"15mm French Dragoon Horses" Topic

Does anyone know where I can get 15mm French dragoon horses without riders?
They are for a dismounted dragoon unit so they would need to be standing rather than moving.
Thanks
Mal

AB make some dragoon horses in reasonably static poses (though these will be on the large side if your other figures are true 15s):

Fighting 15s sells separate 'Remounts' so you could probably ask them if they could supply just the horses: link

Other than that Warrior might be a good bet. They don't advertise separate horses but I am sure they would do them for you. However, I think you might have to settle for a walking rather than a standing pose. This is one of their Austrian dragoon horses (unfortunately there are no pictures of their French dragoon horses on the site):

A figure like this might work for what you want. After all horses on a battlefield are likely to be 'fretting', pawing the ground and what have you rather than standing stock still.

AB would not work because the saddles etc are attached to the rider.

Jurgen

The Warrior French Dragoon horses are really nice SJ. I won't use AB -too expensive for what they are. I'm going to be using the Minifigs dismounted dragoons. I'll get in touch with John up at Warrior and see what he can do.
The photo below are Warrior French dragoons. The Cuirassier horses are the same. They come up a treat!

Here's what they turn out like. I think they're pretty good figures.

Hi Mal,

Those are very nice paint jobs, I do like the look of the Warrior horses.

You have probably already thought of this but if you are using the Minifig dismounted dragoons and you want some variety you can also use the figures in their French Revolution range. I don't think there is any difference in the uniform (or at least not one you can see in 15mm).

Mal, they may be more expensive as you note above, but I why wouldnt you use the new AB dismounted dragoon set with the horseholder and horses? They are just what you are after.

TMP link

There are four different horses in the set. The holder and horses come separately from the skirmishers.

john

Warrior Napoleonics look better than some of the other periods I have seen from them. Obviously a different sculptor. Is the entire line of similar quality? They do look good.

SJ, the command will be from the revolutionary range. Baxterj, I won't use the AB ones primarily because of the price. They cost about double Minifigs and triple Roundway etc. That gets me an awful lot more army for my money. Plus, I'm doing away with all my 18s and switching back to proper 15s because I prefer them.
Ancientsgamer, the whole range that I have seen so far seems to be similar quality. I've got big units (24 figure)of Russian dragoons and Uhlans on the go at the moment and they are nice too. The castings are very clean too. The photos are as they were when they arrived. I've started photographing figures as I get them now as a guide to size and quality. They are a far cry from the Warrior Miniatures of the 80s.
The only trouble I've had is a couple of bayonets breaking because they are pretty finely cast but a length of staple and a touch of metal epoxy has put that right.
Delivery is always very quick too.

Hi Mal,

Do you know whether 3rd gen Minifigs will fit comfortably on Warrior horses. I was thinking of getting some Minifig Revolutionary Wars cavalry but I have never been keen on the current range of horses. The anatomy is okay but they all tend to be in galloping poses, while I prefer my horses to be walking rather than charging into battle.

Hi SJ.
I don't know about that. The only 3G Minifigs I've used are staff and they have the fore part of the saddle moulded on. I have to say though that the horses that came with them are really nice -particularly the walking ones. They're far better than the 2G kangaroo jobs. They are what stopped me using Minifigs. I know Caliver offer individual figures to make up units so perhaps they would also do individual horses.
Thinking about it, that could be an answer to my question.
I can't see a lot of difference between the Revolutionary dragoons and Napoleonic apart from a slightly different helmet, no eagle and more facial hair. Have you looked at the Chariot ones from Magister Militum? Again, they are on charging horses but one can only ask…

Hi Mal,

Some of the staff officers' horses are very nice, it's the ones for the rank and file that I am less keen on. Funnily enough, it is the 2nd gen horses I like best (but then they don't look like kangaroos to me!). I haven't tried Chariot yet but some of their figures do look good and their horses do look well-proportioned.

I found the 2g horses looked better if the tails were lowered and the same with a couple of the 3g ones too. I'll see what I can find of Chariot to give you an idea. I'm sure I've some of their cavalry somewhere.
I found the attack march revolutionary infantry and the enthusiastic ones fitted in well with the second generation figures to add variety.

Being the US producer of Minifigs for 13 years, the only standing horse in the range was Napoleon's (or whomever you wanted to mount on it). 1NZ was the code IIRC. The "prancing" mate was 2NZ. It's right leg was up but otherwise standing. We put both in all the "Personality" and "Generals" packs. (Yes, talking 3rd Gen here.)

Hope that helps. We sold a lot of the dismounted dragoons from the Fr Rev period to Napoleonic gamers doing the Peninsular War. IIRC, the main difference was the horsehair plume seemed to be slightly longer. But at 15mm scale, hardly noticable to me. Anyone who would say "Ouy, yer hanging plume is 1/2mm too long!" needs to get a life! 8>)

Thanks Dye4minis,I've got the dragoon command figures -they're really nicely done. I think I'll probably just use 1 stand of horses+holder in pretty much the same way as I only use 1 limber for each gun battery, so I can probably do the mounts with what I have available.

Hi Mal, the current crop of Minifigs tie in nicely with both Heritage and Naismith size wise. I've got a few of the 3 figure personality sets; they come with 2 standing horses and one animated horse. Same horses for Prussian personalities as the Poniatowski set. (Still not got round to finding out about Naismith Warsaw figures, but at least they have a CO waiting their arrival)

Hi Yourpaceormine. I have a few of the character and colonel sets and they do fit in nicely with Naismith etc. I'm going to use a couple of Russian Colonels (minus the holster covers)on Warrior Hussar and Essex rearing horses to use as Generals. They are easy to vary slightly and are FAR better than the Naismith Russians. I don't know what happened to them but the whole range is very poor -tiny, hunched blokes and good horses.
Mal.

Good Lord man! Can't mention the R word. I'm still aspiring to adding to the lead mountain with the Duchy of W. Then A will rear its ugly head. The R word is a good 12 months off

I like the A word best. They are the army I'm re-building first -apart from the Imperial Guard of course. I'll never use it all of course but I love looking at it! Even if I get the workshop re-invented as a games room I doubt if I'd be able to have a game big enough to need them all. The cavalry currently consists of 20xlancers 1-3 plus Kleve-Berg, 40x Grenadiers á Cheval and Empress Dragoons, 1st and 2nd Chasseurs plus young guard x2each and Mamelukes and now the Gendarmes both in unitsof 12 which I know is overstrength but they just look good. Eventually I'll have evry unit of the Guard at 33:1

I've just received some of the Naismith Gendarmes d'Elite and the will make fantastic and unusual elite dragoons -they're holding their muskets, nice for mounted horse-holders minus guns or vedettes with them.

I've also received the Roundway foot dragoons which are absolutely brilliant little fellas. These will be going down to NZ once I finish them.

These fit in really well with Minifigs and Heritage.
I also got some Naismith Prussian Grenadier command to make a Heritage unit upto strength and they fit perfectly.

I took these photos when the order arrived as a record of each figure. None of them have been cleaned up beyond removing the runner between the rider's feet.
The green line is at 15mm.