On a Napoleonic battlefield, the difference between a near miss and a grave was often inches and luck. Musket and cannon threw out clouds of projectiles, and a great many arrived spent — balls at the end of their flight that still carried enough force to knock a man flat, crack a rib, or carry off his hat, but no longer enough to kill. Soldiers told endless stories of the ball that struck a buckle, a cartridge box, a coin in the pocket, or the tall cap that took the blow meant for the skull. This guardsman has had exactly that kind of moment — his bearskin knocked from his head — and lived to bring his bayonet back up.

The figure is caught in the instant after the near miss — bareheaded, his bearskin knocked to the ground at his feet, the musket and bayonet coming back up to defend. He wears the Guard's blue coat with red and white facings and mud-stained white trousers. He is a storytelling figure, made to add drama to a battle diorama: pair him with the French Imperial Guard Casualty who was not so lucky, set him in a defending line beside a French Imperial Guard Standing Defending, and post a French Imperial Guard Company Officer holding the line together through the crisis.

W. Britain model 36188. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure with fallen bearskin on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.