Chasseurs à Pied

In addition to the ongoing development of my early Napoleonic Russian and matching Württemberg armies in 15mm, I also have quite a few plastic 20mm French, mainly for historical reasons. However, some of these saw action in the first game of our One-Hour Wargames mini-campaign.

HäT Industrie - Guard Chasseurs à Pied

Nevetheless, one thing I didn't have was any guard units (apart from some Italeri Guard artillery).  That said, I do still have the contents of a box of old Airfix Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard but, although they are nice sculpts, they are quite small compared to the other units I have which are mainly Italieri now (although with some legacy Airfix units still knocking about) and not worth painting.  I also like to have units in marching poses if I can, so these HäT Industrie (8170) Guard Chasseurs à Pied were ideal.

More of same

There are (I think) three marching-ish poses in the box and enough to make a unit of 15+1 men, when based for the WRG 1685-1845 rules (60mm wide bases).  However, for some reason an officer is not included in the box, so the chap in the front rank brandishing a sword is a converted Italeri Guard foot atilleryman promoted from the ranks to regimental commander.

Overall, they are nice sculpts and are similar in size my Italeri line units.  They also match in style and quality my average painting abilities (but slightly better basing skills).

Jägermeister

I've still got the painting bug and am currently working on my 20mm French Napoleonic collection (see earlier posts this year).  Having completed various infantry units and some excellent Italeri dragoons, I thought I should really paint those Esci cuirassiers that have been under the bed since about 1990.  In fact I'd been in two minds about painting them at all because the figures aren't as good as the dragoons by a long chalk and I was thinking maybe I should just get some Italeri carabiniers instead.

Deliberating on all this I was of course distracted along the way and impulse-bought and painted some HäT Industrie Württemberg cavalry (Jägers) in the two weeks it took me to decide what to do.  These were the first HäT figures I'd painted and I found them quite nice with a lot of well defined detail.  The plastic, although a bit flexible, takes the paint very well.

There are only four poses (12 figures altogether) on three identical sprues in the box (and only two types of horse), but one man on each sprue comes with a choice of arms that you have to glue on.  I made one of them a trumpeter in the vivid yellow coat.  I think the troopers look quite good in their black gauntlets, dark green tunics and yellow trim.

Based up for the WRG 1685-1845 rules on 60mm x 40mm bases, with my usual concoction of coarse sand, painted dark earth then dry brushed in a sandy colour and then flocked, I consider that they've turned out very well.  And I think I'm really getting the hang of painting horses now after my initial hesitations. 

Oh, and finally, here are the cuirassiers. I had two ancient packets of them stashed away and was able to make quite a few bases although whether they'll all get an outing at the same time remains to be seen.

So that's it then, apart from six bases of Italeri French hussars to finish and perhaps one or two more Italeri line infantry regiments (possibly to be painted as Saxons or Swiss, just for a change).

However, I'd really like to get some HäT Württemberg infantry now, as well as the HäT French Guard Chasseurs a Pied, but neither seem to be available in the UK at present.  Still, I could always acquire and paint up some carabiniers in the meantime...