No they aren't new elite Vulgarians!
H.G. Wells dedicated his book 'Little Wars' as "A game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books." I have a niece that is certainly intelligent; although I'm not sure about liking boys' games. Regardless her brother is getting toy soldiers for Christmas this year (see my other blog: http://thewhitegeneral.blogspot.com/ for some photos of them--yes I know it's a shameless plug!) so I thought she should have toy soldiers also. After all, when she plays princess dress up he does also. I should point out that he is a little less then 2 right now and his sister at 5 is clearly in charge! Nic Robson and Eureka make an excellent line of Teddy Bear soldiers that I thought would do the trick nicely.
http://eurekamin.com.au/
They can be found in the 28mm Eureka catalog.
Since they are Teddy Bears I felt they should be painted in a few different fur colors. I selected purple as the jacket color and copper for the metals. The "J" on the cartouche box is for Jaena, my niece. Above you have examples of the front and back of the musketeers, complete with cork pop guns. Eureka manufacture Teddy Bears for the Wild West, the Zulu Wars and more SYW castings as well. I finished them in gloss as I think it'll hold up better in the long run.
I wanted very bright and happy colors that weren't garish. I painted a multicolor flower for the cockade and relied on purple, copper, yellow and white for the majority of the colors.
I like the officer a lot; this is a casting with lots of character. Wooden picket fence sword and hat in hand he leads his men (erh TeddyBears) gallantly. I gave him a rose colored sash (I just couldn't bring myself to paint it pink) and a rose nose.
I can't think of a better reason to keep the regimental colors upright, then topping them with a pot of honey! Jaena of course is the Queen Bee around the house and that made the choice of emblems easy.
The Regiment in line, I'll add to her army at Birthdays and Christmas with Grenadiers scheduled next-they are available in mitre and bearskin; although I'm not sure TeddyBears in Bearskins is completely proper! This was a fun project to paint and I suspect I'll be painting a few for my daugthers' who kept telling me how cute they were.
posted by Poruchik at 2:36 PM
7 Comments:
Oh, my! You're making it very hard on me. Did you realize that?
I mean, here I am, building the Saxe-Bearstein army and you show me teddy bears in 18th century garb? Art thou the Devil to tempt me so? I'm not sure how I could resist . . . and, yet, they won't really fit in with all of my RSM95 Saxe-Bearstein troops . . . but they are deliciously wonderful.
Hmmm, Perhaps I could make a "Hordes of the Things" army using them. Are there any other poses? Any cavalry? I think teddy bears riding reindeer would be fantastic!
I need to know more!
Thanks, my friend, you are undoubtably going to cost me money.
-- Jeff
http://saxe-bearstein.blogspot.com/
Jeff,
They do have an advancing pose, they have pandours and they do offer cavalry--although they are on hobby horses IMHO is awesome! Ohh and there is a General on a rocking horse.
Donald~
Nice work Poruchik. I beleive First Corps did something similar for the American Civil War.
The teddy bear musketeers are very appealing -- especially the standard "bearer." Well done!
Stokes Schwartz
Thanks for the many compliments-Be sure to check out the Eureka Toy Soldiers on my second blog--it's in the links
Donald~
Donald: inspired by you, I am in the process of painting two little Teddy Bear armies for my 9-year old daughter. Each side will have 24 figures. I also have some grenadiers and cavalry (8 grens and 6 cav per side), but I don't think that I'll have time to finish those before Christmas. You probably won't see this reply since it is a year after your original post and will be buried in your archive, but know that I couldn't have done it without you.
Fritz
Wow-thanks Jim!
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