French Grenadier étranger, 1684

Hello again guys,

Coinciding with my project of the siege of Gerona 1684, I have already shown the French "enfants perdús" (storm troopers) in armor, who launched the fierce attack on the city walls, which finally failed, and behind them, advanced the grenadiers, and here they are, with their brand new weapons, the plug bayonettes.

I needed some grenadiers, but before painting a new unit,  I decided to bring back my “grenadiers étranger” painted a while ago (maybe 2015), inspired by the converged grenadier unit from  Barry Hilton's collection, with Dixon miniatures.

I painted them in diverse and colorful schemes, as it is a unit created ad hoc, with grenadiers from various regiments in French service (but made up of Germans, Swiss, Irish ...). As they were painted before I started this blog, they were never featured here, and also the painting standard is from 2015 and not 2021, but they are nice enough in my opinion :)

I love Dixon miniatures, although I usually use larger minis from Front Rank or North Star 1672, but whenever I get a chance, I use old school Dixons and Foundry miniatures!

These grenadiers stormed the barricades and bastions of Gerona, just behind two lines of men armed with bucklers and swords, axes and wearing metal breastplates. Initially they took some positions, but they did not manage to break the defenses of the city, and when they were attacked from the flanks and from the walls, they had to retreat with enormous losses in that summer of 1684.

Cheers!