The road to Tolentino, Part 2 - the Artillery

In our previous blog, laying out this project for 2026, we came to the conclusion that we would need to paint a unit per week to achieve our goal - we’re already behind!

However, we have made a start with the completion of the artillery. For this project, each of the four, full infantry divisions had a battery of foot artillery, with an additional guard horse artillery battery attached to the cavalry of the guard.

To get through this stage, we purchased two sets of Victrix French Napoleonic Foot Artillery 1812-1815, from our FLGS - the North East Model Centre. This was the nearest uniform equivalent for Neapolitan artillery, and we used our Neapolitan Line Infantry Bag of Heads to get the right shakoes (although they may have had carrot-shaped plumes rather than pompoms - more research required!).

Before the painting started, a look at the conversions:

The colour scheme for the artillerists was dark blue, with red facings - not much different to their French counterparts, although the guns were light blue with black paintwork and barrels.

The Guard Horse Artillery is described in Rawkins as, essentially, the same as the French Guard Horse Artillery, although with amaranth facings and lace. Some sources suggested red plumes and sword knots, so we went with that for a bit of variety. We also opted for the buff with white edging cross-belts which appear to have been a fixture of the Royal Guard. Figures for this battery were Front Rank Figurines, available from Gripping Beast:

We used a plastic Victrix gun for consistency!

The next instalment will be the Infantry of the Royal Guard - two battalions of Voltigeurs, and four of Velites - target is the end of February (and its a short month!).