Tiger Tiger!

Richard Phillips kindly sent me some Perry's ACW sprues among which were some zouaves. In fact three whole Sharp Practice Groups' worth of zouaves (24 figures with a few left over for NCOs and an officer) . I plan to paint them up as Louisiana Tigers. They can be used for my The Battle of Patriot Run game and to play Mark Backhouse's Three Days With The Tigers mini-campaign from WSS issues 91 and 92. 

It occurs to me that with 26 figures to paint and about 26 weeks to go until Steel Lard, I could do one a week and see how my painting changes. I won't say "improves" because I suspect I'll grow to hate painting striped Zouave trousers and start to simplify the process!

Here's the first one I've done.

It's more or less block painted. The only three-colour work is on the face using my usual mix of Saddle Brown, Medium Flesh, and Dark Flesh (all from Vallejo). I think I also highlighted the folds on the jackets but it's pretty subtle.

There seems to be a huge amount of dispute about the Tigers' uniforms. Blue or brown jackets? Or maybe blue jackets that faded to brown because of poor quality dye? Full Zouave-style lacing or just red trim around the edges of the jackets? Fezzes with or without turbans? With red or blue tassels? And was the whole unit in the  Zouave uniform or just one company?

It might be interesting to try some alternative painting techniques. Stay tuned for future episodes.