Well, there has been plenty of talk of late about Lasalle here in Christchurch, I have done my best drug-dealer impersonation by getting Jason hooked; and Jamie is not far away (whether he knows that or not!). So, with Jas starting some Peninsular British, it seemed only fitting for me to start some Peninsula French.

The French Army that was sent to the Peninsula was.... ecclectic. There were a few veteran troops, but the majority was made up of fresh conscripts- lets be honest with Russia going on, quality French soldiers were well stretched! These conscripts were fresh, and had a pretty mixed review when it came to combat. In addition there were one of my favourite Napoleonic units, the Swiss. These guys were mercenaries, who fought for Napoleon in almost all of his campaigns, and were some of the best troops in his army. Interestingly, the swiss did not fight in the Hundred Days (which culminated at Waterloo), because after the exile of Napoleon (for the 2nd to last time), the swiss had formed an agreement with the returning monarchy, which they honoured rather than returning to fight for Napoleon. Plus, they wore standard French uniforms, but in red!

So, without further adieu, here are some simply horrible pictures of my first stand of French, which is a stand of Swiss!
I will get better pictures tommorow, turns out lounge room lighting, at 10pm is not really the ideal photo conditions....

And for those who read this for Flames of War stuff, my typhoons are progressing well. They are all at the stage of getting blacklined with a lovely ink pen, which takes fricking ages. And is boring as sin to do. So I would expect it to take a fair while, like a week very much on and off, where I will do some for 5 mins, then do something else. Like paint Napoleonics!
Here is one, showing off some of the blacklining. I will add some decals, then it needs a big coat of matt varnish.

Next? More Peninsula French!