Dragoons

THE next part of Project Kaiser involves using the box of HäT Napoleonic French Dragoons I bought from Transport Models of Preston for £8.70 (plus postage).
The box contains eight brown horses and eight blue cavalrymen with drawn swords, which works out at just over £1 a figure (counting a mount and rider as one figure).

HäT dragoons - good value for money

All of the horses and some of the riders come with unsightly lumps produced by the moulding process, but these proved much easier to remove than I feared.
I have not made a direct comparison, but I am fairly sure these HäT figures are less substantial - both smaller and slimmer - than my Armies In Plastic figures. However, I do not think this will be too much of a problem when displayed on my wargames table.
I will be painting four of the HäT figures as French dragoons of the Franco-Prussian War - the uniform hardly evolved in the 55 years after 1815.
Two of the others are earmarked as Prussian dragoons and the remaining two as Bavarian dragoons.
The former will definitely need conversion work as Prussian dragoons wore the pickelhaube; I may be able to get away with a paint job for the Bavarians.