French Chevau-Legers Lanciers

As the final preparation for my play test of a Napoleonic game at our regional convention, Bayou Wars, next month, I completed two regiments of French cavalry.  Both of these regiments are chevau-legers lanciers, six of which were raised from dragoon regiments by the decree of July 15, 1811. 

5th Regiment of Chevau-Legers Lanciers, which was converted from the 10th Dragoon Regiment

6th Regiment of Chevau-Legers Lanciers, which was converted from the 29th Dragoon Regiment

 

Both of these regiments are primarily vintage Scruby Miniatures and its follow-on manufacturer, Historifigs.  There may be a few Warrior Miniatures in the 6th Regiment.

 

They are each brigaded with a hussar regiment in two light cavalry brigades that are part of my French reserve cavalry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Napoleonic French Brigade Commander and Leger Battalion

While I'm awaiting the start of my SYW imagi-nation game Saturday morning (see last post), I've been trying to finish some Napoleonic French figures for a May play test of one of my convention games for Bayou Wars in June.  This week I finally finished a French infantry brigade commander and one of his battalions, the 1st Battalion, 36th Leger Regiment.  All of these figures are either venerable "true" 25mm Jack Scruby castings or newer Historifigs castings which are the immediate descendants of Jack's figures.

Almost all of my Napoleonic forces are organized around the composition of the Prussian, Russian, and French/Allied commands that fought over Berlin after the summer 1813 armistice.  The various uniforms may not be entirely accurate but they are close enough for me as I'm not a button and lace fanatic with my Napoleonics.

 

As the label states, this is General de Brigade Jarry, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 32nd French Infantry Division.  Jarry is a former leger officer (of the 36th Leger) who still wears his leger uniform even though he has been promoted.  All of my brigade and higher commanders are mounted on round bases of different sizes to distinguish them from the rectangular and square infantry, cavalry, and artillery bases.

The 1st Battalion, 36th Leger Regiment still has its carabiniers in black bear skin caps and its voltiguers in brown colpacks with yellow bags.  Nothing is too good for Jarry's old regiment!  All of my infantry battalions of any nationality are organized into four 4-figure stands which fits both my wallet and the rules I use - "The Sound of the Guns" by Larry Brom.



The bases are by Litko, which is almost all I use nowadays.  I used to cut my own bases but I've found out the savings in my own labor more than overcomes the slight increase in cost.  Plus the Litko bases just look so good!

The other battalion (4th) of the 36th Leger is being painted and the rest of the brigade, two battalions of the 131st Line Infantry Regiment, are awaiting their turn under the brush.

'Murican Reinforcements

The 'Murican army has just received some reinforcements to assist in its campaign to free the colonies from the Britannians.

Barber's (New Jersey) Light Infantry Battalion, composed of vintage Jack Scruby figures

Morgan's Continental Regiment, composed of a mixture of figure manufacturers

I have had the old Jacks Scruby figures I used for Barber's Battalion around for probably 30 years.  Only this month have I finally gotten them painted!  Morgan's Regiment is designed to be used as either a rifle regiment, a "mismatch uniformed" Continental regiment, or a militia regiment, as needed.  Twelve of the eighteen figures have been painted for a number of years.  This month I added another six to bring it "up to strength."

In addition to these 'Murican reinforcements, a new general has arrived from Hesse-Coburg to lead some of the Hessian units in the Britannian army.  I haven't decided on his name yet; any suggestions?

A Miniature Figurines mounted American Revolution officer painted as a Hessian

Gunners and Some Comparisons

First I have some pictures of the newest additions to my imagi-nation armies, some guns and gunners.  Then some comparison pictures of the three manufacturers' gunners.  As usual, click or double click on the pictures for larger images.

I've just completed three gun crews and two guns (the third gun having been painted some time ago) for my Britannian, Gallian, and Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces.

First up is a Britannian 6-lbr and its 5 man crew.  The gun is a Miniature Figurines (if I remember correctly) model while the gunners are RSM-95 figures.  This is the second 6-lbr for my nascent Britannian forces.

Next up is a battalion gun for my Gallian forces.  The gun is a "Scruby" (now manufactured by Historifigs) small Napoleonic cannon which will be playing the role of a "Swedish" style 4-lbr.  The crewmen are RAFM French gunners painted as two artillerymen (in blue coats) and two artillery laborers (in grey coats).

Last is a battalion gun (another "Scruby") for my nascent Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces (one of the Reichsarmee circles).  The gunners are Miniature Figurines SYW French gunner figures.  The one of the right rear has been modified by cutting off the lintstock and gluing on a lever.  The color scheme comes from a Reichsarmee gunner's uniform posted some time ago by David Linienblatt of the Not by Appointment blog.

I also thought that I would include some side-by-side pictures of the RAFM, RSM, and MiniFig gunners so you could get an idea of their comparative sizes and hefts.

RAFM (left), RSM (center), MiniFig (right)

You can  see that while the RSM gunners are a little taller than the other two, they aren't completely out of scale.  I cheerfully use many different manufacturers on the battlefield and once the action starts, the differences tend to disappear.

Queen's Rangers Cavalry

I've had some old Scruby generic American Revolution light dragoons for a loooong time now, meaning to paint them as the mounted arm of the Loyalist regiment the Queen's Rangers. But it has been a project on the very back burner. Until now, that is. In trying to get enough troops together for my wargaming group's introduction to Bill Protz's La Bataille de l'Ancien Regime rules, I've had to draft units from my American Revolution forces. And this served as a catalyst to get these cavalry painted.

The Cavalry of the Queen's Rangers
with Major Simcoe on the left (round base)

This light dragoon squadron (paid for by Brittania) will join the light forces in the advanced guard of the Electorishe Armee Thuringia as it defends the Margraviate of Carpania from the despoilations of the Reichsarmeeabteilung Obere Sachsen. The battle will be taking place on Saturday, September 19, 1759/2009.

For those of you who are not familiar with Scruby figures, they were designed and marketed in the 1960s through the 1980s by that doyen of the American wargaming scene - Jack Scruby. The sculpting is very minimal and much of the detail, such as belting, has to be painted onto the figure. They are what some of us refer to as "true 25mm" figures and as such are smaller than the current day's figures such as Foundry, Front Rank, etc. But they are still nice little figures and serve to bulk out my mid 1700s forces until I can get more of the :lead mountain" painted and mounted. Then these guys will revert back to being an American Revolution unit.

P.S. Since these are generic light dragoons, they probably bear little to no resemblance to the actual cavalry of the Queen's Rangers, but that's OK with me. :^)

Some Old School Soldiers

Several days ago, Snickering Corpses, the owner of the Principality of Hesse-Engelburg blog posted some pictures of older 30mm figures that he had acquired to see if anyone could help him identify them. To my surprise, one of them was almost an exact match to an old Scruby 30mm Bavarian Napoleonic figure I had - except mine has a plume on the side of the casque and his didn't. (http://hesse-engelburg.blogspot.com/2009/03/figure-identification-further-photos.html)

Back in the early 1970s I got a sample of Jack's 30mm Napoleonic figures that include a mounted Napoleon, a Chasseur a Cheval of the Guard, and six infantrymen. I painted the six infantry but have never gotten around to the two mounted figures. The infantry grace my cubicle at work and I decided to show them off here.

They are mounted on circular 40mm Litko bases which have had terrain effects added.

Here are the three Coalition figures -- an unidentified light (?) infantryman that I painted in a green jacket and gray pants, a stalwart British center company infantryman, and an early Prussian (I think) musketeer.

And the French and allies -- a French grenadier in bearskin, a French line leger, and a Bavarian grenadier (this is the match to SC's figures).

I had to touch these up before I mounted them as their paint had become chipped over the years. Additionally the British figure had snapped off at the ankles and needed drilling and pinning in both legs. That was a chore, but turned out fine.

"True" 25mm Figure Comparison

On Friday, poster "FirstBrigade" was asking about what metal figures would match with 1/72 scale plastic figures. He was primarily interested in Napoleonic figures. You can read the thread here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=148784

I've been wargaming long enough that I have a good selection of what is referred to as "true" 25mm figures - Ral Partha, RAFM, MiniFigs, Scruby, etc. This picture shows a small selection of those figures compared with Italeri and Revell/Accurate plastic figures.

From left to right: RAFM F&IW Highlander, Italeri Napoleonic Russian Pavlov grenadier, MiniFig Napoleonic Prussian fusilier, Scruby (now produced by Historifigs) Napoleonic Prussian musketeer, Revell/Accurate AWR British infantry, and Ral Partha Colonial British infantry.

The black line is 1" (25.4mm) from the base of the background, giving a rough comparison of figure height. As you can see, only the Scruby figure comes close to the height and heft of the two plastic figures. But all of them will match well in separate units on the gaming table. Our group here in Jackson, Miss. (USA) utilize these brands (and others, such as Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler, Warrior, Custom Cast, and Hinchliffe) in our "25mm" medieval, horse and musket, Napoleonic, and colonial armies. You can see how they look on the gaming table by visiting our web site: www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer , clicking on "Pictures of Games," and then scrolling down and looking at the various battle reports.

I hope that this has helped.