'La!' - The Duellists

A favourite movie in our household is Ridley Scott's debut film 'The Duellists', which was based on a Joseph Conrad short story and starred Kieth Carradine and Harvey Keitel. 

To those who've not had the pleasure of seeing the film, it charts the quarrel and careers of two French cavalry officers, Gabriel Feraud and Armand d'Huber, serving in Napoleon's Grande Armee. The two men fight a long succession of duels that span almost two decades, ending in 1816 with the return of the Bourbon monarchy. 'The Duellists' is beautifully filmed, elegantly written and well acted - a real treat to any historical movie buff. We love the film so much that during a past trip to France, Sarah and I purposefully detoured to stay in beautiful Sarlat-la-Canéda, to visit many of the locations which were used in the film (along with its great food and wine!).

Keith Carradin (d'Hubert), Harvey Keitel (Feraud) and film director Ridley Scott on set in Sarlat, France.

The film (and Conrad's short story) are actually based on true events which are more incredible than its adaptations. The characters of d'Hubert and Feraud's were actually Dupont and Fournier-Sarlovèze, whom Conrad disguised slightly, but otherwise the overall story follows the sketch of actual events.

François Fournier-Sarlovèze the true inspiration of Keitel's 'Feraud'

 In 'The Encyclopedia of the Sword', Nick Evangelista wrote:

As a young officer in Napoleon's Army, Dupont was ordered to deliver a disagreeable message to a fellow officer, Fournier, a rabid duellist. Fournier, taking out his subsequent rage on the messenger, challenged Dupont to a duel. This sparked a succession of encounters, waged with sword and pistol, that spanned decades. The contest was eventually resolved when Dupont was able to overcome Fournier in a pistol duel, forcing him to promise never to bother him again.

They fought their first duel in 1794 from which Fournier demanded a rematch. This rematch resulted in at least another 30 duels over the next 19 years, in which the two officers fought mounted, on foot, with swords, rapiers and sabres.

This 28mm set is from Brigade Games. I've painted them in the colours of the d'Huber's 3rd Hussars and Feraud's 7th. For those who are familiar with the film we can place the figures in the 1801 Augsburg duel (fought in a vaulted cellar) due to the men's junior rank, style of hair (their braided cadenettes are awesome) and the comportment of their uniforms.

Thanks for dropping in!

 

From IanW: 6mm Napoleonic French Hussars (36 points)

Ian sends in these wee lads from the 6th and 7th French Hussars.

Ian did a great job on capturing the effect of the lace.

These are 6mm Baccus figures. As much as I love the grandeur of 28mm Napoleonics I have a soft spot for these smaller scales as you can really capture the mass of the formations without them taking over an entire section of a playing surface.

These two groups of cavalrymen will give Ian 36 points. Nice work!

From Greg: 28mm Foundry Austrian 10th Hussars

As we approach the finish line for the Painting Challenge Greg submits the balance of his Austrian 10th Hussars. As they are shown here they are 20-models strong. Greg has been waiting for several months for the last package from Foundry to finish the unit, but alas it has not made its appearance so Greg is going ahead with the unit as is (the lonely trumpeter waits unbased on the sidelines...).

If you want to check out how he painted these lads check out this earlier post here where he worked out his colour scheme on two test models.

As those two horsemen have already been counted we'll add another 18 cavalry (36 points) to Greg's total. With this group done that puts him in the lead with less than three days to go in the Challenge! Bravo Greg - top notch work all around, my friend!

From Greg: 28mm Foundry Austrian 10th Hussars (test group)

Greg has decided to keep up the steam and go straight into his next regiment of cavalry to augment his Austrian collection. Here we have the beginnings of the 10th Hussars. These are 28mm Foundry castings (Perry sculpts). Greg typically likes to do a few test models, where he works out his colour palette and layering process, then he proceeds to bash away at a furious pace.

This is what he decided upon for these models:

"For the pelisse, I used GW Enchanted Blue for a base coat, GW Hawk Turquoise as the main colour, with sparse highlights of GW Ice bBue. The cords and lace are all GW Snakebite Leather base, with GW Sunburst Yellow as the main colour.  For the cords and lace and everything else on the pelisse, I struggled to get the details, so I put a wash of GW Devlan Mud (we use that wash for everything) on the lace on the pelisse and the the coat. I was worried it would muffle the yellow, but the result seems OK.

On the sabretache, I bodged a line of yellow and dark blue, with a squiggle of gold in the centre to represent the royal cipher the Hussars' had on the case."

Greg's not sure if he'll be able to finish the entire regiment by the end of the Painting Challenge so I've allowed him to 'penny packet' a few bases at a time (though it would be a great effort to see them all before May's deadline). So, here are 4 more points for Greg (and the sneaky bugger pips me out of second place)! Beautiful stuff, Greg!