Régiment de la Garde du Paris
The battalion below represents the 1st battalion of the Garde de Paris from late 1808 - early 1812, or the combined 1st and 2nd battalions of the Garde de Paris in February of 1812 under the command of Colonel Jean Francois Rabbe, renamed the Régiment de la Garde du Paris.
The figures of the regiment are Hinton Hunt originals for the most part I believe, with perhaps a few good quality copies, but sometimes it is hard to tell the exact origin. The mounted Colonel is a modern Franznap sculpt.
I could not have done this without the generous donation of the fusiliers by Nigel S, so a shout out to him for helping me bring this regiment to completion!
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| The white uniforms were a challenge, but in the end turned out quite well. |
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| As always with French uniforms, all of the detailing takes forever! |
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| The command group are mostly from the grenadier company, though I believe, despite the red plume, the drummer would not be considered a grenadier. I think the red distinctives were just part of the drummers standard uniform and an ode to the earlier green and red jackets and bearskins. |
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| The voltigeurs were unusual in that they wore the bearskin as well. Theirs are one of my favorite uniforms to date. |
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| The uniform of the grenadiers is a close second! |
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| Note the hand painted paper flag. I used a printout of a basic French flag from Napflags as a template, and printed in black and white with a ~70% transparency setting to make it very light, and then just painted over it. |
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| The Franznap French Colonel is just an all around excellent sculpt! |
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| Love the combination of the white, green and gold! |
What's next? Lots of Spanish!
Though I do hope to clear off a few odds and ends from my painting desk first...
Bravo David these look superb! Who would think you could create such a colourful unit with a white uniform but the greens and reds really do the trick!
ReplyDeleteAgreed! That dash of green, red, and yellow really does the trick!
ReplyDeleteSuperb looking regiment, really look great, nice to see a white uniform for the French and as said the green, red an yellow takes them to another level of loveliness!
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie, though I hope to have a reprieve from white uniforms for awhile now!
DeleteSaid it before, but I'll say it again they are delightful - that brown wash is so subtle, but so effective. Looking forward to "Lots of Spanish!"
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob. Don't get too excited about the Spanish. It's late period 1811-1812, so they are sporting the standard British style uniforms without the accustomed Spanish flair for outrageous haberdashery!
DeleteI'm okay with that, I do intend doing some myself as my army is deliberately going be multi period and damn the authenticity. It's just that the early uniforms are the prettiest and converison jobs more interesting than straight paint-jobs.
DeleteCracking stuff David…
ReplyDeleteThese fellows make for a surprisingly colourful unit…
My wargames butterfly is definitely a flutter…
All the best. Aly
Very happy to have gotten your butterfly flying again, Aly!
DeleteNicely done, it is so good to see one of the more 'obscure' units being modelled. I agree with you regarding painting white. My Austrians (Hinchliffe & Minifigs) were a nightmare to detail. Cudos on the flag too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I've always wanted to paint this battalion because of the unusual red faced green jackets in its earlier iteration. Funny that when I came to it, I chose the later period white uniform. That uniform fits in more with the period of my collection, but it was a Knotel illustration of a white coated Colonel of the Garde de Paris that really sealed the deal!
DeleteThanks for sharing the flag production detail in particular. I have one more unit of HH French line to paint so may try it out myself.
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear what you think. I love it as I don't have to measure and trace out the flag design myself. Just makes things a little easier and precise. I use a brown Micron pen for the lettering, and then just go over it lightly with gold paint.
DeleteI heartily approve of the all-round shots in this post, Apart from anything else, it shows that your Garde de Paris is beautiful from every perspective!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think Napoleonic uniforms are more interesting from the back. I have a reproduction French 1812 coat hanging on my wall that I display from the back. The turnbacks and pocket/lapel piping are far more interesting than just the big expanse of white if displayed from the front! It was a gift from a friend and it drives him crazy that it is backwards! :)
DeleteWow! Great work! I really like the hand-painted flag. That’s not easy to pull off.
ReplyDeleteThanks Glenn. The waves in the flag help disguise a lot of the more "abstract" elements of the paint job!
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