"Different colored French units" Topic

I was looking at the Perry plastic French add on thier site and noticed that they had them painted as line, light, and Swiss(redcoats). I know you could paint some as Neuchatel with yellow coats , Italian with white coats and some foriegn units with green coats . Were there other colors and , or units you could use these figs for?

Regiment Joseph Napoleon et Regiment de Catalogne

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Other Italian regiments

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Regiments Croates et Illyriens

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Legion Hannovrienne

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Regiment de la Tour d'Auvergne

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Regiment d'Isembourg

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Regiment Irlandais

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Regiment de Prusse

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Oooh purty. Thank you sir! One can get tired of painting blue all the time. :)

I'll point out, before anyone else does, that the shako varied, as did the cut of some jackets

I could live with that. YMMV :)

Italian line looked like French but green instead of blue. So the Italian coats were green.

The Pro-French Spanish had Brown coats but one colorful regiment had each of its five battalions in a different uniform color.

"So the Italian coats were green."

Depends on the timeframe: line in green until late 1806, then white. Shako introduced in 1807, so…

Remember that the Kingdom of Holland, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Duchy of Kleve-Berg, and other Confederation of the Rhine troops are also candidates for simple conversions from French infantry.

Allen

Allen is right. All my Northern Italians are 1812-14 so are in the green.

Naples is quite colorful with their white uniforms and different colored facings.

The Portuguese and some of Joseph's Spanish troops wore French uniforms in brown.

[Allen is right. All my Northern Italians are 1812-14 so are in the green.]

I think you misunderstood him.

The Italians switched to a white coat in 1807-08, and wore white thereafter.

I need to be more specific in my comments instead of the quick general comment.

Yes, I am aware that the Itlaian Line regiments had various combination of Red and/or Green collar, cuffs and lapels to distinguish different units.

However green was used by the legere green coat and green pants, the Colonial Regiments, the Dalmatian Rgts and a few Guard units wore green coats.

Rudy is correct: the Italian light troops (which may be a stretch in generalization on my part to include the foreign regiments) stayed in green after 1806, as did the Grenadiers, Carabiniers, and Chasseurs of the guard. Oddly, the Velite Grenadiers and Velite Carbiniers of the guard, despite their "light" appellations, were uniformed in white.

Allen

I see from the illustrations above that the Drummers in the Irish regiments are wearing the "Imperial Livery". Does anyone know what, prior to 1812, distinctions were for musicians in these regiments?

I just stumbled upon this one last night:
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It's the 2nd Ligne (French), evidently the "Empress's Own."

Robert,
Look back at the Histofig plates,1c shows 1806-10 Drummer of carabiniers,
Regards,

The Imperial livery enforced some uniformity among the "têtes de colonnes".
The pre 1812 army displays even more colourfull variations, as two regiments will display different musician/drummers patterns.
Unfortunatly, all the regiments variants are not recorded and the authors more or less always reproduce the same.
Interesting variations are to be found in Bucquoy's volume on Infantry.

donlowry, I believe the plate shows the uniform that may have been worn following the restoration of the King in 1814 and would only be appropriate for the 1815 campaign. Cheers, Simon

Yes, the site I linked to is about the armies of the 100 Days.

A very good site it is too!

Very nice pictures donlowry….My 6mm baccus I have done the Swiss division.

Gosh I wish there was one difinitive on line source for ANY nationality during the Napoleonic Wars! I have way too many references (books) I think around 4x 4' shelves on Napoleonics. I have stopped downloading pages off the net as there are too many!
VR
James Mattes

Vojvoda: this is why Napoleonics are the Black Hole of Wargaming. Once you go in, there are endless choices of armies, uniforms, etc that change nearly year to year. One couldn't possibly cover everything.

Thanks, colbert; I see the lapels are yellow, which makes good sense giving the facings. Sorry not to have replied before (can't always remember what threads I've added anything to).