VSF Norwegians?

[Hammers]

No real reason not to, except that Norway was a territory of the Swedes until the 20th century, so in the period, you'd be looking at Swedish forces or, perhaps, an independence or separatist movement.

-Doc

As any Norwegian would be quick to correct you, Norway was in a union with Sweden, meaning, just like the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Norway shared the same royal dynasty (Bernadotte, on of Napoleon's marshalls) but had separate parliaments and armies.

You could certainly fly a Norwegian aeronef fleet manned by Norwegian sailors and marines. The only concession you need to do is to fly the '[wiki]Sillsallaten[/wiki]' (Pickled Herring Sallad) which was the nickname of the godawful compromise that was the union flag.

[argsilverson]

I have actually been looking strongly at using the uniforms from Hans Majestet Kongens Garde, as they were existing long before the separation - and the figure Lowtardog references is definitely one of them. Anyone doing models with bowler hats?

You guys are recommending Prussians - who does the best ones? I like good clean models, with detail but not drowning in it.

I would suggest to use italian bersaglieri of the Garibaldi era (i.e. victorian era) for the Norwegian Royal Guard. It is supposed that their headress at the time of risorgimento is quite similar to the Norwegian one. They even carry the feathers.
One source I know is Mirliton of Italy:

here is the link:
http://www.mirliton.it/index.php?cName=italian-indip-wars-piedmonteseitalian
unfortunately they do not have a picture in their site, maybe an e-mail might bring some more information:
here is also a link to the wikipedia article about the bersaglieri with some photos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri

For prussians:
Foundry francoprussian war range  has an extensive range of prussians in pickelhaube
Ironclad miniatures has a range of prussians and also steam tanks that might be useful
Renegade, GWM and brigade games have their ranges of early WW1 Prussians in pickelhaube
Eureka has VSF prussians also in pickelhaubes, also Danes
Helion has an extensive range of 1866 prussians. Up to this moment they cover infantry with lots of figures and Uhlan/Lancers.
[Have I forgotten anyone else? If so please add! Sorry, for any omossion!]

For an extensive list of VSF goodies with links see the Sticky post here!

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=8146.0


Is the first when you open the VSF ADVENTURES folder in the LAF!

All the above is for 25-28mm miniatures. If you need other scales there is something available also!

[Prof Steelblade]

As for swedish uniforms you could use Prussians from Franco-Prussian war but without the pickelhaube (I think you could use it for guardtroops) but put on a kepi. It is similiar to the frenchstyle but a little bit higher.
the figures should be painted in dark blue with brassbuttons.

Otherwise it could be intresting to use the uniform from 1906 that is very similar to the german colonial uniform, but instead of one side of the hat turned up it should be three sides like the tricorn (as a tribute to Charles XII).
The uniform should be painted grey like the germans.

For naval personel, I´m not sure but you could probebly use English ones but painted in darkblue.

There are som intresting monitores at this period who you could as defining the style of swedish flying ships. Hers a link: http://www.papershipwright.co.uk/catalogue_warships.shtml

[Hammers]

Bless me, another fellow Swede! 

[fastolfrus]

As for swedish uniforms you could use Prussians from Franco-Prussian war but without the pickelhaube (I think you could use it for guardtroops) but put on a kepi. It is similiar to the frenchstyle but a little bit higher.

I can't recall where I saw the picture, but I'm fairly sure that the Brigade WWI Belgians in shako look pretty close :

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/NoFrames/GW28/index.html

They don't do a huge range, just infantry, MG, and casualty figures, but they might consider deck fittings etc in future, if you drop them an email they are quite friendly.

[Sinewgrab]

Hmm...the Wurtemburger infantry look fairly close to the few pictures I can find of Norvegian troops of the late 1800's...a light blue uniform with red stripes should be easily done. I like the Belgians from Brigade as well - anyone know if these are a mixable size scalewise?

Also, I found this to use for reference - now it is just a matter of matching up. For non-dress, they seem to use the kepi a lot, but here he has a helmet.
http://marksrussianmilitaryhistory.info/NorwayPhoto/Norway1890.html

This slippery slope of VSF is taking so much of my time...oh well.

[Prof Steelblade]

Bless me, another fellow Swede! 

Yes Hammer, another Swede who lurkes around and who really enjoys this forum.

[I can't recall where I saw the picture, but I'm fairly sure that the Brigade WWI Belgians in shako look pretty close :

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/NoFrames/GW28/index.html

They don't do a huge range, just infantry, MG, and casualty figures, but they might consider deck fittings etc in future, if you drop them an email they are quite friendly.
[/quote]

The shako looks right for earlier swedish kepis, but i don't know about the overcoat.
Look at this link taken from another thread:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgtitle_tree.cfm?title_id=614967&level=2&tword=

Here is the 1905 uniform i was talking about:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=268005&imageID=437354&parent_id=267342&word=&snum=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&total=30&num=0&imgs=20&pNum=&pos=7

Hm why is strange plans forming in my head?

[Sterling Moose]

The Brigade Belgians are very nice but a little on the large side.  If your force is only Brigade then you'll be okay, otherwise I'd recommend forming seperate units by manufacturer.

[Sinewgrab]

How do the Brigade games size up to Foundry Franco-Prussina? I am considering a mix of Jaegers from the Foundry stuff (because they have kepis) and the Line Infamtry from Brigade - anyone know how they would look together?

[FreddBloggs]

Bahhh, you have just given me an idea for a DragonShip design of Aeronef.

[Sinewgrab]

Bahhh, you have just given me an idea for a DragonShip design of Aeronef.

I can think of worse things. 

[Bullshott]

Carrying on with the idea of a VSF Norwegian/Swedish force containing an aeronef, how about completely ignoring historical military units & uniforms and instead going for Scandinavian SKY PIRATES (Sky Vikings?). Several manufacturers now make suitable late 19th or early 20th century merchant seamen that could be combined to make a small force. Try figures from Brigade, Pulp abnd Artizan for a start.

These from Brigade games:




Also look at German U-Boat crew and WW1/WW2 Russian sailors wearing winter coats.

Once again, these from Brigade:

[Sinewgrab]

An interesting idea - just a day or so late. I am actually ordering the Belgians from Brigade Models, as their uniform is pretty close, and that was enough for me. I am going for the light blue with red stripe that was standard for the Norwegian uniform in 1900, and go from there. Now, I just have to decide what to use for my flyers to drop from my carrier-nef. I am experimenting now with casting my own wings, using the wings off the birdmen of Cattrazana (sp?) as a base.

[fastolfrus]

Don't forget to tell Brigade what you're ordering the Belgians for - they have seen the aeronef photos and said they might look at deck mountings for guns etc.

[Sinewgrab]

Don't forget to tell Brigade what you're ordering the Belgians for - they have seen the aeronef photos and said they might look at deck mountings for guns etc.

Are you kidding me? I placed the order a couple days ago - I never said anything because, well, I thought you weren't serious. I guess here in the US I don't really consider it probable that a company would be paying attention like that - I am too jaded by my job as a sales rep in distribution. I guess I'll toss them an email referencing this thread...but I can't find an email address.