This product is sold unpainted.

Additional Images.

1-2. ‘La Marine est ici’. From the collection of Roy Boss. Roy tells me that he used these as French sailors in his Mexican Adventure (1865) games, which explains the stylishly frock coated and kepied officer and the natty white wide awakes.  Apparently the Royal Navy tars marched back from Egypt in 1882 learning French as they went.

NAVAL BRIGADE CAMPAIGNS

‘Naval brigades served in India, New Zealand, China and South Africa. In the Zulu War a naval brigade, ultimately more than 800 strong, was drawn from the iron screw corvettes Active and Boadicea, the armoured frigate Shah, the wooden screw corvette Tenedos and the gunboat Forester (and from the troopships Euphrates, Himalaya, Orontes and Tamar). Naval brigades served in Egypt and the Sudan, including a Tel-el-Kebir, El Teb, Tamai, in the Nile expedition, Abu Klea, Tofrek and Suakin. In the South African War, heavy 4.7inch guns mounted on improvised carriages and manned by the naval brigade formed a vital resource in the relief of Ladysmith in 1899. Among the ships with the largest number of men on campaign were the 1^st class cruisers Powerful and Terrible, and 2^nd class cruisers Doris and Forte; almost all returned to their ships in 1901.‘

Source: The Colonial Wars Source Book, PJ Haythornthwaite, Caxton Editions, London, 2000. A fascinating and highly readable text with a significant amount of useful detail for the wargamer.

Jacklex Miniatures Colonial Nineteenth Century 20mm metal wargame figures.