"My FPW Zouaves" Topic

For the enthusiasts of this much overlooked genre or just plain curious, please find this link to my latest addition to a small but growing army in 15mm.
link

Nice work)

Good basing arrangement!

I can't take any credit and I hope 'Chad' doesn't mind but I've copied this almost verbatim from the Pendraken 10mm forum (there are some extremely knowledgeable people there for the FPW War):

Chad

Re: Zouave fanions
« Reply #6 on: 14 June 2014, 10:41:15 AM »

Found this on the t'internet.

Such a flag is not a standard as such, in the same sense as a regimental colour, but a fanion (the nearest English equivalent is perhaps battalion or company marker). It is used to mark the position of the unit, especially its commanding officer, on parade and in the field. They are only small, and were attached to a small staff which was placed in the muzzle of a rifle. The regulation sizes were 50cm x 40cm for a battalion fanion, 40 x 30 for a company fanion, and 34 x 27 for a platoon fanion (the latter can also be a triangular pennant 30 x 40).

The regulations of 1857 laid down the colours:-

1st battalion of each regiment: blue sheet
2nd battalion: red sheet
3rd battalion: yellow sheet
4th battalion: green sheet

When wartime expansion created extra battalions, these used fanions in the same sequence of colours, but with a central vertical white band down the sheet.

The devices were coloured by company (note that in the French army, companies were numbered consecutively through the regiment, and not the battalion):

1st, 5th, 9th, 13th: blue
2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th: red
3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th: yellow
4th, 8th, 12th, 16th: green

Chad

How did you paint the figures? They look like a glaze style. It looks very nice.

Coincidentally, I covered this war in my World History class today.

Chinggis,

Many thanks for the fanion reference. Good enough for me. You know what they say – any information in a vacuum becomes fact until proved otherwise.

Dale,

Love your icon by the way. I don't know what the 'glaze' style is but I paint using thinned Humbrol enamels with a little black in most colours to wash the coats (jackets for instance) which pool in the grooves in darker shades and is left thin on the high marks and the white undercoat comes through, highlighting the paint. It looks better to the naked eye than under a macro lens (to my tired eyes anyway).

Glazing is like middle school pottery class: you paint your clay ash tray and after it is fired it is a bit glossy and you can see the unevenness of the paint as the base color shows through. Thinned enamels as you have explained would produce that effect. It look very good. I have some figures painted this way and I lost the email on how he achieved the effect. Thanks for sharing.

The icon is a 42mm scale wooden Napoleonic Russian Cossack of the Guard that I made. :)