25mm Nap. French - The Guard Artillery

Napoleon got his start, of course, not in the infantry or in the cavalry, but in the artillery. And so we come to the first artillery division of my 25mm Napoleonic French collection; the Guard Artillery.

The guns were one of the most formidible parts of the Napoleonic army, not just because of the damage they caused but also the damage they had on morale. Artillery pieces were capable of forcing men to ground and, when working in conjuction with cavalry, capable of punishing infantry in square to a horrifying degree. The guns are each manned by five gunners, all wearing the uniform of the Guard artillery. Like with my cavalry and infantry, each gun comes on a movement tray for ease of movement and appeal to the eye!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I enjoy an army most when it has the supporting elements that an army really needs. This is most apparent in the artillery, where I have almost as many men manning the caissons and limbers than the guns themselves! Somehow cannon just don't look proper without their support.

In this case it took a conversion to get the limbers and caisson for the Guard to match the actual gunners. Old Glory has no Guard limbers, and so I had to go about a little head swap, taking the bearskin-wearing heads from spare artillery gunners and putting them on the bodies of the regular limber riders. To the left you can see the poor donors, as well as the original heads; I am trying to think if I have any need for a pile of shako-wearing French heads for my Russian army! To the right you can see the limbers right after the head swap, pre-painting, as they sat on the workbench waiting to be finished.

All of the Guard Artillery is from Old Glory 25mm.