French Chasseurs Alpins WWI

Photos of WWI show a lot of ordinary French soldiers dressed in various fantassin costumes due to unplanned uniform shortages and poor distribution. The Chasseurs Alpins are particularly attractive in their dare blue tunics, greatcoats and black berets.

These troopers look generally mature (probably older soldiers with valuable mountaineering skills were retained in the army) and also shorter in stature on average. The Heller sets produced French WWII troops in 1/35 scale. I used two legs with puttees to represent one of these Blue Devils in 1/32 scale in an Alpine setting.The figure pose was finalised before the greatcoat was rolled out in putty and draped onto the figure. It is important to get the coat fronts and tails looking correct. As can be seen, these were made in stages. The imperfections can be sculpted in with putty.

The chasseur hunting horn appears to have a larger diameter and can be slipped onto the body. I decided to use a musical horn from Historex instead. A Historex trumpet was also added.

The dramatic landscape was made with part of a resin casting representing a rocky landscape and a cut down root. A hole was drilled into the root to create a hollow tree stump.