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: