Maximilian Affair: Egyptian Auxiliary Corps (19e Régiment de Ligne)

One of the most interesting units of the whole Mexican Adventure has to be the Egyptian Auxiliary Corps, a battalion of Egyptian (Sudanese) infantry who served under French command with distinction in the Veracruz region from 1863 to 67. The bizarreness of having Egyptian troops fighting under French command to put an Austrian Archduke on the Mexican throne meant I had to include a unit of them in my Rebels and Patriots Imperial army...

Whilst Gringo 40's produce some figures, they are in a marching pose and I'm not 100% sure the trousers they are sculpted in are correct (most sources I found seem to show them in baggy Zouave style ones). Also I didn't really want to spend much more money on this project so I rescued a box of Perry Miniatures plastic ACW from the attic to see how close they were uniform wise to the Egyptians.

The main difference was the ACW figures wearing the distinctive short jacket, so I carefully carved that away and removed any obvious knife scraps on the torsos by painting on some liquid cement. I'm not 100% sure the officer is correctly uniformed. It may be the Egyptian officers wore a similar white uniform as the rank and file, but I like the contrast with the officer leading them in a French style blue uniform with fez.

At the end of the day the overal result was decent enough and I am happy with this somewhat exotic unit now added to my Imperial army...