"14th Brooklyn Zouaves conversion for Epic Scale" Topic

Another simple idea I had was to convert at least a few of the regular infantry stands into Zouaves. I did some quick uniform research to find out which Zouave regiments had uniforms that were close enough to standard Union infantry uniforms that I could simply paint them in different colors and get away with it.

I found that the 14th Brooklyn would be a good candidate. It appears that for at least some of their time of service they wore red caps that look like the regular cut kepi or forage cap, blue jackets or coats, and red trousers.

So I just took a few stands and as best I could trimmed off some of the sides of the brims of the soldiers that had hats so that they looked like they were all wearing caps, more or less. Then I simply painted the caps and trousers red and left the coats blue.

The only thing I left out were the white leggings/gaiters. I might paint those on still, haven't decided.

If you look closer you can still tell that some of the soldiers have hats painted red, but I mean in this scale at tabletop height it works and blends together pretty well.

Pretty simple conversion if you want to have some Union Zouaves without having to actually purchase additional models.

You picked a good unit to paint up! Technically their uniform was based on the French Chasseur uniform, but they certainly liked it – and they wore it for their entire Civil War service, the extra cost being borne by the good citizens of Brooklyn. They saw lots of action – from Bull Run to Spotsylvania

I have them in 15mm – I must say I like the look of your Epic figs more! Great work and thanks for sharing

Hey there Frederick,

Thanks for the feedback!

Ah ok, so they did wear it for their entire service. Thanks for the research info, much appreciated!

Yeah, I just realized looking at more pictures and photos I probably should paint the white leggings. I also neglected to paint the disc on the top of the caps in blue.

Think I'll go and add in those final details!

Would like to see some pics. of your 15mm 14th Brooklyn Zouaves…

Very nice looking. I don't think that my eyesight would forgive me if I tried that size figure.

@Paul,

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, I hear you on the size. Funny thing is that because they are so small, it's pretty amazing what you can get away with as far as taking shortcuts.

My Epic Scale stuff is actually pretty sloppily painted. And if you look really closely you can see where I skipped a bunch of details. I didn't paint any of the beards or moustaches, I just did the the whole face in flesh. It's just not worth it in that scale, you really can't even tell at tabletop height!

And the black leather gear is little more than just doing black "X"s on the front and back. It's really the closest thing I've done that resembles the classic "painting tin soldiers" of the old days.

The cool thing is that because they are all so tightly ranked and so tiny, it looks like I did a much more elaborate paintjob than I actually did, lol.

Nice looking unit.

Nice job, but the 14th Brooklyn were Chasseurs not Zouaves.

@Old Contemptible,

You are quite right, I misidentified them as Zouaves. Chasseurs is indeed the correct term.

Baranovich, we are always our own worst critic. I think these are truly superb.

Well thank you Paul! That's very kind… :)

Some of your models are wearing red HATS (not caps).

As for the white leggings, I think those were soon discarded, but I can't cite a source for that.

@downlowry,

Yeah, I mention that at the top of the post. I trimmed off the hat brims as much as I could, but some of them were in such tight, fiddly areas I just couldn't get the clippers into the spaces.

It looks a lot more obvious in the photos because it's so close up, but at tabletop height you really can't tell that there's red hats mixed in.

Not perfect but in this scale you can get away with it in my opinion. Obviously you couldn't do this in 28mm, you would have to get actual models with caps or kepis and the correct cut of uniforms, etc.

beautiful points about this scale that I am learning ever more as I go along.

the 14th Brooklyn strikes me as a unit you could totally get away with doing this.

I have not been too keen on buying the Zouaves, both for price and for the fact no one needs a brigade of Zouaves.

thanks for doing this, its pretty awesome to see!

Baranovich, nice job! I know they are small but what stands out to me is their red brims. If you're happy, that's all that matters, but I would do a quick black on them! Otherwise, they look great!