French 'Chasseurs à pied', 1870 - Part 1

This is very exciting for me. It's not only a chance to really get back into making Victorian/Edwardian era 'toy soldiers' but it should be a relatively quick project in which I produce a full French 'regiment' in one go!

The French Light Rifle Infantry - Chasseurs - circa 1870. The inspiration
for my first 'peg regiment'.

Of course, the trick to this is that - under the 'Portable Wargame' rules that I am using as a guide - I only have to make six figures to represent a 'regiment'.

A late evening start to my project. I assemble five additional pegs and
begin to sketch out the cutting and sanding dimensions on them
with a pencil.

Having already started my prototype peg-soldier for this project I begin by preparing the other five 'dolly pegs' to make my formation. These traditional beechwood pegs need to be trimmed down to the 42mm scale figures that I am using for this job.

Pegs prepped and ready to mount on their bases.

The 'Chasseurs à pied' of the Franco-Prussian War
Just a quick overview about the French troop type I'm making. From what I understand, the title 'Chasseurs' translates into something like 'hunters'. They were light infantry (and also occassionally mounted units) that were the rapid response force of their day.

French Chasseurs à pied in the snow. 

...As such I suppose they are the equivalent of the German Jäger (which also translates into 'hunter') and were intended to act as skirmishers, scouts and sharpshooters.

What attracted me to them was that they fielded a uniform that was a lot more subdued than the usual - flamboyant - French infantry get-ups of the day. Historically, the distinctive colour of this sort of light rifle regiment is dark green (as with the German Jäger or British Royal Green Jackets) and the unit insignia is the hunting horn. But the French Chasseurs were dressed mainly in a very dark blue, although they sported dark green epaulettes and wore the hunting horn on their kepi.

Designing the Peg Uniform
Obviously, my peg-soldiers are highly simplified caricatures and not historic figurines. I don't want to clutter and embellish the 'peg doll' idea so I have to streamline uniform designs to fit in with this format. Things like backpacks and webbing gear, water bottles and other military accoutrements are ditched in favour of the 'toy soldier' look...

The only thing I was a bit unsure about was whether the trousers should be slightly lighter blue as the various pictorial reference I have found seems a little contradictory about this (compare the two contemporary illustrations I have included at the top of this post). Otherwise, I'm quite happy with this look, I just have to find comparable Vallejo acrylic paints in my collection.

Well, that's it for now, I have a lot of basic construction to do - not least the addition of the kepi hats that I am currently casting - before I start to think about painting. I also have six little rifles to make out of wooden lolly sticks! :)

| Link to next post in series - Part 2 |