French Command Stand- 28eme Legere

Getting that new cellphone camera at last gives me the chance to post a better picture of that command stand I painted last year (!)

Another Front Rank conversion, the fifer is wearing a magnificent white colpack with red flamme. A uniform of pure fantasy, on the rationale that the regiment's well-heeled colonel had the money to spare for outfitting his "tete de colonne" as he saw fit.

I have no evidence that any such uniform was worn by those of the 28th. And if someone DOES come up with evidence to the contrary... c'est la vie, I have no intention of repainting anything. If that bothers anyone- well, tough truffles.

M. le Capitaine's log, supplemental.

It was pointed out to me on another forum that the flag shown here is the 1803 pattern, not the 1812 tricolour that would have been used in 1813. My answer- I know! Most of my infantry and cavalry will have the later pattern flag, but for variety- and because it is pretty- a few regiments will be flying the 1803 pattern, on the assumption that they were not around to receive the new colours or were immensely proud of their old ones for sentimental reasons and were not willing to switch! Stranger things have happened in war.

For the record, I subscribe to what I call the "Roly Hermans" approach to miniature painting. Inspired by history, I like my units to reflect their historical antecedants, but I am willing to turn a blind eye to the occasional artistic touch for the sake of aesthetics (as no doubt were the artists of the time). At the same time, I still like such touches to remain within the boundaries of plausibility (even if stretching them to the limit!).

Likewise, my miniatures are a lot less muddy and dishevelled than they should be after plodding through the wet fields of Saxony! After all, we are already making compromises in that we are using 24 miniatures to represent batallions of 600 or so men.