Papal Zouaves

[Panzer22]

Hello everyone,
First of all I would like to compliment everyone who is painting and converting their project, you are seeing a lot of progress!
I have been working on what I thought was something special (nope) all of a sudden
Zouaves ...but yes I had one in the family, my great-great grandfather was a papal Zouave. He went into service in 1869 to 1870 (the surrender of Rome) he was there. I had been looking for a bust of a Zouave from that period for a long time... and found it in North America. waited a long time (thanks to customs) the box art looked good but out of the box a different story...
a very rough and ugly head (sorry guys) so remove that head with a bit of sawing and drilling. and replaced it with a head that I still had lying around from the German Stormtrooper, a younger man gave him a beard and a kepi and it looked better already
Here are some photos of the bust and the man himself is a photo from 1891/92, he is wearing the medal bene merenti, on the bust a metana cross and a benne merenti in gold

hans

 

[Steve Ski]

Excellent work, Hans!

 

[MalcC]

Superb work.

Malc

 

[MoboSchreuder]

Very nice work

Mobo

 

[Briggsy]

Really great conversion Hans, the bust is so much better as the original head is as you found a bit disappointing. Only recently learnt about the Papal Zouaves, interesting that people would pledge their service this way and some nice uniforms to reproduce. A very nice tribute to your ancestor as well.

Cheers Simon

 

[Rob]

Excellent alteration that really does improve the figure. He looks great.

 

[Panzer22]

Thank you guys! Is greatly appreciated,
You are right Simon an intersting history in The unification of Italy.

 

[NigelR]

Excellent conversion work and painting, and what an interesting back story!

 

[Nap]

Hi Hans

Good decision ref the head , like the facial hair you’ve added to look like your ancestor ...certainly works

A fine way to honour your relative

Thanks for sharing

Look forward to seeing the next

Have FUN @ the bench

Nap

 

[akaryu]

Great conversion, well done.

Pierre