I've just finished my first cavalry figure of the Italian Royal Guard's Gardes d'Honneur; a head conversion using an Italeri French dragoon rider and a Lancier Bleu ready-made head. The horse and rider were from a bunch of stuff inherited from fellow club member and 1/72 enthusiast, Ian. I'm not sure what kit the horse come from, but I'd say they were a HaT horse of French heavy cavalry description of some sort. Anyway, these two are a fairly good match, although a lot of the riders seem to be far too animated for the sedate pace the horses seem to be going!
The uniform this figure is wearing is of the Milan company of the Honour Guard. The other 3 companies were Bologna (white with blue facings), Brescia (blue with red facings) and Romagna (green with red facings). I'll paint up a representative of each of the companies, but as this unit will only feature one figure in our proposed 1/120 scale Battle of Wagram, I'll get to pick which uniform I like best and make it the representative of the whole unit!
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| The finished product; Milan Honour Guard of the Italian Royal Guard |
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| Comparison of the original figure with the converted one. |
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| Lancier Bleu's handy-dandy conversion heads |
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Very nice. Looking forward to the rest.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Michael
Fine looking work Rosbif,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that there were companies making alternative heads to convert 1/72 scale plastic figures.
I'm well impressed!
Cheers
Paul
It says on the pack that the heads are compatible with revell-Hat-italeri-strelets and Esci. Is that right?? Surely there would be problems with the heads being a bit too big or small.
ReplyDeleteGood paintjob btw.
Cheers
paul
Great job, very well painted!!!
ReplyDeleteHi all and thanks for the comments.
ReplyDelete@Paul - the packaging is a marketing ploy, but personally, I wouldn't use them on anything but the more finely sculpted figures eg. Italeri, Zvezda and the later HaT figures. The chunkier style of Strelets and earlier HaT productions I wouldn't bother. But pictures tell a thousand words, so go to http://www.mbmmodels.com/1-72/lancierbleu/exH01-H14.htm to view examples of different heads on different figures (the link is to Dutch online shop MBM models where I bought the heads and my Kennington/SHQ figures)
Damnation Rosbif, I better get my finger out and get back totoy soldiers. Lovely work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Conrad, but I'd hate to be to blame for you getting in trouble with the missus for neglecting the renovating duties!
ReplyDeleteGreat conversion and great work!! Good idea , thanks for share !!!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteA great idea for conversions!
Best regards
Rafa
Hi Rosbif,
ReplyDeletethank you for the mention, please write me in my e-mail because i can't answer messages in my blog otherwise.
And big compliments for your work.