10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Mounted Models

[metalface13]

Artizan Designs has some really nice buffalo soldiers, but they are all dismounts. I was thinking about making some mounted versions. Perry Miniatures sells some black union soldier heads for conversions. I could use them for head swaps on the Artizan 7th Cavalry mounted models, but then I wondered about using the plastic Perry Miniatures ACW Cavalry models. Would that be doable? I've never done much historical gaming before, I'm sure there's some difference in uniform or gear, but would it be noticeable to use the ACW cav as 7th or 10th cav for old west purposes?

[frank xerox]

Might be a bit of a stretch for fighting apaches in the 1880s but for the 10 or so years after the civil war I would say why not. If you needed to justify the old fashioned gear, then the 9th & 10th suffered a fair bit of discrimination and would likely be the last cavalry units to get new anything from the army.

Course the drawback is they wont look like Sgt Rutledge...

[Harry Faversham]

I once read that the 9th and 10th had the lowest desertion, and highest reenlistment, rate in the US Cavalry.

[metalface13]

What about using the Perry heads on the Artizan mounted models then? Forage caps on cav?

[metalface13]

I guess it wouldn't be so bad, the Artizan buffalo soldiers have a mix of hats

[frank xerox]

"I once read that the 9th and 10th had the lowest desertion, and highest reenlistment, rate in the US Cavalry"

Yup, they were very good units by the standard of the US army at the time, genuine professionals, whereas other units had a constant problem with deserters (called snowbirds because they disappeared when better weather arrived). Cavalryman being a step up professionally and socially speaking from slave....
Sergeant Rutledge is worth a watch actually, there's a lot in there to think about as well as it being a good Saturday afternoon western.

[sjwalker51]

Might be mistaken, but didn’t Artizan do mounted versions of these in the past?

[metalface13]

Not that I've seen. Just mounted versions of the 7th Cav.

[Malamute]

Not the cheapest option, but I considered headswapping a set of the dismounted 9/10th onto the mounted 7th cav. That way stylistically the figures all match.

[metalface13]

Yeah, I could do headswaps, and put the cav heads on the foot models. Hmm ..

[Bugsda]

"I once read that the 9th and 10th had the lowest desertion, and highest reenlistment, rate in the US Cavalry"

I read somewhere that they had the highest suicide rate, have you ever heard that?

[frank xerox]

I haven't; something to think about though. I would have assumed it would be lower, not that it crossed my mind. Don't suppose you can remember where you read it?

[Bugsda]

No idea at all, it might even have been an internet article but I seem to remember it was serious historical research.