Of Dice and Army Men: 54mm AWI British Light Dragoons

Friday, June 11, 2021

54mm AWI British Light Dragoons

Greetings fellow Grognards! Presented for your enjoyment, another installment of Of Dice and Army Men! (insert Twilight Zone music here). As promised, this week I bring to you the completed AWI 54mm British Light Dragoons!

To be quite honest, I was in a painting funk. Seeing these unpainted figures on the shelf was unsettling. I really wanted to paint them, but just lacked the energy to 'git 'er done'. These troopers are again from the Armies in Plastics line and I have wanted to add them to the army for a LONG time. I had thought seriously about cutting the heads off some of my extra Prussian BMC/ Americana troops, head swapping them and then doing some Dremel work to get the helmet shape I needed for the Dragoons. Maybe it was the conversion work that had me on pause. Then it hit me; (insert flash and clap of thunder) being soft plastic, I noticed I could actually shape the tricorn hats with which they wore into the Dragoon helmets!

I usually like to start with one figure as my prototype and convert and paint them all the way to the pre-wash stage. I work out the bugs and hopefully end up with something I can live with. Well, after converting the first Dragoon and painting him out, I was quite pleased. Now the fires were stoked!

I pressed on converting the head gear on the remainder and gluing on some fuzzy pipe cleaner to simulate the helmet fur/ tassels/ thingies....this technique seems to be paying off as I used it also on my Continental Light Infantry! See previous post for more details.

Looks good to me, but you be the judge. Only one hang-up issue was the sabers. I knew they were going to be trouble in soft plastic due to the flexibility. The base coat, although made to adhere to plastic, just didn't take. I thought about cutting them off and cutting plasticard to shape of the blades and inserting them in the hilts, however, I thought I'd give the Mod Podge coating trick a try. I painted on mod podge matte on the bare saber blades, let dry and then painted onto the mod podge. So far so good. There are articles about this method on the net. Google and enjoy!

In Patriots and Rebels, this unit can be used as Light Cavalry or Mounted Skirmishers. I have listed them below for both for reference. The points work out the same as shown below, but the units due have some unique options and skills inherent with the troop types. The Light Cavalry option gives them an option for Evade or Counterattack. Mounted Skirmishers offers Evade only but you can upgrade to Sharpshooters for 4pts or Good Shooters for 2pts.

Light Cavalry (6 trooper unit) 4pts.

Aggressive 1 pt.

Mounted Skirmishers (6 troopers) 2 pts.

Mounted 2 pts.

Aggressive 1 pt.

British Light Dragoons