"Napoleon’s Berlin Carriage " Topic

Loved!.
28mm

From here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Not sure how that fits on a wargames table except as eye candy. But that will not stop me buying one. What a great looking model.

Well my heart is broken. I spent a year researching this carriage and then scratch building it. This is better than my effort, but I guess mine is unique.

You'll need two more horses and for 1815 they were Norman and either chestnut or bays. They need blinkers etc, but who cares? This is beautiful. This carriage only applies to the Hundred Days and ended up in Mdme Tussaud's for a century, till destroyed in a fire. Unusually the bodywork was in Dark Blue and not the usual Imperial Green. The other captured coach at Malmaison is well illustrated on the Internet and more like the colour shown here. Clever to cloak the postillions but, if you can face the painting needed, Westfalia are producing figures to go with their postal coach. Little work needed to produce what you see in Osprey illustrations.

The coach lamps were my biggest failure, but again Westfalia came to my rescue with some spares. You'll need one more anyway for the window at the back, missing here. OK, wheel hubs should be octagonal not round……but that is just bad grace on my part. Wish I could model to this standard…

and it's a Berline………

Not modelled to the same standard, but much research to get this right (ish)

I'd be very happy to model to that standard deadhead. I actually prefer your version.

@MS: So do i.

Too kind. Only the bottom photo has the colours right, too vivid in the sunlit pictures. Wait till I finally use the Westfalia lamps. Mine are in clear Perspex but awful.

Black Powder have slightly downscaled I think. I based mine on the good Colonel's plans and, surprisingly only two, photos of the displayed carriage. Even then, I still think mine slightly too big, theirs slightly too small. Little in it.

Do you see the Gendarme d'Elite at the front? That dark patch in front of him is real Waterloo mud……….The mamaluke is ex ACW ambulance driver and the postillions and Gendarme are converted Perry Dragoons (surely the most useful figures ever!)

Finally apologies to the editor. First time I have ever posted a picture (not sure my skills as a modeller are up to it). I thought I was just inserting a link, not Megabyte Images!

Excellent work Deadhead. That puts the 'professionals' on their mark.

Excellent work Deadhead. I like your version better. Both are good though.

I agree with Augie the Doggie.

Thanks for posting to both Armand and deadhead.
Tom

Superb work there deadhead – I would be very proud to have built that.

Good thread Armand

I have already ordered one, just hope I can paint by the 16th November.

Raglan

Don't rush it. Half the fun is the research work. It is a doddle these days with the Internet. Dormeuse, Berline, Post Chaise, Landau, whatever you call this carriage…you'll find so many images. It does get confused with the second captured coach (still in Malmaison…great story how poor Blucher was presented with the latter, whilst the wicked major kept the former and sold it on).

You'll find one B&W picture reproduced countless times. There is a second rear view but Mdme Tussaud's have no other records (incredible!)

For fun, see a full size replica crashed on the surface of the moon. I know, it sounds weird, it's called "Interregnum",but a really nice artist Lewis Colburn from USA produced it…and replies to e mails! He used the scale drawings that I did and made a wonderful full size version. Then he smashed it up………….try any search engine. Those are the right colours…….

link

There is a line drawing on this page for the coach.

Beautiful work on that coach deadhead!

Both coaches are lovely. Deadhead's appears to be quite a bit larger though.

Glad you enjoyed it boys.
Deadhead… you has won this one! Your work is superb!.

Amicalement
Armand

Huevans011 is right. Theirs is slightly small, mine does look big I freely admit. Colonel Paul Downing's plans are available from the Carriage Association of America (miniature from the Georgian Society shown earlier). He took measurements directly from the preserved coach and the two extant photos do bear out that it was a sizeable thing. Croft's painting of what was meant to be Boney's flight from the carriage is so detailed that he clearly visited the real thing and again confirms dimensions next to tall Guardsmen. Worth mentioning that Boney insisted he did not even see the thing after crossing the Belgian frontier and this was built in 1815, certainly not the same coach as Russia or as modelled by Historex. Bit like claiming one has his famous hat…I think he might have afforded a couple!

I am wondering whether the coach may have been originally intended for a different passenger, given that it was painted bourbon blue……

Oh well, a businessman sells to whatever public he can.

I am not surprised that the coach would be large. After all, it was meant to be a workspace and bedroom and contained all his maps and documents.

In Military Illustrated magazine #33 and #34 (Feb & Mar 1991)there are articles on the coaches. I don't have #33 but in #34 there is a very detailed article on the dormeuse which wound up in the the Tussaud museum – several photos taken before the fire – both exterior and interior. Several line drawings – again both interior and exterior. Finally, a color plate drawn by Eugene Leliepvre showing the coach drawn by 6 horses – all bays. The body of the coach is indeed shown in a medium-dark blue.
Article states this coach was built in April 1815 by Goeting (whoever that is).

Regards,

John

Huevans, what a fascinating thought…..never occurred to me.

Goeting was a Belgian coachmaker who clearly could work fast when needed.

Stoneman1810; I am stunned to hear there are such illustrations of the interior, Blue silk-lined I gather? Certainly Mdme Tussauds have no such records.

I used to have every issue of Military Illustrated….and guess what became of them when we had a son and then twin boys and the house seemed to shrink. I only have the well known photo; three quarter view of right hand side, plus a very rare pic of rear right three quarter view in an old book. I relied on the scale plans.

I still think what Black Powder has produced is amazing and remarkably good value. It has to be easy to assemble, not require massive tooling and still look "right" if not obsessionally accurate. It is slightly simplified and more of a generic "Napoleon's Coach", than the 1815 model. OK the wheels are not perfect, but those lamps are. Funny, I found this one of the easiest scratch built projects I have done……but it took ages.

How good would those postillions be if beheaded and replaced with Guard lancer or Grenadier a Cheval heads? We have wanted such cloaked figures for ages.

Napoleon leaves Elba in late February but takes a month or so to get to Paris. How long does it take to make a coach of that size and quality?

Deadhead,

There is only one photo of the interior in the article. It is taken through the open door and shows (to the right) it shows various storage compartments, the sliding desk, and the hatch covering the box extension into which the legs could be stretched when sleeping. The photo as reproduced is slightly fuzzy and fairly dark. No mention is made of any interior colors. One interesting comment was that the doors were bullet proof and fitted with locks and bolts. There were window blinds which operated by a spring. Also, there were louvered shutters which could be removed when not in use.
Regards,
John

Deadhead, your carriage is outstanding!

Like others, I too prefer the version by "Deadhead"; such details as the different types of "horse-furniture" depending on the position of each horse indicate the precision of research. Loved the idea of incorporating some mud from the field, too. Incidentally, Lord Byron had a copy of Napoleon's carriage made for himself (with "NB" on the door), perhaps by the same Goeting. Wonder what happened to it – sold to pay debts, perhaps?

Funny thing though. When you look at your own work later you cringe. Those awful lamps must be replaced with the set the nice guys from Westfalia sent me. Three horses have saddles for postillions in mine! This coach only used two outriders. Notice the odd shaped blinkers and the foxes' tails hanging from the heads of the lead two horses. What was that about? Osprey was a great help in the critters, the scale plans were invaluable for the coach.

The horses are a curious mix of ACW (the Perry Union chap holding three unridden horses) and the horse that comes with the ACW ambulance in their range. The harness was murder. Ali is from the little fellow who drives the ACW ambulance, but with a head swap and some greenstuff!

My favourite remains the Gendarme and the real Waterloo mud ahead of him as R le D says. Great excuse to go back.

Google "Travels with Napoleon's Carriage" and you'll read all about Byron and his replica, but not where it ended up alas. The original? All that was left from the fire was one axle, now in Malmaison

apologies for yet again resurrecting this topic, but I saw this on line and thought it wonderful…a view of the interior;

link.

Not 6mm I think……….even for you know who!

and at risk of boring you all to death (and with apologies), what is said to be a Hinchcliffe model (cannot say I remember it though). It does show that the coach was larger than one might think. It looks very accurately modelled although they did not go for the limited ornamentation (the gold edging and the coat of arms on the door);
link

Great pic of the Emperor my friend!.
Thanks for share!.

Amicalement
Armand

Oh I like the Hinchliffe? model. Does anybody own it?

Hinchcliffe or perhaps a 54mm Historex model?

one of the best coaches – and not just a square box but with slightly curved lines is that of Frank Germershaus in 1 / 72 scale – the dormeuse – I photographed this excellent modell at one of our conventions, I cannot remember who painted it

deadhead: I would like to echo what others have said above, you coach is gorgeous. I would be very proud to own that! Now that I think about it, the only flaw I can find with it is that is not sitting on a book shelf in my house. Thanks for the photos. Thanks also to you Tango01 for posting this.
John Miller