Lancer Officer Conversion Project

Britain's Egyptian Lancers are ready for wargaming.

Now that I have 36 Britain's Egyptian Lancers ( 3 x 12 figure squadrons) repainted and based for wargames I decided that the brigade needed to have its own cavalry commander. I had an extra broken down Wm. Britian's lancer officer and did a little bit of conversion work on him. 

I decided to paint the officer wearing the Egyptian Winter Blue uniform to distinguish him from the rank and file officers and troopers in the regiment.

Here is the finished figure:

Here are the step by step photos of the conversion process:

Someone long ago either decapitated or attempted to repair the Egyptian lancer officer, sticking a small piece of wood into the head and pushing it through the cavity where the head is supposed to be.

Egyptian officer with redundant sword removed and a sheepskin shabraque added.

The next step was to cut off the sword hilt that was cast onto the body. Since the officer is holding his sword in his hand, the one in the scabbard was redundant.

Rear view showing some repairs to the horse's hind quarters.

Later, I decided to add a valise or blanket roll behind the saddle, largely to cover up the join between the officer's derrierre and the shabraque.

Now the figure is covered in grey primer and is ready to paint.

The officer is now painted and ready for basing.

I like the way that this figure turned out. It's amazing what can be achieved with paint and a minimal amount of conversion work. 

I also converted a lancer into a bugler by removing the bugle arm from a Skinner's Horse figure, removing the lance arm from the lancer, and then placing the bugle arm onto the lancer's torso. Easy peasy work to do.

I have one more conversion figure on the work bench: an Egyptian NCO. I removed the arm from a Britain's Life Guard figure - the arm in the rested sword position - and placed it on the torso of another Egyptian lancer figure. The Life Guard arm has a gauntlet on its hands, so I will have to fashion a gauntlet for the other hand.

Tomorrow I am playing in a 28mm Sudan game at General Pettygree's house and once that game is over, the General will do some landscaping of the table to turn it into the terrain for the Battle of Firket, which will be played using 54mm toy soldiers.