1866 S range Prussian and Allied forces

I got a sidetracked on my 1866 forces a few times and had lost track of what I had and what I needed.  I had painted some units and put them in boxes. It is raining outside so I thought I would have a parade.

To try to bulk up the Prussians I decided to make a unit in greatcoats using the CW Russian Infantryman with a Prussian head it sort of worked but I wasn't that happy.

So I have been playing around with the Russian Line infantryman and trimming the peak from his cap to make a Prussian infantryman in a field cap.

The allied force consisted of troops from Saxe Gotha, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Lippe Detmold and Waldeck.

What have I concluded from this Parade?  Firstly, that I have no Allied Artillery and not much Prussian either and secondly I could probably do with some more Allied infantry as well.

The force stands at 12 Infantry Regiments:
6 Prussian Infantry Regiments
1 Regiment of Jagers/Silesian Riflemen
5 Allied Regiments

8 Units of Cavalry
6 Prussian
2 Allied
4 guns

A total of 212 infantry and 48 cavalry.

With the exception of the Waldeck and Lippe infantry the Allied forces are all conversions and home castings.

S Range Mexican Adventure - Mexican cavalry & Sombrero tip

A simple fix to make the figure shown below which can be painted in a variety of colours is as follows:

 Step 1 Find a friend who is making or has made the Perry Ansar figures and beg/borrow any spare shields.

Step 2 - File flat the kepi/head gear of the figure being converted.  This one is an ACW Cavalry Officer. 

Step 3 - File flat the point on the Ansar shield.  The shield had 2 little indents, a blob of superglue can be used to fill this in. 

Step 4 - Drill through the centre of the plastic shield and drill the centre of the now flat head that is receiving the  sombrero. Glue a small piece of brass rod/paperclip/florist wire into the hole in the head and push on the 'shield' and glue in place.  Then it is a simple job of painting the figure.  Hopefully making a better job of white or coloured lines than I have.

You can do this for almost any figure you want to give a simple sombrero to.  

Using a plastic 'shield' also enables it to be made smaller with scalpel.  The addition of a brim made from fuse wire creates a different sombrero.

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.
 

Another loft find - Airfix Robin Hood & Sheriff of Nottingham

In the deep recesses of the loft I found a tin box.  Inside were a series of A4 paper boxes which revealed a large collection of Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood figures, as well as siege equipment made by Zeveda and Atlantic.  The majority of these came from my friend Stuart Asquith.

Anyway I am getting rid of them, but I thought I would give a bit of a trip down memory lane for anyone else who had these.

How many Robin Hoods can you have in any army?

 

I also came across a 'medieval army' I made using the above figures and Airfix Ancient Briton Chariot riders and US cavalry.  These were for a game at SALUTE when it was held in Kensington Town Hall more than 40 years ago.

S Range Mexican Adventure - Belgians/Austrians

John Cunningham mentioned that a friend of his liked the Austrian Hussar conversion below and was going to use it for the Maximilian adventure in a mix of S range and Jacklex figures.

John sent me some pictures, of the Belgians amongst others and this sent me off searching for figures that could form the basis for conversions.

For the Belgians (and the Austrians who seem to have similar uniforms) I went for the French Chasseurs a Pied from the FPW range for the body, but the Belgian/Austrian hat is quite distinctive.  Nothing matched so I took the head from the French Revolutionary Citizen (a really useful and available figure) with musket in top hat and filed it down and shaped it.  I then added some green stuff for a plume.  I think he makes a passable figure.

There was a lot of filing to create this and I thought I would be lazy and try the Napoleonic Spanish Infantryman with an upturned brimmed hat. The hat shape is okay to start with.

 Here I simply snipped either side of the where the brim adjoins the hat and fattened the brim with a pair of pliers. I then cut and filed away the remaining bit of hat adjoined to the crown (very quick compared to filing the other hat).  I then filed the gap with green stuff and added a plume.  Again I think it makes a passable figure.

The head for the mounted figure was made the same way and I think he can pass as either a mounted officer or an Austrian cavalryman.  Given the braid in the print I went for the body of  French Hussar from the FPW range.

The Bugler in the print can easily be made with a head swap of the Chasseur Bugler I made for the FPW range with the 'cap' from a French Guard from the same range.  More blogs and pictures to follow on other Mexican Adventure items.

The just for the hell of it I make a female - well sort of - Mexican peasant by using the Revolutionary War 'citizeness' with musket.  I added some green stuff for belts, sleeves for the arms and long hair etc

I know they would never have had bayonets but its the way the figures are made!