"Elite minis 28mm horses Light or Heavy" Topic

Hi

I have many 28mm cavalry regiments, for my own collection, which I've painted and now propose to unite horse and rider. This leaves me with a question; which Elite minis units come with light horses and which with heavy? Some cases are obvious, but I wonder about

1. Austrian Uhlans
2. Austrian Cheveauleger
3. British light cavalry (in reality they had big horses
4. French lancers

Are there any surprises, such as French Guard lights coming with heavy horses?

I don't want to end up with a bunch of horses of the wrong size. I really have too many of these horse to consider matching up horses to riders before I start. There are lots! Not only that but I have a ton of unpainted stuff to start working on.

I can't get any answer out of Pete Morby. So I'm turning to TMP.

Dear Sir
Austrian Uhlans, French Lancers and Guard Lights are definitely on light horses. British light cavalry were often on better quality horses with plenty of hunter stock but probably would not look like the heavy horses.

Austrian Chevauxlegere would be on a medium horse. It would be between that of the Hussars and Cuirassier for height. There is a different confirmation between horses of the light and heavy breeds.

So all in all I would go for the light horses.

Stephen

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately this doesn't help me. I just want to know which horses Pete Morby, at Elite, would have allocated for these troops. I just have to hope that someone who collects Elite reads this message.

Peter recently changed his e-mail address ( I don't have it with me, it is on my PC at the office and I can't access it until the end of next week). He might have updated the correct "sales" e mail on his web site.

As often happens, I cannot find my own copy of the catalog, even though I had been consulting it almost daily over the past several weeks. I did find an old copy and looked at the bottom of the bases of some of the figures that I have, so here goes:

LIGHT HORSES
H10 light horse galloping w/head up – good for lancers, hussar and chasseurs

H10A light horse galloping w/head down – I don't like this horse at all as it seems to be too small for anything. Morbey uses it with his lancers.

MEDIUM
H12 medium horse galloping
H12a same as above, but with head up – both of these are good for dragoons and lancers

H1 medium horse walking or trotting – this is the best horse and I use it for my dragoons and for poses that have less animation (i.e swinging the swords over their heads)

H4 medium horse galloping – again, suitable for dragoons and lancers

H2 medium/light horse standing – a nice stationary pose good for officers and any rider that is not swinging his sword over his head.

HEAVY

H13 heavy horse galloping with legs out – this is my favorite heavy horse. The head is up and the front legs are slightly out in a pose that looks good with the French cuirassiers with shouldered swords and with any other heavy cavalry.

H6 heavy horse standing – good for second rank or units in reserve, but use only if the figure has its sword down or resting on its shoulder. I won't look good with a highly animated rider

H8 heavy horse galloping head down – front legs are really stretched out front and the back slightly leans forward – I don't like this horse because no matter how much I file the bottom of the base, the mold line makes it difficult to get the figure to stand up on its own, so sometimes gluing the horse to base is hard to do as the horse falls over before the glue sets.

H5 heavy horse galloping head up – I believe that the legs are bunched. OK pose, but sometimes it is hard to seat the rider because of the position of the neck – requires some extra filing to make the rider fit.

Note that H5, H8 and H13 together (mixed together) make for a very dynamic looking unit, sort of like the pix of the Scots Greys charging at Waterloo.

Thanks Jim. This will be useful as I'm going to order some Russians and Prussians from Aus. From Aus you can order exactly the horses you want.

Do you think these are what PM matches with light horses?
1. Austrian Uhlans
2. Austrian Cheveauleger
3. British light cavalry (in reality they had big horses
4. French lancers

When I got my figures PM had four type of horse "bags"
A. Light Galloping
B. Light Standing
C. Heavy Galloping
D. Heavy Standing

I have thousands and there was never a link between specific units. Actually I don't even know if there is a horse for every rider (experience makes me doubt this as I'm short loads of figures).

Another question – what does PM use for officers in Battalions? Stupidly I separated these for painting. Was never sure I put back the right ones… oh well, at least this is just for my own collection!

Actually, PM lists his figures as "Horses" and "Heavy Horses" and doesn't make a distinction between light and medium -- that was my take on what they are. He now sells them in bags of mixed types, but you can order the individual horse numbers, say all H1 or H6 etc.

Anything that isn't in the "Heavy" category should work for everything except cuirassiers, guard horse grenadiers and carbiniers. PM tends to bag the standing or rearing horses with the officers.

The H1 horse is a good all around horse if you want trotting, but less animated look to your unit. I use it for both dragoons and lancers/uhlans (the latter, especially if the lance is vertical instead of couched)

The H10 is a good one for the wild galloping look to your unit and looks good if mixed with the H12. I'm looking at a Russian uhlan on an H12 as I type this and it looks good, but less so on the H10 which appears to be slightly smaller. If you have the horses already, the numbers are engraved on the bottom, albeit sometimes they are hard to read,

Thanks Jim. I will have a look through my horses and identify the types you mention.

Neil