Imperial Guard Cavalry

I was fortunate a few months back to acquire some French Imperial Guard cavalry figures for my Napoleonic collection. At the time, I had three regiments painted of Old Glory figures that had seen a number of tabletop battles. Now, there's nothing wrong with the OG figures but the new ones are from Front Rank. If I were to start a 28mm Napoleonic collection from scratch again, I would use Front Rank figures exclusively. I wasn't able to resist the deal I received on the new Front Rank figures and in the transaction, I acquired eight figures of each of the five main cavalry units in the Imperial Guard:

• Grenadiers a Cheval
• Chasseurs a Cheval
• Dragons de l'Imperatrice
• 1er Chevau-Legers Lanciers
• 2e Chevau-Leger Lanciers

I've just finished up the Grenadiers and Dragoons recently and, after receiving the appropriate GMB flags in the mail last week, they are ready to go. The Front Rank figures are relatively easy to paint because the details are so exaggerated. Some gamers don't like the almost cartoonish and bulky nature of the sculpts but I do (and that's what really counts). The GMB flags really set the units off nicely. These are by far the best flags on the market and are well worth the cost.

Grenadiers a Cheval
The most difficult aspect of painting these two units was trying to mix the edging/facing colour of "aurore." This is a strange mixture of orange and yellow that translates as "dawn" or "sunrise." You can see it on the saddle cloths and aiguilettes of the troopers.



Dragons de l'Imperatrice