The Imperial Guard was Napoleon's elite — the formation he kept in reserve until the decisive moment of a battle, then committed to break the enemy line. The Guard's grenadiers wore the dress that became the visual shorthand for Napoleonic warfare: blue tail-coat with red facings, white breeches, and the tall black bearskin cap that made each grenadier look six and a half feet tall on the field. They saw their hardest fighting at Eylau, Borodino, and Waterloo, where the Old Guard's last attack and orderly final stand — "La Garde meurt mais ne se rend pas," the Guard dies but does not surrender — closed the Napoleonic Wars.

This figure is sculpted in the 1st Rank Kneeling Firing position. Napoleonic infantry typically deployed three ranks deep: the front rank knelt to fire while the second rank fired over them, allowing the line to put down sustained volleys from a small frontage. The kneeling rank is the foundation of any line-of-battle vignette from the period, and this one — Imperial Guard, full dress uniform — anchors a French infantry diorama with the unit Napoleon used to settle a fight. He pairs naturally with other Napoleonic figures, French or allied or opposing.

1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 36178. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.