3mm ACW: Cavalry preview photos

Thanks to an ultra-quick despatch by Fighting 15s, I am now the proud owner of some of Oddzial Osmy's new 1/600th Cavalry releases, so I though I'd share a few close-up pics and my initial impressions.

First off, I must say that I decided this time around not to invest in one of the Cavalry mounted command packs, as I was over this month's budget for Wargaming purchases already, and further I think I'm more interested in deploying the Cavalry more in a mounted infantry style than honest-to-goodness 'arme blanche' horsemen.

As before with the infantry, on receipt, there was the visible venting remnants to the bases and figures, but these snapped off without trouble, and although there were some very small areas of flash visible between the legs of the central rider on some of the strips, these were easily poked out with the point of a needle file. Again, the overall proportions and poses are nicely modelled, although there is a slight difference in 'heft' between the three mounted Cavalry poses.

Above we can see either side of the Cavalry strip, with the two riders at the front wearing soft hats, whilst the one at the rear is ostensibly in a kepi. I found that the modelling of the latter headgear is rather slight, and therefore a bit underwhelming - viewed from some angles he looks almost bare-headed, but he does have a nice open pose and a good visible sabre.

I think the central figure is probably the best overall, with the final figure being a nice active pose, but having the horse in mid-gallop means the footprint seems smaller than the other two, and this is noticeable on the tabletop from above - visually this tricks you into thinking he is slightly smaller than the others.

All of the Cavalry are in motion, rather than just standing, which I rather like - but if you're looking for troopers at rest this might be an issue.

Above we can see a strip next to an Infantry one - noticeable is the greater thickness of the base of the latter, but I think overall, given the difficulties in sculpting anything this small, Marcin has done an excellent job keeping the relative sizes in proportion.

One thing to say is that I found that at least in this batch, the nice deep grooving between the mounted figures meant that the strip could be snapped apart into individuals merely by hand - no need for clippers or cutters - or any worries about kamikaze flying minis disappearing off the workbench!

Another view below shows a strip next to a Command one:

Once more, pretty good proportionally, even with the slightly thinner base part, and the galloping pose versus a static one.

Next up then, the excellent Dismounted Cavalry strip, which includes a single mount with nicely modelled saddle gear, the same with a kepi-wearing Horse-Holder, and two dismounted skirmishing figures, both kneeling, with weapons that are noticeably shorter than the Skirmisher strip's rifles - Carbines of course!

The front figure wears a this time clearly visible kepi, and the rear one a soft hat - I found a slight tendency amongst the strips for this figure to have a bit of flash - but again this was easily removable.

The skirmishing figs here could of course be used to augment those already available amongst the Infantry ones, and the Horse-Holder and two mounts hold out some nice opportunities for adding to command stands as points of interest - the Holder himself is a little on the short side given that he is meant to be standing, but not so much as to be disappointing.

The horses are once more nicely scaled alongside the mounted Cavalry ones; I think I will be doing a base that has a mixture of all the above types - a troop of dismounted figs backed by their mounts and Horse-Holders, with to one side another troop of mounted figs galloping by - that's the plan, anyway - a 50 x 50mm base to match the Infantry ones - it is tempting to do an exclusively charging Cavalry base, but in terms of a balance between the Historical reality of ACW Horse and gameplay, I think this will, as it were, cover all bases - showing the more common deployment as mounted infantry, with just a suggestion of their ability to fight from the saddle.

A well-referenced discussion of how ACW cavalry were deployed and used, with particular reference to their choice of weapons and tactics can be found here:

http://mmu.academia.edu/GervasePhillips/Papers/131153/Sabre_versus_Revolver_Mounted_Combat_in_the_American_Civil_War

Really interesting stuff...

Finally, a quick size comparison photo in the light of the recent announcements by Steve over at SPC Wargame Scenery that his exciting 3mm Buildings will soon be available both at PicoArmor and Fighting 15s - something I'm definitely looking forward to; here an Infantry strip up against the ubiquitous Monopoly buildings - they would certainly provide an alternative, or could bulk out a town alongside a few 'character' properties:

Information on the real deal can be found here:

http://wwwspcwargamescenery.blogspot.com

I hope to see a lot more to come from them - I have a hankering for some split rail or 'snake' fencing too - just can't imagine how to scratch build this in 1/600..... :-)