After some talk with my friend Mattias at Northern Wargaming I think I know how I will be able to convert decent Swedish Napoleonic soldiers for the Finnish War.
I might mention that the guys at Northern Wargaming will make some Swedes for the 1813 Campaign, but the Swedish Soldiers didn´t have the same style of uniforms as 1808.
Here are a picture of the Swedish uniform I will try to achieve, Nyland Regiment in the uniform from 1802 drwn by the Swedish Officer Carl Gustaf Gillberg (1774-1855) . Thanks Antti for the picture.
The good thing for me are that the Swdish army in finland didn´t recive the latest equipment, or any new equipment at all during the war, and after a few weeks in the field the army was a real rag-tag looking bunch, in short my Swedes will look quite battle worn;)
For the Head/Hats I will use British Marines Heads from Brigade Games, they need some work but I think they will fit the bill.
For the body I will try to uses the Perry Plastic, French Napoleonic Dismounted Dragoons and/or the British Napoleonic Riflemen and even maybe some other minis that might fit the bill.
I got all sorts of Perry/Victix plastic bits that I might need for the conversions from some nice friends so here are a BIG THANKS !!!! to them, your support have been very appreciated:
If there are a link on the name please visit theirs exellent bloggs!
Here are a few pictures of the first two test minis I made before I decided to go for this projevt, just to check if it even was possible to make god enought Swedish troops out of Perry Plastics.
The left minis are a British Napoleonic Riflemen and the right one are a French Napoleonic Dismounted Dragoons.
I will add a Cutlass and a Bayonet scabbard on the standing minis, didnt have any when I built them, But I now got a buch from Burkhart.
Now I´m of to make me some more Swedes and I´ll be sure to take some pictures of the building/conversion/carving process as I forgot it when building these two, sorry...
I think they look as the ones on the picture... at least for someone that has absolutely no clue about the period...just like me :-)
ReplyDeleteGood job on the painted ones.
Very very impressive Michael!
ReplyDeleteGood luck Michael.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of work, but a very neat project. Good luck! This should be fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteThey look bang on the money!
ReplyDeleteEagle Miniatures in the UK have a wide range of 28 mm Swedish. Not to say your conversions do not look nice.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eaglefigures.co.uk/wordpresstrial/?page_id=12&slug=product_info.php&cPath=3_78&products_id=1498
John
Great work Michael, how many figures do you think you'll be converting?
ReplyDeleteAh, now I see what their uniform looked like. My buddy is working (not at the moment though) on a Swedish army. He said he is using Victrix French for the bodies and Victrix British Marine heads. I see what he is envisioning now. Oh, and great looking figures. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteSounds very interesting Dean. Is it for the 1813 campaign, Finnish war 1808-09 or the Pommerian War 1805-07 ? Would be nice to see some pitures.
DeleteBest regards Michael
Thanks !!!
ReplyDeleteQuite much work to convert them, If I manage and can keep the inspiration up I would like to have about 50 of them, a few artillery, cavalry that also ned to be converted, every single one of them… I´ll try to show you how I do them in a later post.
The Eagle and the Bicorne/Connoisseur have of course been regarded for this project but due to different causes they have been discarded.
My primary concern with The Eagle and the Bicorne/Connoisseur minis are that most of them have later Swedish uniforms i.e 1813, the few that was right or that I could convert to the right wasn´t enough for me to get the "Skirmish" feel I want of my Swedish force.
By building them my self I can make every single one of them unique as the options are almost endless.
Also in the end the Perry minis I use for my conversions are in a completely different league then the Eagle and the Bicorne/Connoisseur, and sins the Perrys also are plastic they aren´t as expensive.
Lost of things have been taken in consideration before I decided to put in the effort to convert all the minis for my Swedish force, I actually had intention to start up this project back in 2011 using the Eagle minis, but then I saw them IRL I put the project asside...
I hope to finish it this time;)
Best regards Michael
Great to see them on the blog!
ReplyDeleteA lot of work (as with my 1813 swedes) but well worth the effort.
I'm confident that a man with your output will se this project through this time and it will be great to follow.
Very good conversions, I think they work well.
ReplyDeleteThe test miniatures look great. I'm very impressed by your ambitious approach. Best of luck to you!
ReplyDeleteWell done it looks like your conversions are working.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Very nice conversions and painting jobs!! But I'm missing the red cheek they are showing in the uniform picture ;)XD
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Sounds like you have a lot of work in front of you but it will be worth it to have a very unique collection of figures. Superb conversion work.
ReplyDeletePat.