1:72 Imperial dragoons (Thirty Years War)

Habsburg mounted infantry on a cheap horse

The imperial commanders discovered the usefulness of mounted infantry quickly and raised it on a large scale. Detachments of this kind were responsible for the things that heavy cavalry was not suited to: escorting supply wagons, seizing a ford, reconnaissance ahead of the main body and securing quarters in the villages, where the fate of a whole campaign was often decided.

The equipment matches the fact that they dismount. The figures have neither a cuirass nor an iron-bound helmet; they wear a jerkin with a plain collar, baggy breeches, high boots and a hat. A bandolier with charges hangs over the shoulder just as it does on a foot shooter, except that spurs, riding gloves with a cuff and straps for fastening baggage behind the saddle are added to it.

The firearm is the storyteller here. Alongside the matchlock piece, a carbine with a wheel lock appears with these detachments, which can be carried loaded and ready even on the move, because it needs no smoldering cord. That is fundamental: at night a match gave a patrol away at a distance, whereas the wheel stayed silent and invisible. A slightly curved saber and a knife completed it.

In the course of the war these men gradually turned into ordinary cavalry and the boundary against the other mounted detachments blurred. The set at a reduction of 1:72 therefore captures an intermediate stage that appears only rarely among the models on offer, and it suits scenes with a baggage train as well as the defense of a village. The small castings reward attention paid to the straps: the bandolier, the sling of the weapon and the straps of the baggage can be set apart by shade, and only that gives a figure the depth that the jerkin alone cannot.