Painting 1/72 Swedish dragoons - Part one - painting horses
Dragoons initially used horses only for mobility to the battlefield, and then fought as infantry. From the 17th century they began to fight like real cavalry, ie using swords and firearms riding. This kind of army was therefore very popular because it had much greater mobility than infantry, and they did not have such a high price as heavy cavalry. The Great Northern War took place in the early 18th century, and the leaders of the warring parties were tsarist Russia on the one hand and Sweden on the other. This Star set in the scale of 1/72 represents the dragoons of the Swedish King Charles XII from the period of the mentioned Great Northern War. Although Zvezda is still known as one of the better producers of 1/72 figures with the technology of injecting plastic into molds (mass production), the set is very interesting, but not technically excellent like many other sets of figures from this Russian manufacturer. Horses have a lot of mold lines, and the number of poses is more than modest - three, or two when you consider that the two poses are very similar (a galloping horse).
After the usual stripping and removing the mold lines, I washed the horses well with warm water and soap. When they dried with the help of "Patafix", I fastened them to the plastic caps of the bottles and applied a layer of primer. The problem with Zvezda's plastic is that sometimes (even after a good wash) it does not accept example well. Therefore, it is necessary to check the primer after drying and apply it again in places.
Connoisseurs of historical military themes know that certain cavalry units only had horses of a certain coat color. For example, the British Life Guards have only black horses except the trumpet player who has a gray horse. In fact, the trumpeters of many cavalry units had white or gray horses. Personally, I believe that this rule (the unique color of the horse in the unit) could only be adhered to by some elite units. Others in the midst of the war were happy to have horses, not to be able to choose a color. Still, I didn't pay too much attention to the color of the horse and I painted all seven the same brown (as on the boxart), but later I achieved variations in different colors of mane, tail and hair around the hooves and spots on the muzzles.
After painting the basic brown, saddle and blue on the covers, I also applied a wash (Agrax Earthsade). After that I started with highlights on the horse’s hair and dyed the manes and tails in three different colors to get a little on variation. I painted the bridles and other belts black (although they were brown in most references) to get a little contrast. Then I started with highlights on the saddle, blankets, manes, tails and bridles, and then painted the yellow borders on the blankets. Among the last things I painted "socks" on horses. I put white on some and black on some while I put different white spots on most of the horses' muzzles as well. These are military units whose point is to be uniformed, but I think a little variation is definitely welcome.
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