1866 Prussian Allies finally start to mobilise - more S range conversions

After a foray into the world of 15mm, I have finally come back to my 1866 Minifigs S range project.

On the one any only outing on the wargame table it became apparent that the Austrians and allies outweighed the Prussians and their allies.  The call went out for more troops but some delay in supplies of new figures and a slump in my converting of figures held thing up.

However in the background I have been working away slowly – very slowly.  Here are the latest recruitments.

Waldeck Infantry

A straight repaint of the Prussian Infantry figures from my spares box. With a green coat and rather fetching white gaiters and armband the Waldeck Infantry cut a smart unit. 

The Lippe (Detmold) Infantry  

Basically the same as painting the Jagers except they have a brown backpack and a yellow and red cockade.  

They are awaiting their flag which is proving to be a bit of a challenge at the moment.  I could just give them a Napoleonic flag but the standard in the background is quite different.

Oldenburg Dragoons

I thought I could just paint up some ACW cavalry as the pictures I had seen looked like the dragoons wore an ACW type kepi. Unfortunately, the S range ACW figure’s kepi is very ‘slouched’ if that’s a word – high at the back and low at the front – and looked wrong.  I therefore filled down the kepi to make it ‘flatter’.  They also have crossed belts and I didn’t realise until I started painting them that I should have removed one of these.  They sort of look okay.

Mecklenburgh-Schewein Dragoons

Having not been happy with the kepi and the fact that the ACW figures were sword armed, I decided that these dragoons should be based on the Prussian Dragoon with a Wurttemberg kepi.  Rummaging through my spares box, I found a couple of 2 Prussian Dragoons, an ACW cavalry officer with a pistol, an ACW sword waving figure who became the standard bearer and 2 French dragoons.  Since everyone was going to get a head swap life was a little simpler.  Some quick work with a scalpel sorted out cross belts and epaulettes to give me 6 figures that looked reasonably similar.  I use a light blue as in the illustration above which looks grey in these photos – although I did notice that in Uniformology they used the same blue as the Oldenburg figure.

So the Prussians now have some more allied cavalry but still need more infantry! 

Next up the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Infantry shown in the picture above.   I am going to use ACW23 as the basic figure without any head swap (same figure as I used for the Hungarian Infantryman).  No packback on this figure so changing it is more simple.  

CORRECTION: This is ACW25 NOT ACW23 - not listed in the S range list on the Vintage Wargamer's blog and Not the ACW25 in the current Minifigs catalogue. But the absence of a backpack makes this a really usefully figure for all sorts of conversions.

He could just be painted as he is minus the back pack, but I will give him the Jacklex 20mm WW1 backpack as that is a rolled blanket similar to the one on the picture which I will just superglue in position after painting.

1866 Austrian 12th Uhlans S range conversion

I keep telling myself that the Austrians are complete but then I find a picture and think I wonder if I could make that!  Such is the case with a picture I came across showing the 1866 Austrian 12th Uhlans.  

The uniform looked like a cross between that of an uhlan and a hussar.  I couldn't resist trying.

So I give you my take on the Austrian 12th Uhlans, involving the head and lance arm from a FPW Prussian Uhlan and the body of a Hussar - minus his head and sword arm of course.  

I may still make a coil of hay(?) - horse feed as in the picture.  I only use units of 6 figures so it didn't take that long to hand convert the unit.   For now they will join the rest of the Austrians and the army will be finished.

The conversion went surprisingly well until I looked again at the picture and realised there was no fur trim to the 'Hussar jacket', so that had to be dealt with.  The sabretache is also wrong - I think - but after an attempt to remove it cleanly didn't work I left well alone.

I was pleased with the final 'bare metal version' but lost my way painting the figure to the point that I just wanted them over and done with.  I am still not sure what went wrong, or if I was just rushing, but I seemed to make a mistake with the painting at every stage.  Anyway they will do and boost the Allied cavalry.