Blandford To The Rescue

DESPITE my (correct) observation that hussar uniforms did not change much over the decades, I have found it difficult making exact 1870 French and Prussian matches for my Armies In Plastic Crimean War British hussars.
Somewhat surprisingly, it has been easier to find suitable Prussian uniforms than French ones.
The main problem with the latter is that by the time of the Franco-Prussian War, some French hussar units had replaced their busbies with kepis, while most of those that still had busbies liked to adorn them with prominent plumes, which the AIP British hussars do not have.
In the end I have turned to that trusted old standby, Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour.
On facing pages of the book are a corporal from France's 2nd hussars in 1870 and a lieutenant of Brunswick's hussars in 1871.

French hussar (top left) and Brunswickian hussar (top right)

According to the book, which cost me £1.50 in 1973, the French regiment only wore a red bag on its busby for parades. My French hussars will have red bags - luckily, formal attire is not inappropriate for toy soldiers.
The lieutenant, who is from Brunswick's hussar regiment number 17, would have worn his red bag on the right of his busby in 1870, but this changed to the left in 1871.
The Armies In Plastic British hussars have their busby bags trailing to the rear, presumably because they are depicted charging, or at least galloping.
In any event, my French and Prussian Brunswickian hussars should look fairly accurate, or as accurate as my painting skills allow.

Garibaldi's Redshirts (addendum)

I SHOULD have mentioned that my Garibaldi Redshirts are loosely based on an illustration in Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour.

Garibaldista … bottom left

How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soldiers (part two)?

NEXT up from the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian War special set are these four Prussian infantrymen.

Four Prussians … as with the French zouaves, there was no flash that needed removing

I am again using Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour as my main reference

My figures will be based on the officer of the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss (top left) from the Seven Weeks War of 1866

Again I washed the figures in soapy water, but also scrubbed them with the rough side of a scouring sponge.
Unfortunately I forgot to coat them in PVA before adding black primer, so I cannot say if the scrubbing made any difference.
In fact the result was very much the same as with the zouaves - there were small patches the primer would not cover, but these were not a problem once the top coat was added.
However, a very definite problem was that the figures' blue tunics turned bronze overnight - perhaps the result of painting them before the primer had fully dried? A second coat of blue fixed this.

The Prussians after their tunics were given a second coat of blue

One drawback of using a smartphone, and a relatively cheap one at that, for taking photos is the difficulty of getting the colours to come out clear and true.
Using the phone's flash is often not the solution as it can easily distort colours.

Details show up much better when using flash, but the blue tunics appear much brighter than they really are

You may have noticed the soldiers' pickelhaubes have no brass plate at the front. This may be because the men have been told to cover them to avoid sun flashes giving away their position (or maybe painting plates was just too intricate for me).

How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soldiers?

I WAS a teen when I last painted plastic toy soldiers - mainly Airfix, with a few Spencer Smiths.
They were made of soft plastic, as is the case with Armies In Plastic and their ilk - the main thing that has changed is that I will be using acrylic paints rather than oil-based enamels.
Even so, it is as well to refresh knowledge and keep up with the latest techniques, so I surfed the web for advice.
As is often the case on the internet, there were almost as many answers as there were posts, so I may experiment a little to find what works best for me.
I will be starting with the contents of the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian "special set," which has 16 green Prussian infantry, 16 blue French Foreign Legion infantry, 20 red zouaves and two grey Krupp guns.

Franco-Prussian War "special set"

I have not decided which rules I will be using for refighting the battles toy-soldier-style, but the leading candidates are those published in the books The Portable Wargame, Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878, Tin Soldiers In Action and Practical Wargaming (the Charlie Wesencraft book from 1974, not the Charles Grant WW2 book from 1970!).
My final rules will probably be an amalgam of all four, plus ideas from other sources - but in any event they will need to suit my current preference for a gridded table-top of 12x10 3in (c75mm) squares.
Bearing in mind that the armies of Neil Thomas - author of Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 - generally have units consisting of four bases, while infantry in Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame usually have four "strength points," it seems very likely my Franco-Prussian infantry units will consist of four figures (whether such a unit represents a corps, division, brigade or something smaller will depend on the scale of the engagement).
The advantage of this is that the loss of a strength point or base can be reflected by removing a figure.
Similarly I am leaning towards cavalry units of two mounted figures, where each would represent two strength points. Here the loss of one strength point would be shown by a marker - perhaps a coloured rubber band around one of the horsemen.

First up for painting are these four zouaves

I first washed the zouaves in soapy water, rinsed under a (tepid) hot tap and painted with PVA glue, the idea being to give a surface to which primer will adhere.
As with my metal 10mm figures, I used a simple black acrylic primer, painted on with a brush (I do not see the need for a spray can).
Next I painted the bases with Miniature Paints' grass green -  just seeing figures with their bases painted makes me feel as if the job is well under way.
Incidentally, there is no question of me flocking the bases. I always prefer leaving bases as flat and unobtrusive as possible, and that is definitely the right way for a toy-soldier look.
Bearing in mind that Project Kaiser is for toy soldiers, not model soldiers, I am not overly worried about getting uniforms 100% right.
I do not want them to be obviously wrong, but I am completely happy using Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour as my main reference for the zouaves.

Blandford's gem … first published in English 1968

The zouave in the book is from the Crimean War, but the regiments' uniforms did not change much over the decades as their distinctive look was part of their mystique.

The Zouave, from the 3rd Zouave Regiment, is top right

Despite my preparations, it proved difficult to get the primer to completely cover the vertical parts of each figure, but bare patches were small enough to be easily coverable with the top coats of paint.

The finished zouaves … you might just be able to spot yellow "false pockets" on the men's tunics, which show them to be 3rd Regiment

By the way, I was quite surprised to find the Blandford book, first published in English in 1968 (I have a 1971 reprint), is available on Amazon for well under a fiver, including postage - very much a bargain.