I've built up two regiments of W. Britains Confederates; one is a 62-man outfit from Virginia, and the other is a regiment of 67 Texans.
With that many figures, I had about 20 duplicates, which I found distracting...so I spent the past two weeks making conversions. This saga will be the grist of the next post to this blog.
What prompts this post, is the conversion that I did today.
My Virginia Regiment needed another officer, but I couldn't find anything suitable; the usual sources had officers, but none in usable poses.
It turned out that an ebay dealer was selling the Britains "Hell for Glory" (31199) set. The classic red box arrived to reveal seven figures, including the one below:
I definitely didn't want an officer-flagbearer, but when I first saw the photo of this figure, I hit the "buy it now" button. I saw that, without the flagstaff, this officer's arms and hands are in perfect position for a revolver and a sword.
I got to work
The steel rod comprising the staff was particularly hard metal; I had to do most of the removal work on the bandsaw (very carefully).
Staff gone, and hands filed, I moved on to the sword. I separated the hilt from the scabbard and sawed out the handle to enable the officer's hand to appear to be gripping it.
Now it was time to fabricate a blade. Using the scabbard for reference, I marked out the length on a sheet of styrene plastic.
The results were pleasing, and all of the components were ready to assemble.
I also wanted my officer to be wielding a pistol. This took me to my large collection of plastics, in search of a likely six-shooter...
there were plenty of candidates.
Filed, filled, glued, and painted, our captain is ready to take his place on the firing line.
See you next time with more conversions. Until then...
Soldier on!
Mannie
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