"18mm French Chasseurs a Cheval" Topic

about a year ago, when Blue Moon released their 15/18mm French Napoleonic Cavalry, I was both happy, yet a little disappointed.

Happy that BM finally had released their long awaited cavalry, and with sculpting French cavalry in a variety of different campaign-dress uniforms, increased the evergrowing possibilities for a 18mm Collector. With regards to the disapponitment mentioned, it was in the sculpting of the horses.

Yes I realize that this has been discussed, and I am not trying to start another discussion, only to state my own opinion of the matter. So please dont see this post as anything but a suggestion to compensate for this, if you should happen to feel the same about the horses.

Well, what I did was to try out mounting the BM riders on AB horses. I myself find the AB horses to be superior to all other horses sculpted in this size, but again, my opinion.
I found that when using the light cavalry horses of the AB range (I ordered the "remounts"), they were a good fit for the BM riders. The heavy cavalry horses might seem a little to big, but I will post later on the heavy cavalry.

The only problem with the BM light cavalry (in this case the Line Chasseurs a Cheval) is the size of the sheepskin/saddle. It has a tendency to be a bit on the small size compared to the figure, and thus seems a little small on the horses as well.
The cavalry riders though were great to work with, they come in a limited pose of 3 different figures for the rank and file, but the metal is soft and by no means brittle, which makes it easy to bend and twist arms, torsos and necks to give the impression of as many poses as there are figures in a unit.
I also used some of the figures to make "casualty figures", and used some of the BM horses as casualties as well, altering them to horses falling, thus creating some quite vivid casualty markers (I will post on this later).

In short, IMO: BM riders(bent and altered for variance) mounted on AB light cavalry horses works well!!

Anyway, here are some pictures for you to make up your own mind.
(These figures were by the way painted for me by my friend Rafa, one of the best painters in Europe;)!!)

1st Chasseurs a Cheval

IMG_4102 by erik424, on Flickr

Baron Marbot and the 1st Chasseurs

IMG_4104 by erik424, on Flickr

Ouuch!! Hey, careful were you blow that thing!!

IMG_4122-1 by erik424, on Flickr

5th Chasseurs a Cheval (AB officer a la Hussard):

IMG_4111-1 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4119 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4121 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4118 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4107 by erik424, on Flickr

7th Chasseurs a Cheval:

IMG_4128-1 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4126-1 by erik424, on Flickr

24th Chasseurs a Cheval:

IMG_4114-1 by erik424, on Flickr

IMG_4115-1 by erik424, on Flickr

Cheers!
Erik

Very nice
Cheers
Losh

Nice looking Erik

Excellent idea, well executed. Totally agree with you on the relative merits of AB and BM horses; the former have an amazing variety of poses. Incidentally, if you want smaller horses than the AB "lights" but of a similar quality, all (or certainly the vast majority) of Battle Honours' gee-gees were sculpted by Tony Barton as well. However, I'mm not sure if they can be purchased on their own.

(As an aside, the previous owner of AB Figures used to refuse to sell "empty" horses solely to prevent people doing precisely what you have!!! Fortunately, Eureka/Nic Robson and their distributors are much nicer about it! The same guy also refused to sell whatever he deemed to be "disproportionate" numbers of command figures to prevent them being used with other manufacturers' rank-and-file.)

I remember those dark days of Barton Miniatures :(

They look great – the AB horses do stand out here and I like how you've altered the poses. Nice painting Rafa and beautiful backdrop Dr Jeckyll

Just so we're clear, I wasn't referring to Tony Barton himself, it was someone else who worked with him.

Fantastic pics Erik!!!!!:-))))))

Your spanish friend!
Rafa

Thanks for the comments on the photos, I used my generic gaming board but should have put up a screen behind as well, so as not to see my office in the background:-o
and, thank you Rafa!!! :) These will be based like all the command figures you did earlier.
And soon I will post some photos of the AB foot dragoons skirmishing you also painted!

Ps: I could also maybe use the Cossack horses from AB for my BM Hussars later on…wow! I did not realize that the former owners were that rigid! Now I feel even more happy with the great service Nic and his crew delivers!

I remember those dark days of Barton Miniatures :(

I don't…. The same individual – actually his wife – deemed me unworthy to own AB figures because I complained about some broken bayonets and I was permanently blacklisted by their company.

Yes, actually happened.

Nice looking figures! :)

Nice work on the scenery and photos, btw. And the conversion of the hussar officer to make a 5eme C-a-C is a stroke of inspiration.

You should take a shot at the 27eme as well.

Erik: I have some experiance with AB but none with BM so I don't feel qualified to comment on your topic. Wanted to thank you though for posting the great photos. John Miller

Thanks for the comments guys:)
I will check out the 27th;) never can have to much light cavalry!