Napoleon's Brick Guard and Army

  The Polish Lancers were an 1807 addition to Emperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. They are said to have fought valiantly and even heroically on some occasions and some Polish Lancers would even accompany Napoleon during his brief exile on the island of Elba in 1814. In the field or for travel, the lancers could keep their czapka (hat) protected and clean by wearing a cover on top of it. The trumpeters' uniform went through various iterations (they also had of course different uniforms for parades, ordinary occasions, etc.). For now, I've made do with swapping a Polish Lancer's tunic and trousers for a Dutch Lancer's while keeping the Polish hat. (I'll do the reverse for the Dutch Lancers' trumpeter.) As this company rides light-coloured horses, for accentuated contrast I've given the trumpeter a white horse rather than a grey one like the other trumpeters have. Officer Lancer with a hat cover Farrier Officer in charge of the company Perhaps slightly confu...

  A new removable chest now equips the artillery's  park wagon . The chest is slightly smaller than the standard previous one, but it might be more believable as a fairly easily removable and transportable box. Besides, its colour is quite similar to the main chest's.

  Ending this short series of posts on redesigned artillery vehicles, here come the sling cart and cannon cart. On the sling cart I've mainly recoloured some elements, and for the cannon cart, I've changed the way it's attached to horses; now like in the original model of cannon cart from the Roussillon region of France, the horses (however many - two, three or more - are used to tow the cart) are attached in a single row and not in pairs side by side.

  I've designed a limber capable of towing each of the two models of cannons made by Brickpanda.  Here it is towing the smallest gun (which I like to think of as an eight pounder): And here comes an identical limber attached to the biggest gun (maybe a twelve pounder): The chest on the limber contains six rounds of ammunition for the gun.  Eight pounder gun (back) and twelve pounder gun being towed by the same limber model.

  Here come two artillery vehicles already shown on the blog but which have been improved, mainly by making the way they connect to horses more realistic with the addition of a proper shaft (or falling tongue as they're called on American wagons) which can be raised or lowered depending on if the vehicle is in storage or being towed and the doubletree / singletree mechanism to which the horses are attached.  The field forge is of the larger four-wheel kind (a smaller two-wheel model also existed) and is equipped with a removable tool box at the front and a larger chest at the back containing coal. In the centre is a pair of bellows being activated by pulling on a chain. The fire would be lit where the anvil in stored for transport. When working metal on the anvil at night, the blacksmith can use the stool stored next to the anvil as a support for the lamp hanging at the back of the vehicle. The artillery cart is a pretty versatile vehicle which can be used to transport ammunit...

  This very elegant yet utilitarian vehicle is a park wagon used to transport tools for the artillery (like the present model is) or ammunition. The main container is divided into two sections and there's a removable chest at the front. The wagon with its front chest removed: In the main chest are kept various tools such as a saw, axe, hammer, crowbar and sledgehammer. As with the ammunition wagon , the tool wagon is equipped with a shovel, pickaxe, spare shaft and wheel and a chain. Tool wagon (front) and ammunition wagon:

  I've already shown an ammunition wagon in a previous post , but I've improved the model so here we go again. As their name indicates, ammunition wagons were used to transport ammunition for the artillery guns or even cartridges for the artillery or the infantry's rifles, or sometimes even used to transport paraphernalia, various tools or spare parts.  Although a gun could already fire a few rounds even if an ammunition wagon wasn't available yet (because with each gun was carried a small chest containing a small number of cannon balls), theoretically, several ammunition wagons would be assigned to a single gun on the battlefield and while the guns were being fired by the artillerymen, behind them a constant back and forth of ammunition wagons bringing rounds from the rear's depots would ensure that the cannons were fed as many rounds as were needed. My ammunition wagons can contain each 18 rounds (against only 6 in the chest being carried with a gun). On one side ...