World of varieties - HäT French line infantry 1808-1812

[Zed1]

Hello folks!

This will be a long-run project to display the huge amount of varieties that can be painted with some of the Napoleonic sets. Basis of this work is the HäT set 8095 “French line infantry”. The set 8166 1805-1812 “French line grenadiers” is technically an extension pack to this set which contains the eight additional stances that are necessary to complete the look of the grenadier battalions of that era. Figures have the same size and modelling look, so I’ve taken them into account as well.

What I’m going to do with them is to paint them in the colours of each and every unit that used this uniform pattern in order do show you the enormous amount of variants that can be painted with this one and a half sets of figures.

General conditions are:
- Only figures from HäT sets 8095 and 8166 and their parts are allowed, no external material or figure parts from other sets
- Modifications can be done within the sets – for example swapping heads or cutting/melting work that alters shako plates, cuffs, plume positions and other details into the required shape.
- No time limit or certain order of painting and posting

For research I made use of three different sources: http://empire.histofig.com, http://www.grosser-generalstab.de/lh/lh.html and (thanks to judgefredd) http://www.histunif.com/index.htm. I also consulted good old Knoetel for his suggestion on some patterns.

What I’ve noticed is that some of the sources are inconsistent with one another. In these cases I made my choice for one side. If anyone finds any major fault in the displayed units, please send me a PM about it. I don’t want to create a monster thread with hundreds of discussions about flaps and cuffs and stuff resulting from what I’ve shown here.

I know that many units are shown with gaiters, even with the Hessian type of gaiters that wears a tassle on top of it – and the soldiers in the set wear long trousers. Nevertheless, after reading some sources, talking with reenactors and looking on pictures of soldiers on campaign, I learned that on campaign, trousers were regularly worn above gaiters in order to prevent them from being worn-up too fast. Tassles were often stored in the packpack in order to prevent them from getting lost. So having this in mind, the long trousers are no problem at all. In some cases, I made some cutting work on the trousers in order to simulate gaiters with paint.

Keep in mind: this will be a huge display of units. At the time being, I’ve already got approximately 140 different uniforms on my list.
I’m going to concentrate on the troopers first. Here and there, I’ll add officers and drummers.

So wow – let’s go, there’s much work to be done. I hope you enjoy with me the great range of varieties that can be done with only one set of figures!

[Zed1]

Part 1 - French regiments, French foreign regiments, Swiss regiments in French service


French regular line infantry

33rd regiment, white uniforms



63rd regiment



Chasseurs des montagnes (mountain riflemen)

Fusiliers and officer:



Tirailleurs du Po



Imperial guard:

Dutch guard grenadiers:


And the drummer for them:


Foreign regiments:

1st regiment etranger, Regiment de la Tour d'Auvergne (1809-1812):



2nd regiment etranger, Regiment d'Isembourg (from left to right: 1805-1806/1807-1808/1809-1810/1811-1812 period)

Carabiniers



3rd regiment etranger, Regiment Irlandaise (drummer and officer):


3rd regiment etranger, Regiment Irlandaise, Chasseur, Voltigeur, Grenadier (1811-1812):


4th regiment etranger (voltigeur, voltigeur officer, grenadier, drummer of chasseurs, chasseur) 1809-1812:




Swiss regiments:

3rd regiment, 1807-1812:



4th regiment, 1807-1812:



Regiment Valaisan (fusilier, grenadier, drummer):

[Zed1]

Part 2 - German allies

Baden, lifeguard grenadier, campaign dress 1809-1813



Cleve-Berg, fusilier of 3rd regiment and officer in field dress, 1808:


Cleve-Berg, National guard (trooper and drummer):


Grand duchy of Frankfurt (grenadier, voltigeur, fusilier):



Lippe-Detmold fusiliers 1809-1812:


Lippe-Schaumburg fusilier 1809-1810:


Kingdom of Westphalia voltigeur:


Legion Hannovrienne, chasseur, grenadier, drummer, voltigeur 1809-1811:




Grand-duchy of Wurzburg, officer and drummer:



Grand-duchy of Wurzburg, fusilier, grenadier and voltigeur:



Grand-duchy of Wurzburg, volunteer hunters:

[Zed1]

Part 3 - Italian units and other French allies

Kingdom of Italy

The seven line infantry regiments (1812; from left to right 1st to 7th)



Light infantry, carabiniers of the 3 regiments of 1809



Velites grenadier (1809)


1st light infantry regiment, Carabinier (1809)


Chasseur, Governmental Guards (1805)


Grenadier of the presidential guard (1803-1804)


Royal guard grenadier (1810)


Conscripted rifleman (1812)



Kingdom of Naples

Foot grenadier regiment, 1809


Guard grenadier regiment, 1810



1st regiment foot velites, chasseur & 2nd regiment foot velites, voltigeur 1808



1st to 4th light infantry regiment, fusiliers



Croatian regiments

1st provisional croatian regiment



3rd provisional croatian regiment, chasseur, voltigeur and grenadier


3rd provisional croatian regiment, officer and drummer


in group:


Piemont



Legion Piemontaise, Grenadier


Spanish regiments in French service

Regiment Joseph Napoleon, fusilier, voltigeur and grenadier




Regiment Joseph Napoleon, drummer and officer




Regiments Ile de Ré (left) and Walcheren (right side)



Kingdom of Holland, Lifeguard regiment, grenadier and chasseur



Kingdom of Holland, Marine



Kingdom of Holland, grenadiers of the 8 line regiments in interim uniform (1806)

[Rosbif]

WOW ! You've set yourself an enormous task, Zedalist, but I'm looking forward to your progress.

It's boring to paint blue, white, red on the same figures over and over, so I've been planning to paint up some Italian line infantry with the leftovers in my collection. Now I can get even more inspiration from watching your progress !

[entrauner]

I think that is a hell of an idea,I really like your project.-shame, these häts are so dwarfy.

[leifkarl1112]

First of all I'd like to say, well done on what you have completed so far - they look great!

This is one enormous task that you have set for yourself. It is very inspiring to the rest of us, and the ideas that it gives me..................

I'm really looking forward to what else you come up with, I really like the idea of painting lesser states or countires forces.

Keep up the good work.

Karl.

[Peter]

Been busy Sascha?

Great project

[SamSagace]

Been busy Sascha?

he just paint some figures!!!

Great project

yes and very good painting work!!

[ModernKiwi]

Very impressive work, all those little buttons picked out!!!!

[musketier]

nice work, i really like them all, i like the green in the Irish Regt. What did you use for that?

[Zed1]

Thank you for the positive feedback. If it weren't for my stupid camera, I would have already uploaded the next figure this morning.

Well - it's definitely a bit of a challenge, but it is real fun searching the web for new unit patterns. As a by-product, I gain lots of ideas and impressions for future projects.

I know that these figures look a bit clowny or dwarfy - but I like that 'wargamish' style. On the other hand, I would have also used a different set representing soldiers in pre-Bardin uniforms... if there were any! There's no other set containing French soldiers in correct pre-1812 dresses. All other sets show us the post-1812 Bardin-style uniforms which, of course, could also been used for a big variety of units, but a) not that many and b) not in the colourful style that most pre-1812 styles still provided.

The green I used for the Irish regiment is artichoke green (464) from a German company called Rayher. It's a quite cheap acrylic paint (1,79€ for 60ml) from a hobby shop next door. I have darkened it a little bit using chaos black from GamesWorkshop. I varied it with a little bit of of dark angels green and chaos black for the drummer of 4 etranger. This tone (a bit brighter perhaps) is suitable for the troopers in the 1st, 3rd and 4th regiment etranger, but I will have to experiment with brighter green and earthy brown tones when I'm going to paint Croatian and Italian units.

Well... I had a short look over my material and noticed that I will sooner or later run out of two items: voltigeur heads and officer heads (bicorn). I will for example need at least two heads with bicorns for creating trooper and drummer of the Cleve-Berg national guard. So if anyone has got voltigeurs or officers from this set and doesn't need them - I'll be happy to realease you from keeping them in a box.

P.S.: the guy loading his musket is dwarfy at maximum. He looks so damn bad that I had severe problems making a somewhat adequate photo. I guess I'll refurbish the figure another time and for showing the other regiments, I just take other stances than this one.

[musketier]

Thanks for the info. Zed, keep up the good work, and I'll keep this in mind when I get back to the French side again

[Carlo Antonio]

Very great project !!!!

[Zed1]

Ah - once again I could throw my camera out of the window. I'll try to provide better pictures as soon as possible. Until then, please forgive me if some pictures look odd. They don't adequately show the real McCoy anyway.

The Italian government guardsman by the way is a very special figure. In this case, swapping heads was not enough. The figure has a voltigeur plume attached to a fusilier shako because I needed a plume on a shako with a regimental plate. Next thing is that the torso of the figure is from a marching fusilier while its' legs are taken from a grenadier on guard that is contained in the "grenadier add-on-set". Was some tricky work, but the result looks really nice.

Edith says:
Renewed the last photos. They still don't look great, but better than before.

[Bramble15]

Great job on the project!!! This will prove to be a huge resource at least for mysef and what I work on!!! Thank you.

[dutchboyinohio]

Awesome idea and project!! Would love to see a group picture at some point

[closerlookbooks]

Along with those who have already posted, I look very much forward to seeing the results of your research and painted figures. What an incredible task you've set for yourself—and we get to benefit from it all. This would make for a great bookor booklet!!!
Best wishes,
Steven
http://www.pegasusfigures.com

[leifkarl1112]

I love the Governmental Guard 1805!

What a beautiful looking figure.

Karl.

[Zed1]

Now added the first Croatian units...

Thanks for the warm feedback which is very encouraging.
My progress is not too bad although I wish I had more time left for painting. With the Croatian 3rd provisional regiment, I have made a small group picture for the very first time. The positive thing about it is that the figures look much better than in close-up, but this comes with the negative point that not all details can be seen clearly. What do you folks think about it?