"Perry ACW Zouaves as FPW" Topic

Hello,

I'm still rather new to this period. Can ACW Zouaves be used in the FPW? What would the difference uniform wise be between what is called a Zouave and a Turco? What are the best sources for African's in the FPW? And the French conflicts in Africa?

Thank you.

Ah, the joys of the infamous TMP bug!

Praise the Sun: The French zouaves did very well in the Crimean War, inspiring American militia units to adopt their uniform and sometimes the zouave training. I would think the basic uniform would be the same. If you get to choose the headgear, the French zouaves wore turbans, certainly not the straw hats used by the Louisiana Tigers. ACW zouaves carried muzzle loading rifles, like the Springfield, while in 1870, the French used the breech loading, bolt action Chassepot rifle. In both cases, the leather ammunition pouches would have been appropriate to the rifle. You need to look at the ammunition pouches to see if the differences are really noticeable in a 28 mm figure. Same with the rifles, though you might want to add a tiny ball of green stuff to the breech of the rifle.

Zouaves vs. Turcos: I think the main difference is in the uniform colors. I certainly used French "zouave" figures for "turcos" for my French colonial army. Foundry labels their Franco-Prussian War figures as "Turco/Zouave." Askari makes separate Tirailleur Algerien (Turco) and Zouave figures. The biggest different I can see is that the zouaves have the traditional large pack with stuff stuck on top of it until it towers over the head of the poor soldier. Askari has free painting guides, one for Turcos and one for zouaves which might provide more detail: link

Grelber
Leaving somebody else to respond to Corrective Action

Hi Praise,

There's several differences:

-the weapon Chassepot is very diferent from the US rifle

-Type and place (front) of Cartridge pouches for the french and cartridges box (back) & cap pouch (front)for the US.

-different type of canteen

- Backpacks: the french were quite burdened, the Colonials with their "barda" even more.

- The fez were also different

It will depend how "picky" you're

Cheers

Alberto

Turcos and Zouaves for 1870

link

Another difference are the trousers are copied from the oriental baggy trousers or "saroual" vs. more regular cut trousers for many U.S units.

There's maybe one unit unit you can field without too much modifications: the Pontifical Zouaves, french kepi ,less baggy trousers and being from the Republican phase of the FPW they were maybe equiped with some U.S stuff.

Hi Praise!
I have a bunch of unpainted FPW Zoauves and Turcos by Wargames Foundry I can sell for a very reasonable price.

I have 3 Bns of Redoubt ACW Zoauve in my FPW French army, they fit in ok, rather taller than my Foundry chaps and as has been pointed out the rifle is different.

Tally Ho!

They are not the same because of the differences mention above. I have Zoauves and Turcos from Old Glory and Freikorps 15. Not mixed in the same battalion. Here is a link to my FPW uniform Flickr albums.

link

And my game albums.

link

My French North African Games has 28mm French Zouaves from Askari and W. Foundry.

link