Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Nearing the End! Mounted Seventh Cavalry Troopers and More Plains Warriors

OK! So we're about a month away from The Big Birthday Game and the models are progressing nicely. The latest I've gotten done are eight mounted Seventh Cavalry troopers and eight more Plains warriors. First the cavalry - they are Wargames Foundry models (naturally) and are pretty great in every way. The horses are noticeably larger than the Plains ponies ridden by the warriors, which necessitated slightly bigger bases, but that's the way they were in real life and it's fine by me.
   
Custer organized the Seventh in a particular way - each company was mounted on the same colour horses, except for one company, and the buglers who were on greys. Company A had coal black mounts, Company E had greys, Companies B, D, F, I and L had bays, H had blood bays, G and K had sorrels, and C had light sorrels. Company M had mixed colour horses. These were all identified with brands. The excellent Foundry horses have a "US" incised brand on the front upper leg and I put company brands on the rear left "thighs". The pattern was company letter over "7 C" for the Seventh Cavalry. I did these with a black technical pen.
  
The castings are good - horse is one piece and the trooper, saddle and gear cast together as a separate piece. This makes for easy painting although there is a lot of gear. You can see the light blue overcoat rolled in front of the trooper here. There's also a nosebag, feed sack, saddlebag, pistol holster, lariat, and canteen.

I've painted the greys as E Company of course, the bays (reddish brown with black points - mane, tail and socks) as C Company, and the sorrels (reddish brown with light coloured points) as C Company.

Bugler here on a grey.

Trooper of Company C in his red fireman's shirt.

With the mounted troopers out of the way I also got some more dismounted Plains warriors done. These are the Foundry Dog Soldiers.

Goes Through the Camp, Touch the Sky (he is a big fella), Voice Like Thunder.

Yellow Thunder, Walking Rain.

Three Fingers, Pawnee Killer, Plenty Coups. All painted in the traditional style, although I did punch up the blue with another highlight of Hoeth Blue and the red with some Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Here are the forces as of this update. I have nine more Plains warriors to go and maybe three more Crow scouts if there's time. I also want to make some teepees for background colour on the battlefield. 

So till then... hoka hey!

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