Polish Dragoons
/Now that I had most of the pure cavalry that I needed for my 17th Century Poles, it was time to attend to the rest of the army. I’d already painted a unit of Haiduks (q.v.) so now needed to sort some Dragoons: a mainstay of any Polish force.
The boxed set of Polish Dragoons from By Fire & Sword was just what I needed in terms of mounted figures (the box comes with nine: just the right amount for my basing system) but light on foot: my Dragoon bases have seventeen figures on them rather than the nine provided.
Luckily, I had enough Haiduks left over (that box came with more than I needed!) to make up the numbers, although I did need to add a command set from the ever-reliable Essex Miniatures as well. As I wanted two units of Dragoons I therefore bought two boxed sets of Dragoons from By Fire & Sword, and then two sets of command figures and horseholders from Essex.
First up are the mounted Dragoons. These are okay figures but, as is now usual with the By Fire & Sword range, provided with plastic horses and metal men.
Firstly, let me say that the plastic horses are a million times better than the disasters that were the horses provided with the Winged Hussars from the same manufacturer. These horses were crisp and clean, no imperfections: lovely.
I still think it’s a bit weird to have metal figures on plastic horses - seems somewhat top heavy to me - but, as you can see, they paint up well…particularly as I was back to using Contrast Paints after an unfortunate attempt at a return to black undercoat and layering with the aforementioned Haiduks.
The foot Dragoons also came out nicely, particularly the command figure from Essex (even if you can’t see him very well in the photo) and the horseholders.
So that’s one unit of Dragoons done, with one more to go.
