looking for the right hat for Vendée

[italwars]

hello
as title said i have a dilemma...as probably somebody remenber one of my favourite period is the war in Vendée 1793-99 and i have a Vendéen rebel's army in progress....my army is made for his  quasi totality out of of the few manufactures that tackcled this side show conflict (Trent, Mirliton, Foundry and Touiller)..except the last mentioned excellent range which is now extremely rare to find..nobody was able to design correctly the headgear of both Vendéen rebels or Britanny Chouans ...from the the picts that i saw neither the new Emperor's Todd castings sported the right headgear..so the only option could be to make some conversions in order to be able to field if not all, at least  a minority of soldiers with an historically correct appearance...after long hunting on the web it seems that, maybe, the  ECW  plastic hats from Warlord or maybe something from 30 Years War could be OK?...i only saw them in picts and i have no knowledge of those  two periods but maybe somebody could give me his advice?...(and maybe sell me his surplus hats) ...what do you think?

[bluewillow]

I used AWI plastic sets , some of them are suitable.

Have you seen the Revolutionary Wars range, Emperors Toad sell them.

Cheers
Matt

[italwars]

thanks for the suggestion...but from the picts i was nt so impressed...i wrote them twice and ask them for a sample and they not even deign to answer me..not the best way to begin a business

[Rochejaquelein]

I have my own Vendee project mothballed atm and I ran into the same issue. I initially thought about using a tiny bit of green stuff to widen the hats, but I am extremely new to the hobby and it was too difficult for me (for 2 millimeters of extra hat, I didn't see the extra effort worth it).

I used Perry's Southern Militia units to flesh out/diversify my army, as I've seen drawings of Vendeens wearing the same smock shirts like these models.


Also, don't forget that you can toss in a handful of republican models too with some minor changes, as the rebels historically would recruit defectors.

[Nic]

Nic from Eureka here. Drop us a line at Eureka Miniatures as we will be making Vendeans one day as part of our Revolutionary Wars range and we can ask our sculptor to make the hat straight away. If you have any other sources or specifications, please e-mail them to us.

Nic  Eureka Miniatures.

[italwars]

I have my own Vendee project mothballed atm and I ran into the same issue. I initially thought about using a tiny bit of green stuff to widen the hats, but I am extremely new to the hobby and it was too difficult for me (for 2 millimeters of extra hat, I didn't see the extra effort worth it).

I used Perry's Southern Militia units to flesh out/diversify my army, as I've seen drawings of Vendeens wearing the same smock shirts like these models.


Also, don't forget that you can toss in a handful of republican models too with some minor changes, as the rebels historically would recruit defectors.

Hello
From your elegant nick i underastand that, like me, you like that period.....me too i considered recruiting generic AWI minis but they obviously could'nt be iconic for that period..i also read that some very few former garde suisses fought with the rebels and even some former "Royal Allmand" regulars..but those were specific ex Royal Army regiments.. in general the volontaires of the Republican Army deserted but certainly not to go fighting with the Vendée Armies and certainly not with their hated blue uniforms and coquardes...the Vendéan and Chouans costume is very particular not really a generic peasant appearance,..this French blog deals with a lot of details about the reconstruction of the War against the Brittanny rebels..the Chouans..which appearance also differs from that of the Vendéens..IF you can read their comments they experimented our same very issues trying to convert commercially available Vendéens castings of which they weren't satisfied.
https://www.anargader.net/t2159p575-quiberon-sa-cote-ses-chouans-ses-bastons

[italwars]

Nic from Eureka here. Drop us a line at Eureka Miniatures as we will be making Vendeans one day as part of our Revolutionary Wars range and we can ask our sculptor to make the hat straight away. If you have any other sources or specifications, please e-mail them to us.

Nic  Eureka Miniatures.

Excellent idea..i'll pool some infos and PDFs of which i have quite a few very good ones and send you a PM...Adding Vendéens and Chouans to your French Revolution range could be a very good idea..they call for interesting uniforms, personalities and vignettes...and they are perfect for those semi skirmish wargames that today's gamers prefer to play with even few miniature...being a fan of Colonial Wars my approach even to French Revolution is quite asymetric with projects and armies in progress such as Vendéens, Chouans and even those less known but very blody revolts   during that period in the South of Italy with "Brigands" armies supported by few Bourbon regulars and , in some occasions, also by British Royal Marines and sailors...plenty of possible colourful subjects

[odd duck]

 Have you looked at Spanish guerrilla figures I think front rank has a couple of fig.s with a similar hats

[Nic]

Excellent idea..i'll pool some infos and PDFs of which i have quite a few very good ones and send you a PM...Adding Vendéens and Chouans to your French Revolution range could be a very good idea..they call for interesting uniforms, personalities and vignettes...and they are perfect for those semi skirmish wargames that today's gamers prefer to play with even few miniature...being a fan of Colonial Wars my approach even to French Revolution is quite asymetric with projects and armies in progress such as Vendéens, Chouans and even those less known but very blody revolts   during that period in the South of Italy with "Brigands" armies supported by few Bourbon regulars and , in some occasions, also by British Royal Marines and sailors...plenty of possible colourful subjects

Thank you very much italwars, we look forward to receiving any information you have and getting our sculptors to work on it.

[bluewillow]

You have seen this I suspect?









Swiss guard









https://emperortoadsemporium.co.uk/store/product/la-grande-arm%C3%A9e-catholique-et-royal-pre-order

[italwars]

yes exactly...the first picts depicts the Vendéens rebels...as said..i do not think that the look of the head/ headress (which is probaly the most important part of a mini at this scale) ...and even trousers are nt those of the Vendéen costume...if you read many comments on the dedicated  French blog written by wargamers living in Britanny and involved in a big and accurate project of the battle of Quiberon...they share  my same opinion and are obliged to transform with putty and paper the heads, trousers ecc..of every possible Vendéen or Chouan made by various manufactures including this one...of course i'm talking, as concern the very manufacture of which you posted picts, only about pictures as they never answered to my mails and possible request of a sample...maybe, today's,  to request of a sample to a manufacture, in view of an order,  is a totally outdated behaviour from me..maybe i'm just a wargamer from the "Ancien Régime".   

[bluewillow]

Perhaps pay a sculpter. It's around  £150 for Steve Barber  to make a range of heads for you.

Cheers
Matt

[italwars]

perhaps i'm still  free to don't pay anything and continue to make my totally pacific but sensible comments on a miniature forum...or maybe it's a problem for you?

[Rochejaquelein]

Hello
From your elegant nick i underastand that, like me, you like that period.....me too i considered recruiting generic AWI minis but they obviously could'nt be iconic for that period..i also read that some very few former garde suisses fought with the rebels and even some former "Royal Allmand" regulars..but those were specific ex Royal Army regiments.. in general the volontaires of the Republican Army deserted but certainly not to go fighting with the Vendée Armies and certainly not with their hated blue uniforms and coquardes...the Vendéan and Chouans costume is very particular not really a generic peasant appearance,..this French blog deals with a lot of details about the reconstruction of the War against the Brittanny rebels..the Chouans..which appearance also differs from that of the Vendéens..IF you can read their comments they experimented our same very issues trying to convert commercially available Vendéens castings of which they weren't satisfied.
https://www.anargader.net/t2159p575-quiberon-sa-cote-ses-chouans-ses-bastons

My ancestors were Poitevins (with one born in Thouars) so even though they left France for Quebec many years before 1793, I do feel some kinship with the Vendeens: what they fought for, their songs, and the larger than life antics of some of their leaders.

As for republican defectors, I remember reading in Fighting the French Revolution by Rob Harper that royalist forces did recruit republican POWs. Obviously their tricolor cockades were destined to decorate a royalist horse's tail, but in theory you could just file that off and paint the uniform in a civilian-military mix. From my research, Volunteer/National Guard units uniforms were anything but uniform so a blue soldier's coat could be discarded for a tan colored jacket.

Nic from Eureka here. Drop us a line at Eureka Miniatures as we will be making Vendeans one day as part of our Revolutionary Wars range and we can ask our sculptor to make the hat straight away. If you have any other sources or specifications, please e-mail them to us.

Nic  Eureka Miniatures.

This is excellent news! I am very excited to see the eventual release. 

[bluewillow]

perhaps i'm still  free to don't pay anything and continue to make my totally pacific but sensible comments on a miniature forum...or maybe it's a problem for you?

No problem, but Offering a solution. I needed some sculpts done for a project I was doing and could not the correct hats for it, so I had heads sculpted for the project.

Cheers
Matt