HäT Swedish Napoleonic Infantry

I'm glad these are done. Not really impressed with the sculpting, proportions or details on the guns, etc. To me, these look more like the dwarfish type of figures you'd find with metal figures. I also have a complaint that the specialist figures—the Lifeguards and so on, all have the same poses. Good grief, I've painted, repainted, removed the paint and tried to get these guys right. A lot of effort for units that showed up late to the battle (Leipzig) and hung around letting the Russian do all the work. And I'm part Swedish—my mother family came over in the late 1800s, settling in Minnesota. Our names were Andersen and Stromstead. Oh well.

I finished just after Christmas. I took some pictures and they all look like crap. So apologies for just one pic. This is the best of the bunch. I've been having troubles and been disappointed with the pictures I've been getting out of both of my cameras. I think it's the lights, I'll make some modifications and try it again.

On to finishing up some well done Zvezda figures.

HäT Napoleonic Bavarians. Finally!

At long last and with apologies for the wait—a full arms treat of Bavarians. 

Oh my, there's been a lot of turmoil at home interrupting this project, too many to list, but I finally based them last night. 

There's figures from four HäT sets here—cavalry, artillery, infantry and their latest fusiliers. 

One would expect the newest fusilier set to improve upon the previous infantry (which are actually grenadiers I believe.) But I was disappointed in the newest set. The belts, straps and cuffs were not as sharp nor well defined and a lot of the painting buttons and cuff are just guessing. That attributed for some of the delay. I did not find them a joy to paint (though I love the cornflower blue uniforms and yellow/red facings.)

On the left are two infantry painted as grenadiers (cornflower coats, red plume)

HäT Bavarian Infantry (8028) painted as jägers.

Prussian Dragoons at Möckern

Inspired by the Knötel print of Lithuanian dragoons charging French Marines at the near Möckern during the battle of Leipzig.

The inspiration. One day I'll kitbash a windmill. The French officer could be made from the Peninsular War British officer (if I ever obtain another.) Good luck finding figure for Yorck.

French marines are a paint conversion of HäT's Napoleonic Brunswick Lieb infantry. Too many straps, I know. Hussar style coats are a bear to paint! The Prussian Dragoons are, well, HäT's Prussian Dragoons (set #8002). Not the bicornes (set #8196.)

HäT World War 2 German Tank Riders

Again, nice figures from HäT! Test shot of German tank riders. Painted early war. On a late war tank.

I expect flamers in the comments section. Cheers!

HäT World War One French Cavalry

Test shots of HäT's new World War One French Cavalry. The WW1 sprues come with 5 riders and horses—officer and four mounted infantry (shown.) The horses, saddles and bedrolls are the same for all nations—British, French and Turkish. As with recent figures, these have great raised detail. Most all of the webbing, straps, ammo pouches are concise and easily identified when painting. The arms holding the lances/rifles/sword are separate, allowing a variety of positions. In this case, I chose the lances upright.

The scene is August, 1918 as French forces move forward. An Australian soldier (with helmet added) escorts German prisoners and a wounded French poilu to the rear. 

One of the prisoners is the surrendering Airfix German with Stalhelm and arms at his side (taken from the tankers in Emhar's WW1 British kit. I think he looks a little weird.

HäT Tank Riders — British

Here's the first of four tank rider sets from HäT.

First of all, these tank riders are not just for tanks. Seated figures are very useful to fill up and give life to half-tracks, jeeps, lorries, armoured cars, sitting on crates, barrels, waiting to move out and so on.

This set has two kneeling figures—an officer and section leader. The infantry has been painted as part of the 43rd wessex. You may notice a blue (square) with a yellow dab in the middle. The officer has been painted as an RAF link officer (cab control? can't recall what these guys were called) attached to armoured divisions whose job was to call in air strikes as needed. The head is a swap, the original figure wears a beret which RAF the RAF did not wear at this time.

Speaking of heads, one complaint is the sprue attaches to the crown of the helmet on some figures. If cut to short, the helmet will be sporting an odd cylinder rising from it while an over cut will lop off the top. It would have been better to have attachment at the bottom of the feet.

The riders are very nice with a lot of detail. With most British figures on the market, it seems the kit and webbing always suffers. In this case, the entrenching tool and canteen is nicely sculpted with it skeleton holder rather chunky (in a good way) to take paint easily.

I feel for the sculptor. Due to the poses, there is some excess plastic between the rifle butts and the hip, and in some cases, the canteen doesn't turn the corner and the space between the canteen and buttock fills in. These figures could probably benefit from separate packs like HäT's Napoleonic Prussians and some of the Zvezda sets.

On minor point, most of the men are sitting as if on chairs. This arrangement works better on the angular Cromwell than the slope found on Shermans. Gluing the figures on (or to each other) would be the best solution for stability but I prefer to freedom to position as will. Just don't bump the table.

Overall, nice figures, poses and detail. Another job well done!

HäT Austrian Grenadiers and Militia.

Militia? Looks likes jägers! And for the Napoleonic astute, (which I'm not) HäT's new figures of Austrian militia have been painted as jägers. As I can tell, I think the only difference may be the placement of the cockade on the hat.

These figures are overall pretty good. The poses are the standard formula HäT is now producing for Napoleonices. The Militia is nice (not all figures shown) because of the running figure. Nice animation which felt more like jäger tactics.

As for a sculpting detail, I wouldn't rate them as high as HäT's most recent endeavors—Prussian infantry and Peninsular British. I found that lot of the detail was soft or melting away. With all the straps and cross straps of the grenadiers, the area got real congested and at times I didn't even know what I was painting. It was like following an Escher staircase.

The cuffs and buttons on the sleeves often disappeared leaving their existence to rely on the paint brush.

The softness of detail could be that the figures are test runs and not final productions figures. The plastic is soft and tends to tear rather than bend or break.

Overall, very pleased with these figures and the militia as jägers is a better option than their previous Brunswick Avant Garde.

HäT Napoleonic Prussians

These are beautiful figures and the best I have seen from HäT. They are of the same quality as their Peninsular British Infantry, the bonus being the figures are in three sets—Command, Marching and Skirmishing.

The straps, buttons and cuffs are raised and oversized just enough (like stage makeup) to be visible and for ease of painting. Their are just a few figures where cuffs/buttons become lost but is easily remedied by paint.

There are twelve unique marching poses, shoulder and support position. This gives the line a sense of motion and humanity. The officers have separate right arms with swords allowing for multiple poses. Personally my having is advancing with sword over the shoulder.

The separate arms also allow for more realistic sculpting and detail. The drum is a good example. This allow the drum sticks to be free and away from the body (as if he is actually playing.)

The drum is in two parts. I was worried it would be a fiddly affair but the fit is tidy and seamless. I used super glue and the adhesion is tight. Note, if you to to paint, painting is required before assembly. I was impatient and thought I could get away with it on the flag bearer.

Personally, the downside is the amount of assembly (arms and backpacks) as I like my toy soldiers to be that—toys and not model kits. However, the end result is fantastic. The three kit concept, one that HäT has pioneered in plastic, is truly a game changer.

Hopefully, this arrangement will be adopted for line infantry of all major nations.

(Pardon the lousy photographs. More shots will be taken when I have access to my wife camera.)

Many thanks to HäT for these wonderful figures.

I'm posting again which means one thing—I found employment! I'll be working for an advertising agency in St. Louis which means I'll be relocating from Atlanta back to my hometown!!

That said, here are some pix of units I've been painting for my Leipzig diorama.
These in these posts you'll you see— HäT French Young Guard and Prussian Reserves, Zvezda Russian Grenadiers, Cuirassiers, French Imperial Guard, Revell Prussians and Waterloo 1815 Polish Infantry.

This is a great group of figures—the sculpting on all is crisp and sharp, easy to paint (though I painfully plod along at a snail's pace) I was thinking of giving a 'shout out' to some manufacturers but these are all great. I love everything Zvezda does—the Russian Grenadiers and Cuirassiers particularly. Props to Revell for releasing their Prussian Line Infantry. These guys look awesome. Even the simply sculpted French Young Guard have a nice presence.
More pix to follow. Cheers!

Photoshop Alert—the haze, smoke and rifle fire on one of the Prussian shots were added.

More Leipzig Images

Some bird's eye and a worm's eye view the battle. On the last pic (from the French Artillery's POV) you can see left to right, Zvezda Russian Artillery, ESCI Russians, HaT Austrian and Prussian Artillery, HaT Austrians. There is a handful of Italeri Prussians. These are mere placeholders until the new HaT Prussians are available. The French Infantry is Italeri, the artillery HaT.
More to follow.

Leipzig Light

For those of you who frequent HäT's forum you're probably tired of my incessant and innane Napoleonic questions. Mainly regarding Leipzig.

That's because I'm clueless about Naps and fascinated with this battle because: it liberated most of Europe (Germany) from Napoleon's rule, saw many of his German allies switch side, brought about Napoleon's downfall (like D-Day for Hitler) and was the largest battle in Europe till my favorite conflict, the First World War. And yet, I've never heard of this battle till a few month's ago.

So I was looking around Airfix's site and saw this image of their release of Waterloo.
If this undersized farm and sprinkling of figures could represent a battle of 300,000+ soldiers of several nations, then I could do the same for Leipzig!

Here's a WIP photo showing dispositions of troops, etc.
The board is 2" x 3" homosite from HomeDepot. I'm already wishing it were at least 4" x 4" If it were larger, I could add a scartchbuilt St. Thomas Cathedral and a diminuative version of the town hall. Also, there's just not enough space east of Leipzig for Bernadotte's army. After all HäT makes Swedish cavalry and are coming out with Swedish artillery. But more importantly, where would I put the British Rocket Troops!!?

Nap fans, please comment. But before you get to hung up, think of Paris snowglobe---you know, how an Eiffel tower, arc de'triomph and the louvre resepent the entire city. So 48 Austrians represent two army groups! More pics to follow soon.

HaT Penisular British

Images of HaT's new Peninsular British. These are really nice figures. The body motion, poses are nice. Also for painters, the sculptinig in sharp and buttons, straps etc. are raised enough to take paint easily and not disappear under the layers (especially with the Delta Creamcoat acrylic paint I use.) I hope all of HaT's new offerings -- Prussians and new Seven Years War line—are of this quality. Lots of marching poses (not shown), firing and advancing. Wargamers should be pleased with the selection of poses. Highly recommended set.