Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Friday 14 June 2019

Ney's ADC



He's a day later than planned, but no matter - this is Marshal Ney's ADC, Colonel Pierre-Agathe Heymès, all ready for Quatre Bras next week.

A couple of things about Heymès: his background was in the horse artillery, which seems unusual for an aide; also, because I really had no idea, I checked with my consultant, and it seems that the French would pronounce his name "em-ess", with the stress on the first syllable. The French would probably also regard his name as sort of Spanish, I think. After the Restoration, he was appointed ADC to Louis XVIII, which surely cannot have been a very strenuous role.


The figure is one of the High Command at Waterloo set by Waterloo 1815 (in metal), but in the interests of calming him down a bit I have given him a more placid horse (by NapoleoN Miniaturas). He is still obviously a bit overexcited, but let's just assume he is waving his sword to attract attention, or to motivate the troops. At Waterloo, Heymès is usually depicted as riding a grey - as on Dumoulin's great panorama at the battlefield Rotunda. I have chosen to place him on another of his (numerous?) horses, since I regard a grey horse as a high-risk project, and I would not like to spoil this effort by mounting him on a ridiculous-looking cuddy.


Ney, being of Army or Corps-Command grade, is entitled to have two accompanying figures in my organisation. Commandant Lachoucque insists that Ney only had the one ADC in the Waterloo campaign, so the other one (which I start tomorrow) can be a rather mundane ADC borrowed from a Général de Division.


I must say I really enjoy painting staff figures. Something to do with my attention span, I think. Col Heymès can enjoy the distinction of being the most flashy soldier in the army until I get round to painting Soult's ADC (who is also in the queue).

16 comments:

  1. A very grand looking fellow indeed!

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    1. I guess these guys had to be visible and identifiable some distance away. No telescopic sights then!

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  2. Handsome! Yes, indeed. There is something about mounted officers and aides in miniature. Almost a subgenre of painting and collecting wargaming figures if you will. I know the affliction well myself.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. I've got quite a stack of unpainted staff figures, just itching to jump all known queues!

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  3. Splendid colors, well done!

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    1. Thank you, Phil - it took real courage to go out in a red hat!

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  4. Lovely work Tony, you can't beat a red uniform!

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  5. Very nicely done! The ADC's to some of the Marshals had perhaps the most flamboyant uniforms of the era!

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    1. Thanks Peter - I guess there was a need for uniforms that could be recognised a few hundred metres away, but I reckon there was a bit of a bragging-rights struggle about who could afford to spend most on his guys' kit.

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  6. A very specimen, Tony! The glossy red really pops.

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    1. Thanks Jon - it wasn't so glossy once the varnish dried out, but he's a hard man to hide!

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  7. Give him a mounted officer from the Staff Corp

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    1. That's what I've done, Drew - I've attached a General de Brigade - intended to be an Assistant Chief of Staff - for Quatre Bras this could be Jacques-Joseph Couture, one of Montholon's deputies. Or it could be anyone you wish, I guess!

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