"Perry African American Heads - Paint them white?" Topic

I hope it's ok to post this here. I'm looking at recreating every unit under Strong Vincents command at Gettysburg and I'm trying to decide how to best represent the 44th NY. The Perry Miniatures box of Zouaves doesn't have forage caps, and Perry only do separate african american heads to convert plastics.

Would it look strange if I just painted these heads as white? I cant find a decent close up picture of the heads so if anyone has any to show I would love to see them.

If they wont work I'll have to convert each head, which will be a pain

1st Corps offer Union Zouaves, and some of the figures in the pack have forage caps. Perhaps you could see if they could do up a special for you?

The 44th NY at Gettysburg did __NOT__ wear Zouave uniforms, they wore the regular issue Union uniforms. Nothing different than the rest of the brigade.

@Extra Crispy: I'll look into it!

@avidgamer thanks for lettinge know, I assumed they were wearing their zouave uniforms but I just googled it and you're right, makes things easier for me!

The 83rd PA had a sort of chasseur uniform but it had been partially phased out by Gettysburg. I think it was the 146th NY in Stephen Weeds brigade that had the zouave uniform. By the time of the Wilderness , the 140th had zouave informs too

There is this on the 44th. More a chasseur as well .

link

@Milhouse: how phased out was the 83rd chasseur uniform? I've already put my stands together for the 83rd so now you have me worried. I was under the impression it had been phased out completely

The 83rd Pa Chasseur Uniform never was warn by the regiment it was imported from France and the uniforms never fitted the the men from northern Pennsylvania.

Shame really, ive seen pictures of the uniforms and they would really help to make my force look a little less "samey"

If you read the regimental history of the 83rd, the author (a member of the regiment) said 2 days before they boarded a ship from D.C. to Fort Monroe with McClellan (1862 for the Peninsula campaign against Richmond), they were issued Union standard uniforms & traps, packed up _ALL_ of their Chasseur uniforms and gear and sent them to a warehouse. They never saw them ever again, ever. So they never fought one day in them.

All that said, they are your figures and you can do with them as you want. Some of my 20mm ACW troops are more Hollywood than history (as you said, less samey)

As an example, in each of my rebel brigades the first regiment is in a regulation uniform and the following regiments get more and more tattered and mixed as their number increases.

Getting back to the original question, I have recently started rebasing my ACW figures for new rules and it's left me with more Perry infantry with the metal African-American heads than I can use.

So, yes, I am going to repaint them as white troops – few will ever notice, and I'm not wasting good models.

140NY did not have Zouave uniforms until 1864 after Gettysburg.