15/18mm French Revolutionary Infantry Comparison

Its been ages since I had time and motivation to get any painting done. I keep trying to get back into the mood, but I just haven't been able to. I suppose a promotion to a management position, mixed with a hectic and very stressful family situation has to take its toll somewhere, but I annoyed that it has been my hobby that has suffered - and therefor the blog has slowed as well.

But then it only takes a couple of things to get you back in the mood - for example a new release of figures. And that's whats happened. Campaign Game Miniatures in Spain have just released early French infantry, and they looked great. I had to get myself some, even though I have about 6 or 7 unpainted demi-brigades already.

An order was placed for a 32 man battalion, and while I was at it I thought I would add in another Austrian set, as I've never used CGMs infantry before. The Austrians were just as nice as the French turned out to be. I'm a little annoyed that I hadn't got these earlier, but I'll do another comparison with the Austrians very soon.

So what do you get in a 32 man battalion pack? CGM have packs available with varying amounts of figures, as well as the separate packs, so that you can choose exactly what you want. This pack was perfect for my needs, and its great to get all the figures you need without wasting money on spares.

As you can see, you get a variety of poses. For the bulk of the infantry there are 20 figures in four poses, with five of each pose. For the elite/Grenadier/light companies you get another four poses, two of each, plus the four figures in the command set. You get separate standards, one flag pole for early battalions, and an eagle for later.

The figures look really well cast, with sharp details, and no flash or visible mold lines - so these can go straight into the painting stage without lengthy a clean up first.

The important question when buying a new range is always, will these mix with what I have already? I think they will, especially with AB or Warmodelling (or Battlemodels as these are now called).

In this picture I've shown them alongside (from left to right) 2x Warmodelling, 2x AB, 2x Old Glory (Saxons as I don't have French), and finally 2x CGM. As you can see the size and proportions are very close to AB. The equipment looks the same, whereas I found that figures from Blue Moon for example, the muskets look totally different from other companies.

All in I would highly recommend these figures from CGM. They mix well with others, they look great, they are top quality, and the service from the company is excellent.

Marks out of ten, I'd say a high 9. And if they paint as well as the other figures I have from CGM that may go up to a full 10/10!

Gardanne and the 44e Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne

Gen de Div. Gardanne
44e Demi-brigade

Gaspard-Amédée Gardanne had become governor of Alessandria in 1799, but in July of that year the city was besieged and Gardanne was forced to surrender, being taken as a prisoner of war. Before long he was exchanged for Austrian General Mack and released. Once back in Paris, Gardanne assisted Bonaparte with the coup d'état.

In early 1800 Gardanne was promoted to Général de Division.  He joined the Army of the Reserve in April 1800 and then took command of a new division in June. Leading his division, he fought at Montebello.

On the 13th of June 1800, Gardanne was in command of the advanced guard and had positioned himself to lead his troops in to Alessandria with just the creek separating the opposing forces. Neither side was aware of each others strength, and the terrain favoured the advancing Austrians, but Gardanne distinguished himself nonetheless.

Gardanne later received a sabre of honor for his conduct at Marengo and he went on to serve with the Army of Italy until the summer of 1801 when he returned to France.

Gardanne was in command of Saxon troops in Silesia in 1807 when he fell ill and died.

Gardanne's Brigade

44e Demi-brigade de bataille              3x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line 

101e Demi-brigade de bataille             2x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line
Skirmishers                                          12 Figures.         Grade: Line

 

44e Demi-brigade, 1st Battalion

Regimental History

1642: Created
1645: Named Regiment Mazarin-Italien
1651: Renamed Regiment Anjou-Etranger
1660: Renamed Regiment de Orleans
1791: 44e Regiment de Infanterie
1793: 44e demi-brigade de bataille (formed from the following):

2e bataillon 22e Regiment de Infanterie
2e bataillon Volontaires de la Correze
5e bataillon Volontaires de Rhone-et-Loire

1796: 44e demi-brigade d'Infanterie de ligne (formed from the following): 

92e demi-brigade de bataille (2e Bat 46e Regt d'Inf, 5e Bat Vol de la Haute-Saone and 2e Bat Vol d'Eure-et-Loir)
2e and Depot bataillons 44e Regiment de Infanterie

The 44e Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne fought at Marengo with its battalions split between Gardanne's Brigade and Dampierre's Brigade according to the army list that I am working from (which appeared in issue 290 of Wargames Illustrated). According to this list there were three battalions with Gardanne and a further one battalion with Dampierre, although I was of the impression that the regiment would only have three battalions. To remedy this I think that for one of the battalions I will not include a flag, unless I find it the meantime that there were more than three battalions in a demi-brigade.

The Chef-de-Brigade for the 44e at Marengo was either Francois-Joseph Offenstein or Adrien-Joseph Sauder, but I've found conflicting sources for who was in command at that time.

This unit has been built using Blue Moon's 1805 French in Greatcoats and command figures from AB. The Blue Moon command figures have an Eagle Bearer rather than a standard flag so rather than convert the figures I used the AB range. They mix quite well as you can see.

 

 

For comparison purposes here is the Blue Moon battalion alongside the previous battalion I've completed, which uses Warmodelling Miniatures. The Blue Moon are noticeably smaller and in more regimental poses, bur they should look fine on the same tabletop.

 

 

While painting these I had a look for some inspirational images on the internet and found these pictures.

 

 

15mm / 18mm French Napoleonic Comparison - AB, Warmodelling, Blue Moon and Minifigs

A while back I did a quick comparison of some different manufacturer's Austrian figures and it has been one of the most viewed posts on my blog, so as I'm working on some French I took some pictures of a couple of figures from each range I have to hand.

So far my favourite range has been AB (which isn't much of a surprise), but as these are a bit pricey, I've been using Warmodelling to pad out the battalions and add variety. The quality of casting isn't as good on these, so its hard to tell if the sculpts were as good as AB but have deteriorated or if they are just rougher miniatures. With my painting it doesn't really matter though, as they seem to look much the same when finished.

Here are the pictures so you can make your own judgment...

 

Left to Right: Blue Moon x2, Warmodelling x2, AB x2, Minifigs x2

Left to Right: Minifigs x2, Blue Moon x2, Warmodelling x2, AB x2

The Minifigs are Revolutionary French Foot Artillery, the Blue Moon are 1805 Line Fusiliers in Greatcoat, the Warmodelling are Early French in Bicorne Line and Grenadier, and the AB are 1798-1806 Fusiliers.

Rivaud and the 43e Demi-Brigade

Olivier Macoux Rivaud de la Raffiniere was born in February 1766 in Civray, Vienne and commanded French infantry during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

In 1794 Rivaud was with the Army of the Coast of Brest and then transferred to the Army of the Alps and in 1796 joined up with the Army of Italy. Rivaud fought at Roveredo, Bassano, and at Saint-Georges was wounded in the head. Despite his wound Rivaud continued to serve and later fought at  Arcola and Rivoli. after which he became chief of staff to Victor's division.

In 1798, while still a Colonel, Rivaud was assigned to the Army of England, but was not one of those who travelled to Egypt. At the end of 1798 he gained his promotion to Général de Brigade.

In the spring of 1800 Rivaud joined the Army of the Reserve and commanded the 43e and 101e Demi-Brigades as part of Chambarlhac's Division at Marengo, and performed a ferocious defence of the village as the Austrians advanced until being wounded by grapeshot.

 

Rivaud's Brigade

43e Demi-brigade de bataille              2x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line 

43e Demi-brigade de bataille              1x 30 Figures.    Grade: 2nd Line

96e Demi-brigade de bataille              1x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line 

96e Demi-brigade de bataille              1x 30 Figures.    Grade: 2nd Line

Skirmishers                                          12 Figures.         Grade: 2nd Line

4pdr Foot Artillery                                3 Guns               Grade: Line

 

43e Demi-brigade, 1st Battalion

At last I have finished my first French battalion. It has taken quite a while. Its not that I'm a slow painter, its that I never get the time. But a weeks much needed holiday as helped me move this project forward, and the first lose-end to be tied up needed to be this half-painted battalion.

With the new job also comes a little more spare cash, so the next two battalions for the 43rd and the two for the 96th have been order and mostly received. I'm using a mix of Warmodelling and AB for the next few battalions, whereas this first completed unit is purely built with Warmodelling miniatures. I'm still waiting on the last few packs from Warmodelling to finish off the 96e DB but have received all my AB orders. These arrived two days after delivery - the service from Fighting 15s is just as good as the quality of their miniatures!

So here is the first battalion of the 43rd...
 

 

Revolutionary Flags - First flags now available

I've been working away towards creating high quality flags for the French opponents for my Austrian army, and the more I worked on them the more I thought they were good enough to be a sellable product. I created hi-resoution artwork so the flags would be usable not only at 15mm scale but also with larger 25/28mm figure, or maybe even 54mm if that was needed. Each flag at 15mm scale is around 13mm deep.

I started putting together little flag sheets with the three flags of each Demi-Brigade on each sheet and then decided that my new product would need branded. As these are Revolutionary flags the name was already there. "Revolutionary Flags". So far I have flags for the first 10 Demi-Brigades completed, with a few others for the regiments that fought at Marengo.

I then visited a few print outlets and was shocked by how much they felt they could charge for an A4 sheet of paper. Some places wanted a £3-£5 "handling" charge before they even printed the file. I started to think to myself "What's the point?". It looked like the flags would have to be expensive, which would mean nobody would want them. I feel that if you've already paid a lot of money for your lead figures, you wouldn't want to then pay out even more for their flags.

Then I visited one last printer, and there I got a different answer. "I can do that" and it was at a price I could afford. I gave the guy a briefing... "High quality print, on good paper than can take folding, using ink that won't crack or flake when its folded (as this happens with laser prints), and lastly, ink that shouldn't fade over time.

I collected the first sheets yesterday and they looked as good as I wanted. I have three regiments per A4, with four of each set. The shading didn't look too dark as I had worried, and although the detail is small at this scale it was clear and unpixelated.

Here's how they looked...

Obviously I had to try these out to make sure they worked. I trimmed the flags using a sharp new scalpel and the paper cut fine and the ink didn't crack. I then folded the first flag and again the print stood up to the folding.

So, I then glued and mounted a finished flag onto my first French Demi-Brigade command stand, and as far as I can see it looks perfect. Obviously you need to touch-up the flag to get rid of the white edges where the paper was cut, but otherwise it was easy to add the flags.

Currently available are the following sets:

Demi-Brigade 1 to 10Demi-Brigade 43

Demi-Brigade 44

Feel free to contact me on cdbaillie@blueyonder.co.uk if you wish to purchase some of these 15mm scale flags (each flag is about 13mm deep but I can supply at any other size where required). I am thinking that one set should retail at £1 plus p&p (which I shall confirm the cost of), or £5 for a set of each from Demi-Brigade 1 to 10. 

French 43e Demi-Brigade - Some opponents for my Austrains

While my Austrian army continues to grow I felt the need to add a bit of colour to the collection, and foresaw the probable future need to have something for them to fight against. I'm probably setting myself an impossible task, but I'd love to have a complete collection to represent all the belligerents of the Northern Italian battles of the early 1799-1800 period.

I've always liked Warmodellings figures, and always enjoyed the great service from Mike at Battle Models Ltd (Warmodelling's UK distributer; they have a new website. Take a look), so I ordered a battalion of 1800 period French line infantry wearing bicornes. I wasn't disappointed. I'm only half way through painting this battalion and I think they look great. I'd love to see these guys painted by a really good figure painter as I think they could look as good as AB miniatures.

I've also got distracted by the flags for the Demi-Brigades of this period. Each Demi-Brigade (Regiment) consisted of three battalions, with the 1st and 3rd battalions having a unique regimental flag, and each 2nd battalion with a standard design. Having searched the internet for suitable flags to download and get printed I wasn't really that impressed by those I found. Later French was cool. Other nations had nice flags. But not Late Revolutionary/Early Napoleonic French flags. So, I did my own. I still need to get them printed and to mount a flag on my standard bearer, but hopefully these will look great.

I'm planning on creating artwork for each Demi-Brigade, and have done about 10 to 15 so far. If you are interested in these let me know. The artwork is hi-resolution and can be scaled from 15mm up to 54mm if needed. (And I know there's a typo on the flag - its already sorted. Just not on this sample image).