1:72 Swedish Heavy Cavalry (Thirty Years War)

The charge instead of the caracole

The Swedish cavalry under Gustavus Adolphus became famous for abandoning the custom of the day of riding around the enemy and firing pistols. Instead it attacked in a closed formation straight at the body and used firearms only at the last moment. The heavy horseman therefore wore a cuirass over a thick leather buff coat, an open helmet and a sword, while the pistols stayed in holsters at the saddle. This change of tactics is among the reasons why the Swedish units decided battles in the 1630s.

A point that gives a scene direction

Anyone building a scene from the Thirty Years' War usually starts with infantry and a gun. Heavy cavalry adds dynamics to that and above all a vertical dimension, because a horseman is almost twice as tall as the other figures. The viewer measures the height of a fence, a wagon and a palisade against him and at the same time gets a point on which the eye comes to rest. Place the riders away from the middle of the groundwork, therefore, ideally at a third of its length.

Before painting

• Unify the helmet and the cuirass with a dark metallic base and tone the gloss down with a matte varnish.
• The leather buff coat will stand a warm ocher tone, which sets the rider apart from the horse nicely.
• Glue the saddle equipment exactly to the seating surface, otherwise the rider will not sit down properly.
• The reins can be added from a thin strip of paper soaked in thinned glue.

The set holds castings to be glued, without paints and without bases.

Placing them on the groundwork

A tried arrangement counts on a pair of riders at the front and a smaller group at the back, with an open space between them. The empty area in the middle works just like a pause in a sentence, because it gives the eye time to pass from one part of the scene to the other.