A pioneer — sapper, or engineer — did the army's most dangerous manual work. In a formal siege it was the sappers who dug the approach trenches, the zig-zag saps that let attackers crawl toward a fortress wall under constant fire, and who breached obstacles, felled timber, and cleared the way for the assault. The work was deadly enough that sappers were treated as an elite: they drew extra danger pay, marched at the head of the column, and were traditionally the only soldiers allowed to grow the full beard this figure wears. Santa Anna's Zapadores were among the troops committed at the Alamo on 6 March 1836, sent forward when the assault hung in the balance at the walls.

W. Britain's figure is unmistakably a pioneer. He wears the tall shako with a red plume and a dark blue coatee with red facings, but the marks of his trade set him apart: a full beard, the crossed-axe badge on his sleeve, a white work apron over his white trousers, and an axe carried on his back alongside his bayoneted musket, with a short sapper's sword at his hip. Fall him in with W. Britain's Mexican Infantry No. 1 and Mexican Infantry Drummer, under General Santa Anna, to build a Mexican line detachment with its own sapper for an Alamo diorama.

Model: 10122 / W. Britain / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set