Napoleonic Serendipity

While reviewing my collection I found that my Chasseurs a Cheval did not have a standard bearer.  They did have a musician and an officer.  I guess he had gone AWoL sometime over the past 35 years or so.  Quite a bummer as nobody seems to sell single figures in 15mm.

At cold wars a couple of weekends ago, I came across a gent selling some 15mm Napoleonic figures including some Brunswick hussars.  I snapped a few stands up as they are on the menu of items to paint as well as 24 Brunswick light infantry.  I was going to order 24 more but now there is no need.  As I went to rebase them, I discovered I had a couple of extra command figures including 1 standard bearer!  These are Minifigs which are very close to the Chasseurs I have so after a quick paint job, I shall have a standard bearer for that unit.   The extra officer will now be the Duke of Brunswick.  Lucky me!

Now for the tricky part.  I needed two replacements.  I happened to have a few extra Chasseurs.  The only think they needed are tall plumes.  A little green stuff and even my meager sculpting skills have made some decent replacement figures.  I used some very thin florist wire for the skeleton, essentially a straight stick.  I rolled the putty around the stick and cut it to the right size.  I drilled a hole in the hat about where the plume will go and added a tiny amount of putty to be used as cement.  Finally, I pressed down the narrow end to the hole and the wire stick went right in, pressing the putty together.

In all, this segment has been a successful operation.  I will show off the Brunswick legion soon with a few pictures.  Please don’t point out that I purchased the easiest to paint Napoleonic  troops rather than painting them myself.  I am trying to bask in my glory.