how to create new Cavalry Regiments

[Beano Boy]

Duron QelDroma, can`t say for certain but I believe it to be around the 600+ mark. I recently bought 9 boxes of Zvezda French Cuirassiers which will be a luxury painting without converting anything. Seeing good reference pictures are Ok ,but if your happy with the Officer why bother to change him. I intend in fact to paint some of my Cuirassiers up with a red uniform,because Napoleon wanted them so,and not in the blue as indeed they were. He, was overruled by those who dictated the colour of such things. So just out of curiosity I`ll have a few painted red. It`s been a while since I placed anything on this topic. So perhaps I will try painting a conversion soon. BB

[Duron QelDroma]

wow, 600
I recently painted 4, and it took more than a day time.
But I'm only a Diorama builder, so I don't need large numbers.

Congrats to your awesome range, beano boy!!!

[Beano Boy]

I have 20 boxes of the models shown above,and I have seen splendidly painted horses from this set,but one sticks out like a sore thumb,and the horse in question is awful,but why? One of It`s back legs has what appears to be a broken ankle!


Above the horse with the broken ankle,and another blundering mistake Italeri has made again,and in doing so has lumbered its customers in the mire once more .There are six in each box,120 in total no good,and totally useless to me.Or is this really the case? However all is not always as it seems.



Above a nice standard pose for a horse is below that awful excuse for a horse,so what I did was try to twist the hoof round the right way using my Plyers. It failed to achive a good result and the Nag went into the bin.

So what to do next I wondered?




All that is required are your finger nails. Grip the hoof at the ankle and just push and pull with the thumb and finger nails. ( If you have none my advice is grow them ) Do not twist the ankle at all.


This is resetting the ankle in the right position.
The result is much more pleasing to the eye,but not perfect.Well what is?
So now I have 119 good looking horse poses to add to the rest. I hope some find this tip useful,if they have this boxed set,or are interested in buying some in the future. Concerning the fellows who ride these horses there are a few twist`s and turn`s to make on them to create better poses. I will address that situation of how to later. Thanks for looking BB

[zirrian]

Let me tell you, I love you for this topic I really should buy some more boxes.

Do you plan something similar for infantry too?

[Beano Boy]

Thanks for your kind comments Duran QelDroma,and for yours too zirrian,they are very much appreciated indeed. I knew I would have to address the situation I feared concerning that broken ankle pose,and I put it off for yonk`s until now,( Today ),and Gosh! it was so simple to remedy, and in my fancy helped put to rights what is in the end a fine figure that is not one of my making.



Over 12 years of solid painting day in day out ,Cavalry and Infanty too,does tend to place lots of of figures upon the table.However painting just a few is still a splendid effort to make,and one must fix ones own standard of painting on them. While enjoying this hobby it is not at all nessasary to be the Great Artist at all. I surely am not,and being colourblind does limit my spectrum of eye sight to a very large degree when using colours.Mrs B wonderfully helps identify these for me. I recently came upon Ringo on You Tube and he paints wargaming figures and he too is colourblind,so I and others are not alone where painting figures is concerned. Ringo is a member of this forum because he was listed on my profile visits.




Above is something that I was especially glad to achieve,it has helped give an insight of what perhaps five such squares could look like on a much larger base in the future.All the cavalry are conversions,and about a third of the infantry is too. So yes I have had a limited success in hot pin melting and with simple twisting techniques too that improve the poses and make them more usable on a layout.
Doing these little snippits ,are indeed excersizes,showing how all the work is worthwhile in the doing of it. I realise too that others could make a better looking job of it than me.Which is great,and a point to nearly all my work. BB

[Beano Boy]

Its been a while since I placed anything here on this open ended topic.While researching something else I came upon this Uniform Plate. Well I stumbled over it really,and the interesting thing as far as I am concerned is the fact that shown here are blue unforms,when I had been informed years ago that they would have all been an off White or White. So what appears now means these fellows in my two regiments can now be painted the light blue. So not a conversion as such just more interesting colour change that can give a contrast to regiments of cavalry. Yes I realise there might be those who would say I already knew that on the Forum,but not being well read up upon these matters I did not.



Above another picture, I came across, and I realised another conversion possible was always staring me in the face. So how can we create these heavy cavalry reiments ? Just head swops required for this one. I cannot identify the cavalry regiment,but I realise many of you can. I tried to retrace on my PC History,but Gosh! Just haven`t got the time to go through tons of stuff at present.




Forget that I`ve found them,and they are indeed, Guard du Corps Saxon Cuirassiers at Boriodino.








You will need those two boxes above.The uniforms are correct ,as are the horses too.

[blucher1815red]

Nice one BB, another useful conversion possibility.

[Beano Boy]

Thanks blucher it gets even better soon. Cavalry & Infantry painted up as on Parade! BB

[Beano Boy]

Please see the other update too placed before this one.



Gosh! I just adore this picture above,and now they can have blue in their ranks. Brill!

I have not made the Saxons heavy cavalry up yet ,so I will do one or two just to check that the heads look OK Size Wise on these model figures. I will post results soon. I bought boxes and boxes years ago of Italeri Saxon Cuirassiers all decanted into boxes. So my outlay is nothing because of having lots of both boxes.



Work is already ongoing on the regiment above.

MORE HEAD SWOPPING!





How about creating the regiment above. Well it can be done. The uniform , and the horses are all correct too for this regiment when using the Dragoons below.



Below is the back end view of the bear skin for this regiment,as it would be on Parade.
Only the front cord need removing on the headgear and the grenade badge cut off from the top,and replaced by the paint on cross. Trim the bear skin,and then cut it off.
The cords are simple to do on the uniform,and I`ll leave that choice for you to decide upon. ( Copper Wire perhaps ) Please take note that the chine strape has been tied to the back of the bear skin.



I do have the Hat Industries Set of Horse Grenadiers,but I am not that keen on those models.However you can use the heads if you wish.



A little Bonus now the bear skin can also be used to convert the French Foot Artillery into Imperial Guard Artillery .This is how the regiment would have been seen on Parade. The plate is covered by whatever means,paint or putty! There is a peak to the head gear over the eyes which can be added if you see a need to do it. A cut into the plastic ,and a tiny piece of paper cut to shape then slotted into it would achieve a good result I use enamel black paint just added as one would use glue.

Two pictures are good enough for reference.







You can also use Imperial Guard infantry within the Imperial Guard Artillery because often these were placed there to help move the heavy guns back into place,especially in wet muddy conditions like at Waterloo. So mix them up and paint the front plate on the bear skin. All will look as they would be on Parade. So now what we have is the heads of the Foot Artillery________ Place them onto the headless Imperial Guard infantry. I used the Dragoons head remember to create my French Cuirassiers. So all the wastage is confined if you wished it to the Saxon heads cut off. Perhaps another use might well be found with these,but not by me,because the plumes are wrong on them.



I wonder if the heads removed from that set above ,could be used for British heavy Cavalry? BB

[Kekso]

Paul the Headremover

This topic is very interesting... there should be more watchers and comments.

[Peter]

Paul the Headremover

Other nickname is "Vlad"!

[Beano Boy]

Well Peter I did impale A Rat once with a sword. Damm Big 1- 2 ! Black as the Ace of Spades ,and as Big as a Double Sideboard with drawers it was. It was a Tuff Fight,but with the help from Mrs B and her heaviest Iron Frying Pan we managed to get the better of the Brute. Did I kill it?____________ YIP!



"He killed it ,and I ate it.__________________________BURP!"


Now Than,
its been a while since I looked at Napoleonic Cavalry,and yes 8 months is way to long to be away from such Splender! I must admit I did slip up,of course I knew Carabiniers had light blue uniforms,I just got confused by all the white uniforms I`d been looking at. So sorry blucher if you thought along with others,What on earth is BB going on about ,they`ve always been blue,with a few white ones thrown in too for good measure.

Today painting Romans.

No Watchers,No big deal really Dalibor. It`s a Quite Time around Christmas. i was up all night working ,and took a couple of hours off and typed the two updates because i promised someone that i would do so.
Perhaps i`ll get all this published. There are those that have long awaited a Book on Cavalry Conversions. Well its already written ,and i do own the Copyright,on everything i write. So why not. i`ll look into it and plough some money into it. steponejust4fun my Blog! BB

[Beano Boy]

I managed to buy some more of the Italeri Hussars,which are the ESCI figures. Only 12 in a box,but I bought these very cheap for £5.00,and no postage. Totally wrong for the Crimean War, but they are OK for the Waterloo period. So these will be painted up as British Light Dragoons.

By mixing both colours of the Green Stuff together, it will go sticky and then will eventually go hard.
I `m going to use it to create the sheep skin which was placed over the saddle, and which also covered the two pistols in front of the saddle.
I converted & painted lots of these up many years ago,but hopefully these new figures will be much better than my earlier ones which on reflection after seeing them outside their boxes are rather,Crude!
















The two figures above are not included in my sets ,but I can manage quite well without them.



As for the rest they are the same as in those boxes that managed to buy. Now I`m going to do some research and later I will let you know what regiments of light Dragoons I will convert these figures into. One thing I can tell you is,they all need fixing by way of a hot Soldering iron to their platform ,and the reins need fixing onto each model Horse even the one whose leg`s are far to long compared to its back leg`s,but they paint up fine these old sets. BB

[Susofrick]

Have that set. But the old ESCI. Curious how these will look when you have worked on them.

[Beano Boy]

Gunnar,That's a Great Song! BB

[Beano Boy]

No PC`s then,just a few books.___________1985 - 1986 ,Boxed away for donkeys years.untill now.





I took them from the box recently,and years ago I converted & painted up the figures as the 7th Queens Own Hussars. Of course I converted each horse too,and they are all quite wrong, but i only had a few pictures to work from in those far off days. The poses will remain as they are ,a reminder of my early start in the hobby.

It`s always surprising when an old box is opened up in the Collection. BB

[Susofrick]

Never liked the horses, but you made them look great!

[Kekso]

Never liked the horses

I'm the opposite... lately I enjoy more painting horses than figures... it is easier

[Kekso]

If I may suggest Paul, you should give them a nice coat of wash. I saw you use Army Painter Quick Shade. In my opinion this quick and easy step gives figures much better appearance.
It is only suggestion, not critic.

[Susofrick]

I'm the opposite... lately I enjoy more painting horses than figures... it is easier

Sorry, should only have sent you the horses then and let the figures be casualties.