37eme – 2 Légère

After a long hiatus on this blog here we go with another post. and another unit for my Völkerschlacht von Leipzig / Möckern project. This time it is not Prussians, but French. Or namely the 2nd battalion of the 37eme Légère.

The 37eme actually had a pretty short service record. It was created in 1812 from various reserve companies and was the highest numbered Légère Regiment under Napoleon (and I fear in all French history as well). It fought at Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Wendisch-Carsdorff, Falkenkayn, Leipzig, and Hanau in 1813 and Saint-Avold, Vassy, La Rothiere, Brienne, Champaubert, Vauchamps, Mormans, Meaux, Reims, and Paris in 1814. After Napoleons abdication it was disbanded and not raised again after his restoration. It never managed to gain battle honours to its flag.

At Leipzig / Möckern the second battalion started with exactly 400 men which under the Republic to Empire rules means 20 minis. Since they are light infantry and thus able to deploy the full regiment as skirmishers, all but the command stand are on half bases.

The minis used here are all Perry plastics, with the cuffs cut of and the pointed cuffs of the Légère painted on. I was not too sure if I should really use three shades of blue for their uniforms to depict different grades of fading (at one point I actually thought about repainting them halfway through), but in the end I actually like the results. I also decided to try something new with the eyes. Recently I have grown ever unhappier with the way they looked on my minis. Not sure why, since in the past these turned out better. So I decided to black line them… maybe a change in technique will bring me edge back here. Not entirely happy yet, but I think this might progress into something good!

37eme – 2 Légère

37eme – 2 Légère (Carabiniers)

For the Carabiners I chose a brighter red then I usually do for Grenadiers to show the difference between Ligne and Légère. Only thing I forgot was that I had not proper highlight colour for this red, so in the end I shaded it instead of highlighting it and ended up with the virtually same brightness as I do with my Grenadiers.

37eme – 2 Légère (Chasseuers 1st and 2nd Coy.)

37eme – 2 Légère (battalion command)

The Eagle for the flagstaff was recut into a spearhead, since only the first battalion was issued with an eagle.

37eme – 3 Légère (Chasseuers 3rd and 4th Coy.)

37eme – 3 Légère (Voltigeurs)

For the Voltigeurs I chose yellow as opposed to yellow / green or yellow / red epaluettes and pompoms. I wanted to depict the simplicity in uniform of a unit raised after the high losses in Russian and this was a way to do so.

37eme – 3 Légère (skirmish deployment)

Next up I shall commence work on Uxbridge and his ADC´s for the La Bricole painting challenge, so stay tuned for that!