HELMET Soldiers

Hi everyone, the English Civil War cavalry pictures we published last time seemed to cause something of a stir, so not being one to ignore a passing bandwagon, I've continued the mounted figure theme on this edition of the Blog. True to my word in promising that this would not be a vehicle to advertise HELMET products, there are none of our kits or spare parts on display here today, however it must be said that there is an influence in the use of pipecleaners on some of the conversions.

The photos that show cavalry from the American Revolution, or American War of Independence, depending on your preference, show mainly Loyalists dressed in green jackets, this is our standard organisation for a cavalry squadron, an officer, a sergeant, a trumpeter and 15 men. They are mostly CTS Mexicans on HaT horses, although there are a few Historex bits and pieces along with a couple of Italeri converted Scots Greys. Usual rules apply with pins replacing most of the plastic swords and additions from greenstuff. I have tried to add a little variety through the chap firing his pistol with his sabre attached to his wrist by the leather sword knot, and the guy, somewhat unwisely reloading his carbine whilst riding at the gallop. I really like the plain and simple uniforms they form a marked contrast with the three 17th Light Dragoon conversions riding alongside. The Loyalist are "sort of generic" by which I mean they are probably closer to the Queens Rangers in their uniform details, but could easily be used to represent Tarleton's British Legion Dragoons.

I've added a picture of some of our Parliamentary Horse from the English Civil War, like the Royalists shown last week, they are pretty massive conversions using a great deal of greenstuff and/or miliput. The excellent heads on most of the figures are metal and come from Maros here in the UK, I'm not sure if they are still available, does anyone know? I'm very much Old School when it come to the English Civil War, so all the Cavalier cavalry are flamboyant and colourful, whilst their opponents are uniformly dressed in lobster pot, back and breasts and buffcoats, well I like it that way, The second photo shows a few of the boys getting stuck in..........

The Roman was made as an experiment, we've got some infantry, I'll feature these on a future Blog, but was unsure about cavalry figures, so this poor Frankenstein monster is made as follows: the head and feet(!) are from the Toyway factory painted Romans released a few years back, the torso is Italeri, the legs, down to the calves are from a HaT French Dragoon, I had to extend the mail shirt with greenstuff, javelin from brass rod, shield from card and an old Timpo horse......phew! The result is OK but I need to make a few more to improve on some of the methods and techniques.

OK thanks for looking, any comments gratefully received, cheers for now,

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk