""Come see how a Marshal of France dies!"" Topic

Marshal Ney and staff pursuing Highlanders:

More pics here :
link

Blue Max

Lovely stuff!

(oops! the deleted post was me thinking it was a typical Tango01 pic, so headed it with thanks to Tango01-but I was just quickly popping in and out again)

Brilliant models from Perrys and I do think Heymes is one of the best figures they have ever produced. To fit in with the Waterloo diorama, he and Levavasseur need to swap sides. Mind you, there was not one highlander on the west side of the Charleroi/Brussels road, so what this poor wee laddie is doing there, during the French cavalry charges, I have no idea. But then the diorama gets that equally wrong.

I love the blue used on the coats…it could have been even darker, but at least it lacks the overdone highlights we see so often….and the cuirassiers flag? It looks the right size and smaller than the GMB versions….which are beautiful, but too big for 28mm surely?

You've done it again! Very nice indeed

"There was not one highlander on the west side of the charleroi/brussels road"……………….

So the Waterloo panorama got it wrong then?

As did the iconic Waterloo painting I've loved since my youth showing French Cuirassiers slamming into a square of highlanders?

I was planning a trip to Europe this summer, one of my stops was to be Waterloo and the chance to view the panorama in person; just called my travel agent and told her to cancel the trip.

Wow am I glad I didn't waste my time or my money on that trip.

The wealth of information one can find on this forum is staggering to me, where would I be without it.

Well, I'm not sure my diorama depicts a real occurrence, I've added some highlanders to increase the liveliness of the diorama.

However, I thought that Ney's great cavalry charge encountered Highlanders. But I'm not an real connoisseur of Waterloo, I just remember the picture of this piper who got killed by a cuirassier in the 1970 Waterloo film.

I also know that Ney pronounced these words "Come see how a Marshal of France dies!" later in the battle, when he was on foot trying to rally an infantry regiment. But in the Perry's miniature, he looks like is shouting something like that :)

The cuirassier flag is homemade, that's why it may be too big…

Thank you all for the critics.

I saw Highlanders when I watched Sharpe's Waterloo yesterday, and surely they wouldn't get it wrong.

Beautiful dio by the way.

Blue Max, perhaps I was unclear. You flag is perfect to my eye…it is the manufactured version that seems too big to me

Oh well thank you then :)
(English is not my mother tongue, sorry…)

Double G, in all seriousness the battlefield is well worth visiting. Anything related to the "Compleat Tourist Experience Visitor Centre" is to be avoided, I am reminded of the "Pickett's Charge Buffet" at Gettysburg. I thought they could not be serious……not right in the middle of the battle field, surely.

Walk from the crossroads East along the ridge into Papelotte/Smohain. See the deeply cut roads which challenged any movement. Walk the route of the Prussian advance…on tarmac roads…not carrying a musket and after a good night's sleep in a posh Brussels hotel. Head across to La Belle Alliance and from there up the ridge as per the Garde or Cavalry. See Hougomont quick before it collapses completely…..head back along the ridge but avoid the visitor centre. Instead of Pickett….you'll find the Cambronne (actually does decent beer and a hot sandwich….but typical level of hospitality….grunt….)

Le Caillou is OK, Wellington's HQ is brilliant. Try to get to Genappe and Ways to understand the retreat.

Walk, forget the diorama…..and the highlander regiments faced enough cavalry at Quatre Bras……but got away with it at Waterloo. Across the chausee, it never happened.

Waterloo is a must see, even if the sight lines were ruined forever by the lions mound, Hougomont is falling apart more and more by the day, La Haye Saint is actually a working farm, correct me if I am wrong, or any other various bits of nonsense that are going on there presently.

From the pictures I've seen, that appears to be the case, would be like having tractors and other farm equipment sitting in the yard of any of the various farms at Gettysburg.

LHS itself is on a long term tenancy, but not to a farmer! To a Canadian lady last thing I heard. The outbuildings are still used as such for farming storage. There was a gap in the front wall many years ago, you could wander in, but the occupiers were far less hospitable than the old boy at Hougomont. Imagine the crowds it could attract if opened, with a bit of imagination

The latter is falling to bits. Some fencing went up and promptly was knocked over. Thank God it is so remote a site as, in UK, it would have been torched years ago.

Amazing how many "genuine" relics Le Caillou has…especially as the Prussians burnt it to the ground after the battle…………

The whole field is a Belgian govt scandal frankly. They want the tourists, they'll build that huge carpark…but they seem to have no sense of history. The older buildings in Brussels, the monuments and memorials, are in an awful state of repair and maintenance. The contrast with Gettysburg or any ACW field is amazing.

It is an awesome experience to walk the field though and to trudge through the surrounding countryside, if you want to understand the campaign.

Nice vignette!!

Thanks for the information deadhead….it's all very sad, in a pathetic sort of way.

I just read where the farm at Quatre Bras is to be leveled, I guess these sorts of things are just not important to some people…….

Didn't the Gordons join with the Scots Greys and the rest of Ponsoby's cavalry for a stretch and then bear some of the brunt of the French cavalry counterattack?

According to the 1970 Waterloo film (lol), the Scots Greys were repulsed by lancers, not by the Ney's heavy cavalry.