New Figures and Some Updates

Hello everyone!

It's been a long while since my last post, and even longer since my last proper wargaming post. Shame on me! In my defense, I've been rather busy at work lately, and since I still haven't been able to move off the ship (hopefully this will be accomplished before summer's end) there hasn't been much for me to post about.

I did end up purchasing every book in the Hornblower saga, as well as another Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin book and "The Letters of Captain Coignet," a first-person account of the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of a solider in Napoleon's Old Guard. There might be a few other books I've bought too, but I can't remember right now.

Also, the article on the Ancient Irish Regiment of Fencible Infantry that I mentioned I was working on in my last post has ballooned considerably, and is now entitled "The History, Organization, Uniforms, Colours and Awards of the Irish Fencible Regiments, 1794-1802" and is currently over 50 pages in length. It's quite close to being done, and I'll post a link to it in a new tab at the top of the page when it's complete.

Enough dithering, and on to the minis!

I picked up a mixed lot of 15mm figures off of eBay the other day for relatively cheap. They were marked as being Russians, though when I received my parcel I found that it wasn't just Russians, but quite literally a mixed bag of troops. To be fair, though, they're mainly Russians.

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

The Russians

The majority of the lot consisted of these chaps, 26 Russian infantry in soft caps. As you can see, the vast majority of these have already been primed by their previous owner. The 24 lads at the bottom of the photo are musketeers, while at top are a standard bearer and a drummer.

The lot also contained 8 Russian infantry in kiwer, 4 of them already painted! The other 4 consist of a pair of officers and a pair of standard bearers.

Finally, we have 14 mounted and dismounted Russian officers. The 5 at top left have had their coat and hat colors blocked in; 2 wear kiwers, the rest wear bicornes, and there was only one horse for them. At top right are three Russian mounted officers with their mounts, two wearing bicornes, the third wearing a soft cap. I'm fairly certain these are old Minifigs. Finally at the bottom are two sprues of three Russian dismounted officers, all wearing bicornes. I believe these are old Minifigs as well.

The French

Also included was 11 Frenchmen. At top left we have three French officers, possibly generals or Marshals. At top right we have Napoleon himself, along with Roustan and a dismounted Chasseur a Cheval. In the middle of the picture are four dismounted French infantry officers, as well as a Frenchman in a bearskin, making him either an Old guard officer or a member of the Grenadiers a Cheval.

The Hussars

Four Hussars were in the bag. Due to the Hussar uniform being nearly identical in every warring nation (at least in 15mm, that is), these guys could work for any nation. At left is a Heritage figure, with the two at the right (with separate horses) I'm pretty sure are from Essex. The little one in the center I have no clue as to the origins.

The Prussians?

I'm pretty sure the dude at the far left is a Prussian artilleryman, but he'll probably be pressed into service in another army, along with the heavy cavalryman and the lancer in the center. The lancer at the far right might be a Prussian, but then again he could be a Cossack. I'm not sure.

The Broken/Not-In-My-Wheelhouse Figures

Up top is a self-propelled artillery piece: maybe 6mm? Something small, anyway. At top right is a 28mm radio set sitting on a stump, while along th bottom are 4 invalids: Two Russian standard-bearers with their flagpoles clipped off, a Russian mounted officer without a right hand, and a French infantryman without any feet.

All told I ended up with 71 figures, not including the stump radio and the self propelled gun. I paid less than $25 for the lot, so it wasn't a bad deal at all.

Coming soon: a new "Articles" tab at the top of the page with my completed article, and hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and get some painting done; I still have my Nassauers to work on...

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

A New Book and On-The-Fly Painting Setup

Hello everyone!

While home for New Year's leave, my mother and I stopped by the local public library where they were having a book sale. As you may or may not know, it is very difficult for me to not take a look at books for sale, and I left there with some new books for very cheap. While I hadn't expected to find anything Napoleonic-related, I was pleasantly surprised to find this old paperback hiding amongst the others:

The Causes of the War of 1812: National Honor or National Interest? edited by Bradford Perkins, is a 1965 collection of excerpts from historians examining a number of possible causes for the War of 1812. I foresee this as being an interesting read, as well as an interesting piece of historiography regarding the War of 1812. Over to the left in my "2016 Totals" bar I've added a section to track purchased books as well as miniatures, and at $0.50, this one wasn't a bad deal at all.

On he painting front, I've  prepped the only Napoleonic figure in the house, the dismounted French Dragoon I ordered from Brigade Games on Black Friday, for painting. Since my real painting setup is in California and I'm sitting on the couch in Kentucky, I had to scrounge around for some of my old paints and brushes, but I managed to find a basic palette that will work for this chap. All that was left was for me to run by the local game store here, where I picked up some Citadel Skull White primer and a pot of Caliban Green for his jacket, and now I'm all set. I'll prime him tonight and begin work probably tomorrow; tonight my parents and I are going to see "The Revenant" at the movie theater in town. Stay tuned.

Coming soon: A painted French Dragoon.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Goodbye 2015, Welcome 2016!

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone has had a safe and happy New Year!

As I ring in the New Year here at Chuck's Napoleonic Wargames, I thought I'd take a look back at 2015 and everything I managed to accomplish. I also think that it would be good to set some goals for myself for the coming year. But first, I thought I'd show you a few Christmas gifts that I received.

Being in the Navy and living on west coast of the United States (over 2000 miles from where my family lives) I wasn't able to be home for Christmas Day. I was able to take leave for New Years, and as I sit here writing I can smell the hogjaw, cabbage and black-eyed peas cooking, traditional Appalachian food for New Year's Day, said to bring luck for the coming year. My Christmas festivities were over the past two days, and I was surprised with a few gifts.

New Gifts for the New Year

This is an antique comic book from my Aunt. She initially bought it just because it said "Navy" without realizing that its subject matter is the exploits of the US Navy from its foundation through the War of 1812! A happy coincidence! It dates from 1958, by Stokes Walesby and Theodore Roscoe, and does a fair job of summing up the Navy's first thirty-odd years of existence. It is, however, a product of its time, complete with some interesting adjective choices; I think the connotations of the word "lusty" have changed over the past fifty years!

This one was a surprise gift from my mother and sister: Patrick O'Brien's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World, edited by Richard O'Neill. This book is lavishly illustrated and chock full of  information that explains the life and times of the characters from Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books, which I read in high school. A very, very nice book, and a great addition to my reference library.

And then there's this chap, a 28mm dismounted, skirmishing French dragoon. This is a Brigade Games figure, sculpted by Paul Hicks, which I added to my Black Friday purchase to meet the minimum price to use a coupon. He's destined to form part of a Dragoon Command stand/vignette.

2015 In Review

2015 marked the 200th Anniversaries of the Battle of New Orleans, the Battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, and of course the Battle of Waterloo. This year was also a very busy and exciting year for me. I started a new career, moved across the country, and there were times where I couldn't really do anything hobby-related. However, that all being said, I managed to get quite a bit of painting done, and even more purchasing done.

So here is the final totals from my blog for the year:

Painted
15mm Foot Painted: 61
15mm Horse Painted: 3
15mm Guns/Wagons Painted: 0
1/72 Foot Painted: 20
1/72 Horse Painted: 3
1/72 Guns/Wagons Painted: 0
28mm Foot Painted: 41
28mm Horse Painted: 0
28mm Guns/Wagons Painted: 1
Purchased
15mm Figures Purchased: 60
1/72 Figures Purchased: 179
28mm Figures Purchased: 174
Guns/Wagons Purchased: 5
-----------------------------------------
Total (Painted - Purchased): -288
Units Completed: 2
Command Stands Completed: 2
Casualty Markers Completed: 4

 

I managed to complete the 1/88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) and the 1st Battalion of the Pavlovsk Grenadiers, the command stands for Marechals de France Joachim-Napoleon Murat and Michel Ney, and three British and one Russian casualty markers.

 

This past year also marked my turning to the "dark side" and expanding my Napoleonics collection to include 28/25mm figures. Additionally, I expanded my Napoleonic library by 15 books over the past year and visited two museums, the San Diego Maritime Museum and the USS Midway Museum.

 

All in all, a pretty productive year for how busy I've been!

 

Goals for the New Year

1. Paint more figures than I purchase.
2. Finish 4 infantry regiments.
3. Finish 2 cavalry regiments.
4. Finish 2 artillery batteries.
5. Finish 3 command stands.
6. Finish 5 casualty markers.
7. Play a game with my figures.

This seems to be an achievable set of hobby goals for the year. We'll see how that goes...

 

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

 

-Chuck

The 2/4th Foot Colour Party and New Old-School 25mm Figures

Hello everyone!

There have been several developments hobby-wise that have happened here recently, namely the arrival of a big lot of figures off of eBay. I also managed to get a little painted done yesterday, this time some more British: the start of the 2/4th Regiment of Foot (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions).

The drummer and both ensigns are old, true 25mm Minifigs that came in a large mixed lot of figures that I bought off of eBay (more pics of these below), and as such they are just a tad smaller than the larger 28mm Foundry and Knuckleduster figures I own. They are all wearing the post 1812 uniforms, with short coatees, grey trousers and Belgic shakoes. They are painted in the dark blue facings of the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot; this will be the 2nd Battalion, as my greatcoated battalion is the 4th's 1st Battalion.

I really like the dashing Battalion commander figure; he looks like he's rallying his men to push on despite the storm of steel around him. He seems kind of old school, even compared to the Minifigs, like some Hinton Spieler or Der Kriegspieliers figs I've seen. I tried looking him up myself, but my Google-fu was weak. Does anybody have any idea who made him? The code on the bottom of the base was BN28.

The Colours are my usual hand painted creations, as per usual. I actually did two sets at once; these as well as the Colours for the 1st (Whyte's) West India Regiment.

I'm planning on finishing the command stand for Whyte's W.I. Regiment before the weekend is out, you'll be seeing these flags again shortly.

So I picked up another large lot of figures off of eBay, this time a mixed lot of seventy 25mm Minifigs (and others) miniatures. There are both British and French miniatures, with a mix of different troop types.

The entire lot of 70 figures, cleaned up after unpacking. Unfortunately, several bayonets didn't survive the journey through the US postal system.

The French: Clockwise from the rear, 13 Old Guard Grenadiers , 4 French Artillerymen, 1 mounted French Dragoon, and 11 Line Infantrymen.

The British: Clockwise from top left, 7 Scotsmen, 28 Line Infantry, and 6 Foot Artillerymen.

Again, these are true 25mm figures, and so are smaller than my other 28mm minis. They are still large enough however that only four figs will fit on a 40mm x 40mm base, meaning a regiment of these lads will be 24 strong, just like their large 28mm cousins. The bulk of the British Line Infantry above will form the 2/4th Foot, which I started last night. These guys are very old school, which I like, and, though they are not the most detailed or dynamic sculpts in the world, as you see they paint up very nicely.

Coming soon: The figures for the command stand for Whyte's W.I. Regiment and those of a stand of the 1/4th Foot are on painting bases right now, and I expect to finish them before the weekend is out.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Back to My (Small Scale) Roots

Hello everyone!

I only managed to get one stand of figs painted over the weekend, but instead of 28mm minis like I've been doing lately, these are 1/72; returning to my roots, if you will.  These are French from Italeri 6066 painted up as the command stand for the 2eme Regiment d'Infanterie Legere. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

These guys are painted up in the all blue of the Light Infantry regiments. While there are lots of pictures online of light infantry in dark blue uniforms (and photographs of actual, extant uniforms showing them to be dark blue) I've taken the liberty of painting these chaps in a lighter blue, mainly because I like this color blue. The uniforms are piped in white, with red collar and cuff flaps and silver buttons. The drummer is painted in the later green tunics worn by drummers; I've actually had this figure painted since May, it's taken me until now to finish up his mates.

These guys are based on my standard 40mm x 40mm infantry bases, though these are made of wood. I was at the local Michaels craft store yesterday where I found these bags of wooden squares for sale, and I noticed that the largest squares in the bag might be the right size for bases:

After doing a bit of in-store measuring, I found that I was correct: the larger ones were exactly 40mm square, perfect for my needs. Between the two bags I ended up with 40 precut bases:

These will save me a lot of work in the future, which is always a good thing.

Coming soon: Maybe some American command stands, or some artillery; that's what I have on painting bases at the moment.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

French Old Guard Chassuers a Pied 15mm Figure Review

Hello everyone!

A promised, here's the review of the latest miniatures that I received, some 15/18mm French Old Guard Chasseurs a Pied figures from Napoleon at War and Essex.

 

Napoleon at War French Old Guard Chasseur a Pied Battalion

&

Essex French Old Guard Chasseur in Greatcoat and Bonnet de Police Review

The blisters as they arrived in the mail.

Initial Impressions

As has been the case recently, I purchased these figures when I found them on sale at very good prices in the bargain section of one of my favorite online retailers. While I've bought Essex figures in the past and knew about what to expect from them, I was curious about the Napoleon at War figures, which are produced by a Spanish company called Man at War Miniature Games. These figures are bulk packed with included bases, I'm assuming to be used with Man at War's own proprietary ruleset, but the large number of figures per pack piqued my interest: it was nearly enough for one of my 36 man battalions. The pack was advertised as containing 32 figures, but when I broke it open and started counting, it turned out to contain 33! Bonus! At the price they were on sale for, I couldn't resist the deal. Unfortunately, in my opinion, these are the few positive points I've found regarding these figs.

The contents of the Napoleon at War battalion pack: A selection of bases for Men at War's proprietary rules, 20 marching figures, 8 skirmishing figures in four different poses, and 5 command figures, including an Eagle bearer, an Officer, two sergeants (one with a porte fanion), and a drummer. So 33 figures in all, of an advertised 32. Bonus!

Scaleability

The Napoleon at War figures are approximately 18mm or largish 15mm; it's hard to say for sure, as the minis are sporting the rather large bearskins worn by the Old Guard. I believe that these figures would fit in height wise with AB and Fantassin figures, but never stylistically; these figures are definitely from the "rough and ready" school of sculpting. The Essex figures are the same old same old. They may be Napoleonic dwarf lords, but at least they are consistent.

The more mundane contents of the Essex pack: 8 standing or marching French Chasseurs a Pied in greatcoats and bonnet de police.

Quality

As I mentioned, the Napoleon at War minis are very rough and ready. The sculpting on these guys makes the Essex figures look like masterpieces; overall, they are kind of lumpy, with mushy details. The metal is also really, really soft; I could see the rifles and bayonets on these lads bend and break quite easily if they were mishandled or dropped. In my humble opinion the quality on these guys is severely lacking and probably one of the worst things about these figs.

Other than production values, the figures are wearing the appropriate equipment and uniforms to represent the Old Guard Chasseurs a Pied. It's also neat that the Essex figures are wearing the bonnet de police fatigue cap, which from what I've read was quite popular amongst French troops of the era.

Size comparison between the two manufacturers. The larger overall size of the Napoleon at War figures (18mm vs. 15mm for the Essex figs) plus the tall bearskins make them tower over Essex's Napoleonic gnomes.

Price

The good price I got on both of these packs of figures is why I bought them in the first place. Frankly, if I hadn't have gotten the Napoleon at War figures at a deep discount (I paid $7.19 for them--$0.21 per figure--when they normally run $25.88), I would have felt sick paying $0.78 per figure for them: that's higher than AB figures, and with much lower quality! The Essex figures were also slightly discounted as well, but their prices have always been consistent for what you get from them.

All in all I'm a bit disappointed in the quality of the Napoleon at War figures for what they charge for them. They do come in large packs which is nice for guys like me who have large numbers of figs per unit, but the high prices for low quality is not good. However, I got mine cheap, and if you can too, then you'll have some decent figures to flesh out your armies. I'm looking forward to having some Old Guard to protect the Emperor from the damn Ruskies!

-----

Coming soon: I should be getting my 12 pounder for my American artillery from Brigade Games sometime this week, and I'll post some pics when it arrives. I'll also be on the lookout for my Knuckleduster figs as well.

Questions, comments and criticism are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

French Command Stand (in Bicornes!)

Hello everyone!

I've managed to finish up six figures this weekend, the command stand -or what will become the 3rd battalion of the 54th French Line Infantry Regiment, wearing the earlier 1804-1807ish uniforms with bicornes. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

All of the figures are unaltered AWI figures from Italeri set 6060, except for the chef de bataillon, who is a conversion:

The two figures used for the conversion: the body from the officer figure from Italeri #6066 and the head of one of the AWI figures that was missing his arms.

The resulting figure. I even managed to retain the AWI figure's queue.

I've painted the ensign as carrying an 1804 pattern flag. This pattern was issued to all battalions of an infantry regiment; I'm pretty sure all battalions were issued eagles in 1804, but I didn't want this battalion (being a 3rd battalion) to have an Eagle, so I left the spear point finial as it came on the figure. I know this was the case during the 1812 reissue of eagles and standards.

Uniforms are pretty standard, based on plates of the pre-Bardin uniforms as well as uniforms from the Revolutionary Wars, save for some variations in their trousers. Some have been painted with striped trousers (such as the colonel; I saw this fetching pattern online and had to include it), white summer gaiters and black winter gaiters. I've painted the older AWI era coats to look like the pre-Bardin reforms French long-tailed uniform coat; I think I was successful.

Though I was able to get the base painted up, I have yet to flock it; apparently the base exchange doesn't carry Elmer's glue?!?! That's just stupid. I'll have to pick some up sometime when I'm off base.

Coming soon: I might continue with the 3/54th, or I might start on some other figures. We'll see what strikes my fancy.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Back in the Saddle Again

Hello everyone!

This past weekend my parents came up to visit me, and with them came an abridged version of my painting setup and a few of my 1/72 plastic figures to paint. I will have to fit it all in around my school and work schedule, but I'm excited to get back into painting a little bit once again!

I also have the opportunity now to review the big 1/72 lot that I purchased right before I left for boot camp, since those are the majority of the figures that I had my parents bring down. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

Here's my basic painting setup. A small selection of basic paint colors, some green stuff, super glue, hobby knife, brushes, base flocking materials and bottle tops to hold onto the figures whilst painting. Not pictured is my old Army t-shirt that I use as my brush-cleaning rag.

1/72 Review: Random eBay Lot

12 Strelets Russian mounted jagers. While not enough for a full unit of 18, they will get me well on my way to fielding a full Russian cavalry regiment.

Initial Impressions

The lot I found was unmarked as to what was in it (the descriptions only saying "American Revolution/Napoleonic?"), but thanks to Plastic Soldier Review I was able to determine that the lot consisted basically of the contents of Italeri #6066 French Infantry, Strelets #018 Russian Mounted Jagers, and Italeri #6060 American Infantry (from the American War of Independence), plus a mystery plastic mounted figure. The mystery figure turned out to be a mounted plastic medieval knight or similar and looked to be a board game piece of some kind, so pretty much useless to my needs. Also, the number of figures in the lot didn't match up to the number of figures listed on the boxes, meaning at some point there was some miniature attrition. I was also disappointed to see that some of the figs were incomplete, but more on that in a minute. Overall I was pleased that I got a good deal, and I can use the figures for a variety of projects: The French infantry will be French infantry, the AWI figures will mainly be painted as French in bicornes (not Portuguese as I originally speculated) with some of the figures augmenting my American militia and Native American forces for New Orleans 1812, and finally the Russian mounted jagers for my Russian forces.

29 Italeri American War of Independence figures. These are the only ones from the group that are ready to be painted as is.

Scaleability

All of these figures are the average size 1/72 figures; not the towering behemoths of some Italeri figures, and not the dwarfs of some other manufacturers. Since they will be placed in their own units there won't be any kind of disparity in height amongst the figures.

Here are 11 more Continentals, but all of these guys are missing arms, hands, drums etc. These would have normally been on the sprue, but unfortunately they didn't arrive with the figures in the big bag they came in. I will have to fix these with green stuff.

Quality

For the most part, other than the qualms that the folks over at Plastic Soldier Review have regarding the accuracy of the sculpts and whatnot, I like these figures. The sculpting on all of them (including the Strelets figs) is really good, save for the occasional miss-cast saber. I am rather disappointed that the eBayer I bought these from neglected to send all of the separate arms and drums that go with the AWI figures, which leaves almost a quarter of the entire group useless without some green stuff sculpting on my end. This is a pain.

46 Italeri French infantry in shako. All these chaps need are some cleaning up and then some paint to be table-ready.

Price

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the whole reason why I bought these figures was because of their price: 104 figures (not including the weird green knight game piece) for $5.50 shipped! That's $0.05 per figure, including twelve mounted figs. That's ridiculously cheap compared to what I've paid for 1/72 minis before. The deal was too good to pass up in that regard.

American militia. The three cream-colored figures at the lower right are from the AWI set; all are missing their right hands and muskets.

Native Americans. The figures holding their rifles at their hips are from the American War of Independence set.

The above two groups include the Native American and American militia figures that I salvaged from the Lewis and Clark set I bought at Hobby Lobby a good while back. There were three Native American figures that were included with the Revolutionary War figures, and they will fit in quite nicely with the others as is. There were also three ragged-looking figures in the same set, but unfortunately none of the hands with weapons were included with the figures, which is a shame. At the same time, though, since I will be making new hands and muskets out of green stuff, I will get a bit more variety out of the three poses than if they were all the same. Perhaps it's not much of a silver lining, but I have to work with what I have.

All in all the entire purchase was well worth the minimal price, and I should have plenty to keep me busy during my off times.

Coming soon: Well, I don't have many options. It could be French (either in shako or in bicorne), Russian mounted jagers, American militia for New Orleans, or American-allied Choctaws for New Orleans. Either something painted or some conversions made on those armless figures to get them paint-ready. Either way, I'm quite excited to get back in the hobby!

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Real Men Wear Pink

Hello everyone!

Well, I guess miracles do occur because my box of Strelets French Foot Dragoons arrived in the mail yesterday, so I happily spent the evening trimming, cleaning and painting a few of them. Today I present the command stand for the 16e Regiment de Dragons, en service a pied, as well as a quick review of the figures as a whole.

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

I based these fellows on my standard 50mm x 40mm cavalry base. Also like my regular mounted cavalry, there are three figures to a base, for a full regiment of 18 figures. They are after all dismounted cavalry and would have had the same number of men as a mounted unit; also, this will keep them distinct from my larger infantry units.

The command stand consists of the Regiment's colonel (in greatcoat) flanked by a drummer and a bugler, both in reversed colors. I love figures in greatcoats; they are so easy and quick to paint it almost feels like cheating. The colonel is holding a Year IX pistol, and his helmet is the standard officer's pattern with black horsehair crest and cheetah-fur turban.

I relied pretty heavily on Funcken plates for the musicians; the helmets of the drummer and bugler both have dark brown 'other-ranks' turbans and the white horsehair crests that distinguished musicians. The drummer is wearing a standard tunic with lapels in reversed colors for the 16th Dragoon Regiment (pink with green cuffs, collars and turnbacks), piped in white with white epaulettes. The drum itself is based on a number of different plates and seemed to be fairly standard across the regiments on foot service; dragoon regiments on foot service were given drummers, unique amongst any other contemporary cavalry formation.

The trumpeter's tunic is frogged across the front in white, as it lacked lapels, with green cuffs, collars and turnbacks piped in white. The anguillette hanging from the bugler's epaulette confused me for a time, until it occured to me (based on Funcken) that it was meant to represent the cord which secured the bugle to the bugler's person. Funcken showed this as being red, so red it it here. All in all, I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

1/72 Review: Strelets 0009: French Foot Dragoons and Polish Grenadiers

The box. As usual, Strelet's box art is pretty neat.

Initial Impressions

I purchased these figures because I had been hankering after this set for a good while after I had looked at them on Plastic Soldier Review. Having no luck in getting this set on eBay I had a look around the Internet and finally found it in stock at Hobby Bunker, which shipped them the same day I ordered them. I probably would have gotten them sooner but becasue they are in Massachussetts the massive blizzards they have been having up that way more than likely slowed it down.

Sprue 1: Polish Grenadiers in bearskins.

I really like these figures! The French dragoon regiments have always fascinated me, and I thought it would be really cool to have a regiment of Foot dragoons. As far as I know no one makes 15mm French foot dragoons, so these guys were my only hope to make my dream a reality. Additionally, because they are mixed in the set with Polish Grenadiers, I pretty much own every 1/72 Napoleonic Polish set that is out there; the grenadiers (with their bearskins) will form the grenadier company for the 1st Regiment of the Vistula Legion.

Sprue 2: French Dragoons.

Scaleability

These figures are compatable with the vast majority of my 1/72 collection; smaller than some of the massive Italeri figures I have, on par with Hat, Strelets and most of my Italeri figures, and a bit larger than Revell.

Sprue 3: French Dragoons.

Quality

Like most Strelets figures, these guys looked like hammered hell on the sprue but clean up and paint up very nicely. There are a few figures with mushy faces where the mould didn't quite fill and some areas of sloppy sculpting, but generally I like them. There is very little flash, and the figures are well proportioned and accurately equipped.

Sprue 4: French Dragoons.

Price

These chaps were $16.95 shipped from a lovely little company in Massachussetts named Hobby Bunker. For 48 figures (plus a few accessories), this comes out to about $0.35 a figure, which is a bit on the expensive side for  my 1/72 figures, but I had been wanting this particular set for a while and I was willing to pay a bit more to get it.

Sprue 5: Ladder teams.

Coming soon: Not a whole lot. I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for boot camp, so these French Foot Dragoon will be the last figures I will paint until late this summer, more than likely.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck