Thursday, June 5, 2014

British Napoleonic Brigade 54mm


No new line/light infantry for Britain has been offered in 54mm for quite some time.  Fortunately you can still find it on ebay.  Below is the British Bde that has a solid winning streak on the billiards table.



Forty years' service and still shooting...
 Except for the scots... Anytime the brits take major casualties you can bet this unit gets hammered. A 40 year old set from Airfix, I lost my mind one day and cut up their feathered bonnets to reflect caps common in the revolutionary war.  Got lucky and secured a reasonably priced set that is undamaged so the scots may get a second battalion this year. 
 


 A Call to Arms has the best Brit set on the market with British light Infantry.  Think they serve well as pre 1812 line.  Robust, good poses easy to paint, just a terrific set. 

ACTA Lights charging.  The left leg can snap if you abuse them enough.

Firing line with Airfix Officer

Fully round models-great set.

Airfix line infantry in Belgic shakos.  Really good set that has stood the test of time,



ACATA Brit Arty-great set.





Size comparison with HaT, all match pretty well.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

54mm Napoleonic Artillery

There are a few decent choices for the King of Battle.  To my liking the ACTA British Artillery crew is the best set made.  Believable poses (4) with 16 figures to a box. Where it falls apart is that the guns come 1 to a box- just too expensive.  I make do with play-set cannons on what appear to be howitzer caissons.  Two guns and 8 crew make a battery.  Two minor drawbacks to the set is the gunner with the ammo has a ball rather than a cartridge, and the other is that Brit gunners require lots of "surgery" to represent other nations.

I've seen nice work on the HaT site converting Prussians and Bavarians into gunners.  I've been using ACTA Grenadiers for French foot artillery.  From a distance the painted gaiters don't look too bad.
 
I was lucky enough to get a number of Italeri French Artillery kits .  They a very well done but have yet to reach the painting table.  These  guns are crewed by guard horse artillery (a couple of over-dramatic poses) that are beautifully executed.  Will post when painted.
 
Another source is the prolific Armies in Plastic.  While I really like their Rogers Rangers/Woodland Indian sets, their Napoleonic poses look a bit wooden.  That said, they are in production and reasonably priced.