Sunday 27 May 2018

French 1805 Foot Artillery




Elite Miniatures make some beautiful figures
Now that the Russians are starting to near total, if that can ever actually happy for a wargamer, completion, I wanted to start on some elements of the early French.  What better way to get them moving along than basing up some of "Napoleons daughters" in preparation for the allied attacks at Stare Vinohardy etc.




In my opinion the 1805 French range is the finest of all the Elite Miniatures in the catalogue.


As mentioned in the caption above, I strongly feel that the 1805 French range has so much variety, animation and character in every figure that it is by far the ebst of all the Elite Miniature ranges.  I am not sure if it was because it was the first range he sculpted or not however the range of infantry and artillery in particular is great.





The larger bases in homage to the "Military Gentlemen" himself John Ray who uses this method for his batteries.

Imagine charging into those things!

The Elite cannons are certainly large and look like they would inflict some significant carnage

A Russian battery I completed a while back with the protruding base to accommodate the rather
wonderful pair of crew with the sponge down the barrel.


The first time I put the Russian artillery images up  on FB it caused a polarising range of comments; many loved the diversity however others couldn't believe that the non-regular basing edges would suit a wargame.  Each opinion valid and as I always say, whatever floats your boat.


For me I think they look sensational.  I will replicate this for my Peninsular collection of figures.
Russian tiles as blinds for General D'Armee

20 comments:

  1. Guns look great! I like the early French figures too.

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  2. Thanks Jonathon for your comments. I very much like these French from Elite and the guns are substantial models which accurately reflect the size of the actual pieces historically. I know on my visits to Invalides and other museums in Europe that 8pounders and 12 pounders are not small, fragile items. These look the business!

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  3. Absolutely fantastic Carlos. And here I was thinking your collection couldn't get any larger. Inspiring stuff.

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    1. Thanks Peter greatly appreciated mate.

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  4. Wonderful batteries. Great job on some very interesting figures. I like your take on mounting. Basing should protect the minis, and they look great the way you have mounted them.

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    1. Thank you P and glad you like the basing.

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  5. Wonderful artillery, Carlo! Looks great!

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    1. Cheers Serguiss and I have been enjoying your excellent blog lately as well.

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  6. Fantastic looking artillery,big lumps!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain. They certainly look menacing don't they?

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  7. Your models always look great , but boy, those French batteries look intimidating! And the irregular bases are super - let's face it we are in this hobby mainly for the models so give them priority.

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    1. Absolutely correct Chris. Artillery so often can look "squeezed" onto a base and look nothing like the menacing battlefield asset it is. I also like the more spacious footprint it exerts on the table yet not interfering with the GdA rules I use as far as arc of fire etc.

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  8. What makes the bases large? Is it bc there’s 2 guns to a base?

    The artillery looks fantastic. I too really like the irregular shaped bases and thing really break up the blockiness of miniatures, moving your miniatures one step closer to looking more like dioramas / vignettes than just gaming pieces. 😀

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    1. Correct Stew. The customary convention, at least in my years of playing and collecting has always been a single gun and crew to a rectangular base, often too small to truly accommodate them appropriately. I really like this particular alternative, particularly for larger style Elite figures and guns.

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  9. Carlo artillery is excellent! Very beautiful!

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    1. Thank you so much Dmitry - greatly appreciated.

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  10. Very nice Carlo...
    I love the French artillery uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars...
    Blue with red facings and white belts... very simple but remarkably colourful.

    All the best. Aly

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  11. Thanks Aly - the period certainly has a wonderful array of uniforms even for the Russians!

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  12. One doesn't see French artillery in Bicornes on the table very often. These superb looking batteries make me wonder why! :-)

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    1. It is so true Peter - they are very much under-represented even if its for a few recalcitrant in the ranks who prefer the comfort of the bicorne to the weight of the shako! I think they look the part and though I will also have a few shako wearing horse artillery units in the period army, bicornes will certainly dominate.

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