This is my first unit of Paraguayan cavalry. As with the infantry, I haven't tried to make any distinction between "line" and "militia" in the unit's composition - I'll decide what they are in accordance with the relevant scenario. Perry Miniatures make several packs, a couple of which are described as militia and do have a more casual look about them; so I might use those for the next unit. The books I've read about the war suggest that the Paraguayan cavalry was excellent and, at least before shortages of manpower and mounts took hold, the best cavalry out of all the combatants. The strength of cavalry regiments seems to have been between 400 and 500 men, so 12 figures works out at around 1:40, which is the ratio/scale I'm working on (in terms of full strength units). As with the infantry, I intend to build up cavalry units of varying sizes to reflect battle casualties etc.
The cavalry's hats had a different design to those of the infantry - a sort of "fleur de lis" shape. The spurs were quite large as well, called "nazarenas". All the figures have blankets and other bits of "furniture"; I probably should had added a few more stripes to these items, but I didn't was to overcomplicate the look of the unit. I enjoy painting this sort of irregular cavalry, particularly with the more colourful horses.
12 figures. Painted December 2020. Flag and lance pennants by Flags of War.
4 comments:
Those are really superb cavalry Giles. I look forward to seeing more in due course.
Great looking cavalry!
Very dashing indeed.
Excellent stuff. All the units look fab.
I was very tempted by the Perry's Paraguayan War range but managed to stay the path with with the projects I'm working on. They are very tempting though!
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