Terrible painting finished

The 57th Les Terribles are finished. These have been a bit of a struggle to complete mostly because I kept getting distracted with other things on the painting desk. I was also putting off painting the flag as this is the eighth one I have done and the lettering is a real pain and my eyes aren't getting any younger. The figures used are:

1 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour bearer (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer

1 x FN/241 Officer (charging) - 1807/12 range

20 x FN/244 Fusilier (charging) - 1807/12 range

All my French units have the same battle honours inscribed on their flags as these were the ones Marcus Hinton engraved on them!

It was only when I based the figures that I discovered some of them were orientated at a slightly different angle which meant that lining them up was a right old faff. Interestingly (in a nerdy way) my other unit of this figure type (the Swiss) are all orientated in yet another direction. I know all the figures I used are genuine vintage castings but presumably they have come from different molds.

In other news I was very pleased to receive some Russian cuirassier castings from Don W. in the US last week. This was exceedingly generous of him and I have already stripped the figures and prepared them for undercoating also converting a trumpeter.

RN/30 Russian Cuirassier (mounted) charging - one-piece-castings.

These cuirrasiers together with my Garde du Corps will certainly catch the eye of the Czar once painted.

Russian Horse Guard - or is it?

Well, no this is actually a Prussian Garde du Corps trooper with a small modification and paint job conversion. The modification is that I have removed the canteen slung above the scabbard, apart from that the figure is unchanged.

PN.73 Prussian Garde du Corps (mounted), charging - painted as a Russian Life Guard.

So why have I done this? The simple answer is that I don't have any Russian heavy cavalry figures and as you know they are a bit on the rare side and this has stymied the growth of my Russian forces. I have infantry, artillery and some light cavalry in the lead pile but without the heavies you really can't fight Borodino can you?

The figure is similar enough to the Russian version to pass inspection. The saddle cloth is not square cut and the portmanteau is square not round but hey, who's counting?

What I do have are some recasts of Prussian Garde du Corps that were destined for Blucher's forces however last year's aquisition of Prussian dragoons and Cuirassiers means that old Marshal Vorwarts no longer needs them.

First though I must finish those French infantry.