Sunday, April 14, 2013

Minis for the Finnish War the Swedes

Here we have the real challenge with my Finnish War 1808-1809 project, there are no realy good Swedish minis out there so I have to build them my self.

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...


16 comments:

  1. 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 :-)
    Good job on the painted ones.

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  2. Sounds like a lot of work, but a very neat project. Good luck! This should be fun to watch.

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  3. Eagle Miniatures in the UK have a wide range of 28 mm Swedish. Not to say your conversions do not look nice.
    http://www.eaglefigures.co.uk/wordpresstrial/?page_id=12&slug=product_info.php&cPath=3_78&products_id=1498

    John

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  4. Great work Michael, how many figures do you think you'll be converting?

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  5. Ah, 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

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    1. Sounds 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.

      Best regards Michael

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  6. Thanks !!!

    Quite 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

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  7. Great to see them on the blog!
    A 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.

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  8. Very good conversions, I think they work well.

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  9. The test miniatures look great. I'm very impressed by your ambitious approach. Best of luck to you!

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  10. Well done it looks like your conversions are working.

    Christopher

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  11. Very nice conversions and painting jobs!! But I'm missing the red cheek they are showing in the uniform picture ;)XD

    Cheers.

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  12. 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.
    Pat.

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