1813 Chevalier Guards and Russian Generals

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey, here's the Chevalier Guards and the two generals (one of the guard, one of the infantry) now:















Researching the trims on the shabraques was a bit of an adventure, as there seem to be varying reports (and even originals still around!) on whether the edges are white-blue-white or yellow-blue-yellow. Talked to people, either made great points based on good literature. In the end I went with white-blue-white, because the gentleman I paint these for said so. Which is a cheap way out, I'll admit. Also, some people made a point of the white maybe having turned yellow over time (as white  uniform things sometimes do).

If you'd like to know more about this famed regiment (and read stories of enormous pettiness by Grand Duke Constantine towards them for being part of the conspiration and murder of this father), have a look here: http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Russian_guard.htm#_cavalry
The site's general a treasure trove of info on Napoleonic military history things, as you probably know.

...aaand a look at what's currently on the desk (as I try my best to get them done for the spring shows):



No idea why it's so many Napoleonics these days. It's this weird thing of what ever I get to paint draws more of the same in. And sometimes it's just dumb coincidences.

Aaanyway, hope you like the figures!

[DintheDin]

Your Chevalier Guards and the two generals are a real pleasure to look at!
Excellent detail! Your brush performed a great job!

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely work mate 

[archiduque]

Excellent work!!

[LazyStudent]

Excellent painting! Those horses are brilliantly done!

[flags_of_war]

Fantastic painting

[OB]

Handsome work there.

[ZaOtlichiye]

Nice work! For niggling details about Russian uniforms you are welcome to check my web page: http://zaotlichiye.net63.net/allfacings.html

[Calimero]

Fantastic work!

Perry Cavalry and Front Rank Officers, right?

[Digits]

Beautiful painting!

[schoey]

Beautiful figures and excellent paint job.

[JohnFoA]

Nice job.  A pleasure to look at.  Thanks for sharing.

BTW Did the CG take their Vexillum into battle?  I seem to recall they left it behind  for Borodino.  Doesn't really matter mind; nicely painted flag, good figures, great for any command group, what's not to like.

[ZaOtlichiye]

Olszewski (http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/) did some nice work finding info in the regimental history to the effect that the vexilla were stored with the train before both Austerlitz and Friedland.
The history of these standards is a little strange. Three were issued in 1800 and no more during the wars, although the Leib-garde Horse got a new set in 1807 (indicating losses??). But they were so dilapidated by mid-century when Viskovatov wrote his tomes, he claims the size, pattern, and colors were unknown. Seems odd that he couldn't find an illustration of such a prominent regiment. Andolenko claims an 1912 photograph of the surviving staffs, wires, tassels and fringes, but no cloth. The rose floral cloth with white cross comes from Gabayev's description, on unknown basis.

[JohnFoA]

 ZaOtlichiye

Really interesting notes, thanks for sharing research.

John

PS Still lovely painting BBS

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Wahey, many thanks for the nice comments!

@DintheDin: Well, guards units deserve special attention. And these projects are always just a handful of figures, which of course won't let me rely of 'the massed impression' to work in my favour.

@OSHIROmodels: Thanks, Sir!

@archiduque: Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Much appreciated.

@LazyStudent: Thanks very much. Mustn't forget about the horses. Uniforms will always look nice due to in-built contrast and all, but the horses play a big role in the overall look I think.

@flags_of_war: Many thanks!

@OB: Cheers!

@ZaOtlichiye: Thanks, and your site is a treasure trove of useful info. Great resource. The gentleman I paint these smaller units for usually gives me excellent instructions on the units he wants done (and how he wants them done), but especially in Napoleonics the more info the better! Not the least just to confirm other sources. Also of course many thanks for the info on the vexilium!

@Calimero: Exactly. Thanks very much!

@Digits: Thank you!

@schoey: Absolutely. I can't quite decide whether I prefer FR or Perrys. Currently I'm veering towards Front Rank, simply because they're so nice to paint and cast to a great quality. But then I get a unit of Perrys, and these are just really, really good sculpts as well. For my own Napoleonics project I'm using mostly Front Rank (and Victrix plastics) now.

@JohnFoA: Thanks, Sir! Yeah, I'm rather sure they didn't take them with them into battle. But then again, maybe they did for show to upstage the other Guards cavalry unit they've been feuding with constantly and when they were ordered to charge they had some junior officer quickly return it to safety or something? Either way, the things is that we always abstract a bit on the wargames table (to varying degrees). And when depicting guard units I'd rather have all the bells and whistles on them, even if they didn't carry them into battle, simply because it looks pretty and let's be honest - how often will we get to do these units? And if we do, would we rather do them in their extra impressive variant or a 'realistic' one? I'm sure there'll be people who disagree on that, but I tend to go for more colourful when it comes to wargames units rather than less colourful. But then I'm also one of those perverts who paint their rivers blue, so my judgement just may be off.