Small Scale Comparison 2: Cavalry

A quick look now at the mounted figures available from the three manufacturers mentioned in my previous post, with some comparison shots of the various types. Below we see Irregular Miniatures' BG11, Loose Order Sabre Cavalry in the front, then Peter Pig's Pack 40, Cavalry Blocks, and bringing up the rear a strip from Tumbling Dice's ISL910 Mounted Cavalry in Shako:

Remember, all photos on this Blog should be 'clickable' for a larger, and often somewhat unflattering Macro view. What is immediately clear on close examination is that the cavalry block from Peter P, has little to offer over the more familiar 2mm one from Irregular, and is little more than being a larger version.

The camera has been somewhat unkind, particularly in the photo below, where for some reason it looks as if the horses sport some form of skeleton eye sockets, but I assure you that in the flesh these do not seem as exaggerated, and are merely the beast's ears!

The block's footprint, of course comes in at 25 x 6mm as opposed to the 15 x 4mm of it's smaller cousin, but I think I just expected more from the proportionately heftier block.

Of course, you're looking at twelve horsemen with a large, clearly visible flag, eight blocks per UK £2.30 pack for a total of some 96 horsemen. As you can see below, there are visible straps/sashes, although this is balanced by the disappointing headgear, but then again, of course this is meant to be an ACW unit, so I suppose is more in the line of a kepi rather than anything more substantial.

Finally we have the two types available from Tumbling D, namely the shako wearing cavalry and their counterparts, ISL910a Mounted Cavalry in Helmet. As you can see, the shako-wearers are lovely little sculpts, if a little passive, with four riders on a strip 30mm long by 3mm wide; they put me very much in mind of similar types available from Navwar/Heroics and Ros in 6mm.

Saddlecloths, a weapon valise, reins and headgear are all nicely sculpted, and had me wondering about a possible use for troops from the Crimean or Franco-Prussian Wars - mini hussars at a bargain price; 32 of these little guys at UK1.80 as opposed to 21 at £2.50 from the 6mm Heroics and Ros Range.

The helmet-wearers hold the same static pose, however this time with a domed head rather than discernible headgear - less coal-scuttle or Tommy Atkins type and rather more conformal, modern, or even sci-fi in shape - so to my mind miss the mark a little:

I guess that some conversion work would be possible here, although whether you would wish to get into something as complicated as that at this scale, notionaly 1/600th, although actually closer to 1/450th, as with the infantry - I'm not sure - headswaps on 4mm figures....hmmm....

even I balk at that!

As I concluded in the previous post, you simply can't beat the range of types available from Irregular in 2mm, although even with them, there are some problems with a lack of obvious headgear, but I certainly think that the Tumbling D minis are excellent given their size compared with 6mm ones, if too passive in pose.

I can't help thinking though, that at some point that they might end up getting a lick of paint as Cardigan's 11th Hussars... wouldn't be too bad either for Colonial/VSF era armies to accompany larger scale Land Ironclads....oh no, sounds like a whole new project........

Next post: teeny artillery!