S Range -Volontaires de l'Quest Conversions

I stumbled across this picture on the TMP page some time ago when someone was asking about the uniforms of the Papal Zouaves. 

They looked rather smart and I was determined that I should have a regiment in my FPW French army.  I also thought they could fight in any Italian campaign, for which I also have some conversions in mind.

The Ist Western Volunteer battalion Rennes July 1871

 I originally intended to use this figure  - this is actually ACW23!  

I went ahead and made some of these and them realised that the backpack is all wrong.  I had a look around and came across the French Zouaves from the FPW range.  From them on it was a simple head swap of the fez for a kepi.  

The officer is the Crimean War range Zouave Officer with a head swap.  I think that I could probably have filed/cut down the shako to make a passable kepi, but by them it was too late!

I found pictures showing the infantry in a darkish grey and them references to blue grey and the picture shows the officers in a blue grey and the line in a darker grey.  So I settled for that combination.  Apologies in advance to anyone who has better information.  Please don't tell me as I am not going to repainted them and I can do without the disappointment!!  

Anyway I give you the first half of the Volontaires de l'Oust.  I tend to work in 8's to keep me interested and feel I am making progress!  Their drummer and remaining infantrymen are ready to go.

The banner is simply taken from the picture put into Word copied and reversed to give the back of the banner and stuck back to back.  A touch of gold around the edge and the words highlighted in red paint - biro anything will do.  

The cross is simply cut from a coke tin with the help of a pair of scissors and a scalpel.  The white ribbon is a thin piece of white paper platted around the top of the pole with the end painted gold and red crosses - paint or pen whatever works for you.