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Tuesday 21 August 2018

Cavalry - any feedback?

The Cuirassiers have now been released for over a month now, so hopefully some of you have taken the plunge to buy the moulds, cast and assemble some figures. It would be interesting to get some feedback before PA progress to the dragoons, which are hopefully later this year.

Size



PA have accepted that there has been an issue with 'scale creep' with the cuirassier riders, and intend to correct this with the dragoons. The current plan is to make the dragoons about 7% smaller in all directions, this will:
  • Reduce the rider to about 42mm tall, so he will tie in with the infantry (he is currently too tall).
  • Reduce the horse to about 15 hands - which is correct for a dragoon horse (it is correct for a 16 hand cuirassier horse).
  • Reduce the assembled weight by about 20%. (My assembled troopers weigh in at 90g each, compared with 60g for the K-931 cavalryman - that is 50% more bulk. If they are reduced by 20% they should weigh in at about 72g, so should a nice size.)

Multi Part?


With the figures that I cast there were a few of issues with the assembly (note that I had a set of 'test moulds', so slightly different from the ones that went into production):
  • On some castings the torso was narrow relative to the horse, so was difficult to align (I do however use a variety of metals from old figures, so can tend to come out different sizes as they shrink differently). This could be easily rectified by just making the torso wider, so that there is always an overlap.
  • I had difficulty fitting the right arm, particularly on the trooper. The problem was that the peg often ended up too large for the socket. I fixed that by shaving down the peg, and understand that this was modified before they went into production.
I know that PA are considering whether or not to continue with the multi part route so your feedback would be appreciated. (My preference is to continue multi part, but make them such that fit is less critical).

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Yet More Austrian Cuirassiers

Richard Hattersley has now painted the figures to be photographed for the front of the packaging - these are imposing chaps.


He has chosen regiment De Ville, which I was surprised to see had natural leather belts, which makes an interesting change (http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=De_Ville_Cuirassiers).


Hopefully they will be available soon?

As always comments welcome.