Franco-Prussian War - French Chasseurs a Pied in 28mm

French Chasseurs a Pied from 1870 - 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

 Curt's most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded.  The annual paint-a-thon is always a great time, and the last few weeks are often a bit hectic, so after wraps up, there is often a little break for me before I get painting again.  But just a small one! A few days off, and then I was back at the brushes, continuing with a familiar project - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in 28mm.  Here is a unit of French Chasseurs a Pied.  The figures are all from Wargames Foundry.

Chassepot rifles ready to defend France...

The Chasseur battalions fulfilled a similar role to the Prussian Jagers...these were light infantry, meant to support the larger formations to which they might be attached.  There was, generally, about one battalion of Chasseurs attached to each French division.

I love the NCO sculpt - he's bellowing something at the skirmish line.  All NCO sculpts should be yelling...

The uniform of a Chasseur varied slightly from their line infantry counterparts - they still had the kepis, but wore blue pants that matches their tunics. The epaulettes were green, and they had yellow piping on the uniform. 

The chef-de-battalion's uniform is pure guesswork - and possibly/probably totally wrong...but at leas he fits in well...

I am running low on French officer castings, so there was a bid of bodging in this unit.  The chef-de-battalion marching in the front row is painted all in dark blue to match his colleagues, but this is pure fabrication on my part...you'll also see the drummer is lacking epaulettes, as that casting is, strictly speaking, meant for the later Republican units.  The officer packs from Foundry are a total smorg, so you sort of need to make the best of what you get...and besides, the French mobilization in 1870 was pretty chaotic regardless, so there could have been all sorts of exceptions found among the troops, right?

Drummer is missing his epaulettes...of well...

You'll see I have done a casualty base for this unit as well - that is something new for me.  I used to find casualty markers to be a bit of an extravagance - nice to have, but not worth diverting painting time from the actual gaming figures in order to create them. 

Fallen Chasseur on the handy casualty base...those empty spaces will hold small D'6s.

 Curt and Byron have helped to change my mind on this - Byron in particular has some lovely and simple casualty figures for his excellent Greek collection, and this really helps keep things organized in a nice way when it comes to tracking hits etc. on a unit.  I liked to simply put dice behind the unit...but then I would always pick those dice up! Not a easy way to keep track of things at all!

Byron used his excellent 3D printer skillz to create a bunch of little tandem trays that will hold very small D6's.  I attached these to a base next to a wounded figure, and boom, there is a good visual aid for the gaming table, with a mount for dice that even a clod like me will remember not to touch! I now have a little pile of casualty figures to paint up...watch for more on those...

Completed unit - and casualty base for when the Prussians get close...

The 28mm FPW collection is starting to build a nice critical mass - this is my fifth infantry unit for the French, and 11th infantry unit overall for the entire collection.  These reliable, sharp-shooting light infantry will give the French commanders some extra options on the gaming table the next time we visit this period.

Thanks for visiting!