Friday 30 December 2016

New American Light Dragoons from Brigade Games

Here are some new excellently sculpted American Light Dragoons for the War of 1812 from Brigade Games.

Unfortunately, based on Renee Chartrand, as far as I can tell they have the wrong plume. The only manufacturer to make the plume correctly in the centre so far was Knuckleduster. The side plumes illustrated on so many plates, and on the majority of sculpts,  are based on a post war example.

Otherwise, these do appear to be excellent miniatures. They can be fixed by simply trimming off the plume. Renee Chartrand depicts them as possibly removing their plume on campaign.







Here is the correct plume on the Knuckleduster Light Dragoon.


Here are my converted (Perry) Light Dragoons. 


Here is an artists depiction based on Renee Chartrand showing the plume removed. In his book, he has a contemporary uniform plate showing the plume on the centre at the front. The campaign pants were to be blue with a white stripe, but with shortages they may have had on their white pants on campaign as shown. Renee Chartrand states the plume was possibly / probably removed for campaign. All of the surviving helmets I have seen photos of have no plume still attached.


Here is the only illustration of the American Light Dragoons from the time I have seen, from "A Most Warlike Appearance" by Renee Chartrand.



The correct plumes as shown in "The United States Army 1812-15" by Osprey Publishing. *Note that the plates in "The American War" by Osprey show the incorrect plume.