It's been a while since I was here. Very pleased to have received a unit of French dragoons, very nicely painted by Lee. These chaps are the regiment of La Vrillière, complete with their dismounted contingent (who normally wait on the bookshelf, until they are required).
I have done a couple of units of artillery in the past using only castings from Irregular Miniatures, and I use a lot of command figures from them, to look after my Les Higgins troops, but a complete unit of horse, all from Irregular, is unusual indeed. Irregular's slightly smaller horses are perfect for dragoons.
It took me a while to get around to doing the necessary conversions for this unit, but in fact it was pretty straightforward. The officer and standard bearer have hat transplants, and the drummer is a dragoon trooper, carved within an inch of his life to accept an old spare drum from Musket Miniatures (I think) which has been in my spares box for years. Decades, actually.
The dark red colour was officially described in the dress regs as incarnat, and it is correct that the officers of the regiment chose to wear bright scarlet instead. Quite right, too.
Thanks again Lee! There is another unit of French dragoons in the pipeline...
Very pleasing seeing them all shiny and based like that Tony. Neat little hat conversions too. A joy to paint. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteLee.
Thanks Lee - I used to do a lot of hacking around of figures once - I was very keen, but my confidence has slipped a little with lack of practice (mind you, I'm using less sticking plaster as well!). My Napoleonic French army is full of surgery from the last century - specifically Minifigs eagle-bearers with Higgins heads! Is it just me, by the way, or is superglue not what it was?
DeleteLovely looking unit, I always think red and green make for a cracking uniform. Great work all round!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie - yes, nice colourful unit - a bit of a blessed relief after all those line cavalry units in grey with red cuffs!
DeleteLovely to see French dragoons in their 'bedcaps'. For me it's not just a change from tricorns. It's nostalgia for those old uniform plates in books and a unit of WSS dragoons I bought from Minifigs as a lad. I miscalculated and have got twice as many as I need for my SYW armies, and then found a lot of the time they were dismounted anyway in my period.
ReplyDeleteOh and Donnie is right about the red and green. Adds to the Christmassy look. I shall henceforth know my two units as the régiment dragons Père-Nöelle and régiment dragons de Schrooge.
Santa's little helpers. I understand that the stocking cap was intended to make it more practical to sling a musket, but I suspect that these guys felt they were really wild, and didn't think they looked daft at all. An early taste of the Zouave spirit? - funny how the French took that from their empire - I'm not aware of any military fashions that we imported from ours.
DeleteThe dragoons look great, of course.
DeleteImports from empire -how about Khaki? The word, at least!
David - right on, man. There appears to be a wealth of imported words - "puttee" and "dungaree" also come to mind.
DeleteIrregular are an odd bunch - some of the castings are pretty poor stuff while others are real gems. Finding a range that is predominantly the latter is a win.
ReplyDeleteHi Rob - wouldn't necessarily disagree with that, but the fact that their 20mm are a good match for Higgins (most of them, anyway) has been damned useful this last couple of years!
DeleteA very colourful addition to the ranks!
ReplyDeleteHi Ray - I was a bit scared about these guys, in case they didn't fit in with the usual Les Higgins elegance requirements, but they are nice and cheerful and they work well, I think.
DeleteA very fine unit of Dragoons, Tony.
ReplyDeleteI especially like the mounted drummer!
Thank You Peter - the drummer turned out a lot better than I expected, though to be honest my expectation wasn't very high!
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