Fifth Challenge Submission - 28mm French for the Second Empire & Franco-Prussian War

French Imperial infantry ready to defend their country against Prussian invaders...while their senior commanders prepare to fail them utterly...

Well, no marks for originality with this fifth submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - why it's yet more infantry for the Franco-Prussian War! My last submission was a pile of Prussians, and here now is the completed force of French infantry to take them on. These are 28mm castings from "Eagles of Empire".  There are 31 of them in the pictures, but as with my previous submission, there is a bit of propaganda at work in the photography - a number of figures in this group shot that were painted previously or prior to the Challenge. Only 12 of the castings counted for scoring purposes. I just liked the group photo, so piled the whole lot in together!

Bugler figure serving as an NCO on a square base

These are based for skirmish games, with NCOs on square bases and more senior officers on hex bases.  As with the Prussians, there is a senior command base that adds a standard bearer to a senior officer that will be used to represent a higher status officer on the table. I was not able to find a proper eagle to affix to the standard unfortunately, but I still like how the fellow turned out.

And I may have sourced an eagle to add later on...stay tuned!

NCO directs the deadly fire of his unit's Chassepot rifles

While the sculpting style of these castings is definitely a little different, something I have remarked on in previous posts, I do give full marks for the sculptor capturing the feel of the period.  Where the Prussian sculpts feature many figures charging forward, the French are in a variety of firing poses, working the deadly effect of their Chassepot rifles, holding some manner of hopeless position. I think the sculptor clearly had a good sense for the dynamics of the war.

Great selection of firing and loading sculpts

A lot of detail on the kit...different pans, canteens, tent-poles and other supplies for the march

And as before, I just LOVE the uniforms of the Imperial French infantry. Those kepis, baggy red pants and epaulettes are just SO cool. Can't wait to get these fellows on the table!

Senior command stand with a flag - from the 70th Regiment

The flag on the command base is also from "Eagles of Empire" - they offer flags for two of the French infantry regiments in the War.  This is fine for skirmish purposes, but for my larger plans involving games of "Black Powder", the lack of available flags from providers of nice flags like Flag Dude, GMB or Maverick Models is frustrating - Warflags has some for free, but you have to print those yourself, and the quality is just not the same...plus I don't have a colour printer so I have to bother Byron to do it for me...

An eagle would be nice for the top of the standard...oh well...

The battle honours of the 70th Regiment

Anyway, this submission will provide another 60 points toward my target of 1000 points, and represent the conclusion of my initial mad rush of this edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I wanted to get enough 28mm figures painted to do a decent-sized skirmish game of some sort for the Franco-Prussian War, and between these chaps and the Prussian regulars and Jagers, I think we will be able to have a game very soon! Time to take a little bit of a break from this period and switch gears to another subject...see you soon!