"simple plates / summary French uniforms 1870?" Topic

I am trying to plow thru this STUPID Osprey on the French Imperial army of 1870-71 and the uniform and rank details are randomly scattered thru the book and incomplete.

Anyone have a trustworthy source that just shows uniform plates and such of the French for the Franco-Prussian war?

The Prussian Osprey – by contrast – seems excellent. Sometimes it's like Osprey has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on from one book to another [grumble].

On a very simple level there is the two page painting guide released by Foundry from when they launched their 25mm range. They are reproduced (with permission) on the Vintage Wargaming blog here:

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In fact this is the most visited post ever on that blog.

It might be simpler than you wanted but is a good place to start.

Baccus have painting guides online for their 6mm figures, which again may not be what you want.

On the French side there is the very recent Editions Heimdal L'Armee de Napoleon III, which is in a Histoire & Collections style. I've only glanced through my copy rather than used it yet but it looks very good and might be close to what you want.

Others will know more and better.

I second the reference to Heimdal's "l'Armee de Napoleon III." It has multiple color pages for practically everything. Despite the title, it also includes all of the Republican period uniforms as well, including over 100 plates of francs-tireurs. It's in French, but easily deduced without a dictionary. In cases where there was a lot of variation, as for the Hussars, each regiment has its own coverage. Assuming the French know the facts, apparently the campaign uniform for the Dragoons was green, not the "official" 1868 blue that everyone else shows.

There used to be a good online source for French uniforms for both 1st & 2nd Empire on the Preussische Militärgeschichte web site but that seems to have died.
I found some of the plates through a search but as usual Pinterest (may they rot in hell) seem dominate all image searches, e.g.
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Have you tried this site?
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The bacchus guides are just fine! They are by Peter Berry and they are here:
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Here you go.

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I agree about Heimdal's "l'Armee de Napoleon III" it is an excellent source and they claim to be coming out with the German side at some point. I have a translation app which I just hover over a page and I wait for it to translate it.