British Cavalry
The British cavalry of the Napoleonic
Wars were not very good. While they fought with great spirit, the
evidently fought without much discipline. The cavalry branch was
divided into light dragoons, hussars, dragoons, and life guards.
HaT Industries has a set of King's
German Legion Light Dragoons that can double for the regular British regiments
post 1812. These are the four poses in the HaT Industries'
set. They are all painted as members of the 1st KGL Light Dragoons,
and you can see for yourself how well the figures are sculpted. These
are simple uniforms, and HaT wisely gave all the details great relief,
making them easy to paint. The facial details are perhaps the best
feature of these figures. HaT had truly come into their prime by
the time this set was released. The officers in this regiment wore
gold lace and cord on their shoulders and shakos, and enlisted men wore
yellow. All of these men, therefore, have been (mistakenly) painted
as officers!
There are two sets of British hussars,
but neither is recommended. Esci's set is a rerelease of their Crimean
War hussars, and Airfix's is both toylike and incorrectly uniformed.
Italeri's French Hussars can be readily converted to British hussars with
some judicious use of the hobby knife.
The dragoons were the heavy cavalry of the British army.
There are three different sets available, but two of them portray only
one regiment: the famous Scots Greys. These sets look very nice,
although the men are wearing their waterproof hat covers. I miss
the bearskins from Lady Butler's great painting, and wish that one of the
two sets could have had the men in parade dress. These are
the Esci figures.
HaT Industrie has a British Dragoons
set. These new figures will represent the other British dragoon regiments
(1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th). These are beautiful figures!
The Lifeguards were elite heavy
cavalry that saw action at Waterloo. Revell makes a set of these
men that is perhaps the best Napoleonic cavalry set in plastic. Wow!
Last updated 08 August, 2002
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