My 1809-12 French were designed around the Armée du Portugal that invaded Portugal in 1810. As this ratio is higher (1-100) than the AoE ratio (1-360 in infantry terms, for instance) I was not very worried about expanding French Line and Light infantry or Hussar, Chasseur or Dragoons as there are plenty in the shelves, but there were no Cuirassiers as they were not part of the Order of Battle of the Armée du Portugal.
Like that you need between 24 and 36 bases for Wagram (1809) up to Borodino (1812). The first group of 24 bases divided in groups (brigades in AoE terms) is done with each brigade represented respectively by the 1st, 5th, 10th and 11th regiments. The good thing about painting Cuirassiers is that the differences between regiments is minimal and the painting process is quite straight forward with some changes in the facing colors.
For this group I used (from front row to back row) Airfix figures, StreletsR and Zvezda.
The Zvezda box is simply beautiful with a generous 19 figures provided. A few extra Airfix were added to make the total of 24 miniatures in two regiments.
The Airfix figures are very old and incomplete so they needed some extra work, namely the addition of a plume in the helmet, a valise on the back part of the saddle (both made of Milliput) and a plastic scabbard on the left side of the cavalrymen. All horse´s "legs in the air" are glued to the base as usual but also as they are quite fiddly.
All three additions can be seen here. Like this these oldies can became goldies. A paper flag was also added to the eagle pole.
The StreletsR regiment is made of the usual funny figures made of shorties, when in fact the Cuirassiers were big guys on big horses. Even so all figures are different and very lively.
Next: photos from Arnhem
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