"HaT Colonial Cavalry scale" Topic

Looking through my as yet unpainted Hat colonial cavalry sets I noticed that the 17th Lancers and Dragoons are absolutey gigantic next to the Brit mounted infantry. You would think that the manufacturer would notice this..or maybe not. The horses in the Zulu Wars command set are also on the very small side as well. Oh well..

It would seem to make sense that Lancers and Dragoons would get the pick of the best horseflesh -- maybe even have the luxury of riding animals born and bred in England, and transported to the distant conflict in Africa. The mounted infantry would have to make due with lesser breeds acquired locally. The British command staff officers, not anticipating going into action with the enemy, might also get by with less-hardy animals.

I have often found that once painted, perceived differences in figure size seem less glaring than when viewing unpainted castings.

I agree. maybe once they're painted up the size difference will be less noticeable.

It is a problem HaT have acknowledged all too readily.

Due to manufacturing processes, the factory (which is not a dedicated toy soldier concern) will make the moulds to a ratio – but the sculptors sometimes change their master sizes. SO the figures differ.

Unfortunately, the cost of recutting is far too much for our hobby to bare.

So just accept it and paint them – on the table no one will notice or care.

I'm not familiar with these particular sets, but doesn't HaT also own and recast molds from defunct companies? Could it be the case that the sets are actually from two different companies originally?

The workaround is to use horses from other sets to supplant. I am very curious to know what is happening with HaT as their production has slowed to a crawl with no updates much at all.

The figures in question are made by Hat, not other companies.

Thanks.

Regardless of size, they are great figs. Cheaper than buying metal too – for me anyways. It's just the size difference sometimes is quite noticeable, but hopefully when painted as mentioned above they will look fine together.

I read somewhere that the Brits were ordered to turn over their better quality horses to the Egyptian Cav and rode local, inferior horse-flesh?

"Inferior" horse flesh?
In his 'Armies & Enemies of Imp. Rome', Phil Barker remarks on the small size of many ancient cavalry horses and comments:
"The working ability of such small ponies should not be underestimated. During the Boer War, Basuto ponies thrived carrying loads of men and equipment approaching 300 lbs for long distances on low rations while big European chargers died at a staggering rate."