Pendraken Austrian Cuirassiers
I painted just six Pendraken Austrian cuirassiers. It gave me a chance to study the models and figure out what was what. In the end, I wasn’t absolutely sure I’d got them right. Their superfluous back-plates (see the last post) didn’t help but there was much trial and error, especially in the ‘spaghetti junction’ area where torso, legs and saddle came together. I was convinced that both troopers were (quite correctly) wearing gauntlets (see photo in Post 102) – one holding his sabre with a far more flexible wrist than my own! – but I repainted them with cuffs when I realised my mistake, in regimental facing colour – in this case scarlet for Hohenzollern Regiment No. 8. One of the trooper variants had a very convincing and prominent mould seepage that looked like a mysterious breastplate detail. Not only that confused me but also the woollen helmet combs which appeared to me to be far too fluffy and bouffant, not as accurate as the Pendraken Austrian chevaulegers (see Post 95). The Pendraken chevaulegers also had the characteristic and more correct Austrian cavalry shabraque with pointed rear corners. I decided not to paint the facing colour on the turnback edging of the troopers’ jackets – because I thought with a mass of figures my efforts might look a tad messy and inconsistent.
RIGHT Unlike the Pendraken Austrian hussar standard
bearer seen in an earlier post, the cuirassier standard
bearer sports a standard belt complete with polished iron
spring clip. INSERT The cuirassier officer after a visit to
the barber’s.
POST 104
104
