Kellerman's Heavy Cavalry Corps

Kellerman's III Reserve Cavalry Corp. 

General de Division Francois Kellerman commanded the III Reserve Calvary Corp during the 1815 campaign. He lead a brigade of Cuirassiers on a successful charge at Quatre Bras, capturing the Colours of the 69th Foot before making it to the crossroads. He narrowly escaped after his horse was shot from beneath him by hanging on the bits of of two trooper's horses. His Cavalry were involved in the massed charges against the Allied square at Waterloo.

He was called "the Younger" as his father had served as a General in the French Army.

The III Corp numbered some 3600 sabres - made up of the 11th Division containing the 2nd and 7th Dragoons  and the 8th and 11th Cuirassiers, and the 12th Division with the 1st and 2nd Carabiniers and 2nd and 3rd Cuirassiers along with supporting horse artillery.  The 11th Division was engaged at Quatre Bras, as the 12th had been delayed crossing the Sambre River.

Kellerman the younger

Most of the figures I had painted earlier, just needing to finish off the 3rd Cuirassiers and create some leaders. To make the leaders I used a Old Glory packet of Cuirassiers as a base. I cut of the square portmanteau at the back of the saddle and used some green stuff to model some coat tails. I also covered up the sheepskin shabraque at the front of the saddle and made cloth pistol covers out of green stuff. One had a comb replacing the horse hair on the helmet to become a Carabinier General. They were based individually on a 15 x 15mm for the General de Brigades, and with another rider on a 20 x 20mm for the General de Division. Standard bearers or trumpeters were used as the second figure.

Kellerman was from the French Leaders pack with two Cuirassier escorts. They came out pretty well.

The back square portmanteau was cut off

Green stuff was used for the tails, pistol covers and helmet comb

Remodelled Carabiner General leading his brigade

The whole Corps just fits into one of the storage draws

van Merlen's Brigade

Rushing to support the units at Quatre Bras

Major General Baron Jean-Baptiste van Merlen commanded the 2nd Netherlands Light Cavalry Brigade made up of the Belgian 5th Light Dragoons and Dutch 6th Hussars. He had earlier fought against the British in Spain on the French side. Made a French General in 1814, he returned to his homelade in the Netherlands after the first abdication to take a command in the new Netherlands army.

The 5th Light Dragoons suffered heavy casualties in clashes with the French at Quatre Bras. On engaging with the 6th Chasseurs for Pire's Division, the French recognised the unit and called on their old comrades to defect. Merlen refused and ordered a charge. As it pulled back unsuccessful, their green uniforms were mistaken for the French Chasseurs by some British troops and they suffered further casualties form friendly fire.

Van Merlen and the Dutch 6th Hussars 

The 6th Dutch Hussars also took heavy casualties during Quatre Bras. At waterloo they helped repulse the French Cavalry attacks. Over the two battles they lost 45% of their strength in casualties.

Mark Adkin reports in "The Waterloo Companion"  - During a melee at Waterloo he defeated a French General he knew well, but released him saying "General, this is my side of the battle, yours is over there. Take care of yourself; farewell!" Shortly after Merlen was wounded and died a few hours later.

Belgian 5th Light Dragoons

Dutch and Belgian Artillery and Limbers

Dutch Horse Battery

Perponcher's 2nd Netherlands Division had two batteries of artillery at Quatre Bras - a Dutch Horse battery and a Belgian Foot battery. Each had six 6 pounders and two howitzers.

The Belgian Foot battery was over run by French Lancers and suffered heavy losses. Only two guns made it to Waterloo from that battery. They were deployed on the extreme left flank at Waterloo and saw no further action.

The guns are British from Redline. The crew are Redline French Line Foot and Horse artillery. The limber crew and horses are from Old Glory French Cassion team spares.

There were some spare riders and horses from the French cassions with suitable uniforms for the limber crews. A different paint scheme and they were ready to go. I like their uniform - dark grey with black collars and cuffs and red piping and turnbacks.

The Belgian Foot Battery

I needed to scratch build the limbers out of some balsa wood, tongue depressors and toothpicks, using some spare artillery wheels I had. It was easier than I thought, not bad for a recycling effort.

Base materials for the limbers - a Redline one as a guide

Seats cut from balsa, floors from a tongue depressor

Glued up

Axels made from tooth picks and left over wheels

Ready for priming

Finished limbers

Supporting the battery

Belgian Foot Artillery waiting for the French to arrive

More artillery

Cannons and Cassions

You can never have too many cannons apparently. I needed to beef up the number of batteries on my 1815 forces so I worked on a big batch - 44 guns, all from Redline. Cannons are very affordable in 10mm, and quick to paint. An undercoat (olive for French, grey for Allied), bronze the cannon, paint all the metal bits black the magic wash. Shame the Artillery men are slower, I'll need to paint 132 to man the guns.

Then there will be the limbers, I will need to make one for each gun! I started six French Cassions from Old Glory. They have six horse teams, but I can only fit four on the base, so I have some spare for other projects, Maybe soem scratch built wagons later.

For the Artillery first off the painting rank is the two batteries the French Guard Horse Artillery (for the heavy cavalry brigade). The some British RHA and KGL Foot batteries to fill in gaps in the Allied line up.

Next I will paint some Dutch and Belgian batteries for the Quatre Bras OOB and some French Line Horse Artillery for the Heavy Cavalry Divisions, and some Foot to fill out the Line.

Imperial Guard Horse Artillery for the Heavy Cavalry Brigade

British RFA joining the 2nd British Division

Imperial Guard Horse Artillery

The Imperial Guard Horse Artillery had four batteries in 1815. Each with 4 6lb guns and 2 howitzers. Two batteries (3rd and 4th Companies) were attached to the Imperial Guard Heavy Brigade and two (1st and 2nd Companies) with the Light Brigade.

The 1st and 2nd were present at Quatre Bras and shelled the Allied troops in between cavalry attacks.

At Waterloo the 1st and 2nd Companies were on the eastern flank, the 3rd an 4th on the west near Hougoumont. Neither saw much action during the day.

I have painted the 1st and 2nd, that were involved in Quatre Bras. The figures and guns are Redline's. Great to paint as usual. The blue and red uniforms are quick to do.

Unfortunately I haven't had an opportunity to paint much else lately, so productivity has dropped.

I have been prepping a large amount of artillery for French, Dutch and British batteries. The focus is to finish most of the Artillery for the 1815 OOB's as well as number of cassions and limbers. 10mm is a great scale to have developed artillery parks.

French Guard Cavalry

Grenadiers a Cheval

Finally finished the French Guard Cavalry of the 1815 campaign.

The light Cavalry Brigade under General Desounettes had a large regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval (48 figures) and a Lancer Regiment comprising of the 1st and 2nd Guard Lancers. The majority of the lancers were the Red "Dutch" Lancers with a squadron of the Polish. I have only depicted the Red Lancers, might have to do a squadron of the Polish later.

 

Imperial Guard cavalry brigades

The heavy cavalry comprised the Grenadiers a Cheval and the Empress Dragoons under General Guyot. Guyot took over command after General Letort was wounded by a stray musketball, at Charleroi after the Dragoons broke two Prussian Squares. The Dragoons angered by their beloved commander charged and destroyed the remaining Prussians. He died a few nights later on the eve of Waterloo.

One of my favourite stories of the Battle of Waterloo was during the French retreat where the Allied Cavalry confronted the Grenadiers a Cheval who ignored them and walked off. The Allies were so intimidated they didn't attack, even with overwhelming numbers on their side.

Both Brigades played a part in the charges at Waterloo.

The Empress Dragoon and Red lancers were painted by Fernando Enterprises. I painted the Grenadiers and Chassuers a Cheval.

Now onto the Guard Horse Artillery ...

Heavy Brigade

Light Brigade

Belgian Militia and Jaegers

Belgian Militia and 27th Jaegers

The last part of Bylandt's Brigade infantry is done - three battalions of Belgian Militia - 5th, 7th  and 8th as well as the 27th Jaegers. They now join the 7th Belgian line. I also painted up some Skirmishers for the 2nd Brigade.

I used greatcoated British in Stovepipes from Redline for the Militia. There were some minor conversions in some figures for the field caps to give a more Militia look. I cut the shako off above the brim and flattened a small ball of greenstuff to make the cap. Painted them blue with an orange band. Works for a few in the battalion, wouldn't want to do a few hundred of them. I also used the Nassau officer for the command.

The skirmishers were using French skirmishers from the Redline range, with the badges cut off and painted in the green uniforms.

I only have some Dutch and Belgian Artillery and Van Merlen's Light Cavalry to complete the Brigade.

Militia command with MG Bylandt

Detail of command with converted drummer

Skirmishers for Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Skirmish command

Dutch Jaegers made from French line skirmishers 

Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Bylandt's Brigade 

Perponcher's 2nd Netherlands Division