French Fusiliers

French Fusiliers of the Line

Figures used: AIRFIX French Infantry- 42 figures and 1 mounted Officer in Box

Painted in Late 70’s

These are the very first Airfix figures that I started painting for my Waterloo French Army. These were Airfix fifth Waterloo set to come out in 1972 and although the first sets were okay with their sculpting, these are very poor but they are all that we had to wargame with back then. The Uniform is accurate on these for Waterloo and they are a joy to paint.
I have painted two of these Fusilier regiments the 1st and 2nd. But you can paint all four fusilier regiments by changing their pom-poms colour. These were painted before we had the internet and the only research I could do was at my local library, which did not have many books on Napoleonic uniforms at that time. These are a favourite of mine and I have painted these as other regiments which you will see later on in this section.

H= Humbrol
R= Revell

H25 Coat, Officers Jacket
H34 Trousers, Waistcoat, Coat-tails, Belts, Straps
H62 Backpacks, Hair, Musket
H64 Blanket Roll
H60 Cuffs, Collars and piping on front of coat
R21 Boots, Ammo Pouch, Hat
H33 Sword & Bayonet Scabbard
H61 Flesh
H53 Musket Barrels
R90 Firing Locks, Bayonets, Sword
H54 Musket Fixings, Bayonet & Sword Scabbard
H16 Chin Strap, Hat Badge, Ammo Pouch Badge, Buttons
H60 Pom Pom, (1st Green, 2nd Blue, 3rd Orange, 4th Violet)
H80 Stand

Officers Notes
Officers Coat- Blue
Coat-tails White trimmed with Red.
Gold Epaulettes
Gloves white.
Sword Scabbard-Gold

Marshals and Generals

British General

Sir Thomas Picton

Born: 1758 Poyston, Pombrokeshire, Wales

Died: 1815 Waterloo, Belgium

RANK: Lieutenant General

Picton was born in August 1758 in Poyston, Pembrokeshire in Wales. He was the younger son of Thomas Picton.
Picton obtained an ensign’s commission in the 12th regiment of foot (East Suffolk) in 1771 at the age of 13 but he did not join them until two years later.
The regiment was then stationed at Gilbraltar, where he remained until he was made captain in the 75th at the age of 20.
In January 1778, the regiment was disbanded five years later and Picton retired to his father’s estate for nearly twelve years.
In 1794 he volunteered for service in the West Indies and became aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief, Sir John Vaughan. He was given the captaincy in the 17th foot and shortly afterwards he was promoted to major in the 58th foot, where he fought with distinction and acquired a reputation as a brutal disciplinarian. Under Sir Ralph Abercromby, who succeeded Vaughan in 1795, he was present at the capture of St Lucia after which he was promoted again to lieutenant colonel of the 56th foot he then took part in the capture of St Vincent.
He was appointed Governor of Trinidad, captured from the Spaniards, in 1797. His career then took a turn for the worst, when he was sent home in disgrace for condoning the torture of a local woman. In December 1803 he returned to Britain and was arrested to face charges by order of the Privy Council and promptly released on bail set at £40,000. At court on the evidence given, the jury decided that Picton was guilty, so he set about a retrial which he got in 1808.

With credible witnesses the jury reversed the verdict of the earlier trail.
Despite this setback his career continued to flourish. In 1810 he was posted to Iberia, Spain Serving under Wellington to command the 3rd Division and despite his faults Picton was extremely brave and was often in the thick of battle by leading his division from the front, dressed in black civilian coat and top hat throughout the Peninsular Campaign. At Fuentes de Onoro, Badajoz and Vitoria he won admiration for his courage.
In 1812, Picton and Craufurd were side by side for the last time. Storming two breaches of Ciudad Rodrigo, Craufurd and Picton’s second in command, Major-General Henry Mackinnon, being mortally wounded. At Badajoz, a month later, the successful storming of the fortress was due to his daring self-reliance and penetration in converting the secondary attack on the castle, delivered by the “Fighting” 3rd Division, into a real one. He was himself wounded in this engagement, but would not leave the ramparts. With his wound and an attack of fever, Picton returned to Britain to recoup his health.
At the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813, Picton led is Division across a key bridge under heavy fire. According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummelling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannon’s and a counter-attack on their right flank causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men as they held their ground. The conduct of the 3rd Division under his leadership at the battle at Vitoria and in the engagements in the Pyrenees raised his reputation as a resolute and skilful fighting general. By the time the British army had crossed the Pyrenees and reached Toulouse, Picton had grown weary of soldering. In 1813 he was knighted with the Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and promoted to lieutenant general.
So at the age of 56 he retired and it took all of Wellington’s persuasive skills to get Picton to join him for the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 by giving him command of the 5th Division.
Picton displayed all of his fire and determination at Quatre Bras, where his Division was badly mauled and where he was wounded before withdrawing to Waterloo.
Keeping his injury a secret, he led his Division to crush D’Erlon’s attack on the Allied centre when he was shot through the head by a musket ball. His last words were said to have been, “Come on you rogues, you rascals”. He became the most senior office to die that day. His body was brought home to London and buried in the family vault at St George’s, Hanover Square in London.

Wellington once called Picton, as rough, foul mouthed a devil as ever lived. He was certainly coarse, moody and impetuous but was also an able commander who had the respect of his men and Wellington valued above all his other Divisional commanders.

The Prussian's are coming!

Well I have had a long think on which unit to paint next and I think that I will paint some more Prussian infantry. As I have had the box for a long time now collecting dust, I will paint my old Airfix figures of the Prussian regiment of Landwehr. The unit will be the 3rd Elba which had sky blue facings. (The picture on the box is the Silesian Regiment)
I know that Hat will one day, bring out their Prussian sets but for now I will use the Airfix box. Although the box contains 48 figures, it contains two flag bearers which as most of you will know that they did not carry any, although some say that they did carry some sort of flag at Waterloo. But being me, I will paint one of these up as I have done to the first set I painted, the 2nd Neumark Regiment back in 2005.

Over the next couple of days I am starting a new feature on this blog called “Marshals and Generals”. I plan to write up about all the Marshals and Generals of France and all the British and Allies Generals that took part in the battle of Waterloo.

It’s not long now to Salute 10 on the 24th April, and my shopping list is not all that big but you can never tell on what there will be on offer at the show.

At last!

Last night I managed to finish the third and final batch of my French Horse Grenadiers which now means that I have finished all 24 horse and riders.
It has taken me nearly fourteen months to complete these, which I am not happy about. Still waiting for the sun to shine, so I can take some decent pictures of them.
So what about my next unit to paint? I think it’s about time that I brought the Prussian’s up to date with some more units as I am still in the mood for painting.
The smallest of my armies, I have one regiment of Landwehr and one regiment of Dragoons. Hardly the size of army to help Wellington out at Waterloo. Still it is a start, But which shall I do.

Is that all!

In 2009 I spent a grand total of £134:10 pence on my hobby. That is the most that I have splashed out on my hobby over the past six years. This year has started off very slow, but now I am back in the hot seat and started painting once again. There are no new figures for me as of yet, still the year is still young, and I still have loads of boxes to paint. Total spent is just £4.23 pence on three items in three months.

1 PAINT TINS £1:25
1 SUPER GLUE 99p
4 PAINT BRUSHES Pkt £1.99