"Opinions on 28mm ACW cavalry" Topic

Hi Everyone:

I started collecting ACW figures and purchased a box of Perry basic ACW troopers, a box of artillery and a box of cavalry. The Perry Bros are masterful horse sculptors, but the horses in the ACW cav boxed set are enormous! The riders look a little dwarfed (but okay) on the horses, but the horses tower over the Perry metal and plastic foot troops. I'm really particular about scale for historical subjects. I know they are very cost effective, but they are just too huge. Does anyone else feel this way?

I'm interested in getting some smaller cavalry figures instead of the Perry plastic. What cavalry mix well with Perry plastic and metal infantry? Foundry? Redoubt? Sash and Saber? It's funny that there are tons of comparisons for ACW infantry, but I can't find comparison photos of cavalry.

I'm curious to hear from veteran ACW gamers.

Thanks in advance,
Matt Beauchamp
Hydra Miniatures
hydraminiatures.com

Here are some Sash and Saber and Foundry that I painted a few years back.

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Those look great, Scomac. Did I read correctly that the Foundry cavalry are larger than the Sash and Saber ones?

I think that the Perry Plastic horses are actually much closer to real life size than their metal ones.

Fenlon (now adventure miniatures) miniatures have lovely cavalry ( the finest in my opinion) available in Australia from Elite miniatures

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Cheers
Matt

I think if they are well painted Perry plastic cavalry look really good. To my mind they come up much better than their infantry counterparts. I have both plastic and metal infantry from Perry and the metal stuff is miles better.

Not only are the cavalry good the amount they saved over metal cavalry from any maker allowed me to plow cash back into metal infantry!

Perry Plastic Cavalry tick a lot of boxes for me to be honest …lovely sculpts at a reasonable price

I like the Perry cavalry, too. By themselves they look great. However, they dwarf the plastic foot troops and are even larger than the metal generals mounted on horses. If only they were 10% smaller! Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and use them.

Ditto Trajanus re Perry metal v plastic.

Their horses are proportionately closer to scale than their infantry, which gives them a large-ish look.

For those who probably never have: find a horse. Stand next to it. Then tell me something about scale.
Imagine if you will, MOST horses you find today unless you LIVE with them out west are going to be smaller than what might be found back in the day. Todays horses are NOT being bred for pulling wagons or logs around the farm, so their offspring I think, IMO, appear to be smaller than what might have been back then. Then again, remember, even TJ Jacksons Little Sorrel was reported to be small ish but that was not a CAVALRY horse per se. Anyway, really.. theres no reason to be so finicky about these things. For instance, do you have a regiment on the table and a house next to it? How big is the house? The house model in 28mm scale IS WAY TOO BIG compared to the size of the regiment!! Manf. are making huge mistakes because they are making stuff the size of their models. The truth is, a 28mm regiment on the table, say about 8 guys on a stand, means a house that is, a group of buildings, would be about 2 inches in height and width length. See? A bridge would be about 2 inches long and creeks would be about 2 inches wide. A RIVER would be about 3 inches wide. See? The problem is here, everyone forgets what we SHOULD be doing is like the old video games, where the figs had to be bigger than the terrain in order to be seen on the computer screen. Same thing here. Size of horse and figure vs. foot soldier not so important as much as terrain v. figure.

TIME AND SPACE guys.

For my money, I particularly like the Foundry cavalry figures, and up until the recent release of the Perry metals, would have said that they are hands-down the best. They mix and match just fine with pretty much any of the other ranges.

companycmd,

While I understand you comments regarding ground scale and figure scale, I disagree with you on them.

I want my buildings and other terrain to be in scale with the minis I am using. In my games, ground scale isn't important. For me, wargaming is a means to play with my toy soldiers. I put a lot of time and money into them and I don't want them to look like giants towering over the local village.

I put the emphasis on the "game" part of wargame, and much prefer simple and fun to a simulation. I did the latter for many years with the military. Now I just want to sit back and enjoy the toys, the games, and the good copany.

Truth be told, after 50 years of gaming, I have found much more enjoyment in the modeling and painting side of the hobby, than in the gaming. Painting minis, creating terrain, putting out a lovely table and scenario, and watching the players have fun is what I am after these days.

I'm not saying you are wrong in your opinion. You are not, it's just that we have different approaches to the hobby, and that's actually a very good thing.

respects,