Latest FPW figures - Wurttemburg Jaeger

Part of the deal for painting the Turkos was a few battalions of Foundry Wurttemburg infantry.  Unfortunately Foundry only made four poses; the officer (with outrageous muttonchop whiskers!), the drummer and two infantry figures - one firing and the other port arms advancing.  So of course to make a light infantry unit for my Wurttemburg brigade I decided I had to have a hornist.  A bit of work with cutters, scalpel, Dremel tool and file and I converted one of the drummers, using some plastic bits.

  The drummer (left) for comparison with the finished conversion - hot-glued on the stick ready for primer and base coat.

The pose I ended up with was a bit dodgy - I could have modified the left arm a bit more but didn't want to risk stuffing up the figure so he's a bit 'no no, after YOU sir!' rather than blowing his horn!

I ended up with a small unit of 12 with command stand.  The muttonchops on the officer figure are wicked!  Hairy dudes, some of those German officers!  

The Wurttemburgers wore a kepi similar to the French version - and that used in the American Civil War - but it appeared to have more of a peak to it than the crumpled French version.  I have seen some illustrations showing them in the more French style but maybe that was in the Republican phase of the war - after a bit of hard campaigning!

The infantry also have an elaborate furry backpack with attached greatcoat roll as well as a furry 'bread bag', although the rest of the uniform is very similar to the Prussian.  

I intend to convert one of the Prussian standard bearer figures to make a complete command stand for one of the line infantry battalions.  But that's another 48 figures to paint, base etc etc, so given the amount I have to do - I might just pace myself a bit!  And I have an ACW Union artillery piece and crew for possible conversion too but I'll have to plan that one a bit more to see if it will work (and as I don't know anyone who makes Wurttemburg artillery crews!)  So the next ones perhaps will be the Perry's Guard Lancers.

They're such beautiful figures, I couldn't resist putting them together after leaving them in boxes for months.  The boys are now assembled and glued on the sticks, ready for primer.  I'm thinking of doing them up as Berg Lancers (everyone seems to do them as Guard Dutch or Poles) to be a bit different.  From what I can see there is no major work required only a paint job.  The only changes I've made to the figures themselves is to replace the bendy lances they came with with some of my brass ones.  They are deadly too - already stuck myself a few times!

It'll be good to get back to my favourite figures to paint - Napoleonic French cavalry - and it'll be a nice break before tackling my FPW Prussian allies.

As before, click on the pics to enlarge, feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers,

           Doc