French in Egypt - the first infantry, the generals and a bit of Project Management

Part of the appeal of the French in Egypt project is that this French Army is so un-French for a French Napoleonic army. A shortage of blue cloth in Egypt led to the Kleber ordnance that specified that the various demi brigades would be uniformed in coats of red, crimson, green, blue or brown that were faced with blues, reds, greens, yellows or brown. I chose the  88eme Demi Brigade de Ligne as my first unit for an interesting reason.

 

Originally assigned crimson coats, faced bright green with a blue collar, there was a shortage of crimson cloth and many of the uniforms were made using a violet cloth instead. It seems that there may have been a mix of colours within the Demi Brigade. So I have decided to do one battalion in violet coats, one in crimson coats and one in a mix of violet and red.

 

This first battalion is the all violet unit. It is not quite complete because I still need to add a mounted colonel. The mounted general in this image is just a stand in until the arrival of the colonel who is in transit and may not be here for another week. I have also included the first stand of the second (crimson coated) battalion with this image, just to highlight the difference.

 

Also completed are the two sets of generals. These, combined with the colonels, will provide the basis for the French command, supplemented by a model of Napoleon on a camel.

 

On the project management front, a kink has developed in the plan. After more than a year out of the market Markus at Tsuba miniatures has come back into the fray with a bunch of new Russo-Japanese War releases that I will just “have to have”. These will have to be squeezed into the project plan sometime next year. 

The positive news on the project management front is that the French in Egypt project is progressing at such a pace that it is likely to be completed at the end of January,  a full two months ahead of the original schedule.