Having completed my Piedmontese and Austrian armies I have moved on to add Garibaldini. It would be nice to add some Neapolitans for them to fight but I realise that Baccus don't do any. So before I set off on protracted research and set about reinventing the wheel it occurred to me that someone may have already done this and that they would be my favourite person if they shared their information with me. What proxies should I use? Thanks

The basic Neapolitan infantry looks very like an 1866 Austrian in greatcoat. Colours are roughly black shako, grey greatcoat, dark blue trousers, dark grey gaiters and black shoes.  All belting is white. The illustration I have is a member of the 5th Rifle Battalion, which had a wide yellow edging to the front of the lay down collar. I am not sure what could be used for other troop types, as jackets tend to be tight and tailed but worn with the conical shako. I would reccomend having a look at the Osprey title recently published dealing with the Wars of Italian Unification. I will also have a look at the back issues of the Foreign Correspondent which are in my documents file, and then come back to this.

Well I had a look and couldn't find much so I did a  Google, and Neapolitan Army 1860 came up with a mass of images. Lancers could be done using Napoleonic Austrians. Grenadiers using Napoleonic French grenadiers. there are also cavalry that look abit like French Napoleonic hussars in tapering shako, and others that look like elite Napoleonic French Chasseurs.

The big problem seems to be finding an appropriate figure for those infantry units that didn't wear the greatcoat all the time. They seem to be similar to Napoleonic infantry with long trousers (no gaiters), waisted jacket with long tails and epaulettes and the tapering shako - which is the awkward bit.

Another bit of info: It appears that the first Neapolitan I described, with the greatcoat and blue trousers is the light infantry uniform. The line infantry were called fusiliers and wore red trousers, otherwise the cur is pretty much the same as the 1866 Austrian figure. The best bet for Neapolitan artillery may well be the Napoleonic British foot artillery.

Should be enough there to get a basic force together. It's a pity about the tapered shako. The nearest proxy for tail coatee wearing units may well be the Napoleonic British flank companies pre-1812 uniform.

Finished

www.dropbox.com/s/fayxcyndmly6dqy/FB_IMG_1567780463254.jpg