HaT 1/32 Avant garde, a subtropical conversion ;-)

Now that I have finished one project that was on the shelve (and in boxes haha) since spring this year, I am wrapping up another project which I started back in the subtropical days of last summer...At the moment I am finishing all my unfinished toy soldier projects in chronological order. 

Yesterday night, I spent my Saturday night painting the first 3 HAT Avant Garde converted to Austrian Jagers, while I was driven by the other Austrian figures and felt encouraged to continue working on my Austrian Army...I painted until early Sunday morning. 

When I woke up after a few hours of sleep...I decided the 8 men I converted to Jagers (size for a unit for the About Bonaparte rules set from Dirk Donvil) that the men had a strong need for a good leader figure, embodied in their officer haha...So I took another figure and picked up my finest knife and my drill! 

.....Et voilà! Meet Johannes Wilhelm Sontag! 

If you want to see more of the other figures that I converted, bear with me and scroll down! If not, just wait for the end result, I hope by the end of the week or the week after! 

So If you read this, I will take you back to early August when temperatures here in the Netherlands were over 38 degrees Celcius! So I took refuge in Marcel's hobby bunker. Marcel is also the one who got me into this great hobby and passion for toy soldiers! During these hot summer days, I want over to Marcel's place a couple of times to stay and hobby in his underground cellar, nicknamed ''the hobby bunker'' since it is underground. 

  
One day I did not feel like painting... So I took 8 of these HaT Avant Garde figures to transform them into Austrian Jagers.

While Marcel was behind his workstation, working on some Boer Wars figures, I started first trimming down the hats...Then the muskets into smaller rifles.

I trimmed off the greatcoats that were around their waist. Since they will have backpacks with greatcoats on top and crossbelts instead.

''Ready for a hike boys?'' 

Then the drilling starts, backpacks by DSG were added with pins and super glue. 

Then at home, I went nuts with the greenstuff...Adding the belts for the backpacks, powder bottles, pompons, leaves and the water bottles. They do look a bit clumsy but, the first three painted figures have proven that the paint makes them turn out as I hoped they would!

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to reply, comment or ask questions!
I hope to be back soon with all of these men + Johannes Wilhelm Sontag PAINTED! :-)

Soldier on!