"AB French empire figs sutable for 1813?" Topic

Now AB has to lines of French early war and empire which is 1806-1812.

Now I know that after 1812 french in theroy should use start to use Bardin uniforms, but from what I've gather it wasn't until the 100 days campaign it showed up in big numbers?

So the uniform of 1812 might work for 1813? But what about the shako didn't that change sevral times in that period?

If you're really worried about uniform accuracy, go for figs in greatcoats and shako covers. Many of the conscripts in 1813 didn't have much else. I'd lean towards more veteran units in the pre-Bardin uniform for the most part but that's just me.

Thanks. The greatcoats would still be shades of grey or did they by this time also come in blue?

Also anybody making "marine regiments" or did they look the same as the rest, aperantly alot of prussians thought they were marines of the guards so mabye the look like them?

Bardin uniforms come up in large numbers only at the second half of the 1813 campaign.

Blue greatcoats would not be that common, usually reserved for the Old Guard, or officers

I was thinking of the battle of leipzig for exact period

Fantassin / Warmodeler make "Marie Lousie" French, and they work with AB's quite nicely.
I mix them with AB's in Greatcoat, and the 1812 uniforms to have a real "mixed bag".
Many units would still be sporting the pre-bardin uniform, even in 1814.

Blue greatcoats would be used only by the Garde and artillerymen. They were a special distinction IIRC. The rest wore nondescript, grey, ochre, brown, beige, tan coats.

? whether the Marine artillery units wore blue greatcoats as they were technically "artillerymen"? This would account for the confusion with the Garde.

Thanks, but what exacly is Marie Lousie french, I've seen it before

"Marie Louise" was a term used to describe the very young conscripts of the French army in 1813/14. For figures it'll often mean an infantryman in a greatcoat, maybe with a shako and maybe a forage cap or something else.

See here for a small bit of detail:

link

colour plate 'G' in the linked document has a picture of a typical conscript of the period as well.

Marie Louise was the young Austrian Princess that Napoleon "looted" from the Austrian defeat in 1809 for his new Empress to replace Josephine who could not bear him children – he was desperate for a son and heir, a dynastic thing.

Generalising here – The French Army loved Josephine and viewed Marie Louise as very young and conscripted into the role of Empress and saw the parallels with the raw young recruits of 1813 who were also very young and conscripted.

They fought surprisingly well all things considered.

Nick

Yeah, I would personally paint up most of my French Infantry for 1813 in Central Europe in a motley assortment of great-coated figures. Use various shades of grey, brown, tan, beige etc for both the coat and shako covering even within the same units to show the poor state of their uniforms. This is what I intend to do when I do my 1813 Infantry.

Here is a link to my own AB great-coated Infantry link just scroll about half way down the page.

However, it would be brilliant if AB designed and sculpted a variety of motley 1813 conscript figures that even wear assorted shoes, clogs and whatever else they worse to show more so heir poor state of uniform.

With my own painting I went so far as to paint on patches in the knees and elbow's as well as other areas for some of my troops I painted up for a campaign look. This worked well also.

Shane