I've been trying hard to get a unit of Young Guard Tirailleurs ready in time for the Dresden game in a couple of weeks. The Young Guard played a prominent part in the fighting for the Great Garden so I thought it would be handy to have an extra unit. They will also come in useful for the planned Waterloo game latter this year.
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| This is the test figure of FN/71 Tirailleur Guard (charging). I've actually pretty much finished the whole unit (in record time for me). |
So here's a bit of a Hinton puzzle for you. I pulled out a casting to convert to a standard bearer and it was clearly marked FN70 on the base which is supposed to be the Young Guard charging officer. I merrily went about adding a flag etc. but when I came to paint him I realised something was wrong.
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| The mystery FN70 casting now converted to a standard bearer. |
The casting has an Austrian style shako and a sash so nothing very French about him at all. I can't think what he is although from the base I can tell it's a Clayton casting. Answers on a postcard please.
21 comments:
If this is an example of your speed painting, I'm impressed! They're going to look good, but hopefully you won't be French in your forthcoming Dresden game so you won't have to suffer the curse of the newly-painted unit.
I'm not a 20mil Nap expert so I'll leave the identification of the mystery figure to others, but surely that's a shako, not a helmet.
Ah yes I meant shako - I will amend the text. Curse of the new unit, I definitely don’t want to command them!
Lovely looking figures, the advancing soldier is really lovely. As for the officer, he looks very decent but what he is I will let more knowledgeable than me answer the question, whatever he is he is a great figure.
Thanks Donnie!
Yay, Tirailleurs! They've turned out splendidly!
That officer looks remarkably like an AN 21 Hungarian Line Infantry Officer charging to me, what with his Hungarian boots and all. Has he got buttons running up the centre of his chest? This is speculation of course, but if one wanted a French officer wearing a plain surtout, an AN 21 wouldn't be the worst figure to choose to convert for that purpose. Perhaps that's what DC was intending?
Regarding the Austrian-style shako, it should be noted that the victors used the stocks of the defeated armies. Thus, in 1813 and 1814, many Prussians wore French shakos from the stores of the French armies, abandoned during their retreat after the Saxony Campaign in 1813.
Regarding the emblems of the riflemen-grenadiers and riflemen-hunters, they did not wear an eagle but a simple pennant at the end of a staff topped with a pike.
In the Guard Infantry, only the 1st Grenadier Regiment and the 1st Foot Chasseur Regiment had a flag with an eagle.
The pennant of the 5th Riflemen-Grenadiers Battalion is the only one that has survived. https://lacasadelrecreador.com/fr/blog/166-fanions-du-bataillon-franaise-1808-1814
The warflag website used to offer free flags, including company pennants and the famous pennant of the 5th Battalion of Tirailleurs-Grenadiers, but I'm afraid the website no longer exists.
The same pennant is offered by GMB, but it requires payment.
Thanks WM. No he’s not an AN21 - the plume and pose are wrong and he has an oversized sash. Just can’t work out what he is!
As it happens FF I am currently trying to hand paint the flag using the GMB pic as a guide. So far the eagle looks like an imperial budgie but I’m working on it!
Ian,
I don’t have access to my catalogues at the moment but I have a feeling that, in addition to some new figures, the Clayton catalogue didn’t list all the original Hinton Hunt range. I suppose that some were lost in the shed fire. I wonder if Clayton didn’t have the FN70 figure so used the nearest to it, AN21.
French Follower, the Warflags and Napflags sites are available on the Wayback machine. Here’s the link for Napflags.
https://web.archive.org/web/20191030084024/http://www.warflag.com/napflags/index.htm
Regards
Goya
Here are the YG fannions.
https://web.archive.org/web/20191030091217/http://www.warflag.com/flags/napoleon/french_fanions.shtml
French Follower - did not the Marins of the Guard also have and eagle and for a time use the 1804 lozenge pattern flag? I have also see them depicted with an eagle and a purple pennant with anchors on it which I assumed came later.
Goya, I don’t think this is based on any of the Austrian officers (and I have them all!). It has an Austrian type peak at the rear by the neck but nothing else looks Austrian at all. He has epaulets, quite a prominent waist sash, a plume on the shako, no buttons on the tunic or gorget. I’ve scoured my Clayton catalogue to no avail.
Another guess. I was wondering if it could be a Dutch line officer as the uniform sort of fits but no charging figure is listed in the HH or Clayton catalogues. Then I came across the HN1 Hesse Darmstadt Officer charging. It has a sash, boots and (I think epaulettes) but it has a cocked hat. Could it be that DC cut the head off and put on an Austrian shako because he didn’t have the FN70? If I remember correctly, Austrian officers didn’t have rear peaks on their shakos, only the other ranks.
All of my Gilder HH ACW conversions have the original Napoleonic codes on them. I wonder if this is another example of home casting converted figures to fill a gap?
Perhaps you could paint on a paper copy of the pennant like the one on the website: https://lacasadelrecreador.com/fr/blog/166-fanions-du-bataillon-franaise-1808-1814
You can see the pennant of the 5th Tirailleurs-Grenadiers Regiment proposed by Warflag also includes a golden star in each of its four corners.
Thanks to Goya for the email address of Warflags. That ‘s the last (but not the least). The others are pennants of compagny not pennants of batallion.
After the proclamation of the Empire, each battalion received a model 1804 flag surmounted by an eagle. It was in the autumn of 1805 that the Marine Battalion of the Guard received theirs. This flag is preserved at the Musée de l'Emperi in Aix-en-Provence.
In 1812, the French army adopted a new flag with vertical stripes, but the regiments received only one flag surmounted by an eagle per regiment. The Marines of the Guard had to deposit their model 1804 flag with the Ministry of War. They received as their emblem a purple pennant strewn with bees and a golden anchor in the center.
The controversy centers on the flagpole, which some claim is surmounted by an eagle, others a simple pike.
Goya, I had a trawl through the lead pile and found another identical casting and two correct originals all code FN70. I think you’re right that Clayton must have created this hybrid version for some reason but I don’t think HN1 is the base figure.
Matt, I don’t think this is a home cast more probably a Clayton from the weight of the metal and the casting plug but of course can’t be sure!
He looks like nothing so much as the charging young guard officer to me. Obviously with added sash and swapped shako. The pose is very distinct and has in the past attracted "dad dancing" comments on your blog . The Hessen Darmstadt officer is a dead ringer for the charging guard marine officer with a single breasted coat and broad sash. I don't think this is he.
I'm pretty sure I have this gentleman as well. He is leading one of my French Battalions of Alberken miniatures, which makes me wonder if he is actually one of the early copies, slightly modified, made by Alberken.
Doh! Never mind. The Alberken has the wrong boots.
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