Gendarmes de la Garde

Oh the bees' knees of Guard Cavalry!

What a magnificent unit and pleasure to paint. This unit, as well as the Chevau-legers de la Garde, had the priviledge of placing their standards in the King's bedchamber every night. I'll be showing the Chevau-legers soon.

Both units rode Bays - and I had to check with Wiki on this horse colour - although the officers and musicians rode greys. You have probably seen pictures of Prince Soubise and wondered why he was in a red coat with black cuffs - the answer is that he was the 'lieutenant-captain' of this unit so effectively Colonel. Note that officer's had black Soubises as well - 'soubise' was a contemporary name for waistcoat and in my mind that makes our Soubise quite the Beau Brummell of the age.

The last picture shows how I have painted the figures. Because the coat lace is so finely sculpted (by Front Rank) I think that the best way to paint them is to give them a gold dry-brush first and then cut in with the red coat colours. That is a labourious task but well worth the effort as it makes the gold stand out better.