From DaveD: 28mm Napoleonic Bavarian Chevauleger Regiment 'Konig' (360 points)

Its been a while since we've heard from Dave but as you can see he's been a very, very busy boy. What we have here is a beautiful 24-figure unit of Bavarian chevaulegers from the Regiment 'Konig'.

These are 28mm 'There's No School like the Old-School' Connoisseur models with a sprinkling of Elite horses for variety. They have been based-up for the 'In the Grand Manner' set of rules.

This unit really sends me back to the 90s, when I used to look through 'Wargames Illustrated' and gawp at all those lovely colour photos of beautifully based units by Peter Moreby. 

Personally, I've always found the 'Grand Manner' ranges (Connoisseur and Elite in particular) to have very much their own style. Some may find them somewhat anachronistic in this age of slavish adherence to anatomic proportion and hyper-detailing, but there is something about seeing these characterful, almost impressionistic, models all ranked-up in massive units that makes them very dynamic and impressive. In fact I would not be surprised if they were designed to be integrated together in units as opposed to being regarded as individual models.

Dave has gone the extra mile with this unit by converting EVERY model and horse to make sure each pair is completely unique. Here is Dave's list of changes and modifications he made to the unit:

'Remove right arms and sabres and solder into new position, with soldered shaped flattened pins added to replace the swords. I really like the one turning and drawing his sword from the scabbard.

Reposition heads, some just turning, some removed and soldered back on. Turn the feet of the rider to dig in more to horse if rider position warrants it.

Make trumpets from wire and solder, solder to hands for those that will be blowing them and solder arms back into position. Add loose trumpets to those with swords drawn

Make falling horses for front squadron – cut from bases bend/cut, position and solder back to base. Model the falling riders – one trumpeter with splayed out hands to cushion his fall – and dropped sword attached to wrist by cords. Add loose flying trumpet ,scabbards . stirrups and billow out the saddlecloths.

For the horses match the riders and turn horse heads & tails to match the riders movements.

Solder flattened wire reins into riders hand. Once the horses are painted these are soldered onto the bridle.

Now all I have to do is paint the beggars!  Horses done in oils.

The blue lozenges on the shabraque edging were fun!

I don’t think a full matt finish at this scale always work, so once varnished matt the areas that should be shiny are redone in a satin varnish to give a little sparkle!'

Wow, tremendous work, Dave! Very impressive.

As a base this unit brings Dave an already impressive 240 points, but with the extra care and work put into the conversions I am awarding an extra 120 points. Well done!