The last show we attended was Sheffield Triples, and I bought some Adler French foot dragoons. These were painted around mid-June. And, like all my Napoleonics at present, remain un-based.
As can be seen from the tinlets in the background, I'm painting these using Humbrol enamels. Some of these tinlets date back to my childhood wargaming and modelling days, over two decades ago!
I ought to check this, but time is too tight: I believe I painted these guys up as the 11th Regt of Dragoons, with orange facings.
The 11th served in Russia, and, according to the Bukhari/McBride book on Napoleon's Cavalry, were at Smolensk, which I'm doing in 6mm.
In my researches I discovered that French Dragoons apparently hated being put onto a foot infantry footing, if you'll pardon my tautological sounding phrase. But I figured that I could use a bit of license: after all, this was Russia, 1812, when the loss of horses was catastrophic. To be honest they're really there as a bit of eye-candy for the overall collection. But I think they might put in some light duties at some point. I'll probably base them in a kind of light infantry skirmish order type way.
Seb,on the question of eye candy,all of what I`ve seen thus far is very colourful and appealing at least to my eyes. French Foot Dragoons are just that,and if you can buy them paint them up and use them. They should still retain their swords though,but I`m not one for such spot on accurate perfection! I only mention it because someone else is bound to.In reality they must have been awfully tired of tripping over the darn things.It`s been nice to visit here,and see your tiny stuff.Have Fun. Beano Boy
ReplyDeleteHi BB, thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteRe their swords, they do have some sort of bladed weapon slung on their left side, most easily seen in the top pic of this post: the handles are at high-waist level, whilst the end of the scabbard is down by the boots, so I reckon those must be full-on swords!
When I bought these I chatted to Adler's head-honcho and figure sculptor/designer Liam, and - although we were taking about something else (a French pontoon train set) - it's clear he goes to a lot of trouble to try and be accurate in all these little details, precisely because, as you say above, and as Liam noted re the delay on his pontoon set, any discrepancies between product and historical sources will be noted!
Cheers, Seb