The 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne in miniature

Fusilier Roly Hermans describes his latest painting project, a 28mm Napoleonic French regiment using Perry Miniatures.

I was really excited a year ago when I heard that the Perry twins were going to produce a range of 28mm Napoleonic French for their 1815 collection. I already have quite an extensive French army, mainly made up of Front Rank figures, which I really love. But I was very keen to try painting some of the famous Perry figures. I also wanted to experiment with a slightly different method of arranging and basing the figures.

I bought enough figures for two battalions (I usually use 24-figure units). But I decided to group them in such a way that for display purposes they would make one large battalion, and only break into two smaller units for actual games.

In 2005 my son and I were fortunate enough to take part with the recreated 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne in a reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo. So it was only natural that I chose to portray this regiment with my Perry figures.

The recreated 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne at Waterloo in 2005. The guy wearing the infirmier's brown jacket with red facings is Iain Dickie, editor of Miniature Wargaming, and you'll see I have even included him in miniature in my regiment! OK, so what is an infirmier NCO doing carrying arms in my battalion? Well, maybe he got sick and tired of patching up his mates, and wanted to take a pot-shot at the enemy? Or maybe he is not an infirmier NCO at all, but someone whose old jacket was worn out, so replaced with this one found on the battlefield?

The Perry figures are indeed beautiful. The animation and anatomy are perfect, and every detail is replicated to absolute scale. However, the price of such realistic sculpting is that there is none of the exaggeration which makes many other ranges easier to paint. Because of this, it actually took me about three months to paint this regiment - very slow for me!

The overall look I wanted was for a couple of tightly-packed ranks, followed by a supernumary rank of officers, NCOs, drummers and even a wounded straggler. I think this looks more realistic than putting those kinds of figures in the main ranks, which is what I'd done up till now with all my other units. It might mean a few more figures to paint per battalion, but not too many, especially with judicious use of lying wounded figures, which can take the space of one complete file.

The 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne in line formation. Click on the picture to see the complete battalion.

I found that using my normal two-figure-frontage per 35mm base made these slender Perry figures look far too sparsely spread-out, and not at all like a tightly packed Napoleonic formation. On the other hand, trying to pack three figures to a frontage looked too crowded (plus would add a great deal more figures to paint for a unit).

So I came up with the idea of combining one-and-a-half bases, and putting four-figure-frontages on them. And this looked just right to my eye. I kept the flank companies to two-figure-frontages as normal. But I set these up as just one file, with an officer or NCO alongside or behind.

The command base is also standard width. But I increased the depth to allow for the mounted officer to lead the battalion. If the unit has to line up against an obstable, no problem, as when that base is pushed back into line, the drummers on the rear of the base get pushed out behind the unit, which looks fine.

If you're going to spend so much time and effort on the figures, you don't want to skimp on the flag. So, as usual, I used the exquisite flags produced by GMB Design. The first battalion's command stand has a tricolour flag, while the second battalion has a white fannion.

Perry Miniatures produce a set of casualty figures, which I have incorporated into my regiment. An officer caught swinging round as he is hit is one of the nicest figures I've ever seen, despite the morbid subject matter. And another figure leaning on his musket, pack hanging from one shoulder and shako discarded, was just right for a straggler.

A rear view of the 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne shows the cow-skins packs worn by the figures. Towards the left of the picture you can see the straggler being escorted back into the line by an NCO.

The grenadier company includes a wounded officer swinging round as he is hit - surely one of the Perry twins' most marvellously animated figures ever.

The 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne divided into two wargames battalions. Note that although the base sizes are not all the same, they still go together to form standard wargames formations, suitable for our Piquet and General de Brigade games. What I especially like is that the command unit is properly centered in both formations, something that was not possible with my usual six same-sized bases format.

The end result of this painting project is, I think, worth it. All the slight differences in pose and uniform go together to make a very life-like look. The 85ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne will certainly take pride of place in my display cabinet.

Note: For a comparison of how these figures compare to Front Rank and Foundry figures, go to this photo article.