25mm Ros Figures British Heavy Dragoons

Continuing the refurbishment process of my Ros Figures collection, the latest unit to fall under the paint brush are some British Heavy Dragoons.  These figures were originally painted in 1976 by my brother and have been touched up a couple of times since then; however, they have now received a complete overhaul using gloss paint, including new bases.

Here is the result:

Next some French Cuirassiers and Hussars.

Minifigs Scots Greys

Taking a break from renovating ancients, I decided to finish off these Napoleonic British cavalry figures. They were started over a year ago and kept getting pushed to the end of the queue. They are lovely figures and were a joy to paint.  They are 25mm Minifigs Scots Greys painted using gloss paints, toy soldier style:

Scots Grey - Commanding Officer

This figure depicts Lieutenant Colonel Henry Darby Griffith, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons, or Scots Greys. Griffith led the Regiment at the Battle of Balaclava, during the charge of the Heavy Brigade. Sadly, Griffith was one of the first casualties of the Greys as they started their charge. Unfortunately he was struck in the head, probably by a carbine bullet fired by a Russian cavalryman. So he only took part in the very first minutes of the action. That said, he seemed to have survived, because a check of the Balaclava casualty roll lists him as slightly wounded during the battle.

The figure is a Strelets plastic Scots Greys officer from the "Charge of the Heavy Brigade" box. He is mounted on a Douglas Miniatures metal horse:

Painting styles

I thought it would be interesting to compare painting styles. I use the 'toy soldier' gloss painted style, but the Douglas Miniatures range look superb in the more normal wargames painting style, in matt colours, with highlighting and shading. These examples are produced here with the kind permission of John Cunningham, from his Vintage 20 Mil website:

British 5th Dragoon Guards

Here we have the third regiment from the Heavy Brigade, the 5th Dragoon Guards. These figures are B4, Heavy Dragoon, mounted on BH1, British cavalry horses. At the time of the battle of Balaclava, the Heavy brigade consisted of five regiments of heavy dragoons - the 5th and 6th Dragoon Guards, the 1st Dragoons, 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys) and the 6th Dragoons.

The Scots Greys    

The latest addition to the British cavalry force is a painted unit of Douglas Miniatures B2, Scots Greys. These were fun to paint being a bit different, but I had real trouble with the swords. Most broke off and had to be replaced. The way I did this was to drill a hole into the sword hand having filed down the stump of the old sword. This hole can be carefully opened up to form a groove. The new sword is made from a thin strip of metal from the lid of a bean can, which can be cut with a good pair of scissors. The point is shaped with a quick trim and the new sword slots into the groove with some super glue to hold it in place. I decided that one figure should carry a guidon. This was sourced from the internet, sized and duplicated to get both sides. I added some cotton tassels, which were painted gold.

British Heavy Dragoons    

Here is the first of three regiments of British heavy dragoons to join my army. Made up from the Douglas Miniatures one piece casting (see earlier posts) they represent the 6th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, which was one of the five regiments that made up the Heavy Brigade in the Crimea:

Coming soon will be the Scots Greys.

Scots Greys 

Douglas Miniatures have two types of British heavy cavalry, the dragoons, already examined below, and the Scots Greys. Listed as B2 Scots Grey, the figure depicts this branch of the cavalry in campaign dress, wearing the distinctive fur bearskin. The horse is BH1, which is common to all the British cavalry figures in the Douglas range.

One piece castings 

Although not included in the list below, it seems that Douglas Miniatures produced at least one mounted figure with the horse and rider as a single casting. This figure is available from John and it represents a British Heavy Dragoon trooper.

It is very similar to the two piece figure, B4 British Heavy Dragoon. When set side by side the one piece figure is slightly larger than the two piece, but it is not really noticable. Here you can see the two examples shown together, two piece on the right:

I would be really interested to know if there were ever any other Crimean figures produced like this by Douglas. I think the one piece is a finer looking figure and I will be painting a full unit of these.