FPW (ISH) SAXON GRENADIERS

These are a recent addition to my continuing project on 19th century continental armies.  One of the challenges of the German Confederation/Prussian forces is that the distinguishing horsehair plumes on the guards and grenadiers weren't worn on service.  Despite this fact, of course, I wanted to add this bit of flavoring to the look of my armies.  Hence, I was happy to stumble across these figures from the Steve Barber Models Saxon 12th Corps FPW Range  which are the only 28mm German/Prussian Confederation grenadiers with the horsehair plumes that I know of. Clix Pix for BIG PIX:

The figures seemed to clearly be modeled on the Saxon Leib Regiment (NR 100).  Even though these will  be serving as a more generic form of German grenadier in my system,  the sculpts were so nice that I thought I'd just render them as intended rather than to try and modify them.  The major difference, the Saxon Star on the helmet, probably won't be something anyone notices at gaming distance. 

The big idea is that I now have some German Confederation/Prussian grenadiers with distinctive headgear to put on the table.  I must say, it is a very interesting look, almost bearskin-like from some angles, and I'm happy with how these came out. The major challenge was to keep the head from looking like a big, black lump. I wound up drybrushing the horsehair with  dark grey and a touch of light gray to give a bit of texture and variation while still looking the part.   I wonder if the Saxons actually went into combat wearing their plumes?