Ansbach Dragoons

I have started work on my second Imperial cavalry regiment. My chosen regiment is Dragoon Regiment Ansbach: a decision made on the grounds that the uniform of this regiment looks good and is also easy to paint. As this unit will complete the two regiments that are required to refight Sittangbad, I have decided to save on time and money by using the same mould as I used for KR Hohenzollern and simply painting over any differences. In truth, given the low level of detail that I paint to, this does not require any great effort.

The first three troopers are completed up to the stage of varnishing and metallics. The photo shows them in this state. For all the blue parts of the uniform I have used Coate d'Armes dark blue highlighted with medium blue. This may be a little too light, but the prints I have seen show such variation in shade it's hard to be sure what would be correct. The saddle blanket ought to be 'blue edged with white' but as I have no idea how wide the edging should be I am inclined to use blue alone. In the prints I have seen the saddle cloth has a blue zig zag inside a white edge: this turns out to be easy to simulate as historically correct wobbly lines disguise my wobbly brush work very nicely.

Awaiting the Shiny

I am happy with the finished model. The casting is pretty awful: mostly because I used unthinned vaseline as a separator when mould making and this blurred any detail I had sculpted on the figure. But, fortunately, once the figure is liberally festooned with bits of brass rod, wire, paper, milliput and thread representing musket, sword, reins, saddle cloth and pigtails this doesn't matter so much.

Never Mind The Knees

My latest efforts at sculpting have reached the stage where they are worth photographing: the magnification in a photo can show flaws that I will all too readily miss when handling the figure. Both figures have their knees rather akimbo: but the problem is not, I hope, too pronounced, and will not be visible on a wargames table.

Officer and Croat, Interrupted

The left hand figure is a dismounted officer to help control the companies of Imperial infantry that I have already produced. The figure's right hand is empty. It is easy enough to fit a piece of beaten wire representing a sword, whereas trying to gravity cast something as thin as a sword rarely works.

The right hand figure is the return of my first attempt at a Croat. I put this to one side after my first attempt casting it resulted in little more than a vaguely humanoid blob. The basic proportions were fine, although the details that I had sculpted were very bad. But I have redetailed it to look rather more convincing than before. As usual, the musket barrel is not present, my intention being to add one made from brass rod to each figure after it has been cast.

My desire to get this figure sorted was prompted by the unhappy impact the enemy Frei Corps had upon my army in its recent defeat. My line infantry might be expected to fail me, but an Imperial army should never find itself at a disadvantage in irregular warfare while there are Croats available.