Imperial Guard - French 15mm Waterloo

Armée du Nord

15mm Napoleon Bonaparte Waterloo Campaign

The Big Cheese

Over the last few weeks I have been introducing the massed ranks of I Corps, IV Reserve Corps plus a few additional. Now we move onto the amazing and fun to paint Imperial Guard. But, before we do above is Napoleon Bonaparte. He is accompanied by three ADCs painted as Imperial Guard Brigade General, Light Infantry Brigade General and a Marshal of France as Chief of Staff.

Inspiration for my Corps Command stand

Let’s start with the command stand for the IG, which I took inspiration from the painting above to try and recreate. The painting is of the Battle of Waterloo, Marshal Ney leading French cavalry charges against the British and Allied lines, around 3:30 p.m. on 18th June 1815.

Marshal Ney with ADCs, also Murat & Lefebvre left and right.

I am really please with the overall look, Ney’s ADCs are converted using Warlord Games Cavalry Officers, mainly head swaps or arm moves. Ney will serve as Corps commander, with Murat and Lefebvre leading the heavy and light Cav divisions. I realise that Murat was not at the Battle of Waterloo, but I found an excellent 3D model for him and just really wanted all the doody uniforms as I could get. The internet also provided a great reference tool for a pink and white feather & fur Hussar uniform. So he just had to get done, it just sits perfectly in my IG.

Imperial Guard Corps

Its is hard to know where do I start with the Imperial Corps, the entire Corps is massive, we have a Division of Cavalry on the left above, another of Artillery on the right, and a huge Division of Infantry in the centre. 

Imperial Guard Infantry 'Echelons'

The Infantry Divsion is formed into three Echelons or large brigades, these are almost Divisional in size themselves making for a huge Corps. Throughout the 1800s until the invasion of Russia, this Corps had the best and most experianced soliders. However come 1815, while the size was still large much of the old experiance was lost save perhaps the 1st Grenadiers.

Imperial Guard - Old Guard Infrantry

 
The Old Guard is the first of the three Echelons of infantry, essentially four regiments in 8 full strength Battalions. Depending on exact numbers each of my battalions fluctuate between 5-6 bases.

1er Battlion, 1er Régiment de Grenadier-à-Pied de la Garde Impériale

1er Régiment de Chasseurs-à-Pied de la Garde Impériale

I won't bore you with taking you through every Regiment one by one, but in summary the Old Guard are all as seen above, 'Big Battalions' (5-6 full bases they don't all fit in a close up), otherwise arranged as per the I Corps blog post a few weeks ago. They have a mix of jackets and uniforms all painted in Vallejo Contrast Omega Blues 72.413, with the Chasseurs having no gold plate on the bearskins.

Imperial Guard - Middle Guard Infrantry

Next we have the Middle guard. By this time I am getting really bored of blue followed by more blue so I am mixing it up a bit by looking at the Guard Regiments from 1812-13, which means I have have Dutch Grenadiers and some of the Vélites of the Guard units. 

3er Régiment de Grenadiers-à-Pied - In Dutch Uniforms (Band in blue)

Battalions of the Grenadier-Vélites serving as 4th Fusiliers-Chasseurs

On the other side of this Middle Guard I also added some wonderful yellow Swiss Guard from the Neuchatel Battalion, not strictly part of the Guard, but they do look fantastic in yellow. I could have simply just replicated the old Guard but this would have been 8 more identical Regiments. Instead I have some real flavour, and flexibility to play earlier battles if needed. It’s very rare to find anyone wanting to field an entire Corps anyway.

Neuchatel Battalion as 4th Grenadiers

This moves onto the Young Guard which are 2 Regiments painted in skirmish formation and 3 in marching columne, all are either painted with different colour plumes as Tirailleurs or Voltigeurs. Red and White/Yellow vs Green and Red. 

1er & 2e Régiment de Voltigeurs de la Garde Impériale

For the Grand Battery, Marines, and Auxiliary Cannon of the Guard, I have painted all the spare cannon I have left plus all of the IG sprue. Auxiliaries in browns and light blues, and the Guard cannon in darker deep blues with three exceptions at the front, those with blue carriages. The Grand Battery is in two main Brigades, the Infantry Cannon and the Cavalry, left and right, both comprising of 3 Batteries. Three Cannon in blue carriage are from the English Sprue which I was able to find, and with some small conversions using green stuff, made to depict the Marines Cannon.

Imperial Guard Artillery Division, with train

In total 29 cannon representing 87 artillery pieces. It is amazing to think apparently the Imperial Guard at Waterloo had even more than this, 90+....but I did get very close! 
Now for the Cavalry regiments starting with the Divisional picture.

Guard Cavlary, six Regiments in two Brigades

Grenadiers à Cheval de La Garde Impériale

The Grenadiers are in standard blue, with a red/rose gold horse braid. The Imperial Dragoons are in green and normal gold horse braiding. 

Dragons de l'Impératrice de la Garde Impériale

Gendarmerie d'élite de la Garde impériale

The Grenarmeries above have a red/purple facing that is hard to show even close up, but much better in the flesh. Chasseurs below were the hardest to paint in green with some leopardskin jacket in places. Some 3D printed Mamluks made it in too, not my best work here but they do stand out well. 

1er Régiment de Chasseurs-a-Cheval de la Garde Impériale

1er & 2e Régiment de Chevau-Legers-Lanciers de la Garde Impériale

The ones that I like the best I have left for last, the Red and Polish lancers, the hats were a nightmare to get the white and gold trim on, but I did it. The pink really pops on the table top and the iconic units stand out. Mission accomplished.

Marshal Ney Close Up

A whistle stop tour of 4000+ figures, It’s by far the latest army I have ever painted and the change of scale from 28mm has taught me loads of little lessons to make things more simple. Overall I think it’s probably too much to take on, and the 1:10 ratio was too ambitious but a good lesson to learn.

Some more command stand photos below for you all, many thanks for reading have a great weekend.

Light Infrantry Brigade Commander

Line Infrantry Brigade Commander

Imperial Guard and Grand Battery Command stand