New Hope design- Army of the Andes figure. (1 Viewer)

[Hazebrouck]

This figure came among a box of them needing repairs. He is missing both arms and his identity has kept me guessing for about a year- I thought that he may be a French infantryman. Anyway I had a good look at New Hope Catalogues available on the net and found that he is from their Army of the Andes series- MA0871 Private, Cazadore, 11th Infantry Battalion,1816.

I understand that he is from the Army of the Andes raised in Argentina and sent to liberate Chile from Spanish control in 1816. The figure is a great sculpt, however he needs arms and a musket. Also a short sword (I don't think it is a bayonet on his left side).

Does anyone know what sort of Musket he would have been armed with? I suspect it may have been a Black Bess?

Scott

 

[Hazebrouck]

This is a better image of the figure from an Osprey book.

It should look good as a glossy with these colours.:smile2:

 

[theBaron]

A great find and a cool subject. Guessing first that he was a French infantryman isn't so crazy, given the influence of the French at the time on uniform styles, plus the close history of Spain and its colonies, with the French, as a sometime de jure ally, when de facto a rebellious one. I think you could scrounge a French musket and hanger (side arm) from an Airfix or Historex kit.

I look forward to seeing how this comes out!

Prost!
Brad

 

[Hazebrouck]

Thanks Brad.

I have a British musket from an Airfix kit I can use. I thought they may have used a British weapon, however considering they were attempting to overthrow Spanish rule it may well be French.

Looking at the Osprey image closely it does seem to resemble a Brown Bess around the stock area and the lack of steel rings around the stock along the barrel.

Unfortunately it is one of those areas of history that little has been written of.

Scott

 

[theBaron]

Yeah, I figure that the Argentines were supplied from Spain, who in turn probably had a lot of equipment provided from France, made under license as it were, or made after French patterns and styles. And when they split from Spain, they were left with what they had on hand.

Remember, too, our own dalliance with things French, and the influence of French military style on our own army's uniforms from around the 1820s up through the Civil War, and right up to the French defeat in 1870. With the German victory over the French, all of a sudden, every army wanted to outfit itself in tunics and some variant of the Pickelhaube.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Hazebrouck]

A little bit of progress on this figure. I purchased a bunch of Historex parts recently from the Kilted Vampire and have sorted out the right arm and musket and the sword for the left side of the figure.
Still mucking around with left arm.

Progress though!

Scott

 

[Hazebrouck]

Another old New Hope restored.