Reinforcing the Loyalist Cavalry

I finally got around to painting an additional four mounted figures for my Loyalist York Dragoons, a "made-up" regiment of Tory horse.  This regiment is composed of vintage Custom Cast mounted dragoons from their American Revolution line.  I've had eight of them painted and based for a long time and finally acquired another four to complete the unit.

Please click on an image to see a larger picture.

Here they are as I begin to paint them.
I use some older 1 liter soda bottle caps on to which I glue the horse (or in this case the horse and rider) in order to paint them.  This allows me to hold onto the bottle cap rather than the figure as I paint.

Here they are completed but still attached to the bottle caps.
I painted one of the figures as an officer after cutting and paring away his slung musketoon.

He's on the far left of the image.

The two newly based stands.  The officer described above is the figure on the far left.
He is riding his favorite bay horse.

And the complete unit with the newly painted command group figures on the center front stand and the others on the front right-hand stand.

This regiment joins the British 17th Light Dragoons and the mounted portion of the Queen's Rangers as the cavalry arm of my British Expeditionary force.  They are opposed by two Continental mounted units -- Bland's Dragoons and William Washington's Dragoons.

More Light Cavalry

I'm continuing to work on the minimum necessary force levels for my "Big Battalions" game next month. Joining the Electoral and Imperial armies are two small troops of light cavalry. These are actually American Revolution era cavalry and were acquired for my AMR forces but they are being pressed into service for my fictitious Seven Years War campaigning. All of these figures are "true" 25mm and will eventually revert to my AMR forces once I get more 28mm figures painted for my imagi-nation forces.


First up is a troop of six light dragoons for the Imperial Army. These Mini Figs light dragoons are painted in the uniforms of Colonel William Washington's Regiment of Dragoons of the Continental Army. But for my "Big Battalions" game, they will be part of a converged light dragoon squadron (along with eight other Mini Figs) from the Kreis Obere Sachsen and join the Armeeabteilung Obere Sachsen's advanced guard along with Courland's Tamnii Narod Pandours and Timofievich Cossacks.


Joining the Electoral Army is a small squadron of eight mounted jagers provided by contract to the Brittanian army. They will be traveling to Carpania along with the Brittanian contingent commanded by Colonel Ashley Hyde-Enseecker. These figures are old Custom Cast dragoons and are painted as the fictitious Loyalist York Dragoons for my AMR British forces. Two of the have been painted for several years and the other six have just joined them. Unlike the Mini Figs above, these are one-piece castings but were fairly easy to paint.


And finally here are two Scruby infantry officers who are being painted to replace two plastic officers in my British converged light infantry battalions. These are fairly generic tricorne wearing officers. They should be finished in another day or two.

Once they are completed then I only have twelve more light dragoons left to paint before my minimum force levels are reached. These last ones are also Scrubys and will represent the cavalry arm of the Queen's Rangers, joining the 20 infantry figures I already have painted. There will also be a mounted officer added to command this combined arms legion for the British (err, Brittanians).

July Painting

My painting in July hasn't been as productive as I had hoped, only 27 foot figures. But 2/3 of them were RSM95 figures which were a joy to paint. As usual, please click on the pictures to see a larger image.


The RSM95 figures are now the Infanterie Battalion Eisenmuhlen of the Barony of Eisenmuhlen, which is allied to the Margraviate of Carpania. The figures are actually American Revolution British but since the uniform cut is close to what the Germanians (Prussians) wear and Carpania and Eisenmuhlen are allied to Germania, I figured that these would be "close enough" for an imagi-nation force. They wear dark cherry red coats with camel facings, small clothes, and breeches. Their gaiters are charcoal and their black tricornes are trimmed in yellow tape. The flags use the same color scheme (red/yellow) and are very simple in design (and are home produced).

In addition to the 24 RSM95 figures, I also painted 12 old Custom Cast British infantry who will serve double duty as American Revolutionary War British and Imagi-Nation Brittanians. The figures are organized as the 38th Regiment of Foot and can be paired with the 80th Regiment of Foot (painted a number of years ago) to make a 24 figure strong battalion for Batailles de l'Ancien Regime rules use.


The new 38th Foot is on the left (with the Union flag) while the older 80th Foot is on the right (with the regimental flag). The Union flag is hand painted while the regimental flag is a paper one from Warflag that has been carefully glued onto the original cast flag and then touched up with yellow paint to hide the seams and bare edges.

The last foot figure (not pictured) was an officer for my American Revolution Queen's Rangers infantry.

And while I was experimenting with using the Warflag flags to spruce up my British battalions I also decided to see how easy it would be to temporarily modify some of my American Continental battalions so that I could use them in my BAR big battalions game in September. I needed four battalions of Reichsarmee troops for the Armee Abteilung Kreis Obere Sachsen. Again I used Warflag flags, this time extra Hessian ones.


This illustrates two stands on infantry, the one on the left with its Continental flag and the one on the right with its temporary Reichsarmee flag which has just been taped over the Continental flag. Its amazing how something as simple as a flag can change the entire appearance of a unit.

You can look for these and others in my reports next month about the coming battle between the Electoral Army (Brittania, Carpania, and Eisenmuhlen) and the Reichsarmee (Courland, Sachsen-Wachsenstein, and the Kreis Obere Sachsen).