This was a bit of a fun project. I purchased a lot of eBay that consisted of around 20 Les Higgins/PMD British light cavalry horses and a similar number of early Lamming RHA outriders. My initial plan was to keep the horses for future projects as and when the correct riders turned up. However, it struck me that a simple bit of conversion work could turn the RHA chaps into Portuguese cavalry. I had enough for three six figure units. My research determined that Portuguese cavalry were constantly undermanned (short staffed PC) and usually could only muster around 200, due to corruption, desertion and inefficiency.
The Portuguese dragoons wore differing facing colours so the three units make quite a colourful display:
Also, Count Goya recently sent me two spare Atlantic Egyptian chariot parts. Using some figures from the Caesar Hittite infantry set, I converted the very small 20mm Atlantic chariot into a larger vehicle using card, that can just about hold a crew of three. For horses, I used some examples from the Airfix Roman chariot. Not brilliant, but a useful addition to my ancinet armies:
Lovely looking cavalry, and a nice re-purposing job! The chariots look really good, very handy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie, the cavalry will be useful bolstering my small British component, although they will likely run away! It was a tight squeeze getting three men into the chariot!
DeleteWhat a clever idea for the cavalry. I also have a couple of sets of those Atlantic chariots, I wonder how many are still in circulation!
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin. The chariots are nice crisp models, except that they are really too small for the crew figures provided. Two figures can be squeezed in if their bases are cut right back. I have 10 Egyptian chariots by Atlantic and they do seem to pop up on eBay etc fairly frequently.
DeleteThe Portuguese dragoons look good, but will they fight, the real thing seems not to have done as well as their pedestrian colleagues.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob. As I understand it the cavalry was riddled with corruption and poor leadership. They rarely were up to strength and suffered from extensive desertion.
Delete