French Command Stand (in Bicornes!)

Hello everyone!

I've managed to finish up six figures this weekend, the command stand -or what will become the 3rd battalion of the 54th French Line Infantry Regiment, wearing the earlier 1804-1807ish uniforms with bicornes. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

All of the figures are unaltered AWI figures from Italeri set 6060, except for the chef de bataillon, who is a conversion:

The two figures used for the conversion: the body from the officer figure from Italeri #6066 and the head of one of the AWI figures that was missing his arms.

The resulting figure. I even managed to retain the AWI figure's queue.

I've painted the ensign as carrying an 1804 pattern flag. This pattern was issued to all battalions of an infantry regiment; I'm pretty sure all battalions were issued eagles in 1804, but I didn't want this battalion (being a 3rd battalion) to have an Eagle, so I left the spear point finial as it came on the figure. I know this was the case during the 1812 reissue of eagles and standards.

Uniforms are pretty standard, based on plates of the pre-Bardin uniforms as well as uniforms from the Revolutionary Wars, save for some variations in their trousers. Some have been painted with striped trousers (such as the colonel; I saw this fetching pattern online and had to include it), white summer gaiters and black winter gaiters. I've painted the older AWI era coats to look like the pre-Bardin reforms French long-tailed uniform coat; I think I was successful.

Though I was able to get the base painted up, I have yet to flock it; apparently the base exchange doesn't carry Elmer's glue?!?! That's just stupid. I'll have to pick some up sometime when I'm off base.

Coming soon: I might continue with the 3/54th, or I might start on some other figures. We'll see what strikes my fancy.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck