Saturday 27 October 2018

Eclaireurs-Dragons of the Guard

Napoleon was impressed (or more likely annoyed) by the hit and run tactics of Russian Cossacks during the campaigns of 1812-1813. The French had nothing similar in their own cavalry so three regiments of Eclaireurs were formed and trained to counter the Cossack threat.


The 2nd Regiment were termed the Eclaireurs-Dragons and were assigned to the Empress’ Dragoons. They were recruited from the ranks of the Young Guard and had a green uniform with a nifty red shako.


Unfortunately, I didn’t have the Hinton Hunt painting instructions for this one but have cobbled together the uniform information from various sources. My overall impression is that they do look a bit like Santa’s Elves.


This completes my French Guard Cavalry. I didn’t have enough of any figure type to make full 12-figure units so have opted for composite units. The Heavy Cavalry is comprised of Empress’ Dragoons and Horse Grenadiers whilst the Light Cavalry contains the Polish Lancers and Eclaireurs. All the figures are vintage Hinton Hunt castings which is befitting for the Guard.

19 comments:

The Good Soldier Svjek said...

I always have like lancer figures , nice troops there !

Wellington Man said...

Absolutely gorgeous, Ian. What a brilliant choice for completing your guards regiments. With the guard horse artillery in tow they'll be unstoppable.
All the best
WM

Stryker said...

Good Soldier - yes, nothing quite like lancers!

Stryker said...

WM - not so much a choice as what I had available but as you know this is part of the fun of a project using vintage figures.

Rob said...

The early promise from your painting bench has been realised, these Eclaireurs really are one of the best uniforms I've seen. The dark green is a perfect foil for the pale (lemon?) yellow and the red (amaranth?) facings. The tint of those facing really do have something, what paint did you use for them?
Not sure about them being led by a ghost?

Stryker said...

Thanks Rob. I use Foundry acrylics and the yellow is 2B painted over 2A and the red is 15B. The ghost of Lasalle is there as a 'what if' option!

MSFoy said...

Superb! - I love them.

Independentwargamesgroup said...

One of my favourite guard regiments, up there with the Garde d'honneur. Well done.

Matt said...

Very smart - that colour scheme really shouldn't work as well as it does!

Stryker said...

Thanks for the comments chaps!

Mark Dudley said...

They are are a lovely addition to your French army. They are a unique unit and full of colour. I agree the colour contrasts look very good together.

KEV. Robertson. said...

Superb painting Ian- well done indeed (you've certainly set the standard for quality work).

Conrad Kinch said...

Very smart squire.

Stryker said...

Mark - I was pleased to have these figures as they are one of the more obscure types in the range. The colour scheme is interesting but I'm not sure that they go together well!

Stryker said...

Cheers Kevin & Conrad!

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

I can only echo the rest, Superb!

Not go together? Red and Green go together like, well, like Stop and Go! or "decorations of red on a green Christmas tree"

Anyway, the red shakos should catch the eye on the table top. ( hmm.. one can imagine the thinking: 'they are going to be scouts so we should make them easy to spot'....)

Stryker said...

Ross - and yes of course Santa's elves are red and green but I'm still not sure it's a great colour combo. I guess they'd be ok if they were scouting a Christmas grotto!

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Beautiful brushwork there!

Best Regards,

Stokes

Stryker said...

Thanks Stokes!