British Light Dragoons

 

Enough with the Horrible Histories and Dark Ages shenanigans, I hear you say! Well who am I to stand in the way? Back to the main game it is then!

I present to you Strelets' British Light Dragoons painted as the 12th LD ready for service in my Peninsular War British forces. The figures are from Strelets' Egyptian Campaign range, and the riders sport hair tied in a queue, but compared to the Italeri Light Dragoons, which are only appropriate from 1813 onwards, these are much more appropriate for the majority of the Peninsular War.

These chaps also took me beyond my target of 600 points in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! Huzzah!

16th Light Dragoons WIP

This is the latest unit to come off the (very slow) production line. I've finally finished painting the last 3 troopers of the 16th LD and have based them. I may have stuffed up the horse blankets as I've painted the trimming yellow, but I had the horrible thought that it might be white to conform with lace, buttons etc. which in this unit were white. The other 2 units of light dragoons had yellow trimmings, so they're OK, but I'm not so sure about this lot. All my reference material focuses on the men's uniforms, not the horse furniture, so I'm a bit in the dark here. If anyone knows, leave a comment, or I'll ask on TMP where I know I'll get an answer, although I'm reluctant to as it'll probably start another huge row ;-)

The complete unit awaiting shading/varnishing and texture on the base.

At the back you can see the heavies which still haven't been christened as I couldn't make it to the last club meeting. Hopefully, this Friday I'll be able to christen both units!

This seems to have answered my query, although not conclusively, as the rider is in post 1812 uniform. The saddle blanket is clearly trimmed in white, conforming with epaulettes, shako cords and shako band. It looks like I'll have to make some changes *sigh!*

November WIP

This is my latest British project; the 16th Light Dragoons.

I've painted 5 so far but not yet based, shaded or varnished any. I have 3 still in the process of being painted, so it won't be long now.

After this I might get cracking on my Spanish, although I do have a British rocket battery still to paint that might be fun to use. I'm not sure if we have rules for rockets, but it'd certainly add another level of uncertainty to the game; will it circle back and blow up over British lines?!

Trooper in a very 17th century pose; King Billy or Marlborough, anyone?

Bugler

the 5 in line

I decided to add the Hungarian knots in freehand

Capt. Fotherington-Thomas and his amazing muttonchops!

I've started the Aspern-Essling dike with the template supplied by Tim and Quinny. I am firstly making the skeleton from strips of balsa wood and then numbering them from the Essling end. I've since started the messy process of applying the putty and will shortly have some photos of the results so far.

The template

Numbering the cut balsa pieces

Laid out on the template awaiting putty

Irregular 25mm vs. Italeri 1/72

My Irregular British cavalry has arrived and after the last order's disappointment, these ones are a lot more serviceable. They are true 25mm figures, and while slightly larger than the 1/72 plastics, the difference won't be that noticeable on the table top. Most of my plastics are around the 22-23mm mark anyway, and I already have some 25mm metal French cuirassiers that don't stand out too much from the rest of my collection. The main difference is that they are more chunky than the finer plastic sculpting. I'm planning to field both lead units together anyway, so it won't make that much difference.

Irregular Light Dragoon in tarelton vs. Italeri Light Dragoon

Italeri Light Dragoon vs. Irregular Dragoon

Irregular Light Dragoon horse vs. Italeri Light Dragoon horse

Irregular Heavy Dragoon horse vs. Italeri Light Dragoon horse

Chaaarge!

I've been off the air for a while now after another bout of winter malady, with the added bonus of a stomach upset. I'm now on three week's leave (unrelated to the illness!), so I'm making up for lost time on the painting front. Unfortunately, our home PC has bung USB ports , so I can't add any pictures at the moment. If I get around to it I'll go down to the library to upload some pictures during my leave. For the moment, though, I'm restricted to text only.

I've finished my 5/60th riflemen and have started on my cavalry. I am painting up Italeri's British Light Dragoons, which, unfortunately, are of the post-1812 uniform. I've converted 2 figures by adding Tarleton-wearing heads, to make a unit that is in the cross-over period between the two types of uniforms. As my British force is based on a brigade that participated in the detatched force under Sir Roland Hill, I decided to make this Light Dragoon unit one of the regiments that accompanied this force. The 13th LD are the most obvious and famous unit, so I decided to paint up one of the lesser known units, namely the 9th LD. They had crimson facings and have come up a treat, although what I initially took to be crimson has come out more as a maroon. I'm not fussy enought to start all over again, though. And, Rafa, I've even attempted to give the horses a docked tail 'look'!

I've had a problem lately with the undercoating of my figures, using a painted on flat base, which for some reason didn't hold some of the paints I've been using, especially the Citadel paints. It would just flake off in big chunks. I also found that it would obscure finer detail. After coating the first horse and rider I couldn't see much of the detail at all. I decided to try a spray-on black base and it's come up trumps; it's really made a great difference and I doubt I'll go back now.

I've been reading about British cavalry and their poor reputation in a book that sets out to disprove the accepted view. It's fascinating reading. Again, like Salamanca, the author's argument is that historians cherry pick their sources, then these views become accepted without vigourous scrutiny by later generations of historians who quote the older ones. I'll review it at a later date