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Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

Hi Strelets,

real great stuff and very useful for 1849 against Hungary too.

Can you tell me if they fought on the Danube? I am surprised to see some with lances, I thought this was abolished in the time of the Crimean war? But as I know you did as always a good research, so I am happy to learned some more.

cheers
uwe

Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

Not to be a skunk at the garden party, but these figures would only be accurate for galloping around the parade ground in 1855. By all accurate accounts, Russian regular cavalry in the Crimea wore overcoats (except for officers and trumpeters here and there), and the dragoons generally wore caps like their infantry counterparts (the dragoons' had a peak). The spiked helmets are a sight to behold and the blue lancers' kurtkas are very nice, but Russian troops just didn't dress like that in combat in the Crimea. Didn't Strelets themselves remark on one of their figure boxes that the Russians were facing major budget deficits in the 1850's, and couldn't afford to outfit their army in full dress on the battlefield?

Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

You are probably right, Samogon, but the uniforms look far better, than the greatcoats would. I rather put some full-dress figures among the ones with the greatcoats, that way it is possible to distiguish the different regiments when carefully painted, and they do really reflect the low-budget being a bit non-uniform. So in my opinion the sets are rather OK, and missing greatcoats are easily done using miliput or green stuff.

Cheers
Zsolt

BTW, Uwe, Russian cavalry in Hungary in 1849 were mostly uhlans and cossacks.

Re: Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

Hi guys,

I thought the same when I saw the pictures. All the metal dragoons I have are in greatcoats.

What sources do you have for dragoons in caps insteadt of helmets?

Zsolt - no good news about lancers and Hussars, for what should I take then the Dragoons?

Strelets, can you help us with some information?

cheers
uwe

Re: Re: Re: Re: 063 - Spanish Dragoons

From the scans these figures look quite like Spanish Dragoons of Alfonso XII used in the Carlist Wars in the 1870's or 1880,s. Also Spanish Lancers like the guard lancers used today have a similar uniform. So I may buy some to increase my small (6 of each) metal 1/72nd scale figures.

Best regards,


Malcolm

Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

Dear Samogon,

we don't have information that they wore only overcoats, though we can't dismiss such a statement as, firstly, the overcoats are obviously more convenient on the campaign and, secondly, cavalry regiments in the Crimea were to a great extent filled with the new recruits that were the first to suffer from the supply shortages as opposed to the regular regiments. We just wanted to depict a cavalry unit that had a distinctive and nice uniform. You gave us though another idea of a generic cavalry set in overcoats, probably with interchangable heads, say uhlan czapkas, dragoon helmets or, indeed peaked caps, like HaT made their German WWII cavalry. What do you think about it?

Regards,

Strelets

Re: Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

Dear STrelets,

a cavalry box in greatcoat would be something very usefull for a lot of campaigns. Tumbling Dice made their metal Russian cavalry all in greatcoats with seperate heads for Dragoons, Ulans and Cossacks. Great stuff, as I can use the Ulans for 1812-14 too.

If it would be possible to do a set with different heads it would be great.

BTW, had the Russians dragoons in the 1853 Danube campaign? As it was summer, the won't need greatcoats.

cheers
Uwe

Re: Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

That would be a great set!

Re: Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

It would be a very good idea for us as costumers and for you as company, everybody will buy more than one box. I like the Malcom's idea about Lanceros of Alfonso XII of the spanish carlist wars but we'll need infantry (isabelist infantry could be used in the african campaigns).
Best Regards

Re: Re: Re: 063 - Crimean Russian Dragoons

I would also like to see a set with interchangle (swoppet-style) heads.

If you do, please ask the sculptor to make them with a neck/peg. If you go back to the Contributions section, and look at the U.S. Cavalry/Apache Scouts, and scroll down towards bottom, you can see how I converted all 12 into Apaches. The customer could then use a pinvise drill to plug in the head without glue if desired.