ECW Dragoons by Frei Korps

Whilst looking for a knife to clear the flash off a few Chariot Miniatures (now Magister Militum) I re-found a bag of both cleaned up and primed ECW Dragoons. 10 figures mounted and the same again dismounted. Now these guys were really old as the priming was done in black and I have used white as a base coat for all but 6mm for a long time before stopping painting and this may well be why they continued to be passed over. But once I had painted up the first batch of Ancients and made some headway into the 6mm Naps I wanted to have a crack at these as it seemed only right for me to get these put to bed.

All my ECW reference books are rather out of the way and whilst I will dig them out at some point for now I was happy just to paint them in green as I know a few Dragoon Regiments wore Green and as I have both Parliament and Royalist armies I really did not have to worry too much.

I really like the figures on foot, these have multiple poses and so was not at all difficult to give a skirmish line feel to them. Just the opposite for the mounted as only the hats are changed (two designs) and it looks like these guys have never ridden a horse before. Frei Korps paint up rather well, the paint flows into the corners and crevices which helps but the figures themselves are a curious mix of detail and plain. Take a close look at the locks on the musket for just one example (bottom picture) and the foot figures are full of it. But the mounted lack even a decent part to the musket and the whole figure leaves me cold. Maybe two different people sculptured the figures but the great foot version really blows away the mounted. All told I painted all 20 figures in about 3-4 days tops but they had to wait about 4 weeks for me to get round to varnishing and basing them.

The mounted troops arriving at a farm that is being defended by a Royalist Northern Regiment. In the Background is the Kings Lifeguard of Foote. One big negative of these figures is how brittle they are. One block of two are hidden by a large bush as the nearest figures base broke off (along with a horse leg) when I dropped it, of course on a stone floor. Another horse is missing it's back leg that came off post painting!
I painted a mix of hat and trouser colours to give a campaign feel to the regiment and not only matched mounted and dismounted to give a exact copy to each figure but also based them in tandem as well.


Having dismounted and put the horses in the barn (to say nothing of shep in the farmyard) the Dragoons spread out to cover the frontage of the White Regiment whilst the Guard make their way forward. A small Saker (?) is to the right as the crew realise what a useless thing they have been dragging round all campaign.

I wish I could remember who supplied the gun, fences dog and trough but it escapes me. The wagon is Museum Miniatures, the building also escapes me and the two foot regiments are Partisan Press.

A close up of two of these 15mm Dragoons, they take rather a good photo which is thanks to Cath my wife who seems a natural at snapping a great shot. The flag in the background was handpainted though I am fairly sure that's out of my skill range right now but I am more than happy with my brush work on these guys.

A shot taken further back showing a few of the poses and gives an indication of the variation of colours used. The flash has made them look gloss finished but in fact I used Vallejo Matt finish.

I will post more pictures of other finished figures over the next week to get up to date. Right now I have 47 Magister Militum Macedonian Pike to deal with, the 48th is at large and I hope will be replaced soon (I don't know if I lost it or it was short in the pack but I know I need it!!) I have also started to talk about painting plans and look to have two possible commissions already. More on that in a later post.