Back to the Line
My attempt to modify a Pendraken mounted French Old Guard grenadier officer was a bit of a clunky conversion. I carefully sliced off the model’s rather impressive bearskin busby. This, of course, pretty well wrecked the figure’s face. For some reason, I attempted to model a new bicorne in one go rather than sensibly giving myself a solid armature to work on first. A misdemeanour I would try not to repeat. If I had been less impulsive, the figure’s new hat might have turned out somewhat less goofy. I was going to trash the conversion but before I did, I removed a new nose I’d modelled and improvised a new painted face, dipping the features and making it face forwards instead. It – and some trimming with a sharp knife – seemed to make the shape and angle of the hat look a bit more convincing. Even if the poor fellow ended up with not much of a nose – and a bit of a Republican long hair hairdo! I painted the conversion as a line infantry senior officer – no higher in rank than a captain or a battalion commander because of his single fringed-epaulette. The bicorne remained popular with French officers even
after the shako had been universally adopted
as the principal headgear of the line infantry
– although they probably avoided wonky
specimens like the one I’d modelled!
At this scale, the officer’s only regimental
distinction was the colour of his single cuff
lapel. For some reason, the figure lacked a
cuff lapel on his other sleeve.
ABOVE Original Pendraken mounted French Old
Guard grenadier officer from pack NPF24. Photo
from the Pendraken website.
ABOVE My Pendraken conversion.
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