1st Dutch Carabiniers

The 1st Dutch Carabiniers were commanded by Lt Col Coenegracht and were in the Dutch Heavy Cavalry Brigade commanded by General Trip van Zoudtlandt.   The majority of sources show the 1st and 3rd Dutch Regiments in bicornes and their counterparts in the 2nd Belgian Regiment in Grecian helmets.  A Belgian of the 2nd Regiment is shown below with a pioneer and a gunner.

The retention of bicornes seems curiously retro and out of sorts with every other regiment (of any army) at Waterloo.  Given that the uniform, less facings, is the same for all three regiments and based on the French Bardin style, the bicornes seem even more incongruous - one would have expected all three regiments to be in the same headdress.  And yet it's hard to ignore the few sources that show bicornes (and there aren't many).

Clear evidence of a bicorne.

This picture from the year before may explain the mystery: the trooper is shown in a pre-Bardin coat  -  I've seen pictures of Dutch Garde D'Honneur wearing a similar uniform - many of the newly raised units of that year originated from city Gardes D'Honneurs units.

This figure has the Bardin jacket

Here, all three regiments are shown.

My figures are Italieri dragoons with head changes.  I've gone for quite a dark pink, which in hindsight could be a little strong!

I've got quite a few more of these to come.

And just as you think you have it right another source suggests they wore a Grecian helmet.   Who knows the truth?!

General Staff

I am a sucker for staff officers and the recent splurge of Art Miniaturen figures, coupled with some Franznap and Hagen has given me the excuse to paint some more.

Meissonier's picture is my inspiration for this group

Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard

I have already painted the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Garde, but wanted to add figures for the Escort Squadron.  Once again, Art Miniaturen have come up with some outstanding figures.

Despite this being perhaps the best known uniform of any Napoleonic regiment, I've always found one aspect enigmatic: an objective understanding of the colour 'Aurore'. Too often, this is shown as a yellow, perhaps because the officers wore gold (see portrait below).

Officer of the Chasseurs a Cheval in full dress

Les Invalides

But when the real uniform is examined, Aurore seems a very different colour.  Even allowing for changes brought about by the ageing process, the colour of the frogging on the dolman and the edging along the shabraque is much closer to orange-red than yellow.  The frogging on the pelisse also looks a different colour to me but I'd accept that it has darkened up from its original orange-yellow.

This trooper shows the right shade of Aurore on the shabraque edge, but something much more yellow on the frogging of the pelisse. Could it be that the frogging on the pelisse was indeed a different colour from the dolman? This would have allowed more differentiation from the background red of the pelisse.

This trooper's frogging looks more like an officer's.

These Art Miniaturen are a mixture of converted Russian hussars looking distinctly exhausted and the new AM figures.  The Napoleon is Hinton Hunt.  They should be wearing just their dolmans, but I've converted them to the more colourful pelisses.

The officer is a Kamar Prince of Orange, re-purposed.

Detail of an officer's pelisse

This Marc Claus figure reprises the famous Gericault portrait of Lt Dieudonne, killed in Russia.

An early version of the same subject

The trumpeter is Lamming, an S Range officer is behind

The full regiment behind

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.