Saturday 15 October 2016

Fun with plastics (French foot dragoons WIP 1)

Hi guys

This is the first in a series of posts about 28mm Napoleonic plastic conversions, 28mm isn't my personal preferred scale, however like most of us I succumbed to shiny syndrome and bought a few boxes of plastics as they were released, and have always intended to see what I could do with them, I don't get much personal hobby time to paint, but I can do this type of modelling sitting on the lounge watching tv (I only like painting during daylight hours), so these will be constructed faster than I can paint them.
I am a modeller/painter, not really a gamer, and would rather they got game time than collect dust, so these may (depending on how attached I get to them) become available for sale once I have finished, email me with an offer if you are interested, highest bid wins.
To start the series I have chosen foot dragoons (as opposed to dismounted dragoons), I have 1 box of Perry dragoons, and was able to get 16 foot dragoons out of that box without lessening the number of mounted dragoons I can make, I only had enough bearskins for 6 elites (I might try and sculpt a couple to extend it to 8) I will be basing these for Sharp practice, I will keep the dismounted dragoon bodies for later use.
Bodies and arms are from the Victrix French infantry box, heads and swords are from the Perry dragoon box, I am going for a campaign look, my favourite setting is the Peninsula war so modelling these for that, does anyone know what foot dragoon units were used in the Peninsula?
The Victrix plastics are nice, but I find some of the detail is a little understated, so have re sculpted these areas, I made the collars higher and opened them up, bulked out the cartridge cases, they were way to small, and added shoulder loops/boards to the non elites, I also added patches, neck kerchiefs, holes to some knees, and a second cross belt to some of the bodies that needed them.
I prefer action poses to marching for skirmish game figures, so did that, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, I will be building this force up to 5 or 6 8 man units, but will use different French troop types for the other units including cavalry.
Next up Black Brunswicker Oels Jagers for the Peninsular, all comments welcome, please feel free to give me any corrections or improvement ideas, better getting these before they are painted then after.
dan.dunbar@hotmail.com
























3 comments:

  1. Good stuff. I look forward to watching them develop

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  2. They look great, but the bayonets look delicate

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  3. Nice kit-bashing! Can't wait to see paint on them.

    Frank
    http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com.au/

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