Artiglieria a Cavallo della Guardia Imperiale Francese, 1806–1814

Recensione dei Figurini Italeri in Scala 1:72

The Guard Horse Artiglieria was formed as a reggimento of quattro mounted batteries ed one squadron of velites in 1806. During the course delle Guerre Napoleoniche the reggimento temporarily consisted of six batteries, until it was reduced to quattro batteries again following the costly campaigns of 1812 e 1813. Each battery consisted of 100 cannonieri serving quattro medium guns (8-pounders) e due medium howitzers (6 inch). In 1807 the artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia imperiale received lighter 6-pounder guns. Cannonieri dell’artiglieria a cavallo were completamente mounted, either on spare horses, avantreni o ammunition wagons, in order to keep up con cavalleria formations they were supporting in battle. Draft horses, avantreni, supply ed ammunition wagons were handled by artiglieria train soldiers attached to the artiglieria a cavallo.

Contenuto

• 5 dismounted cannonieri in 5 Poses – 24 mm pari a 173 cm di altezza
  • Gun in battery (8-pounder)
  • Ammunition chest con ready ammunition
  • 20 canonballs stacked in quattro pyramids
  • Battery officer con telescope
  • Gunner con sponge e water bucket (No. 2)
  • Gunner con sponge (No. 2)
  • Caricatore (No. 4)
  • Gun captain (No. 5)
• 6 mounted soldiers in 4 Poses – 24 mm pari a 173 cm di altezza
  • Cannone da 8 libbre all'avantreno
  • Ammunition chest con ready ammunition
  • Avantreno e due limber riders
  • Beam ed extension
  • Harness straps (12)
  • Mounted train soldier (2)
  • Mounted gunner (2)
• 2 horses - 21 mm equal 151 cm height
• 6 draft horses in due Poses – 21 mm equal 151 cm height

Valutazione

Good choice of subject, the artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia Imperiale is unique in this scale.

Excellent detail on soldatini e horses. Facial features, uniform parts, buttons, lace, belts, buckles, e horse furnishing are clearly visible.

Suitable historic poses. The battery officer holds his telescope correctly con both hand. Unfortunately, due of cinque gun crew members are missing, namely No. 1, the gun layer, e No. 3, the ventsman.

Noticeable flash on soldatini e horses needs to be removed prima di dipingere.

Gunner No. 2, the spongeman, is available in due poses, but No. 1, the gun layer, e No. 3, the ventsman, are not included in the set. A gun in battery needs all cinque trained cannonieri ed up to ten artiglieria o fanteria helpers to be operated safely.

The gun captain should not be wielding the portfire stick the way he does while the gun is still being served by the other members of his crew. Once the gun is ready to be fired, the crew stands at attention well out of the way of the affusto d’artiglieria, ed only then will the gun captain touch the portfire stick to the vent to fire the gun. Clearly, the designers e sculptors of this set did not consider which of the several stages of the loading e firing process they wanted to portray. The result is an incomplete ed incompatible mix of poses.

The tre leather straps holding the sabretache are painted correctly sulla copertina della scatola, but the actual models display only the due outer straps. Such errors could easily be avoided if sculptores referred to accurate drawings of the uniform.

Tre of the cinque dismounted cannonieri have discarded the sabre e sabretache. It is very unlikely, that artiglieria a cavallo would take off the sabre during battle, considering that they are usually operating well away from friendly fanteria e they may have to defend themselves against cavalleria nemica o light troops at any moment. Artiglieria a cavallo was expected to move fast e change firing positions quickly, another reason why cannonieri dell’artiglieria a cavallo are well advised to keep vital equipaggiamento on at all times. Military formations, ed elite units like the artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia Imperiale in particular, take great pride in a meticulous ed uniform appearance. If any item of dress o equipaggiamento personale is taken off, the entire formation will be ordered to do so. It’s a mistery why plastic figure designers consider the men in a military figure set to be individuals who decides for themselves how to dress in the morning. Not so!

Quattro of the nine cannonieri have braid on the seat of their trousers. Here, too, the sculptor has shown incredible creativity when uniformity e plain common sense was required. Braid is thick cord o cloth which would cause the mounted artiglieri considerable discomfort in the saddle. The Braid should actually follow the outside seem of the trousers all the way up to the waist.

The gun barrels are not detailed enough. The vent is missing, the dolphins are too small, e they are rectangular when they should be round. The mouth of the gun bulges out. The peg on the underside of the barrel is too thin to attach the barrel to the affusto. If the peg worked, the gun barrel would rest at maximum elevation. This is a typical appearance of toy guns, but it looks out of place on the battlefield where ricochet shots at o near level elevation were far more effective against massed targets. Only mortars e howitzers used high trajectory fire to throw explosive ed incendiary shells behind linear obstacles. Plunging fire was not very effective against moving targets, because the required fuses were rather unreliable.

The gun elevation mechanism is missing. Serious modellers may want to scratchbuild the elevation mechanism using pianowire ed a screw made from thin brass o copper wire.

There is no howitzer barrel in the kit. Artiglieria a cavallo batteries consisted of quattro guns e due howitzers, using the same affusto d’artiglieria tipo Gribeauval con different barrels. The popular ESCI artiglieria a piedi della Guardia set had optional gun e howitzer barrels. It’s amazing that manufacturers so often miss the opportunity to add simple optional parts which tremendously increase the value of a particular kit without raising the cost noticeably.

The due ammunitions chests are incorrect. One is to wide e does not fit in the trail of the affusto d’artiglieria, e the other is modelled without the handles. The Gribeauval artiglieria system was known for its standardized ed interchangeable components, e Italeri should have recreated this feature more accurately in miniature.

The avantreno is much too wide, its track width is noticeably different from that delle due guns. The overall appearance is wrong. The limber box would need to be separated from the affusto, shortened by 5 mm, e glued back together again. This is a difficult repair job ed it might be cheaper ed easier to use a more accurate pewter model of the avantreno per artiglieria a cavallo.

La scatola art does not include painting instructions for the cannone ed avantreno. Artiglieria pieces francesi were painted olive green. The colour was mixed from 2500 g of yellow ochre e 30 g of black, approximately 80:1 in proportion. Metal parts were painted black, e the brass gun barrels were polished.

The draft horses are unusually small at 151 cm. The harness straps are not to scale, they are too thick. As a result, the riders will not fit on the limber horses. The mistake may be corrected by replacing the plastic parts con similar straps cut from paper o aluminium foil. The portemanteau behind the saddle should be round, not rectangular. The error may be corrected by mounting the artigliere on a hussar horse.

Conversione

Artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia imperiale francese, 1815
Supply shortages during the Waterloo campaign had a noticeable impact on the appearance of the artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia. Some cannonieri wore overalls instead of hussar trousers, e the fur busbies were worn without plumes. The soldatini may be converted to represent this form of campaign dress.

Artiglieria a cavallo di Linia francese, 1804–1812
The conical shakò con red plume e cords was introduced in 1804. In 1812 the spencer replaced the hussar tunic in the artiglieria a cavallo di linea.

The spongeman who holds the sponge in both hands may be converted to a gun layer (No. 1) by shortening the sponge e bending the remaining pole into shape.

The mounted gunner may be converted to a trombettiere, using an instrument taken from a ussaro o cacciatore a cavallo. The mounted gunner may be painted as an elite hussar trooper, in which case a hussar horse con a round portemanteau should be used.

These soldatini di artiglieria a cavallo della Guardia are suitable for collezionisti e giocatori wargame. Diorama builders may want to convert the missing figure poses ed use more realistic modellini di avantreno.

Italeri Soldatini

Domande più frequenti

Per ulteriori informazioni, per favore contatta la redazione di Rivista Military Miniatures nel Miniatures Forum.

Artiglieria a Cavallo della Guardia Imperiale Napoleonica

– Pubblicato: 24.04.2000 – Aggiornato: 14.05.2007
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