Fielding French Army at Waterloo
Fielding Prussian Army at Waterloo
This is the third and final installment of my survey of available kits for the Waterloo Campaign. Over the past year many new kits have come on the market and several out of production kits are available again. This list includes the diverse allied forces that played a crucial role in the Waterloo Campaign. It is good to see figures representing the Brunswick, Dutch-Belgian and Netherlands finally becoming available. I applaud the owners of the companies who have acknowledged that the Brits did not stop Napoleon on their own.
As with the first installment I will give a brief rundown of unit types and provide some comments
The British
Command and Staff
Allied General Staff
Italeri 6037(near future) The figures are past due for release and thus far I have yet to see them. I hope to see them before the end of 2003. If they are as nice as the French set then these will find a spot on my command stands. Wellington's Generals
LW/Odemars 0-This is an interesting set. It has twenty figures depicting 10 British Generals. Their uniforms are taken straight from the Osprey Men at Arms Wellington's Generals. While the sculpting is not as sharp as many of the better-known producers I have seen them painted up into respectable wargames figures. The figures modeled are: MG Sir Rowland Hill, MG Sir G. L. Cole, LG Sir S. Cotton, MG Sir Edward Pakenham, LG Sir Thomas Picton, Lord Somerset the Military Secretary to Wellington, LG William Sir William Beresford, Wellington, BG Sir Robert Crauford and LG Earl of Uxbridge. Though some of these historical figures were deceased by the time of Waterloo the set is worth a look.
Allied Chiefs of Staff 02
Strelets*R 011 (future release) No information. This company tends to include a large numbers of variants in their kits. If the sculpting is nice the kit will probably provide some great morale markers and staff to finish off those Division and Corps command stands.
Cavalry
British cavalry was basically divided into heavy and light horse. The Heavy cavalry included the Household troops and the Dragoon Regiments. A total of seven regiments saw service at Waterloo.
Household Cavalry
Revell02578 This set can be utilized to depict both regiments of Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards. All three heavy cavalry wore the single-breasted, button jacket, and helmet with colored woolen crest.
2nd Dragoons "Scots Greys"
Esci 217 Italeri 6001 (Zvezda 8028*) These sets share the same sculptor and can be used interchangeably. Both sets depict the troops in campaign uniform wearing leather-lined trousers and their headgear covered in oilskin. The Italeri horses are superior in that they do not rely on peg bases.
Dragoons
Hat8033-This set rounds out the heavy cavalry and depicts the most common uniform of single-breasted button jacket, leather lined trousers and French style horsehair crested helmet.
Light Dragoons
ESCI230 (Italeri 6040)- This set is nicely sculpted. Five of the seven figures were originally produced for the Crimean War set. That said they work for some of the light cavalry regiments at Waterloo.
Kings German Legion Light Dragoons
Hat 8014 -While produced as KGL these figures will work for the majority of British light cavalry at Waterloo. Nice figures with Hat's normal four-figure run.
Hussars
Airfx 01743 (Accurate 7210) This is the first British cavalry produced in plastic. They still look great. Sadly the bases for the horses are a challenge to keep together.
Infantry
Guards
Cal to Arms 5OThis is a mixed set downsizing two of the 1/32"d kits. It is mixed half guards and half light infantry with four poses of each. The guards do not have their trousers tucked into their gaiters so they appear as typical line infantry. The light infantry have the older round shako so would also serve well for Peninsular War forces. They are nice figures and I will mix them in with the Hat and Revell sets.
Line Infantry
Airfix 01745 These are the oldest of the British Line and have real character. The drummer, trumpeter and NCO with spontoon are favorites. I will probably utilize these fine troops as Hanoverian Line. Also includes standard-bearer and mounted and dismounted officer.
Esci 215(Italeri 6058 Zvezda future) This is an odd set mixing Line troops (8) with Highlanders (6). The highlanders include a piper and a two-man casting of a soldier helping a fellow soldier off the field. The Line includes a standard-bearer, trumpeter and drummer. It also included a couple of trash figures: a soldier wielding his musket as a club and a prone figure firing. I will probably mix a few of both types in with other makers for variety. In my opinion this is a weak set and I find it odd that Italeri decided to re-release this set.
Revell02571 This is my favorite kit and will make up the bulk of my line units. Good officers mounted and on foot, NCO with spontoon, drummer, a pioneer and standard-bearer are included.
Light Infantry
Hat 8036This is the set that will make up the majority of my Light Infantry units. While there are only eight figures in the set all are useful. I plan on mixing in the Call to Arms figures to provide some variety. (see Call to Arms 50 above)
Highlanders
Airfix 01735, Esci, Italeri 6004 (Zvezda 8029) Only three regiments wore Highland dress at Waterloo the 42nd Black Watch, the 79th Cameron and the 92nd Gordon. I find that I am hard pressed to make a choice between the old Airfix and the Italeri sets. I will probably go with one Airfix, one Italeri and one mixed Italeri and ESCI. The Airfix set includes mounted officer, standard-bearer in kilt, piper and drummer. The Italeri set includes an excellent officer and standard- bearer properly attired in trews as well as the requisite piper.
Rifles
Revell02581 These troops are the 95th Rifles, an elite unit that distinguished itself during the Peninsular War. The officer is dressed in Hussar style wearing dolman and pelisse. There is a great trumpeter and the firing men will all find a place. Strangely many of the figures have their sword bayonets fixed and are in charging type poses. Normally these troops acted in teams of two, one firing while the second reloaded. The baker rifle could not be fired while the bayonet was fixed.
Waterloo Cavalry and Infantry
Imex525(future release) - No details other than they will be original figures.
Artillery
Horse Artillery
Airfix 01746 (Accurate 7211)
Esci 233 (Italeri 6041/Zvezda 8030) 6 and 9-pounder guns Four crew, Commander with telescope, firing gun, holding round, holding ram-sponge.
Both sets depict the famous Tarleton topped gunners. Of the two I prefer the Airfix set. It also includes a horse and limber. I personally do not use the limbers though I like them for battlefield clutter. The ESCI set has better guns and I will probably substitute these for the Airfix ones.
Foot Artillery
Revell 02577This set will serve well. It includes variants for loading and firing crews.
Rocket Troops
Hat 8003 A long awaited set. It can be built to have rockets ground launched or off launching rails. For construction hints see the Hat website.
Allied Forces
Cavalry
Dutch Belgian Light Dragoons
Hat 8032- Poses depict two hussars and two light dragoons. An admirable effort though it will take a lot of boxes to build reasonable forces. Hat's website indicates that these figures are intended to be the 4th and 5th Dragoons. An additional head in cylindrical shako and an extra blanket roll are included for conversions.
Infantry
Brunswick Avante Guarde
Hat 8008 Light Infantry wearing a Corsican hat with turned-up brim and blanket roll. These are one of the earliest releases by Hat. These Jaegers are depicted in field uniform. The first release included eight figures. When a second release was completed an additional marching figure was included.
Brunswick Leib Infantry
Hat 8026This is an interesting set sculpted with the shako with drooping horsehair plume. The set includes a ring-hand figure that can carry a standard, a small drum or a musket. The set also included eight additional heads: Four with the Corsican hat and four with pompom topped shakos. The latter allows you to field the force as a Brunswick line troops.
Dutch Infantry
Hat 8025 This is a workman like set. The Dutch had an attractive uniform in 1815. The set includes a good officer; extra heads with Belgian and stovepipe shakos for conversions.
Belgian Infantry
Hat 6003 (future release) small box release I have seen only three of the normal four poses: firing, loading and marching. All wear Belgic shako.
Nassau Grenadiers
Hat 6004 (future release) small box release. This set depicts the 2nd Nasasu Regiment who are distinguished from the first by the use of cords and plume on their shako and red epaulettes instead of red shoulder-rolls. This is the older style uniform. There are four figure poses marching, firing, advancing and loading.
Dutch Infantry
Call to Arms (future release?) This set is no longer showing on the futures list. Rumors indicate that some sprues of this set were accidentally put into the French Infantry set. I am interested to find out if this set will be released.
Netherlands Militia Hat 6002 (future release) small box release. This set includes four poses firing, loading, marching and advancing. All wear stovepipe shako.
Artillery
Dutch-Belgian
Artillery Waterloo 1815 009 (distributed by Hat) The set includes five poses: officer with sword, crew with ramrod, handspike, round and match. With this set you can field four guns crewed by five troops each. This is a great first effort from a company that had previously only reissued Atlantic kits.
*Note Zvezda and Italeri have a licensing agreement where they release each others figures so many of the Italeri re-releases of ESCI kits will also be available from Zvezda.
Fielding an Army for Waterloo in 20/22mm Plastic
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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