A regiment in the style of Charge!

The Regiment (name to follow) in line of battle.
Click to enlarge.

I mustered my first regiment according to the regulations laid down by Lawford & Young last night. Much remains to be done, but they made a fine sight even partially assembled.

The authors mark the pioneers and vivandieres as being optional, but to be honest leaving them out would mar the pleasant sensation of completeness that watching them march along, with all the panoply of a regiment on the road, brings.

Recruits for the as-yet-unnamed-regiment. Left to right.
Top hatted chap in greatcoat. A selection of Les Filles de la Regiments. Two of these figures broke at the ankles in transit, so I gave them long skirts with greenstuff. Lastly a converted pioneer.
Click to enlarge.

Pack animals and vivandiere's were purchased from Uwe Ehmke and they've arrived.

The pack that I bought from Uwe had a chap in a top hat and a long coat, that I actually think might make a better vivandiere than the lady also included in the pack, so I'll see if I can't turn him into a lady with a judicious paint conversion.

Who would really see a female figure underneath that great coat anyway?

The ladies will be painted up in the rather more drab garb of peasent women.

Uwe's figures are very pleasant castings, hand poured with the flash that that brings, but very serviceable for all that. I reserve judgement until I've actually painted them.

You can find Uwe's figures here or if you'd like to communicate with the chap himself, drop me a line and I'll put him in touch with you.

Shavetails of the Regiment. Figures by Uwe Ehmke.
Click to enlarge.

Vital parts of the regiment remain unpainted of course, but I'm almost there. Since all the rank and file are marching, I decided that all the other personnel would have to fit in with that look, so out went the sword waving officers from HAT's Greatcoated French Infantry 1805 to be replaced with the marching officer from their French Infantry 1808-1812.

The pioneers I put together by swapping the head of an officer from Greatcoated French Infantry 1805 on the body of a marching Young Guard from the HAT set of the same name. Add an axe from Italeri's Medieval Tournament set et viola; you have a gallant smasher of barricades and builder of scaling ladders.

In retrospect, for the look of thing (the RSM and the Ensign that I have both sport bearskins), I should probably have used a bearded head with a bearskin, but I'll know for next time.

I'm sure there are historical problems with the regiment, in terms of colour of epaulettes and so forth, but I find reading Charge! is a delightful antidote to that sort of thing. I might delve a little deeper into the matter in time, but I won't lose any sleep over it.

The commanding officer is a shako'ed chap from Italeri's French Imperial Staff with a head swap from a Prussian trooper in their Allied Staff set. I would have used an officer's head from the Greatcoated French, but it didn't seem to match, so I went hunting elsewhere for bicornes.

I've never been any good at conversions before, but since attempting my first few, the practice seems less intimidating and more rewarding then expending time and energy searching for exactly the right figure elsewhere.

Mrs. Kinch was at bell ringing and choir, so I had the whole evening to get the bit between my teeth and a very pleasant evening it was too*. Thank God things are beginning to settle down at last.

*I recommend Chesterton and Conrad as painting and converting companions of the first water.