Painting Challenge Submission 9 - French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War

French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Wargames Foundry.

Continuing along to submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Every edition of the Painting Challenge brings forward some kind of unique, cool sub-theme. Through the hundreds of submissions on such varied subjects and interests, something will always kind of stand out, at least to me, and in this edition, it has been the Zouaves. Challengers have done some really neat Zouaves. There have been Papal Zouaves. And then there have been Beetroot Zouaves (!) How do you top Beetroot Zouaves? Well, I can't...but I can offer my own contribution to the Zouave vibe in the Challenge - here is a unit of French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are 28mm metal figures from Wargames Foundry. 

The figures out front are used to denote skirmishers/mixed order on the table.

I just love the Franco-Prussian War setting. The French uniforms are just glorious! And among the glorious French uniforms, the Zouaves stand supreme! I had been "saving" these figures for years, telling myself that I needed to paint up a suitable amount of "regular" troops and cavalry before "rewarding" my brushes with the chance to paint Zouaves. With those Prussian Dragoons out of the way, I figured the time had come!

You can see some of the nice detail on the packs of the troops in the main formation.

These are based for games of "Black Powder" - 20 figures in the bulk of the unit, and the four individually based figures are used to denote skirmishers, or the unit fighting in a mixed formation. The flag is courtesy of Maverick - the first flags I have found on the market for the French in this period.

The Zouaves bring their deadly Chassepot rifles to bear...

These sculpts (by the Perry brothers) are very nice, although old. But the way Foundry packs these figures is a touch infuriating - the poses are at once consistent and yet too varied. For example, some have packs, others don't. Some have turbans, others don't. Some are wearing the "caban", and others are not, and all of this variance is found in a single eight-figure package. So if you are looking for a certain consistency among the figures you might use to make a unit, you can only use a few of them. This is...very annoying. I'm still irritated that they don't all have turbans...but then to do that I would have needed to buy another five packs of the Zouaves...enough is enough!

These sculpts are older, but wow, they are a treat to paint.

Another odd oversight in this old Wargames Foundry range is the lack of a standard bearer in the Zouave command pack - this was addressed by using a standard bearer from an ACW Zouave command blister, and a spare French Imperial Eagle standard.

The full unit, ready for the table.

Whatever those annoyances, however, these were a great treat to paint - I love Zouaves! And the best part is that you don't need to go fishing around looking for battles where they participated. The Zouave regiments were stuck in from the outset, and fought very hard for the French Empire (and the subsequent Republic!) against the Prussian forces. These fellows will now join the Turcos I painted a few years ago to stand ready in my French collection for 1870.

Thanks for reading - hope to have something more next week!