Light Infantry Chasseur conversions (1 Viewer)

[fishead19690]

I,ve been working on getting some paint on my Hat French infantry chasseurs. These sets are great and with 4 sets of french light infantry (Chassuers/voltigers/carabiniers and the command set) You can get a lot of poses by buying extra sets and doing head swops because the uniform is pretty much the same but with different head dress.
I have a whole table full of these guys half painted and I,m starting to make progress on the chassuers, all 4 sets with the head swops and a few conversions and a bunch of marching poses.
when these are finished I have all 4 sets to do again with Voltiger heads and all 4 sets again with carabinier heads.
That,s a lot of figures to paint up but will make up a nice french light infantry force with a lot of nice poses when complete!^&cool

I,m loving these new Hat sets but I guess the sales of the 1/32 scale figures has not been that great for them? I hope that changes soon??? Guys go buy some of these great sets they paint up nice and if sales improve more 1/32 will be made.

Here are some pics of the first finished figures! the command set and a few conversions. I,ll try and post some side by sides with the plastic factory figures later so you can see what I did with the conversions.

 

[fishead19690]

I made a bugler for my light infantry and then I found this metal one so now I have 2 of them.
Hat do not make dead or wounded figures so I had to make my own and they also don,t make any running figures so I had to make those also.
The kneeling to repel figure was made from cutting 2 figures in half, a kneeling firing and an advancing figure but the joining of the 2 figures was tough so i had to remake his stomach section with 2 part putty. I wish I had taken some pictures in the ruff stages.

 

[fishead19690]

Here are the others I,m working on but the painting on these figures still have a long way to go but You,ll get an idea of what can be done with the 4 sets all combined with the head swops!^&cool
Some simple head turns on the marching figures can bring a diorama a lot more to life.

 

[aujj65]

Tim, as usual these are very neat conversions! {bravo}} They look most impressive en-masse. ^&cool

Jeff

 

[Scott]

Tim, as usual these are very neat conversions! {bravo}} They look most impressive en-masse. ^&cool

Jeff

I like mass. HaT's 1/32s are basically up scaled 1/72 war game figures that are a bit formal in pose. The beauty of the HaT sets is that they are open ended in that you can buy one or as many as your table will hold unlike some companies' plastic sets with "characters" or individualistic poses. The smart thing HaT did was make separate command sets so that you aren't stuck with 20 flag bearers and officers while trying to build a unit as in the Conte Civil war sets.

Once again "fish" ...what can I say? I'm going to try making casualties. Too bad HaT didn't make some bare heads as add ons.

 

[fishead19690]

I like mass. HaT's 1/32s are basically up scaled 1/72 war game figures that are a bit formal in pose. The beauty of the HaT sets is that they are open ended in that you can buy one or as many as your table will hold unlike some companies' plastic sets with "characters" or individualistic poses. The smart thing HaT did was make separate command sets so that you aren't stuck with 20 flag bearers and officers while trying to build a unit as in the Conte Civil war sets.

Once again "fish" ...what can I say? I'm going to try making casualties. Too bad HaT didn't make some bare heads as add ons.

Thanks guys! I also wish they would do a set of extra heads,you could have various bare heads, some with mustaches,beards,glasses,bandaged heads and you could also have sets of various types of napoleonic hats and helmets and even some civlian type hats and forage caps.
I could really make use of a set like that!^&cool With Hats pour sales of 1/32 scale figures though I don,t see it happening.
If sales were good I,m sure they would think about it and it has been brought up on there forum a few times.

Anyone who likes the look of these figures go buy some, if they start selling these things they,ll make many more and they allready have a great napoleonic selection already. I have piles of other Hat napleonics still to go on the table and there are still a few sets in the works.
They seamed to be thinking of doing cavalry and artillery also but with sales being the way they are it dosn,t look good for that now????

 

[binder001]

Very nice work! Your figures paint jobs are certainly a lot more intricate than the WW2 stuff that I do! You must have a lot of patience.

Gary B.

 

[fishead19690]

Here are the conversions along side the factory figures.
This first one was the toughest conversion because when I cut the 2 figures in half the detail on the 2 halfs did not line up so I had to cut it back and resculpt the middle section with 2 part putty. The running conversions were pretty easy just cut one of the feet from the base and do the hot/cold water shock treatment.
The wounded figures were cut from the base and glued back on falling backwards with some new arms added.
The guy holding his hat has a new head(Conte I believe?) and I made him holding his shako and painted on the chin scales in the face up position and gave him a new metal gun.
the bugler was made from the loading fifure with a new riffle and bugle hand from some other plastic figure.
The sapper was made from one of the pendant bearers with a 2 part putty cloth and beard and I cut the axe from the top of the pole and just cut it back and added a back pack.
I also repositioned the arm of one of the pendant bearers along with the head swop.
The dead guy was made from a loading figure and buried into 2 part putty.
These are nice sets when painted up you guys should pick some up!^&cool

 

[fishead19690]

Here are the 4 factory sets. There are 6 figure per set so when you change the heads out you get 24 figure poses and when you do this to the 3 different types of light infantry you get 72 different poses from the 4 sets.
Here are the 4 factory sets and then the sets with the new heads along side of them.
I have the Voltigiers and Carabiniers based and ready to paint with there new heads also ready to go when I finish painting up the Chasseurs.

 

[Scott]

Fish, I really like the "heroic" bugler with his foot on the rock. I'm going to try to make "dead" out of the loading figures as you did. Could I ask that in making the marching wounded, can the heads be removed and repositioned forward, back or to the side?

 

[fishead19690]

Fish, I really like the "heroic" bugler with his foot on the rock. I'm going to try to make "dead" out of the loading figures as you did. Could I ask that in making the marching wounded, can the heads be removed and repositioned forward, back or to the side?

Scott the bugler with his foot on the rock is a metal casting, I did not convert him but he fits in very well with the hat figures so I threw him in.

A tip on doing the the dead guy conversion! If your good with a knife, the left arm holding the gun was cut from the body and spun out to the side and then the top of the gun was cut off just above the hand and I cut a new gun tip from another figure with a bayonet pinned and glued it on. then I just rolled out some 2 part putty onto a flat surface with a touch of baby oil on a piece of plastic so it would not stick and made a base and embedded the figure into it.
Wax paper would have worked better but I didn,t have any.
The head on one the wounded figures was moved the others I just left as is. I guess you think I should have moved them a bit more? I would have liked to have had heads with the mouths open for the wounded figures but when I did them I was just working from Hat parts from the set. I never got around to going crazy making conversions on these guys to be honest I did these conversions like 2 years ago when they first came out and got as far as throwing some primer on them and threw them aside for 2 years and just got back to them now.:rolleyes2:
Maybe at some point i,ll give them a better looking at as far as conversions, I just looked them over quick and did the first thing that came to mind being that I needed some wounded figures and didn,t get much further.

 

[Scott]

Apples and Oranges but I just found a photo of a reenactment unit over in Europe doing the unit you've done in miniature, including the sapeurs. The Lt Infantry Sapeur is on the left with the yellow trimmed gaiters.

 

[fishead19690]

Apples and Oranges but I just found a photo of a reenactment unit over in Europe doing the unit you've done in miniature, including the sapeurs. The Lt Infantry Sapeur is on the left with the yellow trimmed gaiters.

View attachment 81076

Scott that sapper with the yellow is a sapper of the voltigiers not the chassuers as I have done. and the other in the red is a sapper of the Carabiniers. Sappers of the Chassuers would wear a bearskin or colpak?(Spelling) while the rest of the troops would wear shakos.
there is a lot of variation on the uniforms from year to year and summer to winter or campaign to full dress also.
Carabiniers and Voltigiers could also wear shakos also with the coloring pattern to match there units.

 

[Scott]

Scott that sapper with the yellow is a sapper of the voltigiers not the chassuers as I have done. and the other in the red is a sapper of the Carabiniers. Sappers of the Chassuers would wear a bearskin or colpak?(Spelling) while the rest of the troops would wear shakos.
there is a lot of variation on the uniforms from year to year and summer to winter or campaign to full dress also.
Carabiniers and Voltigiers could also wear shakos also with the coloring pattern to match there units.

Duh.... :redface2::redface2::redface2: Thanks...I'm still learning the differences in Napoleonic uniforms. I did notice the plume color on the reenactor sapeur is different from your figure.