Saturday 22 October 2011

Capitaine Oudinot and the Gardes d'Honneur





A few months ago I purchased two boxes of Perry Hussars - a total of 28 figures. Allocating 24 to the 4th Hussars (one squadron done, the rest en-route) that left me 4 figures left over. I decided to paint them up as Gardes d'Honneur, a single company or half a squadron of the 4th Gardes d'Honneur. Plus I had an officer left over. Having also decided that I wanted my French army to be commanded by a more obscure Marshal, I hit upon Oudinot who, it appears from wiki, had a son Charles (born in 1791) who was a cavalryman to boot!

Thus we have the Marshal's personal escort, a half squadron of the Gardes d'Honneur commanded by his son Charles. Surely these guys will never actually fight, except perhaps in extremis, but they will look dashing sitting at the back of the battlefield surveying the carnage about them.

But perhaps I could turn these three figures into a six-figure squadron so if anybody has some (3 to be exact) Perry cavalrymen lying around without purpose, you could sell them to me? I can buy an extra command sprue from the Perrys but it is the rankers I am after.

3 comments:

  1. Nice work! They would look perfect as a small escort. I know what you mean about needing a few extra rankers - looking for some dragoons myself. I may break down and just get another box. Best, Dean

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  2. As someone who is a bit of a French cav fan myself, I appreciate the use of your spare figures as Gardes d'Honneur. Very nice ideed - and just the thing to keep those pesky cossacks away from Mon Pere General! I've found I've got a few spares myself from various boxes of Perrys and am toying with the idea of creating a unit of Eclairers d'Garde - another lot under-represented in late war French cav.

    Cheers,
    Doc

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