Grenadiers de France

For this week, I have completed the full battalion of the Grenadiers de France for my Seven Years War project.  There are 22 foot and one mounted in the battalion, but 8 of the footmen appeared earlier in the Challenge, so the count for this week is 14 infantry plus one mounted officer.  Figures are 28mm from Front Rank.  I really like the Front Rank figures but they do suffer from monopose for the rank and file.  However, the monopose works for the SYW since the uniforms have an old fashioned toy soldier feel.

The Grenadiers de France were formed after the War of Austrian Succession from the grenadier companies from several regiments that were disbanded at that time.  They followed a different organization than most French infantry regiments being formed into "brigades" instead of battalions and were heavily engaged in the campaigns in Western Germany.

While the regular French regiments wore white, the Grenadiers wore blue coats with red lapels and white lace.  They also were the first to wear the bearskin grenadiers cap which became popular with many regiments during the SYW.  The combination of their droopy moustaches and braided coats with the pose of these Front Rank figures reminds me greatly of.....

Musical and fashion icon Floyd Pepper

I bought a battalion pack of 24 foot from Front Rank, but swapped out two foot figures for a mounted officer.  Front Rank included two standard bearers while the Grenadiers (again just to be different from regular regiments) carried only the Ordonnance colour and did not carry a Colonel's colour.  I have a home for he other standard bearer and grenadier private and spare officer fits nicely, as he looks done the line.  The flag itself was downloaded from the Kronoskaf site, manipulated in Preview and then printed at home.

So by my math, that's 14 foot plus one mounted officer plus 1 flag = 81 points, for both my total score and the Black Powder side duel.