Monday, October 3, 2011

Sneak preview 3 - HaT Wurttemberg cavalry


Hello again!

After writing the article about the Prussian hussars and Brunswickers, I decided that the Wurttemberg cavalry is worth it's own threat. Why? Because they make up a much better appearance when painted. Honestly, I think that the Wurttembergers are really better stuff then the rest, although they share some of the problems of the other sets (regarding horses, arms, weaponry etc.). Those men are representing the Wurttemberg chasseurs a cheval and therefore are so to say light cavalry. The other types of Wurttemberg cavalry were dragoons, cuirassiers and chevaux leger.
An interesting thing about them is that their uniforms have not changed during the entire Napoleonic era, except from replacing the helmets with shakos around 1814.  So the only difference between the colours were either fully coloured breasts or breasts were only the outer lines were coloured different then the rest of the uniform.

So what we have here, are a trooper and a trumpeter from the regiment Herzog Louis in their 1812 outfit. 


As far as I know, those are the ones that will be seen on the box art. The second possible unit that can be created with theses figures, is the regiment Koenig. The third chasseur a cheval regiment was the regiment Prince Adam, which can't be done with this set because it was founded past 1814 and at that time, the Wurttemberg army was no longer equipped with caterpillar helmets, but with somewhat unique shakos.
So this is a trooper of regiment Koenig, 1812:
 

I don’t know if a different artist was responsible for creating these figures. They simply look a bit better, although their faces aren’t high class, too. Oh - the horses look quite the same. They match quite much with the Brunswicker horses, except from the saddlecloth.
What is interesting about the horses is that the sculptor seemingly had a problem with the horse gear. The snaffle has a lace which goes from in front of one ear to the other side. This is correctly done on the left side of the horses’ head – but for some strange reason it is missing on the other.

So after looking at the list of different Wurttemberg cavalry units, I decided to try some conversions. The dragoons were just impossible, because they wear a special sort of shakos that I haven’t seen on other figures except from the HaT Wurttemberg infantry jaegers, but unfortunately, their heads are too small for swapping.
For the start, I tried out the Chevaux leger. At the moment, I already finished a trooper and an officer, but for the latter I still haven't finished the horse, because the saddlecloth and equipment for chevaux leger units looks far different and requires at least some basic sculpting work. I'm also working on an example for Wurttemberg horse artillery - so the conversions will be seen in a different posting. 

CU then!

2 comments:

  1. Lovely work, Zed!

    Any word on when they'll be released?

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  2. Well - I don't know. I presume next year, but I don't follow the HaT board regularly, so I can't tell you. Maybe you ask them? ;-)

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