I have to admit to having treated these as poor cousins to the cuirassiers. I suspect the reason for this has a lot to do with the photo on page 52 of Charge!. The Dragoons of Montmort make a very poor showing compared with the glorious display of the Erbprinz Regiment that precedes them.
If you inspect the Charge! photo closely you will probably come to the same conclusion as I did - the horses are too small for the riders. This was the photo that convinced me to use Stadden horses with Suren troopers - something in which I am not alone, having seen it alluded to on the Old School Wargamers messageboard. There was a certain irony here, as I'm now not sure whether or not the Charge! regiment is using Suren riders or horses.
Well, the first squadron of Dragoons is now on my table demanding attention. And I am delighted to say that these figures are actually very good indeed - better I think than the cuirassiers. One problem I had with the latter figures was that their carbines were molded as an integral part of the figure and tended to break when I straightened them out. On the Dragoons they are supplied separately, so there is no such problem.
My photo shows these gentlemen cleaned up. The next step is to repair manes with milliput (damaged when the original reins were cut off), attach wire reins to horses, attach shouldered swords to the riders, and then fix horse and rider together. I won't be using paper saddlecloths this time: the figures sit very well on their horses with only a little filing, so that will do. I won't be attaching the carbines immediately - leaving them off will make it easier to paint the detail around them.
Dragoon uniforms are a lot less fussy than those of cuirassiers. These guys were the workhorses of 18th Century cavalry and, for their pains, got worse horses and fewer distinctions than their more exalted brethren. No fancy lace, for example, on the carbine sling or on the turnbacks. So I'm hoping to get these figures completed a lot faster. I'm guessing at three days for all the physical modelling, and then another four for painting. So that gives me a week to decide on how I'll tackle the artillery.
4 comments:
Will you paint these in historical uniforms, or opt for a make-believe, though plausible, color scheme? What color will you paint the noble equines?
Best Regards,
Stokes
I'll be painting them as Prussian Dragoon Regiment 8. That regiment had bays (according to Dorn and Engelmann) - easiest horse paint scheme of the lot in my book.
I've discovered that RSM sells separate packs of muskets and carbines that are much better than the muskets provided by Suren. Ask for the "banded musket". It is nicely sculpted and easy to paint with its distinct banding and barrel.
I really wish that I had used the Stadden horses for my Suren cavalry. I can't change for DR2 (36 figures, eventually 40 or 60 of them), but on the next regiment of dragoons, I'm going with the Stadden horses.
I look forward to the photos.
-- Jeff
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