12mm WW1 Austro-Hungarian Cavalry

Austro-Hungarian WW1 Dragoons in early-war uniforms. 12mm metal figures from Kallistra.

The early-WW1 12 project continues to rumble along the hobby desk. In this post we stay with the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but move now to the cavalry! Here we have a group of Austro-Hungarian Dragoons, 12mm metal castings from Kallistra's fantastic early WW1 figure range. 

The opening months of the Great War saw some incredible uniforms in use - and by "incredible", I mean in the context of a hobby geek like me thinking "That would be fun to paint!". In this regard, one thinks often of the blue and red of the French infantry, and the glorious helmets and combs of the different branches of the French cavalry, as they swept into battle in the late summer of 1914. The terrible realities of warfare in that time soon put all of the glory of the uniforms to rest, but wow, for the purposes of a wargaming, hobbyist, it is all very fun to paint and put on the table.

Carbines and swords at the ready! Helmets painted grey...damn regulations...

So what of the Austro-Hungarian troops? By the outbreak of WW1, the infantry had moved to something of a more bland/modern-adjacent uniform of "pike grey". Some anachronistic flashes remained, but were subtle or, at least, beyond my brush for the most part when it comes to 12mm figures (for example, the Hungarian regiments still had fancy cuts and threading on their trousers). 

Carbines, ready for action in case of dismounted action...

Thankfully the cavalry arm of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, weighed down by conservative tradition and slowed by the parsimony and administrative incompetence of the Empire, maintained some wonderful uniforms by the late summer of 1914! On paper, the cavalry of the Empire were supposed to switch to more practical uniforms, but in practice many (almost all?) regiments mobilized in 1914 with full dress uniforms which would not have looked out of place in the 1870s.

These Dragoons are great examples, resplendent in blue tunics and red pants. The only concessions made to the looming shadow of modern warfare is seen on the helmets, which were covered with cloth or just painted grey.

And speaking of dismounted action, here are the troopers sans-horses.

Kallistra's early WW1 collection is awesome - not only the sculpts themselves, which manage a great deal of character for the small size, but also because it is so complete. You can get mounted AND dismounted castings for the full variety of Austro-Hungarian cavalry options - but wait, there is more! You can ALSO get the horse-holder figures! While I haven't yet seen the need to paint the horse holders yet (just like I will be the last person to paint artillery limbers), the completeness of the offering is tremendous and very appealing. 

Closer shot of the dismounted troopers - can you spot the officer?

The cavalry of early WW1 may have aspired to mount their own glorious and decisive "death ride" style charges, but in fact had to dismount often to fight (or even, I suspect, just to survive so they could fight). "Dragoons", of course, were supposed to be mounted infantry anyway, going back to their origins in history. But by 1914 I think the Austro-Hungarian ones still harbored a significant strain of "let's charge to contact, we'll make it work" sort of thinking. Thanks to Kallistra's awesome collection, you can represent your cavalry troopers in either mode (and associated mental state), and that is what we have here. This is an advantage over Pendraken's 10mm collection, which is short on the dismounted troopers (although, it should be said, it still awesome). 

He doesn't stand out a WHOLE lot, but the officer here still has his classic metal helmet, with comb and gold plate.

I did paint the helmets of these figures grey, with the exception of the officer. It helps him stand out a little...but I also like the idea of this stubborn fellow ignoring the direction to paint/cover the helmets. Seems like the sort of thing an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer would do...

Dismounted dragoons, ready for the firefight.

From my preliminary reading of the Eastern Front in early WW1 there was a sizable cavalry collision between the Austrians and the Russians not long after hostilities kicked off...I need to find out more about this encounter. But even though I don't have a precise plan in my mind for the type of game I want to try and stage, the idea of a crazy early cavalry clash is appealing, so watch for some of that to come during the approach Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

That's it for now - thanks for reading, stay tuned for more!