"French Shako covers in 1812" Topic

Hi, I am trying to ascertain whether the french infantry would have used any Shako covers in the summer campaign of 1812

I like the look of some figures in a unit having the cover on, it gives a more gritty look .

All my reading only the Prussians were Shakopee cover fantastic, Russians occasionally French sometimes.
Guess if you have cool looking trim show it.

There was much variation in the French Army with all uniform items, shako covers as much as anything else. Covers were popular, especially 'on the march', to preserve the shako's finery so widespread use would not be unusual. Most of my French troops have covers of many different hues from black through brown and grey to white. It's up to you with little historical evidence to gainsay you,

Auto Cucumber got me, trying to teach it military lingo

I put full dress in one Corp, campaign dress in another Corp, great coat in another Corp, mixtures within units in another Corp, etc. etc. etc.
Use this method to help identify corps in the heat and confusion of the game.

Russ Dunaway

Which summer campaign of 1812 – the one in Russia or the one in Spain?

Although I suspect they were used in both. Don't want to mess up your shaking in between inspections.

One possible answer is yes but when, one option being: worn on the march day by day when slogging through the dust precisely so that on the big day, Borodino, they could be taken off, the plume got out of the knapsack and into battle in effectively 'full dress' uniform, or maybe not, mostly the short answer is we don't know, we might have a contemporaneous report for one unit, but one unit does not an army make. What I do know as an ex soldier is that senior NCOs are a bit keen on you all looking alike so I'm always a bit suspicious of 'mixed dress' units. If the Adjudant-chef decided it was covers off it was covers off.

thanks for the informative replies, good thoughts expressed on the subject – i was referring to the russian campaign
i think maybe i will just have a couple with it on – it seems more commonly still on shakos in the 1813 campaign, though and so was thinking oh to have units which might fit the look of both 1812 and 1813

but i must also mention that the scale of the painting is for 2mm and 6mm both plastic and paper miniatures so maybe the detail wont be so visible. save that for when i one day have 10mm scale figs :)