Quick wins

Another British Light Dragoon unit, this time the 12th.

These are 12 x BN50, a recent ebay purchase, already painted very close to my own style, just needed some touching up and black lining, then re-basing. The horses needed a little attention, they were all a uniform chocolate brown.

A certain Arthur Wellesley joined the 12th as a subaltern  in 1789, I wonder what happened to him?

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To sporran or not to sporran.

 The 42nd Highlanders, aka The Black Watch.

The rank and file are DK 188, the officer is BN 37, the piper is BN 38, the sergeant is BN31. I'm not sure what the ensigns are, there is no listing for a highland ensign in my HH catalogue, they could be castings from a conversion.

The DK figures and the BN 37 officer have sporrans, the others were without. I know the Black Watch wouldn't have worn sporrans in the field, but I don't like to remove bits of original castings if I can help it, so I added green stuff sporrans to the figures which were lacking them.

*EDIT" I just found the following link, indicating the ensign was a David Clayton creation, BN39.

http://www.vintagewargamingfigures.info/rblack/hinlist.htm

French 1st Hussars

 These are "Horse attached series" FN114, I think mostly original, but some are a bit smaller and have less detail, so possibly 2nd gen castings?

I must say, I prefer painting the "Dismountable" series, these OPC's were a bit fiddly.

When I was deciding which regiment to paint, I considered the "Hussars of Conflans" as featured in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Brigadier Gerard" stories, but minimal research was enough to show that they were an ancien régime unit, recruited in the Rhine Palatinate from German speakers, and they switched sides early on in the French revolutionary wars, so they were ruled out. ACD was a great story-teller but not a first-rate historical source.

I then thought, why not go with the 3rd Hussars, as featured in the Ridley Scott film "The Duellists"? The hero, Armand d'Hubert is an officer in the 3rd at the start of the story. Funckens describes the uniform as Sky Blue, but the illustration looks like a darker hue. In the movie d'Hubert (played by Keith Carradine) is shown wearing a uniform more closely resembling silver grey, so I was now getting confused.

But having got the idea of a sky-blue uniform in my head I decided to go with the 1st Hussars, as depicted in Funckens.

More light relief

 Just completed a French Light battalion, haven't decided on which specific unit they represent, TBH I really only do that with British units, maybe a bit chauvinistic? Or just the fact that facing colours do identify historic regiments in the British army and I'm familiar with that, while French infantry are a bit more anonymous. I should maybe do a bit more research, Whatever, here are a couple of pics. HH figures apart from the flank companies, which are early Minifigs, and the eagle bearer is a conversion from an early Minifigs officer. The drummer is (I think) a Newline cast.

A little light relief

 52nd regiment of foot, the Oxfordshire Light Infantry.

Close-up added at Rob's request, my photography skills are even worse than my painting skills:-

I cherrypicked this unit for my next project

 These are the 11th Light Dragoons, aka the "The Cherrypickers".

Apparently a small contingent of the 11th  were caught by the French while dismounted, picking wild cherries, hence the nickname. 

These are BN50, all original as far as I can tell. They certainly have the catalogue number incised on the base. Does anybody know if Claytons also had the catalogue number on the base? They are very clean castings and have clearly never been painted before, so no detergent bath needed.

I had to paint them as the 11th as a tribute to Sir Harry Flashman, VC. If you haven't read the George McDonald Fraser "Flashman" novels I suggest you do so!. Of course, by the time Flashy joined the regiment in 1840ish they were the 11th Hussars and wore scarlet trousers, which were round his ankles most of the time. 

Trying not to let things drag on

 Here's my latest unit, the 1st (Royal) Dragoons.

A mix of BN204 and BN40 with a couple of non-HH horses.

*edit* Here's me pretending to be a dragoon