Command & Control - Napoleonic Marshal's Uniforms

 I regularly play BBB in 6mm, in this ruleset Generals are either represented - because their presence could positively influence a battle - or they are not on the battlefield.  As my regular opponent Mike and I work through the excellent "Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles" scenarios, so I need to field an impressive number of Marshals.

In Napoleonic battles the need to be seen and instantly recognised was important, especially for Commanders.  Which is why you get nice bright uniforms and lots of gold bling (this was true of other periods of history as well).  I saw a comment on a Facebook forum asking for information about French Marshals and their ADCs (Aide de Camp - assistants).  So, i did a bit of searching and found that some ADCs were in quite striking uniforms.  Bright, distinct colours were especially important for ADCs, who were used to transmit messages.  Napoleon, when looking at the ADCs from his Marshals, needed to instantly know which ADC to give which set of orders to.

ADC uniforms went through some transitions.  In the Revolutionary period Generals recruited protection escorts, often from hussar regiments, which meant that they have a lot of brightly coloured uniforms.  In the early Empire ADC uniforms were regulated, but Marshals could choose their own colour scheme - so they did!  It all got out of hand, so there was a reversion to less elaborate uniforms again, followed by a slow creep back towards flamboyance.....

If you play BBB your General, with one or two ADCs and an escort, is often almost 1:1 model:real life soldier ratio, unlike your units, who may represent over a thousand actual soldiers with 6 - 8 figures.....

Anyway, on with the pictures:

Overview of Marshals painted & labelled to date:

Davout

As far as I can tell, Davout and his staff wore the standard uniform for Marshals & ADCs.  For the ADC this was dark blue breeches & coat, light blue facings, white brassard on left arm, Bicorne with rank plume for ADC, Dark blue shabraque with yellow trim.  The Davout model is the Baccus figure from the French Generals set - he's going bald and has got glasses.

Davout wears the standard Marshal Uniform - Blue Coat with lace collar and cuffs, Bicorne with gold lace and white feather trim, white breeches, black boots, gold waist sash and most had the red sash of the "Legion d'honneur" worn over the right shoulder.  Red horse furniture with gold trim.  Figures are both Baccus "French Generals"

Lannes

Lannes wears the standard Marshal uniform and his ADC wears the Hussar uniform - with a blue pelisse, black fur Colpack hat with red bag.  His ADC wears the plume appropriate to his rank.  Figures are "French Generals" for Lannes & "French Elite light cavalry" for the ADC. 

Mortier

Mortier goes further - his ADC is dressed as a Hussar with a yellow Pelisse, Green Shabraque trimmed yellow, yellow/green sabretache and black compact with yellow bag that hangs to the left.  For this model I filed off the existing bag and built up a new one using plastic card.  Figures are "French Generals" for Mortier & "French Elite light cavalry" for the ADC. 

Murat

Murat was one of Napoleon's most flamboyant Marshals.  He redesigned his uniform on several occasions and his favourite colour was pink.  So my model tries to capture this in 1/300 scale.  I added a head to the back of the horse furniture and paper legs and a tail to make a tiger skin.  I painted Murat in his white uniform with pink boots and lashings of bling.  His ADC has a uniform that is mainly pink with a white pelisse.  Figures are Baccus "French Generals" & "Austrian Hussars"

Napoleon

Finally, here is my Napoleon command stand.  I altered the hat to make it more like Napoleon's and his ADCs are two troopers from the Guard Chasseurs, which has long been my favourite unit.  Napoleon is from the "Austrian Generals" set and the Chasseurs are from the "French Elite Light Cavalry" set.

So, with a little bit of converting you can make some really colourful command stands that will, hopefully, add a splash of colour to your war-games table.  I regularly use other nationalities Generals for the French in order to get the look that I want.  I hope that this inspires and encourages you to have a go!

Figures Baccus 6mm, Games Workshop & Revel paints, Warbases circular bases.  Sources were the Funken books and Pinterest - especially the plates by Plumet-Rigo.