White Coated Egyptian infantry and standard bearers

I know that Mark at jacklexminiatures.com says that he will be offering a marching version of the white coated Egyptian infantry in the future as an extension to the range but I sort of wanted some now.  I used the existing Sudanese/Egyptian infantry advancing figure as it was what I had to hand and spent ages cutting, sanding and filing the belt straps on this figure, The painting was so simple once it was done.

This is the first 'half' of the unit.

 The mounted officer is the Egyptian mounted officer but on a stationary horse with his pistol cut off and the arm bent with a pair of pliers.

I started by making a standard bearer conversion using the advancing pose and cutting away the rifle bending the arm and drilling and fixing a rod in place. 

Whilst this is okay he looks like what he is an infantryman with a flag instead of a rifle.  I wasn't happy and decided to convert the British Standard bearer instead, having had some success with a Russian conversion I found after many years.  This figure has some odd packs on the back.

I cut the bulk of this away with a pair of snips and then cut, filed and sanded the remainder away.  A quick head swap and I think this is a much better figure and is more in keeping with Jack's original concept of a 'Standard bearer'.

I painted the figure in a variety of different uniforms. 

Now with the second unit of Egyptians complete with flag and a Sudanese standard bearer with the national flag to go with the existing force in Jack's colonial army

Alternative Russian Standard bearer found after years of looking

Many years ago when Bob and I were trying to convince Jack to make a Russian Infantry Standard Bearer with not much success, so I started to have a go myself by converting the British Standard bearer. 

I cut away the packs on the back of the British figure and added a blanket roll with 'green stuff' to match Jack's infantryman.   I never finished the figure and I then lost it in my loft.  I knew it was about somewhere but I looked everywhere to no avail and as the years passed by I gave up on it.

Eventually, as a result of the cancer diagnosis I decided to pack away my table in the loft and bring my paints down a floor.  In the process of moving furniture around, my wife found the figure which must have fallen down the back of a cupboard.

I decided to finish the job and give him a coat of paint.  I think he looks rather nice and the years haven't aged him.  The brilliant flag is from the 1966 and all that blogsite.

Jack is home

Following his fall, I am pleased to say Jack is out of hospital and home.  He came out on Wednesday and I spoke to him on Thursday.  Not sure he has caught up on the new regulations as he asked when I was coming round for a game!

Madhist artillery outriders

In the film Khatoum it shows a field piece being drawn into position by a limber team with Madhist outriders.   This in the final battle scene and you can watch this bit of the film on You Tube.  If you blink you will miss it but I thought it would be fun to have a limber team.  The figures in the film have the Muslim Kufi prayer skull cap, rather than a turban. 

However my version have turbans.  To call this a 'conversion' is a bit of a misnomer. and if it is a conversion, it is probably the simplest one I have ever done.  

Firstly, I chose the Dervish mounted standard bearer.  You do not need the horse.  This figure has an open hand.  Using a pair of pliers bend the arm on one or two either up or down slightly in relation to the original figure  to give a sense of movement (it depends on whether you have a four or six horse limber team - or leave it alone if you only have a 2 horse team).  

Glue a length of paper clip; the rod that comes with the figure or a bit of florist wire in the hand.  Leave to dry. Cut it down to make a 'whip stick'.  It is much easier to put more wire than you need in and cut it down afterwards than to try to glue a small piece the right length in place.  You can stop there. or wrap a length of 5 amp fuse wire around the top of the stick to make the 'whip' and super glue in place - again use more than you need and cut it down afterwards. Finished.  It takes longer for the glue to dry than to convert the figure(s).   Now all you have to do is paint it/them.

Four and six horse team versions.

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Jacklex Egyptian gunners conversions

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have had a go at making a white coated artillery unit for Jack's colonial army Egyptian force.  I am also making and infantry unit in white these to follow, along with standard bearers.  

In theory, this is relatively simple since it is just a matter of a head swap.   I used the Sudanese/Egyptian advancing figure for the head on the Indian gunner body because I had a set (i think they would look better on the British gun crew designed for the field gun, but I used what I had).  I decided to cut away the havelock which the figure is wearing whilst it was on the original figure, this was fairly simple.

Once I did this life became that much more difficult once I removed the head, as I drill into the head and body and attach them with wire and superglue.  The area of 'neck/head' I had to drill into and hold was very small.  Managed to drill my figure as the drill bit slid then it seem to take forever.  Eventually, I got there but not without doubting my own sanity for trying this in the first place. Probably the secret is a soldering iron or even some green stuff to join the head and body!!

Anyway, they work or pass the distance test.  I have to make an officer.  I am going to use the Naval Officer from the Gatling gun team as he isn't looking though binoculars.  Found it almost impossible to get a head of one of the standard Gunnery officer.  Ruined two figures trying it as the arms broke away.

The Naval Officer is less animated than the infantry officer with pistol.  This time I left the havelock on this gave me much bigger (but still small) area to hold and drill into once I removed the head.  THIS WAS MUCH SIMPLER - why did I cut the havelocks off first I ask myself.  Once in place and the glue had dried, cutting the havelock away was just as easy.  Sometimes stupid doesn't cover it!

The Naval Officer conversion.

I thought the uniform a little too white so I did a little bit of lining using brown ink.