Wargaming the English Civil War in 1/72 Scale Part 2: Cavalry

Revell 30YW Swedes painted as Parliamentarian horse

Cavalry and Dragoons

There are fewer options for ECW horse in 1/72 than for infantry, but it is still quite possible to build up varied and accurate units of cavalry and dragoons. Here are the possibilities.

Revell Swedish Cavalry

Read the review here:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=311

This is a beautiful set of cavalry for the 30YW that contains possibly the best horses ever made in this scale. The figures are quite suitable for the ECW (apart from some minor quibbles about swords), and include cuirassiers, harquebusiers and unarmoured horse suitable for dragoons. The Revell set of Swedish infantry also incidentally includes some kneeling figures armed with flintlocks who make great dismounted dragoons.

Dragoons (Revell figures)

You could easily just use this set to provide the cavalry for a Royalist or Parliamentarian army, but there is one problem – availability. In its wisdom Revell has not produced the set for years, although it seems to have just been re-released as a limited edition and is advertised on the Michigan Toy Soldier site. My advice is to grab some while you can. Another alternative, depending on your scruples and tolerance for carving off flash, is to buy the pirated copies of the set produced by Mars. They have released badly moulded and quite illegal copies split into two boxes – cuirassiers and dragoons.

If you can’t get hold of this set, there are some other possibilities.

Strelets Reitars of Charles XII

Read the review here:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=825

These figures are for the Great Northern War. However, they can be converted into pretty reasonable ECW cavalry. They don’t mix well with Revell though, being the usual Strelets ‘chunky’ style. To convert them, cut off the heads of any figures wearing tricorne hats and replace them with heads from A Call To Arms. The Reitars aren’t wearing backplates, but this can easily be disguised with a good paint job. It would also probably be more realistic to carve off some or all of the holster covers on the horses, as they look a bit too ‘18^th Century’. I quite like the effect of these figures, particularly for the New Model Army.

SHQ

SHQ have some 20mm ECW cavalry in metal. They didn’t impress me as much as their infantry. Poses are few, and the horses are too small. Some of the riders can be used in a unit on different horses.

From left to right: Three Tumbling Dice riders, a TD 'heavy' horse, a SHQ horse, SHQ rider, ACTA pikeman

Tumbling Dice

Tumbling Dice riders compared to Mars copies of Revell figures

TD have a good range of cavalry and dragoons with separate heads. This allows for more variation in a unit, and also allows figures to be used as Covenanters. The main problem with TD figures is the lack of variety in the horse poses. They have two – one with pistol holsters and one without. If. Like me, you don’t want your cavalry to appear to me trotting in step, you will have to source your horses from elsewhere. I have mounted a few on Revell horses, and like their look.

TD (and one SHQ) riders on TD and Revell horses

Next time - the artillery.