My French Army

[Bessiere]

I began almost 4 years ago now with the intention of having armies to play Napoleonic wargames. I had no clue the wide variety of figures that had come on the market since the 1970's when I last enjoyed Airfix figures. I was also unsure of what rules I hoped to use or how they should be based. Foolishly I was thinking I would do all the European armies and began randomly picking up figures for each. After painting a few units I realized the actual investment of time required to complete it so narrowed it down to France and Austria since they were the primary combatants.

The group shot


Here's my Imperial Guard cavalry which as you may notice is still missing Carabiniers, I want the early war uniforms. Princess Dragoons, Polish Lancers, Chasseurs a Cheval, Mamelukes and Grenadiers a Cheval.


The line cavalry of 2nd Hussars, Cuirassiers, Dragoons and line Chasseurs.


Infantry is based on 6 bases of 6 figures and cavalry is only 4 bases of 3 but should be upped to 6 bases as well to function properly in games. There are line infantry, combined grenadiers, voltigeurs, 2 battalions of young guard, old guard grenadiers and not in picture is a battalion of Guard chasseurs I recently finished.

Old guard grenadiers


Young guard Fusilier-grenadiers


In the backline we have Chintoy Marshals; Davout, Napoleon, Bessiere. I plan to do Murat, Ney, Lannes and Poniatowski. I like the much larger size so they don't become lost on a crowded game table.

I also have an Austrian army of similar size and plan to fill out both armies with more infantry, hussars, dragoons and cuirassiers. At least 3 or 4 of each seems about right.

cheers,
Bessiere

[Peter]

That is an impressive army, David! Thanks for sharing!

[Minuteman]

These French Napoleonics look great, with fine painting and basing. Well done!

I like the concept of using 'supersized' Commanders too.

[Marvin]

Excellent work. Must be satisfying to look at the whole army and appreciate all that you've achieved so far.

[Coen]

You have some lovely figures there. I love army overviews such as these. Any change of more pics with close ups of the other infantry and cavalry?

[k.b.]

An extremely fine collection of French Napoleonics Bessiere. Congratulations they are beautiful. Many hours indeed of you and your paintbrush in harmony looking at uniform references, contemplating where next to go, what your next regiment will be. Our hobby is truly magic, isn’t it ….. although we have to give our partners credit for putting up with our eccentricity.
Would love to see your Austrians!

[Bessiere]

Thank you all for your kind comments. I need to take pictures to show any closeups though many aren't up to snuff since it represents from the time I got started. I need flags for many units. I did find the eagle from the Zvezda cuirassier set is perfect with brass rod, it's on the young guard staffs. Flags are printed but it takes me a while to make conversions for eagle bearers. I like using the Hat big set NCO as the figures are large and balance easy. I'm also considering upping my cavalry units to 6 bases per regiment.

[C M Dodson]

You certainly have a superb collection of well painted troops there Mr B.

The standard is very high in my opinion and it would be nice to see the Austrians too.

Do not forget that the carabiniere were line guys.

Keep the good work.

Most impressive.

Best wishes,

Chris

[Konrad]

That is a very nice and impressive army!
And you see some "great" personalities
of contemporary history.

[Bessiere]

You are correct Mr D, carabiniers were line cavalry. Dunno where my brain was when I wrote that. Thanks for checking out my pics. I have to confess to painting up some Cossacks and Russian infantry just to get a break from the French and Austrians. In fact when I first considered war gaming I was going to do USCW since I have studied that my entire life. My history teacher was Harold Howard who went on to publish all the regimental series books + living in Virginia + doing restoration work for the Museum of the Confederacy all had me pointed that direction. One small problem: I didn't want to paint nothing but blue and gray. I knew little about the Napoleonic wars 5 years ago but who could resist the uniforms? Also the warfare is fundamentally different allowing for more complex rules ( I like realism). This has made a great excuse for buying books and learning more. So much more to learn! Like where the carabiniers belonged in the French Army.
Cheers, Bessiere

[Bessiere]

I will do a few closeups and forgot completely about all the French allied units of Bavarians and Swiss I've done.

[Rich W]

Very nice seeing all these together. And all to such a high quality!

[Santi Pérez]

It's a huge army with a lot of units...and, the best of all, all of them perfectly painted, Bessiere.

...Here's my Imperial Guard cavalry which as you may notice is still missing Carabiniers, I want the early war uniforms. Princess Dragoons, Polish Lancers, Chasseurs a Cheval, Mamelukes and Grenadiers a Cheval...

Oh, have you downgrade the Empress' Dragoons to a lower category? I think that they wouldn't be happy to know this.

Great work. Congratulations!

Santi.

[Bessiere]

Yeah the uh, Princess carabiniers yaknow? Quite right, I am getting scatterbrained in my old age. That would be a degrading and a downgrade being princess anythings, in Republican thinking anyway. As for perfect painting there's several people who do it, I just make fuzzy pictures do the work. Very kind of you to say all the same.

[Patrick71]

A very nice army you have there, David.
All very well painted and beautifully displayed in these pictures.
Please show us your Austrians too.
And knowing you are painting a few hunderd cuirassiers in the mean time: Chapeau! as we say in Flemish