28mm Peninsular War - French Command Stands

 

After the post of the British command stands last time, it is only fair to show the French.

Here we have a French General de Division.  I haven't based the General on any particular character but I have used the Perry Miniatures figure of Marcognet from pack FN14 as the main leader.  He is accompanied by his Adjutant-Commander and an Adjoint.  I have tried to create as believable a vignette as I could to try to bring the stand 'alive'.

I had to do some learning as to what differentiated a General de Division to a General de Brigade's uniform. This did involve some purchasing of Osprey books and also the assistance of my old faithful Funcken book which has been my source of essential information for so many years now.  I think I purchased that one with a postal order in the mail when I was about 13 and it has served me so well since! 

Below we have the first of two General de Brigade stands that I have painted up.  The command figure is based on the Foy figure in set FN15. I should say that all of the figures are Perry Miniatures.   He is accompanied by his ADC.  As usual, I base Divisional commanders on a larger base with three figures and Brigade Commanders with two figures on a smaller base.

I was just thinking that I didn't need to do any conversion work on any of these figures to make them suitable for the Peninsular, but actually I did. The ADC below has had new longer tunic tails made from paper to replace his short tailed coat.

Below is the other General de Brigade. This one makes me smile each time I look at it. He is a real character and rewards some extra attention to facial detail.  Something has got his blood up for sure!  His figure is General de Brigade Campi from FN15 also, but again he will be a generic Brigade commander for me. 

He is accompanied by his Adjoint. Now this particular figure is one of my friend Ian's favourites from the Perry range and I have to say that I agree that it is one of the best.  In this the Perry's really pulled off an fabulously imaginative figure of the Adjoint using his horse saddle as a rest for his telescope.  It really sets the stand off as a vignette and you wonder whether what he has just seen off to the flank has set off his General into a temper!

I thoroughly enjoyed painting these and they rewarded the extra time that I spent trying to get the small details right.  I still have a few more command stands to paint, but I fancy a move away from gold braid for a bit!