Hanover Fits

I am engaged in a semi-official project to run down the odds and ends from my "to do" shelf. This doesn't count as a full project as all of the armies these figures fit into are "finished" and usable. Many of these are the odd poses you just can't use; or there aren't enough to make up a battalion; or perhaps I already have just too many of that type of unit, and so they'll never be used. Ever. Or at least not all at the same time.

It was this project that got that composite grenadier battalion that featured in the WSS game done, although that box is still not empty.

This is what the shelf looks like. This isn't everything - there are some other odds and ends on my "eye line" shelf above the desk where I keep the really not sure why I have them anymore or misfiring project figures. Those one's I bought to see how they would work out, then didn't like the result. They sit there as a reminder that I don't always get it right.

Some of those boxes are a bit misleading. The brown one marked "French China" is my aborted Lancashire games 1860 French army, abandoned because they figures don't match Irregular. I put them on ebay last year, but no one bought them. Might try again at some point.

So, one of the boxes I had left was Strelet's Peter The Great Russian Dragoons. I bought them to make some Jacobite Cavalry as some of the figures had the right hats (it's always about the hats with me). That didn't use much of the box, as you can see here and here.

It's an odd box of figures as you get more riders than horses - the grenadiers of the dragoon regiments rode doubled up I'm told - and you get some foot figures too. Still I'd bought two boxes worth when I got them to get the hats I needed for Bagot's hussars so I had enough for a couple of units for my WSS armies. Question was, what should they be?

I decided I should do some anti-French allies to add to my Anglo-Dutch, to get a bit of variety in the uniforms

I went for Hanoverian Dragoons in the end. There's a picture in the Osprey book, and the white (yes, that's white) makes a contrast to red and grey. I also have a feeling that there were Hanoverians deployed around London during the '45, so they may do double duty there as well. This lot are Viller's Dragoons from Blenheim. The poses are a bit odd, being the ones I didn't want to use for my Jacobites, so there's a lot of waving around of carbines and pistols, but in a massed army I think I'll get away with that. 

I had enough left over to do Bothmer's Dragoons too. They were both ideal, consisting of two squadrons each, which is my standard WSS size cavalry unit.

The figures have a rough charm, and who am I to complain when most of my cavalry are converted Airfix Napoleonics. I'd describe these as mid-period Strelets. They're better than their early misshapen blobs of ill defined plasticene, but are nowhere near as good as their current production which are as good as anything you can get from anyone in any size and in any material. Anyone who disagrees is blinded by soft plastic prejudice. 

That leaves me with 6 mounted figures in grenadier mitres without horses, who I think will have to go in the bin. I really have no need for spare bits of grenadiers. And the foot figures. They're a bit ugly, but will be joining some spare odds and ends to make a Hanoverian foot battalion. 

Yeah, they're in red, so not variation in colour, but the flags are different.

Another box emptied.