The Marine Corps as it exists today was re-established by act of Congress on 11 July 1798, not for a land war but for an undeclared one at sea. The young United States was fighting the Quasi-War against Revolutionary France, whose privateers were seizing American merchant ships across the Caribbean. Marines went aboard the Navy's new frigates as musketry and boarding parties: when USS Constellation ran down and captured the French frigate L'Insurgente in February 1799, her Marines fired down from the tops into the enemy's deck. The Corps' first uniforms were hand-me-downs — surplus Army coats — and a uniform of their own would not arrive until 1805.

W. Britain stands the Marine at order arms, musket grounded at his side. The uniform is the story: the short red jacket with slashed blue sleeves and red facings — surplus flank-company coats from Anthony Wayne's disbanded Legion of the United States, reissued to the new Corps by a thrifty government — worn with white trousers, a crossbelt and oval plate, and a plumed round hat. He opens the Corps' uniform lineage, ahead of the Marine drummer of 1811-18, the 1833 NCO, and the 1839 Fatigue Marine who followed him.

W. Britain model 13065. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), solid metal hand-painted in a matte finish. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Supplied in original W. Britain packaging.