Chevau-Légers Lanciers Français des Guerres Napoléoniennes 1812–1815

Revue de Figurines de HaT Industrie au 1/72

The diorama created by Klaus Hinderks shows des lanciers français attacking infanterie britannique. The lancers are from HäT, but the horses are historically more accurate et more detailed remounts taken from Dragons Français de chez Italeri. The officer et the trumpeter were converted from dragoons as well. HäT Chevau-Légers Lanciers fill a gap in the growing range of 1/72 scale figurines, et they may be used for a number of interesting conversion projects. However, the riders et horses show so many design errors et casting flaws that Italeri et Revell would be well advised to release a competing set of their own. In the meantime, one way to add fodder for the eyes is to mount the HäT riders on Italeri horses.

Contenu

12 cavaliers en 4 poses – 25 mm correspondent à 180 cm hauteur de corps

12 chevaux en 2 poses – 21 mm correspondent à 15 Hands

Évaluation

• Choix de sujet excellent. The "habit veste" uniform was adopted by chevau-légers lanciers français, chasseurs à cheval, et dragons en 1812. The HäT figurines might have been a big success, because the uniform avec vertical pocket flaps covers the other half des régiments français which cannot be accurately recreated using Dragons Français d’Italeri.
• Satisfactory detail. Folds in the uniform, facings, belts, buttons, weapons et equipment items are in evidence.
• Historic poses. The riders appear very lively, et they are seated correctly.
• Satisfactory casting quality. Unusually thick flash needs to be removed prior to painting. The problem is particularly difficult to fix along the outer seams of the riders’ campaign trousers, because the many buttons may be destroyed in the process.
• Suitable 1/72 scale lance pennons (flammes de lance) may be downloaded from the Miniatures Forum

• The attractive box art is misleading, there is no officer figurine in the box. Trompette et elite company riders are missing as well.
• The curved light cavalry sabre is shown correctly on the box cover, but the figurines carry a straight heavy cavalry sword instead. This mistake may be corrected by cutting the sword off et replacing it avec an hussar sabre taken from another figurine.
• The facings on the figurine’s chest are longer than they should be, they incorrectly extend all the way up à la patte d’épaule.
• Three of the four riders have lost part of their coat turnbacks. This may be a casting problem. The area between the coat tails et the upper thigh is just a blur.
• The helmet crest is round in the front, like it should be, but flattened at the rear. Expert miniaturists will want to fix this casting problem using Rai-Ro Grey Wax.
• The helmet comb et turban are shown fully detailed on the box cover, but both items are void of detail on the actual figurines. Modélistes looking for more detailed replacement parts may want to use crested helmets scrounged from cavaliers des Life Guards britanniques de chez Revell.
• The Lancers are equipped avec carbine belts et ammunition pouches, but the carbines are missing. If it is not feasible to cast carbines directly onto the figurines, although Revell did that very nicely on their Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde impériale, at least give us spare carbines to attach to the figurines separately. There is enough space on the sprue, et the additional cost to the manufacturer is trivial.
• The riders are unusually tall for the period et their arm of service, at 180 cm hauteur de corps they would have been guard grenadiers, not light cavalry troopers. The horses are quite short, they just meet the minimum height requirement for cavalry mounts.
• Incorrect gait on three out of four horse poses: like many other model horses before them, these ponies are ambling. When will sculptors et manufacturers study the horse et create proper cavalry mounts in miniature! La Cavalerie Suédoise de chez Revell rides exemplary horses. The standing et walking horses of Revell’s Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde are a fine example as well. At the very least, sculptors need to study these products et learn from them.
• Saddle furniture et brides are shown correctly on the box cover, but the miniatures are sculpted incorrectly. The most practical remedy is to mount the figurines on more accurate horses taken from Italeri ou Revell cavalry sets, just like Klaus Hinderks has done in his diorama. Some sculptors may want to concentrate on riders et infantry, et let another, more experience colleague take care of the horses.

Déploiement Historique

• Chevau-Légers Lanciers français, 1812–1815

Possibilités de Conversions

• Compagnie d’élite de Chevau-Légers Lanciers
  Use Rai-Ro grey modelling wax to convert le pattes d’épaule en fringed epaulettes.
• Chasseurs à Cheval français, 1812–1815
  Replace the lancer helmet avec a shako, et arm the figurines avec curved light cavalry sabres instead of lances. The 1st Regiment of Chasseurs is reported to have worn a crested helmet very similar to that of the Chevau-Légers Lanciers.
• Dragons français, 1812–1815
  Replace the lancer helmet avec un casque à cimier taken from Dragons Français d’Italeri, et arm the troopers avec sabres instead of lances. This conversion provides figurines suitable for the other half of régiments de dragons français who had vertical coat pockets, et which cannot be recreated accurately using figurines des Dragons Français d’Italeri.
• Light cavalry of other nations allied avec France, i.e. de la Saxe, Wurtemberg, Bavière, et la Confédération du Rhin. These conversions typically involve a head-swap, et there may be other small differences in uniform ou equipment.

Les Chevau-Légers Lanciers portaient un uniforme attractive dark green avec colourful facings which looks great in miniature as well. Anyone building dioramas ou recreating Napoleonic battles in miniature will want to raise a regiment ou two of this troop type. The HäT figurines are a nice toy, but the modéliste serieux will have to invest a lot of effort to fix the obvious mistakes et sculpting flaws.

Bibliographie

• Knötel-Sieg: Manuel d’Uniformologie, pp. 179-180
• Funcken, L. & F.: L’Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats du Premier Empire, pp. 59-61
• Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniformes de 1812, tableau 9
• Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniformes de Waterloo en Couleur, tableau 56
• Allevi, Piersergio: Figurines, p. 12

Questions Fréquents

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez contacter les éditeurs de la revue Military Miniatures Magazine au Miniatures Forum.

Figurines Françaises des Guerres Napoléoniennes

– Publié: 26.02.2000 – Actualisé: 21.08.2008
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