Citizens! I am sorry to report some problems with the colour schemes here, and with the 8290 WWI Belgian Infantry.
Beginning with the Infantry:
Nick MS's infantry are fine, although they ought to have either red or dark blue piping on the trouser seam.
www.hat.com/Curr2/Bx8159FC/Nick33P.htmlMarcin has some problems here:
hat.freeforums.net/thread/128/belgian-heavy-weaponsThe headgear of the seated mg crew and the man leading the dog cart is the Carabiniers'
chapeau corse. The greatcoat should therefore be charcoal, not blue. Its official colour was "
gris Marengo", and is sometimes described as green or green-grey, but that is a misunderstanding - it was the tunic that was green. To all i's and p's, the greatcoat was black. The light grey trousers are correct, but might also have a yellow or dark green stripe.
The officer as painted, blue, is finished as Line Infantry, except that the trousers should be blue-grey, with a red or blue stripe. A Carabinier officer would have a "Hunting Green" (
vert chasseur) tunic and képi.
The prone machine-gun crew are Carabinier Cyclists, and should be used in conjunction with set 8275. The tunic should be
vert chasseur, and the caps also
ert chasseur, with yellow piping. The red piping on the back of these figures should not be there; I think that's confusion with the short cavalry tunic, which did have seam piping. The trousers are grey, which is Carabinier issue, but with a red stripe, which is Line Infantry
Nick MS's other figures
www.hat.com/Curr2/Bx8159FC/Nick34P.html The seated mg crew and the man leading the dogs are correct for Carabiniers, with maybe a yellow or green stripe on the trousers. The officer is absolutely correct for Line Infantry, to the dark blue stripe on the trousers. The prone figures are again painted as Line Infantry but should be green for Carabinier Cyclists. I think these men's caps must have been a bit of guesswork - Nick seems to be trying to depict them as a Line Infantry shako, but they shouldn't be. The M1909 Hotchkiss machine gun was carried by the Carabinier Cyclists (and a few Chasseurs à Cheval). The Cyclists' cap wasn't a shako or even a képi. It was a soft, slightly conical cap, green with yellow piping. All Carabiniers were issued with it as an alternative to the chapeau corse. In combat, Carabiniers were expected to wear the
corse, but the Carabiniers who were formed into the Cyclists battalions found it a very inconvenient piece of headgear to wear while cycling, so they were allowed to wear the soft cap with a peak on an elasticated band to keep it securely on the head.
Somewhere I've got some artwork that I did when we were first promised these figures - when was that? It shows the Infantry and Cyclist colours. I'll try to dig it out.
BTW, I'm afraid the box art for the Cyclists (8275) isn't much use as a guide. Not accurate at all.
Sorry to be a misery guts. The painting on these figures is, of course, terrific. It's some of the references that are dodgy.
