Spanish American War Coloured Infantry Conversion

One thing Airfix Australians are especially good for (apart from depicting WW2 Australians) is Spanish American War Americans. In fact they lend themselves to a number of  late19th century troop types.

Although I have the AIP and BMC Spanish American War figures I wanted to top up a unit and I wanted a particular pose. My ample supply of Airfix 54mm plastic figures was the solution. Every once and a while I delve into them to make completely different figures although occasionally I even paint them as WW2.

For a long time American regiments were racially separate and the Afro-American or black regiments were specifically known as 'coloured', although they usually had white officers. (In the ACW they also, originally had white NCOs).

This particular figure had putty equipment added from Green Stuff, This included haversack, water bottle and blanket roll. A metal rod was inserted in the hand to represent a flag pole (flag still to be added which may be historical or imagi-nation). As usual, I gave it a card base with added synthetic flock.