Thursday 23 August 2018

S Range - French in Mexico

Continuing the Mexican Adventure conversions, many of the French such as the FPW Zouave could be used 'as is'  but the key difference is the havelock and sombrero.  So here are some conversions I have made.  I tried 'green stuff' for the havelocks but failed miserably on this occasion so settled for them using a piece of drinks can.

FPW French Infantry with havelocks


An ACW Cavalry Officer with havelock.  This figure can be either a Chassuers D'Afrique or Mexican Cavalry Officer




A Chasseurs with a havelock again this could also be the Mexican cavalry figure above.





A lot of pictures show French infantry in full length coats.  So I used the Crimean War Algerian Infantryman who has a havelock and cut and filed down his 'shako' to form a kepi.



The figures seem to have a more 1870 style backpack so I added a few bits to their existing backpack. 

This is the FPW Zouave with kepi and havelock.

French infantryman in sombrero.
 



8 comments:

  1. Those are great. The tin can havelock is very effective.

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    1. I think the tin can havelock looks good too. Better than the green stuff versions I made. A bit fiddly to use the can but it worked in the end.

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  2. Its this kind of irresponsible blogging that ruins any pretence of self control I have! Blooming marvellous work!

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    1. Oh dear. I know what you mean, this diverted me from my 1866 project and meant that the poor old Mecklenburg-Schwerin infantry sat around undercoated for ages.

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  3. Totally brilliant!
    I love the drummer in particular - is he home-made, and if so, what did you use for the drum?
    All the best
    WM

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  4. Hi WM, thanks for the comment. The drums are made using 5mm wooden dowel and I paint the detail on or glue a bit of foil to make the rim. Very cheap as you buy the dowel by the metre! The wood is easy to drill and pin to the figure. I did the French FPW drummer for Old John who then cast them in metal, but have a lot of drummers just with the 'wooden version'. You can make drums of any size from 'normal' to the 'snare' style drums just by cutting the dowel to different thicknesses. The left over dowel is good for measuring sticks, ships masts etc.,

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