The third vignette of groups of Victorian Rifle Volunteers is now completed. It took a little longer than planned thanks in no small part to the unwelcome appearance of a gastric virus which has laid me low for a few days. Feeling a little better today, I charged for the finishing line by finishing the basing and popping on the plaque. I feel pretty satisfied with these figures, although the blue shading on their puttees hasn’t really come out on the photographs as I’d hope.
At the last moment, I decided to dispose of the usual distance marker and so just have them all blazing away on a local range.
One of the things that I do like about these Perry Miniatures figures is the ability to create one’s own poses by twisting a limb or positioning some figures to suggest a narrative.
I particularly like these two figures below, depicting a sergeant and a private deep in conversation while their officer issues some instructions behind them to the group.
Likewise,although I was initially unsure whether a figure (2nd from right below) would work, but now appreciate how he appears to be gazing off down the rifle range after the target, assessing his shot.
These figures came with backpacks which I chose to retain, seeing as the group on the cover of the book “Riflemen, Form!” which inspired my choice of corps could also be seen wearing their full kit. Also, their facings are described as being buff coloured, not yellow, and so I repainted the collars. Their cuffs are shown on the colourised photograph as being black or navy blue, not buff, and I’ve retained this simply to match the photo as much as possible. Oh – and, ah, …I’ve just realised that I need to finish the shoulder straps!
So far in my Victorian Rifle Volunteers project I’ve depicted three corps:
My Victorian Rifle Volunteers Project has at least one more group to come before the end of this year. And this next group I intend to depict as being in action against a real enemy rather than shooting defenceless targets out on the rifle range! Students of Victorian military history may therefore be able to guess the rifle volunteer corps I have in mind – others will have to wait to a forthcoming post!
Suburban Militarism 
Beautifully finished figures, thank you for sharing these.
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Thanks, Mark.
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Lovely set of figures – I’m no expert on the 3rd London’s but I was under the impression that the Rifle Volunteers wore white metal badges and buttons and that their helmet plates, chains and spikes were also white metal. This is what distinguished the Volunteers from the Regular Army.
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Thanks – very glad you like them!
That’s interesting, you may well be right about the colour of metal used. I’ve seen an example of an 1878 helmet with a mixture of white and yellow for the plate but white for the spike. However, as I indicated in the post, the inspiration for my group was the colourised cover of the book “Riflemen, Form!”, so by and large I attempted to recreate the (possibly incorrectly) coloured figures appearing on that, including the yellow metal. The cuffs, for example, were described as being buff, but as the cover shows them as dark blue/black, I’ve imitated that also.
Thanks again for your comment!
Marvin
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One last thing! I painted a few other rifle volunteer groups last year which you may also like to take a look at. You’ll notice with those that are wearing them, the helmet spike is white metal but the chains and plate seem to be yellow or a mixture of yellow and white.
With the Cheshire Greys, for example, I’ve shown my figures with yellow metal buttons, a white metal spike and plate with a combination of both as this was based on the 1870s uniform that I found in the Cheshire Military Museum.
Thanks again and best wishes
Marvin
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