Some painting table output

Having finally got "It Rolls for Ivan" published, I have spent some time applying paint to plastic. I filled up on some boxes of Strelets some months ago as it looked like supplies might be affected by Putin's war in the Ukraine (sorry, "security operation" for my Russian readers).

The boxes I acquired were mainly British Cavalry, as they are a nice generic tricorn-wearing set of cavalry, and also some "Late French Dragoons" because they were cheap.

Taking the last first, I don't really need any late period French Dragoons who wear tricorns, as I intend to get some early period ones when I seen them, to get variety in headgear.

Accordingly I painted them up as some Bavarian Dragoons, Torring-Seefeld's Regiment. As they wear red jackets this may cause some confusion on the table. On the other hand there's also a lot of grey & white amongst the minor nations in the WSS, so mixing stuff up is inevitable.

I've taken some close ups so you can see the level of detail that Strelets are getting on 1/72 soft plastic figures. Even with my painting skills I can pick out button hole and other detail. The lance standard is nicely done.

Here they are from the rear. My only criticism of this set is that the figures are a bit of a faff to fit on the horses, and the slimming of the riders' inner thighs with a sharp knife was required.

The set comes with a dragoon drummer, so you do have to use at least some of them as dragoons. The drummer's elaborate costume with false sleeves is quite a thing close up.

Here's the rear of them so you can see the detail again. I had to guess at the drummer's tunic colour, as I couldn't find an illustration in my collection, nor on line. I have a sneaking suspicion that the jacket and cuff colours should be reversed. You'll note that these have a standard stuck into the base. This is removable as a game marker.

The other half of the box I used as regular French cavalry. This is the "Dragoons at Rest" box, and I quite like the more passive poses rather than the more expansive poses you get in most boxes.

I should have straightened this photograph.

This is the first batch of British Cavalry. I have several boxes of these, so I can swap the poses round to make units all doing the same thing. These likewise had some issues fitting into the saddles but were easily whittled down to be a snug fit. I painted them as the Erbprinz von Hessen-Kassel Dragoons. As the box comes with a square standard I took some sharp scissors to this one

Again, lots of nice detail and easy to pick out. I am so tempted to phase out my Airfix conversions and replace them with this figures, but that's a lot of figures, and I have had them for a long time.

Nice wig-work on the ensign.

Even though I like more passive figures, I think the command figure is nicely animated.

More figures from the same box. These are Leib Horse Regiment from Hesse-Kassel. The trumpeter is a lovely figure. Again I couldn't verify the uniform, but I went for reversal this time.

These figures are a little less stocky that the French Dragoons. They are varnished with Ronseal Antique Pine, which has picked out the folds nicely.

Might have been nice if he was actually blowing the trumpet.

Here's the Hesse-Kassel contingent together. Given these are injection moulded single figures with no separate parts the poses are really good and believable. 

I have several more boxes worth to keep me occupied as the nights draw in this autumn, as well as some infantry as well, so we may be revisiting the early 18th century again sometime soon.