Airfix 54mm Napoleonic French Line Infantry

[Neil Merryweather]

Well, as I promised myself , I have decided to go OOB for the next one..
…..and also, not.

I’m staying Napoleonic and with the Airfix 54mm Collector’s Series, in this case the French Line Infantryman. I got interested whilst making the shakos for the Scots Greys diorama when I realised I actually had two of these boys in the stash. I'm not sure why I bought them as I’ve never really taken any notice of the line regiments, only the Imperial Guard.
That said, I am getting conscious of entering my latter years, so I have decided to start using up the stash(SHOCK-HORROR!) rather than adding to it too much from now on.

As is customary with these kits, our man comes with a choice of arms- firing or loading the musket. And here he is, straight out of the box, in the firing option.

……OOB except that I have raised his right shoulder a gnat’s.

Then I thought ‘why not use up the other one as well?’, so I broke him out and built the other option, ramming the musket.
But I wanted them to look at least slightly different , so I took the gaitered legs and head from an old Imperial Guard Grenadier and used them. I had to trim away the above the knee part of the gaiters. They also wore trousers, but we’ll get on to that….

Whilst looking in the legs section of the spares box I found a pair of kneeling Historex gaitered legs. With a Historex body I could adapt, before I knew it I had this boy. I decided not to use the left over firing arms from the kits because they would look a bit too samey, so I used some from the spares box-Multipose Eighth Army, I think. The head is also Historex.


So I’m on a roll now, and I have a pair of kneeling legs from the Airfix 95th Rifleman, another Historex torso and I adapted the spare arms from the Line Infantry kits (which saves me scratching the cuff detail) and there was fusilier no 4, ready to receive cavalry in a Square.

It’s still all a bit static, so I need some movement.

I give you fusilier no 5.

I used the left-over body from the old Old Guard Grenadier, and trousered legs and head from Multipose US Marines, and the last two the spare arms from the Line Infantry kits. He will be in between the two standing guys.
In my youth I loved this kind of thing but with the ‘wisdom’ of old age I am a bit more uneasy about depicting the moment of death. That said, I also recognise the absolute brutality of war and I still cannot shake the fascination with it., so I decided not to shy away from it this time.

So this is roughly where we are.

I will tighten up the composition in due course, but this is the general idea.
I have yet to decide on which of the many line regiments and in which battle this is likely to be, but I’m sure a situation like this must have happened at some stage.
So thanks for looking in

Cheers

Neil

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
A great bit of Frankenstein building.
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Another good one in the offing Neil. Nice to see a bit of Napoleonic in progress as well.....

[Neil Merryweather]

Cheers Jim & Tim, welcome aboard

[Steve-the-Duck]

'using up the stash'!? What heresy is this?

Very nice start there Neil. Glad to see the mix of full- and campaign dress

And just goes to show how good the Airfix figures are. If only they'd reissue them..
Or expand the Napoleonic range beyond Waterloo. Not that they did the Prussians anyway...
Or Dutch-Belgians. Or Nassauers
Or a French dragoon

[Neil Merryweather]

'using up the stash'!? What heresy is this?

Very nice start there Neil. Glad to see the mix of full- and campaign dress

And just goes to show how good the Airfix figures are. If only they'd reissue them..
Or expand the Napoleonic range beyond Waterloo. Not that they did the Prussians anyway...
Or Dutch-Belgians. Or Nassauers
Or a French dragoon

Cheers Chris
I absolutely agree- I suggested it once on an Airfix forum which asked for requests- clearly a minority opinion compared to 1/35 scale GERMAN tanks which are already made by the world and his wife!

[Steve Brodie]

Chair pulled up.

[Neil Merryweather]

cheers Steve.
Update coming soon

[wotan]

Neil

Very nice bit of "multi posing" This will look great when painted.

John

[Neil Merryweather]

Neil

Very nice bit of "multi posing" This will look great when painted.

John

Thanks John, I hope so.

[Neil Merryweather]

I’ve been whittling away, cleaning up seam-lines on all the equipment and stuff, and I've done a bit of filling in with Milliput. In the meantime, on another forum, somebody suggested adding a standard bearer. I thought about it and decided 'no go' because my painting is just not good enough (and probably never will be). However, one member(Paul) very kindly offered me a pre-painted one he wasn’t expecting use, so how could I refuse?
When it arrived I was gobsmacked
And I was right, there’s no way I could do this, in fact I’m a bit nervous about even putting it next to my humble efforts at all.

I was researching the uniform for the eagle-bearer or porte-aigle, who would be an officer, when I discovered the guy on the right with his Carabinier helmet, and pistols in his holster.

It seems he is a second or third bearer, a senior NCO promoted for bravery to be guardian of the eagle bearer, and presumably to take his place if necessary. So I thought I would have the officer wounded on the ground and the NCO in his Carabinier helmet holding the eagle. I ordered a few extra Historex spares and rummaged the spares box again, and this is what I came up with.


It looks ok here but when I add the other guys it’s not so good

The Eagle adds a nice height to the composition but the wounded officer is completely lost here.

How about this?

This is better, and it gives a classic triangular composition but I may just not bother with the officer. Or maybe I leave them both off and make another vignette?

Still, the arrival of the eagle has dictated which regiment and which campaign it is- 45th at Waterloo! It’s the one captured by Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys, so maybe I will ‘return the complement’ from the previous diorama and have some Scots Greys’ paraphernalia as battle debris.
I’ve got plenty of stuff to do whilst I make up my mind about these two, like figuring out what to with his right arm... And not forgetting adding fur texture to five, now SIX French backpacks!
I’m getting there by doing a small amount at the start of every session. GOD it’s tedious. It has also emphasised the classic discrepancy in scale between Airfix and Historex- Airfix is on the right

I'm just going to live with it, I need a break from the angst of the last one-it's supposed to be FUN, right?
Anyway that’s all for now, thanks for looking

Neil

[Steve-the-Duck]

Just been reading Cornwell's account of the Heavy Brigade action at Waterloo, and I suddenly imagined your figures viewed from BEHIND with Lady Butler's painting 'Scotland Forever' as the background...

[Neil Merryweather]

Just been reading Cornwell's account of the Heavy Brigade action at Waterloo, and I suddenly imagined your figures viewed from BEHIND with Lady Butler's painting 'Scotland Forever' as the background...

That's a great book, I think I will read it again soon myself. I can't quite bring myself to focus the model that way, though....

[yak face]

I love these airfix napoleonics neil , but unlike you i have no knowledge at all , i just like the look of them . The chopping and mixing is coming along superbly , its going to be an action packed piece . Cheers tony

[Neil Merryweather]

I have decided that I’m not going to do two models, because if I finish the first one I won’t feel like doing the second one. I’ve been given the flag and I’m damn well going to use it and so I’m just doing the whole lot - seven figures.

Chris’s point about being on the receiving end of the charge of the Scots Greys made me think about the courage required to just stand there and take it, so I thought I would explore the idea of somebody in the front row who couldn’t. I wanted to lower the composition at the front, and try to lead the eye around to the wounded officer at the back, so I re-assembled the two front figures and came up with this



I played about with the positions of the others, and I felt the two original fusiliers were too similar, so I decided to make one of them taller by stretching his legs and waist a bit.



This guy has always been at the back and I experimented with bring him to the centre. And I liked that. I thought about having our ‘bolter’ break through the middle of the scene rather than the edge, but that didn’t do it for me.



It looks like he’s given the falling guy a right hook!

I also thought the new chap reminded me of a Bill Horan figure, so I had a good browse through Bill’s book and what struck me most (apart from the awesomeness) was the facial expressions. I‘ve been very lazy about them, so I will be upping my game a bit in that respect.

So this is where I am, more or less happy with the composition, so now I will concentrate on finishing one or two at a time, to give myself the illusion of progress.


Thanks for watching

Neil