The French Imperial Guard was a sort of army in miniature.  The popular image of the guard is the middle-aged mustachioed grenadier with his towering bearskin, but the guard contained a large force of cavalry and artillery as well.  There are two sets in plastic covering the artillery of the guard, one of the foot artillery, and one of the horse artillery.

This set is typical Esci - beautiful figures, terrible research and unrealistic poses.  That officer is about to poke out his eye with that telescope!  These are new figures that I painted in early November of 2000.  Do not use the box as a painting guide!  These figures are painted correctly.

These horse artillery of the guard figures are one of Italeri's most recent releases.  Again, there are minor historical inaccuracies.  I can find no source that described these men as wearing barreled sashes, and the officers at least did not have hungarian knots on their trousers.  Still, the lively poses and good raised details recommend this set.  The box comes with only these five gunners, one of each pose, and two guns, but there is a beautifully detailed limber team as well as two chassuer a cheval of the guard.  At least I can assure you that these figures are correctly painted!