion is a grizzled veteran with only one arm, no doubt customized by Dick Tennant from an Alberken officer figure.

The 3rd battalion has turned in its Eagle and flag as required by Imperial decree, and now sports the more simple red battalion flag.  The sapeur was a complete repaint which I managed to make fit in with Dick Tennant's style rather well.

Finally I have a shot of the collection's guardian hard at work.  It's a tough life but someone has to do it. Nyra is a 4-5 year old Great Pyranees mix we adopted last year from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue in Nashville, and as you can see, she is fitting right in!.