Welcome to the Strelets Forum. Please feel free to discuss any aspect of 1/72 scale plastic figures, not simply Strelets. If you have any questions about our products then we will answer them here.
Try warming up the legs of the cavalrymen so that you can carefully widen the gait a little between the legs. You can generally alter most figures in some way once the plastic is reheated.
When heating I find boiling a kettle, & pouring the water into a bowl better than holding the figure above scolding hot steam! Pop the figure into the bowl of hot water & leave in there until you can tell the plastic is softening up. Use pliers/forceps to hold and manipulate the figure, so as not to scold yourself on the hot water/plastic. Then once altered how you want it, pop into another bowl but of cold water. Bit like being a blacksmith!! It may pay to put the newly altered rider into the cold water while still sat on the horse, so that his legs cool while around the horse, helping keep the correct gait while cooling.
Another method is using a lighter to heat the plastic up in the area you want move, but I find using hot water works just right. Gives an excuse for a cup of coffee or tea while at it too!!
Ah yes, its a bit more awkward if you have already painted them!! Don't worry, its happened to me once too!! I was too eager to paint some cavalry up, only to find they could barely get their legs around the horse, let alone sit in the saddle!!!
Ah yes, its a bit more awkward if you have already painted them!! Don't worry, its happened to me once too!! I was too eager to paint some cavalry up, only to find they could barely get their legs around the horse, let alone sit in the saddle!!!
I pin my riders to their horses before I paint them.
Slightly undignified, but fundamentally, using a small hand-held drill with tiny bit I make a hole in the rider's posterior, then one in the horse' back in the middle of the saddle.
I then push a pin into the hole in the horse, snip it off leaving about 5mm proud, add a little superglue, and push the rider onto it with as much force as is needed to keep him there. You might need to hold him a little bit for security.....
One pin can normally do two horses.....
In addition, for those soft-legged airfix horses, I pin through the base, into the belly of the horse and out the saddle so that the rider is pinned to the horse, the horse is pinned to the base and has a bit of support.