Creating ECW Dragoon Horses

After the success of the AWI Dragoons on these new Wargames Atlantic Horses, I thought I would try them on others. These are some horseless ECW dragoons from Foundry. The only difference is, these do not have saddles moulded on.

I was hoping the blanket that comes with the plastic set would fit these old Foundry figures, but it made the horse way too wide. So I went back to my old method of cutting away the plastic horse until the rider fitted.

I thought it best to roll out and cut a thin saddle cloth, then press the rider down onto it.

The rider pressed into place.

Once the rider was nice a snug on his new mount, it was time to make some crude sacks and bags to give the horse a dragoon look.

To add some interest, I put texture into the various sacks and bags using a sculpting tool. These should hopefully catch the ink wash and show the texture.

This helmeted dragoon has been lucky and carries a stack of supplies.

Adding Blackett rolls saves the job of modelling saddles.

These four Foundry dragoons will reenforce some Redoubt miniatures to create a full unit of twelve. Dragoon units are expensive to create, as you have to make mounted and dismounted versions of the troopers. So fixing up these old figures is a good way of saving money on the pricey horse troopers.

Above is interesting, it shows a plastic ECW horse from Warlord Games. The two are a nice match for eachother. Dragoons don't carry the pistols but tend to be stacked up with booty and supplies. Forming raiding and scouting units, tasked with foraging for the army.

Here is the Redoubt dragoon horse, I used this as a guide to create mine.

As all these Foundry figures are the same pose, it's nice to add variation with the horses and packs.