20mm/1:72 US Cavalry

[Cubs]

Other than the decidedly inaccurate (but fun) plastic offerings, does anyone know of a good metal range of 'Plains Wars' US Cavalry in 20/1:72?

Or has anyone heard a rumour of a plastic manufacturer finally ticking all the boxes with a decent range?

Right now my PlanB is to heavily convert a bunch of plastics, which I'd like to avoid if possible.

[Londoncopper]

The Waterloo set is very good for plastic, sadly, the PSR site is down so I cannot link it.
Raventhorpe do a range but I have not seen them, Irregular also do 20mm metal

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/indexes/20mmindex.htm

[Cubs]

Thanks Copper, the Waterloo look to be the best of the plastics (the PSR site going tits-up is the subject of another thread on the site - hopefully it's back soon) but the Irregular ones are all dismounted!

I know it's a tough ask, but I was really looking for 'patrol' type poses for the cavalry, ie. holding reins, looking about, perhaps firing the odd carbine, not in full Hollywood gallop. I foresee a lot of work no matter how I go about it. I may have to break my home-casting duck with these.

[Londoncopper]

If you contact Irregular with your suggestions then they may add them to the range, I assume you have to get the ACW mounted figures for the time being.
Elheim also take commissions so that might be worth exploring.

Whilst these are ACW there may be something here of interest.

http://www.shqminiatures.co.uk/Ranges/20mmACW/20mmACWmain.php?UID=2013110317114992.232.98.138

[Cubs]

To be honest, I reckon the differences between ACW cavalry and Plains War are minimal (in fact they overlap) if they exist at all, so I'd be happy with that. I've already got some Imex Union Cavalry, which is quite close. But it really does seem to be a 'blind spot' of minis that there are quite a few 1:72 US Cavalry plastics, but none that are really good. They all seem to have basic errors, either in equipment or pose. Hollywood's influence I guess.

[Londoncopper]

Indeed, I always thought they actually wore white braces and gloves just like my old Timpo and Britains toy soldiers.
I would have loved 1/72 versions of the Herald 7th Cavalry!

[Cubs]

It's really difficult trying to nail down any specific 'rules' for their kit as well. I've got the Osprey book, and mostly it seems to hold it's hands up and and admit that evidence is kind of sketchy. Regulations kept chopping and changing, and reached the various commands at different times, plus of course units always had 'campaign' variations to a greater or lesser extent (depending on the individual whim of the commander). It's useful I suppose, because there's very little that is absolutely, categorically wrong, but plenty that is mostly probably not right either!

Perhaps I should stick to Vikings and be done with it.

[Cubs]

I decided to convert an Imex plastic to see how it goes. For reasons best known to myself, I went for Milliput white ... never again. I forgot how completely unforgiving it is and although you get a smooth finish, it will also smudge, smear and mark with a gust of wind. Next time it's Greenstuff, with paper straps.

I wanted my cavalryman to be the 'classic' looking John Wayne stylie, with the cream fatigue hat and gauntlets, and for no reason I could fathom, the illustrator for the Osprey book neglected to include this outfit in his pics. There were a few photographs showing troopers thus equipped, but no illustrations. Ho hum.

All I did was carve off the bottom of the jacket with an extra sharp scalpel, to show the neatly tucked tunic with the belt on the outside. The original model has the pistol on the wrong side, so this needed to be carefully cut off (so as not to cut the sabre straps) and the bottom of the jacket modelled on with putty, along with the pistol on the right side and a little pouch (pistol/carbine ammo?) next to the sabre.

The cross-belt was added (I'll use paper for this next time) for the carbine sling, with a buckle on the back. I might leave this off dismounted models, because they'll be carrying their carbines.  



The soft plastic is annoying to cut, because it scags and tears instead of cutting perfectly, so it's essential to have as sharp a blade as possible. I'll be trying to convert a horse next, to a standing pose (I can't imagine anyone trying to fire a carbine sideways from a moving horse) and then we'll see how it all paints up.

[Cubs]

PS> I almost forgot, the hat was done by cutting off the kepi and then putting on the brim. I scored the flat top of the guy's heads slightly (and shaved a bit off the side of his face by mistake!) and then used a circle of paper from a hole punch, glued on with super-glue. It was the perfect size, how lucky is that! I made sure there was plenty of super-glue all over the paper and when it dried I bent the sides up a bit with tweezers. Then the top of the hat was added with putty and shaped.

It looks exactly how I wanted it to look.

[Cubs]

... and the prize for the worst photo on the site goes to ...

It's evening here and the light's terrible, but it's probably anough to see what I've done. I chopped off one leg and put a bent pin in, covering it with greenstuff and sculpting it to the right sort of shape. It was surprisingly easy actually, just a case of poking and pulling the stuff until it matched a standing leg on another hoss.

I also removed the flying mane and put a stationary one in, plus I chopped a small wedge out of the underside of the tail and pulled it down with a spot of glue. This makes the tail look like it's hanging rather than swishing.

I'm really just practising on this one fig, to see how viable it is and whether it gives me the look I'm after. From here on in I might be thinking about casting multiples for myself. I dunno, I've never done it.

[Quirkworthy]

Enterprising stuff Cubs. Slightly crazy, perhaps, but only in a way we're all guilty of 

[Cubs]

This is him, in iconic John Wayne style uniform. As an exercise it was extremely useful, lots of fun and there's plenty of stuff to work on if I want to do it again.

His head looks small (not helped by me shaving a section off his face with my clumsy scalpel work) and thus the hat looks big, so that's something to work on next time. The horse also looks large compared to the rider, but there's not much I can do about that. The pistol holster and ammo pouch were both quite tricky to sculpt in place, so I've already done half a dozen of each on a plastic sheet in greenstuff and they can be picked up and glue in place if needed. I may also do some ammo belts and bowie knives on other riders, just for fun. Arms will need to be resculpted if I want riding models not holding a weapon.







Yes, happy enough with that, but I don't know if it's worth trying to do them in any numbers because of the extra work. If only someone would make historically accurate ones I like the look of, in poses I want.

[Treebeard]

Brillant painting. This is 20mm ... Respect

[Cubs]

Cheers fella. I probably spent too long on it, but what the hey ... it's a hobby, right?

[Orctrader]

1/72nd soft plastic...that paint job is excellent.