ORGANISATION OF THE ARMY.

CAVALRY REGIMENTS.

The primary purpose of the Cavalry regiment is to provide reconnaissance, flank protection and screening of the Army's movements from the enemy. It may also be used for raids behind enemy lines in certain circumstances. The Cavalry regiment consists of 4 Cavalry squadrons and a Headquarters squadron.

The Cavalry squadron comprises two troops each of 8 privates and 2 Corporals under the command of a Lieutenant assisted by a Sergeant. The  squadron is commanded by a Captain assisted by a squadron Sergeant Major. The total strength of a squadron is 26, all of whom are mounted.

The Headquarters squadron, none of whom are mounted,  comprises a Staff troop of 4 privates, a Corporal and a Sergeant, a Medical troop of 8 medics, a medic Corporal, a medic Sergeant, a surgeon Lieutenant with a surgeon Captain in command, a Quartermaster troop with 12 privates, 2 Corporals and a Sergeant with a Lieutenant in command and a Signals troop with 8 signallers, 2 Corporals and a Sergeant with a Lieutenant in command.

The command troop, all of whom are mounted,  has a Lieutenant Colonel as regimental commander with a Major as Adjutant and second in command, a regimental Sergeant major and two standard bearers, one with the national flag and one with the regimental flag. The total strength of the headquarters squadron is 51 giving a total regimental strength of 155, of whom 109 are mounted and 46 are foot soldiers.

The vehicles and equipment of the regiment comprises 6 limbers each towing a light GS trailer with secondary towing of a field kitchen trailer, a water tank trailer, a signals trailer, a medical trailer and two further light GS trailers. Foot soldiers of the Regiment are carried on the various vehicles to ensure the Regiment has full mobility which is also assured by the exclusive use of two wheeled vehicles.

The photo above shows a regiment in parade formation with the combat squadrons on the left and the headquarters squadron on the right in front of the regimental vehicles. **

This photo shows the regiment drawn up ready to advance with regimental wagons to the rear. **

My armies have a total of 24 Cavalry regiments. The arm of service colour for Cavalry is German purple, a shade of burgundy.

** Both photos show the old original regimental structure. New photos will be added ASAP

CONSTRUCTING CAVALRY.

HOW I BUILD MY CAVALRYMEN.

 I thought it may be of interest to explain the background to how I first designed mounted troops for my armies before detailing the actual construction methods.

On the matter of cavalry, the original Miniature Warfare magazine article on which my armies are based, proposed the use of a larger size of screw for cavalry. I never liked that idea at all. I already had a horse pulling vehicles so could not reconcile myself to not using that horse in some way for cavalry too. The issue was how ???

 To marry up a screw and a flat plastic card horse into a realistic cavalryman eluded me for many years. The obvious answer was to deepen the slot in the screw so it could sit on the horse but then the horse would fall over, so how to provide the stability needed ??? Than one day while doing some tiling I looked a little more closely at the tile spacers.....was this a pair of legs ???

After some experimentation I found that by cutting the spacer up I could indeed create a pair of legs, drilling a hole through a horse and fitting the legs provided a stable platform for a screw with a deepened slot to ride the horse.....hey presto a cavalryman !!!

I realize that a horse with only two legs sounds weird but  of course it is no stranger than either using a screw as a soldier  or indeed having a flat horse. The fact is it looks good and like virtually everything else in my army, it's a representation of the real thing rather than an accurate scale model. Anyway at this point in time my cavalry and horse artillery regiments have over 2100 mounted soldiers with an additional 700 on the way as I build my fourth army. 

I will now detail the actual construction method itself which I must warn is hard and time consuming. 

The starting point is a 2mm tile spacer. This is cut up to give a pair of legs.

Above is the before and after photo. Please note the flat cut at the top of the leg joint. The next step is to take  a standard horse and  drill a 2mm hole in the horse in line with the neck and about halfway down. Into this I force the legs. This is where the square cut comes in useful as it provides for accurate centring of the legs. I find that the square profile legs are a tight fit and usually require some force to get through the round hole. Be careful to cut off any flash on the legs before assembly otherwise you will not be able to force the legs through the hole.

The above photo gives two views of the assembled cavalry horse. The joint is covered with plastic modelling glue. The only time I use this smelly stuff I am pleased to say. I use  Revell glue simply because the long spout makes it easy to drip the glue into position accurately. I do find however that the glue can melt the plastic into holes sometimes so I usually drip some more glue onto the joints next day to be sure of a solid bond and good painting surface. 

The next step is the preparation of the screw soldier. Yet again this is a tedious job so I tend to cut 15 or so then do something else for a hour or two then go back and do some more until the required number are done. Basically the work involves cutting with a hacksaw into the slot on the screw head to make it deeper so it will sit on the horse. Interestingly the hacksaw cuts are the same thickness as the plastic card used for the horse. 

I long ago found that holding the screw in a vice damages the thread so now I screw the screw into a block of oak which is fixed in the vice. Using oak means I can cut at least ten screws using the same hole. You will soon know when a new hole is needed. My cavalry regiments have 109 mounted soldiers so the ten  or so holes needed use only a small area of the oak block. Every now and again I just saw the used bit off the block to enable a fresh start.

The above photo shows the cut screw. The depth of cut needs to be just less than the head and shank in total. The next job is to file both sides of the cut to remove any swarf, again tedious but essential. The penultimate task is to sit the screw on the horse. When the screw is sitting comfortably I use pliers to squeeze the cut end of the screw together as hard as possible, you will know you have got it right if the screw does not move.

The final task is to make sure the assembled cavalryman sits straight and level. Given the variations implicit in the manufacturing process it is almost inevitable that some adjustments will be necessary. It is trial and error to trim carefully either the length of one or both legs or trim a very small sliver off the bottom of the horse to achieve a good result. Don't rush this bit of work, it makes a lot of difference to the appearance and stability of the finished model. Don't get carried away either or you will end up with a Shetland Pony instead of a horse !!!

Finally, and after a great deal of work, you have a cavalryman ready for painting.....and he looks great !!!

Painting Cavalry

This article follows that on the construction of Cavalry. The starting point is, using the horse as a holding area, to paint the whole soldier uniform green. When dry apply I apply the arm of service and rank colours. Lastly for the soldier, I apply the coat of varnish. This stage is shown in the photo below. If you look closely, the uniform paint and varnish do spill over onto the horse. This is more or less unavoidable.

The next stage is to prime the horse using the soldier as a holding point.  This will require a steady hand as you run the paint around the soldier and also cover the spill over mentioned above. The results are shown below.

The final stage is to apply the brown horse colour. All my horses are brown, Humbrol Burnt Leather actually. Despite my wife's view that horses are many different colours , I long ago decided that in my army only brown horses would be acceptable !!!!!!!  The final result is a regiment of Cavalry as shown below set out on the display shelf. Also to be seen is the foot soldier contingent that provides medical, administrative, signals and quartermaster services. These men ride the various limbers and trailers with which the regiment is provided. The only item of equipment missing is a light GS supply trailer which will be constructed in the near future. This is the 17th of 18 cavalry regiments in my armies.