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Tuesday, October 29, 2019

French Consular Guard in 18mm

The painting desk saw a momentary return to work on the 1799 project with the completion of two, thirteen-figure battalions of Consular Guard.  The mustering of these two battalions marks the emptying of the figure bins of all guard figures.  These AB French guardsmen will see service in the early battles in Northern Italy and Switzerland.  I recall their presence at Marengo but will need to investigate where else they saw service. 
While the project has not seen a significant spike in activity with the brush in 2019, a quick look at the Painting Log shows fourteen units have been completed, thus far.  That is a surprise.  Three more battalions of French infantry from 19th Century Miniatures' recently released line of FRW figures are in the painting queue.  I am anxious to see how they look with a coat of paint.  Within the same pack, to my eye, some of the sculpts are very good while others are just average.  I wonder if the range has more than one sculptor?  A more robust figure assessment can be made once I begin slapping on paint.  
Finally, a chance to put the slight modifications to the ECW battle of Southam into practice materialized over the weekend.  With the Saturday group game cancelled due to illness, I had time to push troops around on my table in a solo exercise.  Having the three prior fights ending in decisive Royalist victories, I hoped the scenario tweaks would provide the Parliamentarian army a chance to approach the historical result.  Next time, the battle replay will be up for scrutiny.

35 comments:

  1. Lovely looking unit and those AB Figures paint up so well:)

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  2. First class painting for this beautiful and famous unit!

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  3. Very nice, a lively looking unit, deserving of Guard status. Love the mounted leader at the front of the second photo (and right in the first). Great combo of good sculpt and justice done with the paint brush.

    Look forward to the Southam report.

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    1. Thanks, Norm! The AB mounted French officers are superb figures. The mounted French officer in greatcoat is excellent as well.

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  4. I always like seeing ABs turned out nicely. Good work!

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  5. Thumbs up Jonathan! I’m not sure but I believe the Consular Guard only saw action at Marengo. I doubt they were utilised anywhere else in Northern Italy during the campaign.

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    1. Thanks for the thumbs up! Well, even if the guard only made an historical appearance at Marengo, mine may see more action than that.

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    2. I thought the same. When I saw the post, I could remember their Action at Marengo. Although they are not looking too much different from other contemporary units.

      Nicely painted as always.

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    3. Thanks, Andre! Yes, they could fit in easily as later guardsmen.

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  6. I do like AB figures, these look the biz!

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  7. Great looking miniatures! I’ll need to check out AB miniatures in the future. 😀

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    1. AB offers many great ranges especially in Napoleonics. You might like their ACW.

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  8. Fabulous looking Guardsmen. Looking forward to seeing what happens at Southampton :)

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    1. Thanks, FoGH! Southam should be coming up in the next two days.

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  9. Wonderful guardsmen Jonathan! Glad you still got to push some tin around too, solo games can be quite interesting!

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    1. Thanks, Mark! I really enjoy solo gaming and with busy schedules, often, that is the only reasonable choice.

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  10. Very nice indeed Jonathan...

    All the best. Aly

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  11. Love your Garde Consulaire, Jon. Never having paid much attention the uniforms of the Consular Guard, did the Grenadiers have red collars (unlike the later dark blue of the Imperial era?).

    The countenance of the mounted officer of the unit on the right in photo #1 suggests that of Le Petit Caporal more than a bit to me! :-)

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    1. Thank you, Peter! I like them too!

      I used several sources to come up with the red collar. It may be incorrect but I am sticking with them.

      Two such examples of red-collared Consular Guard are:
      https://i.pinimg.com/236x/32/3f/0e/323f0e7e98b87b4516ec5a7ad8141e95.jpg
      and
      https://i.pinimg.com/236x/72/9a/47/729a47c32f7fca7bb1f6c1b2bf5ea412.jpg

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    2. I have always thought the dark blue collars of the Old/Middle Guard infantry were a bit of an oddity, which is why I was curious. I suspect the blue is correct (see https://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/France/Guard/c_Potrelle.html), but those plates were done in 1801, and it could have been different earlier... and with the creation of the Guard being brand new in 1800, interim use of old Line (or Guards of the Directory, etc) uniforms with minor modifications is hardly implausible. It matters little, and they are superb regardless!

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