French-Canadian coureurs-des-bois and militiamen were among the very first figures in my range of toy soldiers.
Here below are the masters and resin castings of my first six Canadians.
I sculpted the bodies starting from resin castings of anatomy mannequins that I had built for that purpose, adding all the details with DURO epoxy putty.
I sculpted the heads in A+B putty, and later added some refinements with DURO. The muskets, axes, and powder horns are white metal castings obtained from my own weapons and equipment masters.
All the muskets are reproductions of the famous fusil-de-chasse (hunting gin) manufactured in Tulle, France. It was a light-weight, yet sturdy and dependable weapon popular with Canadian frontiersmen and traded to the savage nations allied to the French.
Wearing a mix of European and Native American garments, my Canadians are all dressed in coarse linen shirts and cloth breech-clouts. Some of them wear leggings, a convenient choice for marching through tall grass, or thick forest undergrowth. The man in a shortened hooded capote and fur-trimmed stocking cap is a Militia officer, his rank revealed by the gilt gorget worn at the chest.
I have based my figures mainly on early-18th-Century pictorial evidence of coureurs-des-bois in shirts and capotes, going bare-legged or wearing woolen leggings (mitasses). I was also inspired by the description given by English settler Robert Eastburn, who was taken captive by a party of French and Indians in March 1756 at the Great Carrying Place, NY. On their way back to Canada, Eastburn wrote, "... the French carried several of their wounded Men all the Way upon their Backs, many of them wore no Breaches in their Travels in this cold Season, being strong, hardy Men...".
Useful reading
Eastburn, R. A faithful Narrative, of the many Dangers and Sufferings, as well as wonderful and surprising Deliverances of Robert Eastburn, during his late captivity among the Indians: together with some remarks upon the Country of Canada, and the Religion and Policy of its Inhabitants, the whole intermixed with devout Reflections, ECCO Print Editions
Chartrand, R. The French soldier in Colonial America, Historical Arms Series No. 18, Museum Restoration Service, 1984.
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