Turkish Line Infantry - Scruby

These figures have been a project on the back burner for many months, and I have finally finished them off. The bulk are from the Scruby Crimean range (now Historifigs), however, I felt that a mounted officer would be nice to have. He is made from John Cunningham Turkish cavalry conversion, mounted upon a Douglas Miniatures horse. I also decided to make a standatd bearer. He is converted from a Minifigs S Range French artillery man, with a new head and a scratch built standard. The crescent on top of the pole is from scrap:

Scruby - French Chasseurs a Pied

Another French unit marches out of the paint shop. This time it is a battalion of French light infantry - Chasseurs a Pied. The figures are 25mm Scruby, from Historifigs in the USA. Like their line infantry cousins they are beautiful castings and fun to paint. I am awaiting the next batch, which includes some command figures, grenadier guards and artillery.

The French forces are slowly taking shape:

Scruby Russian Dragoons

These figures took a while to paint as each one required holes to be drilled into both sides of the nose, in order to fit the wire reins. I think the effort was worth it. These are lovely figures to paint, cleanly cast with good definition. The standard bearer is a conversion and the officer is the original Scruby pose. The other figures have their sword arm bent forward:

 

My next project will see me going back to Douglas Miniatures figures as over Easter a new box of metal arrived from Old John, which includes the Black Watch.

Scruby French Line Infantry

These figures are the first of a batch of Scruby French infantry that I have been painting for a few weeks. Production was halted for a while as I needed to find some paints to replace the faulty Humbrol gloss that I was have such problems with. I am using a mix of Testors, Revell and Tamiya, which seem to do the trick.

These figures from Historifigs are superb, with very clean castings and sharp detail. My only concern is that the uniforms appear wrong for the Crimean War. I am no expert on French uniforms, but these figures appear to be dressed in the 1860 pattern uniform, and of course the Crimean War ended in 1856. That said they look nice when completed and were fun to paint and will join the ranks of the growing French forces.

Scruby - British Staff Officer

I used the Scruby General officer figure to represent General Scarlett earlier this year. Over the last couple of days I have been painting a second figure to represent a British staff officer. He will act as an aide on the battlefield.

Although a very nicely moulded figure the Scruby offering is incorrect for the Crimean war. The problem lies with the plume on the high cocked hat and the shoulder accoutrements. General officers wore feathers on their head dress, although it seems that actually in the field all of the decorative items were removed. The Scruby figure correctly has the officer wearing the long double breasted frock coat, but this would not be worn with all of the gold shoulder decoration, this being normal for the full dress uniform. However, with a little bit of chopping and filing these odd issues can be easily resolved.  Here is the original figure as supplied:

Then the same figure is shown with a few adjustments:

Scruby Ottoman Turkish Infantry

At long last I have finished the first batch of Scruby infantry, which I recently received from Historifigs in the USA. I have to say that they were a delight to paint with crisp detail and smooth finish. The Turkish uniform for the infantry was very simple, with plain blue jacket and trousers, with just facing colours and the red fez to brighten it up.  here is the first of two battalions:

Scruby Russian Dragoon

I have been working my way through a batch of Scruby Ottoman Turks that I recently received from Historifigs, but I thought I would also paint one of the Scruby Russian Dragoons, just to see what they look like. One of the big weaknesses with this figure is the lack of reins on the horse. To me it looks odd (figure on the left):

The next thing that I do not like is the sword arm raised in the air. This would maybe OK for a single officer figure, but I think a whole unit would look odd. So, I added some reins using the wire core of freezer bag ties, having removed the outer plastic cover, and the sword arm is bent down and forward akin to the charging arm position. This is the result:

I am quite pleased with the result and will paint the whole unit, once the Turks  are finished.

Brigadier General The Hon. James Yorke Scarlett

Finding a suitable figure to represent Brigadier Scarlett, the commander of the British Heavy Brigade was more challenging than I first thought. According to the sources at my disposal, Scarlett wore an unconventional uniform at the Battle of Balaclava. It seems that he wore a dark blue frock coat that was devoid of rank or insignia, and underneath he wore cavalry breeches and probably a Heavy Dragoon tunic. Some sources suggest that he wore an unofficial helmet, with a raised peak - probably to accommodate his spectacles, as he was very short sighted. Other depictions of Scarlett show him in the same dress, but with a heavy dragoon helmet, but with a black feathered plume. Whatever helmet he wore during the battle it took a hefty blow from a Russian sword and was pretty much ruined.

As a sources for the figure I found a general figure in the Scruby Crimean war range who is wearing a frock coat, but with large epaulettes and fringes. In the Strelets plastic Heavy Brigade there is a mounted dragoon senior officer, but he has the wrong tunic for Scarlett. So it would have to be a conversion job. Here is the Scruby general figure:

As can be seen the figure matches the Douglas horse on the left quite well, but the head and shoulder detail had to go. Here is the same figure with the strelets head added, but with shoulder detail still to be removed:

And, here is the final version of general Scarlett:

Scruby Comparisons

I ordered some Crimean War sample Turks and French from the Scruby 25mm range, which are now manufactured by Historifigs, in the USA. I should add that the friendly service I received was excellent. I also like the quality of the figures. I have set some up along side a couple of Douglas figures to get an idea as to how well they would blend in. I think they will work well.

First we have some infantry. The Scruby figures, a Turk and a French soldier, are on the outside with a Douglas Guard and Highlander figure in between:

The cavalry work well too, although the poses of the horse and rider are very different between the Scruby figure, seen on the left and the Douglas Hussar on the right:

I think I will opt for the Scruby French and Turk figures.