Sunday 30 April 2017

4th Light Horse Lancers

I haven't posted for ages, but have managed to paint about 500 figures since January - mostly odds and sods, rather than formed units, so not really worthy of a Post.  I have, however, done another Lancer Regiment.  The 4th Chevau Legers Lanciers were commanded by Lt Col Louis Bro and were in Gobrecht's 2nd Brigade of Jacquinot's Light Cavalry Division at Waterloo.  

Jacquinot

It was this Brigade which caught the remainder of the Union Brigade in the flank after its famous assault on D'Erlon's Corps (to which Jacquinot's Division was attached).  

Jacquinot's Lancers extracted some retribution for the otherwise destructive effect of the British cavalry on D'Erlon's Corps.  Here, the Lancer attack on the Greys is shown in echelon with a Cuirassier brigade.  In reality, Ponsonby's men, having fought their way through the Grand Battery and in the mud, would not have sustained this pace.


The 4th Lancers were one of the smaller regiments at Waterloo and did not have an elite squadron, so all the troopers wore a black horse-hair comb.

I love the graceful lines of the Lancer helmet


Less the trumpeters, whose helmet had a white horse-hair comb




These are mostly Waterloo 1815 figures with a few Garrison thrown in for good luck

The set comes with too many officers, trumpeters and Guidons, so I have re-purposed most of them as extra lancers


There is evidence that some Lancer trumpeters at Waterloo were in Royal rather than Imperial livery, but I've stuck with green.

My only other criticism of the Waterloo 1815 set is that the sheepskin saddles are too big, but otherwise the figures are gracefully sculpted.