I was having a look for specific figures for Napoleon's Consular Guard and for the French Dragoon regiments at Marengo, but there seem to be few 15/18mm figures to choose from. From what I can see the main differences in the uniforms from 1800 and the later styles are slight, with the main difference being the length of the coats.
As I had a set of Old Guard Grenadiers and a later French Dragoon regiment sitting doing nothing I've had a go at painting these for Marengo and hoping they work well enough until the correct miniatures become available - I know AB do Dragoons for this period but the cost for two 12 man and an 18 man regiment would be a little too much just now.
Consular Guard Grenadiers - Using Warmodelling Old Guard Grenadiers
For the list I am working to for Marengo I have to build a 40 figure Consular Guard Grenadier battalion. The figures I have are a mix of Warmodelling's Old Guard plus other line Grenadiers, some with green-stuff added plumes and cords. I would have preferred to get AB figures for this set, but the AB figures are standing ready whereas these figures are marching.
I've had a look at as many reference pictures as I can find and I think that apart from the shorter tails, the main difference between the Consular and Imperial uniforms is in the colour of the turnbacks, collar, and cords.
I've painted a base as a test and think they look fine.
French 9e Dragoon Regiment - Using Campaign Games Miniatures Dragoons
Again, as with the Consular Guard, the main difference I could see between the 1800 Dragoons and the later uniform is the length of the coat tails, so already having a set of Campaign Games Miniatures (CGM) Dragoons sitting unfinished I thought I could use these for the 9e Dragoons at Marengo. I've painted up a command base of three figures to see how they look, and the main change I made was to trim the eagle down to as close to the proper shape (it still needs filed down a bit as the metal is quite hard and getting it smoother without the proper tools didn't work - I need to straighten the standard as well)
COMPARISON PICTURES
I've been posting on this blog for over a year now and some of the most popular posts are the comparison pictures between different companies, so here are some more. I hope these are helpful...
Cavalry Comparison - Blue Moon, Warmodelling, Campaign Games
The first picture is of three command bases, the first one from the left is Austrian Hussars from Blue Moon, next is Warmodelling Spanish Cavalry painted to represent French Heavy Cavalry, and the last is CMG's French Dragoons.
My opinion had been that the Blue Moon figures were my preferred figures, but after painting the Warmodelling figures and seeing them side by side I find the BM figures to be far too small. The CMG figures' poses are a little rigid, and a little lacking in animation, but they are solid looking figures.
Grenadier Comparison - Warmodelling, Old Glory, Blue Moon
This picture is a selection of French "grenadier" figures from various companies, and different periods, again just to show scale. The figure bases from left to right are French Old Guard (painted as Consular Guard) from Warmodelling, Old Glory's Polish Line Infantry Grenadiers in Czapka, Warmodelling Line Grenadiers, Warmodelling Line Grenadiers for 1806-15, and lastly a Blue Moon Line Grenadier company.
After a busy week or two preparing for a job interview, its back to some painting. I've been working on a few bits and pieces rather than trying to finish another Austrian battalion, just to break the monotony of the constant white uniforms, and first up is another little ammunition cart from Hallmark/Magister Militum. This one is again being pulled by a Warmodelling horse and the figure leading the horse in from Blue Moon. I have a feeling that maybe the uniforms should have been blue, so maybe some can shed some light.
Here is the two completed carts together. I'm not sure whether these will be used "in game" for anything other than window dressing but the General de Brigade rules to give you the option of using rules for ammunition shortages and replenishing units.
Next up is another 3pdr regimental artillery piece. This one, another Warmodelling gun, is crewed by a Campaign Game Miniatures artillery team. These are really easy little figures to paint, slightly more chunky than my others, but for size they fit really well and can easily mix on the same base with what I already have.
Here is all my artillery together in one large battery. The Austrians rarely seemed to have combined batteries like this, but its nice to see them all together and to see how well the different ranges mix.
One of the things on my other blog that seemed very popular, was my comparison shots of various manufacturers figures. Collectors and gamers always appreciated seeing how different miniatures looked beside other ranges, so after my last post I decided to start doing Out-the-bag reviews of the various figures as I receive them. I'll try and do further reviews after painting as sometimes a figure will look amazing or terrible before painting and then its the other way about when they're painted.
So, today I received two packs of Campaign Game Miniatures (CGM) Austrian Artillery Crew.
The packs consist of 8 figures each, with two each of four different poses. They also come as two different packs; AUSA001 Austrian Artillerymen Firing and AUSA002 Austrian Artillerymen Loading. These retail at £3.60 a pack, so 0.45p per figure.
I'd ordered these just before Christmas from the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) website, but due to the holiday break they took a while to arrive - which isn't a problem as I had a pile of other miniatures to work through anyway.
First Impressions: These are nice. They are clean, flash free, with no bending or damage. The faces and hands look good and should paint up fine. Three poses out of each set have plumes on their bicorne, with the fourth in each set having an unadorned hat. The uniform looks as correct as it need to be for this scale, but the bicorne is missing the small pompoms that should appear at each peak, a minor issue as I forgot to paint these on my completed artillery. The figures also do not have the rope hanging at their belts that you see on the figures from Blue Moon, a nice detail that makes the BM miniatures my favourite so far out of those I have.
Here are the CGM figures straight out the pack showing the figures with cleaning or flash removal. Top set of eight is AUSA001, and the bottom set AUSA002...
And here is a comparison of the CGM with other ranges. From left to right these are: Blue Moon x2, CGM x2, Warmodelling x2, Blue Moon x2, and CGM x2.
To sum up, I would recommend these if you want to add a bit of variety to your artillery teams, but for quality Blue Moon is still the best. I'll get some AB next time I'm buying artillery and will review those here, but I think we all know that AB set the standard for Napoleonics.
These figures are available from Quick Reaction Force here, or direct from Campaign Games Miniatures here.
