Lancieri Francesi delle Guerre Napoleoniche, 1812–1815

Recensione dei Figurini HaT Industrie in Scala 1:72

The diorama created by Klaus Hinderks shows lancieri francesi attacking fanteria britannica. The lancieri are from HäT, but the horses are historically more accurate e more detailed remounts taken from Italeri’s dragoni francesi. The officer ed il trombettiere were converted from dragoni as well. HäT Chevau-Légers Lanciers fill a gap in the growing range of soldatini in scala 1:72, e they may be used for a number of interesting conversion projects. However, the riders e horses show so many design errors e casting flaws that Italeri e 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.

Contenuto

12 Riders in 4 Poses – 25 mm pari a 180 cm di altezza

12 Horses in 2 Poses – 21 mm equal 15 Hands

Valutazione

• Excellent choice of subject. The "habit veste" uniform was adopted by lancieri, cacciatori a cavallo, e dragoni francesi in 1812. The HäT soldatini might have been a big success, because the uniform con vertical pocket flaps covers the other half of reggimenti francesi which cannot be accurately recreated using dragoni francesi di Italeri.
• Satisfactory detail. Folds in the uniform, facings, belts, buttons, armi ed oggetti di equipaggiamento are in evidence.
• Historic poses. The riders appear very lively, e they are seated correctly.
• Satisfactory casting quality. Unusually thick flash needs to be removed prima di dipingere. 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 figure in the box. Trombettiere ed elite company riders are missing as well.
• The curved light cavalleria sabre is shown correctly sulla copertina della scatola, but the soldatini carry a straight heavy cavalleria sword instead. This mistake may be corrected by cutting the sword off e replacing it con an hussar sabre taken from another figure.
• The facings on the figure’s chest are longer than they should be, they incorrectly extend all the way up to the shoulder strap.
• Tre of the quattro riders have lost part of their coat turnbacks. This may be a casting problem. The area between the coat tails e the upper thigh is just a blur.
• La cresta dell’elmo 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.
• La cresta e turban dell’elmo are shown completamente detailed sulla copertina della scatola, but both oggetti are void of detail on the actual soldatini. Modellers looking for more detailed replacement parts may want to use crested elmi scrounged from Revell’s Life-Guard troopers inglesi.
• The lancieri are equipped con carbine belts ed ammunition pouches, but the carbines are missing. If it is not feasible to cast carbines directly onto the soldatini, although Revell did that very nicely on their cacciatori a cavallo della Guardia francese, at least give us spare carbines to attach to the soldatini separately. There is enough space on the sprue, e the additional cost to the manufacturer is trivial.
• The riders are unusually tall for the period e their arm of service, at 180 cm height they would have been granatieri della Guardia, not light cavalleria troopers. The horses are quite short, they just meet the minimum height requirement for cavalleria mounts.
• Incorrect gait on tre out of quattro horse poses: like many other model horses before them, these ponies are ambling. When will sculptors e manufacturers study the horse e create proper cavalleria mounts in miniature! I cavalieri svedesi di Revell rides exemplary horses. The standing e walking horses of Revell’s Cacciatori a Cavallo della Guardia are a fine example as well. At the very least, sculptors need to study these products e learn from them.
• Saddle furniture e testiera are shown correctly sulla copertina della scatola, but the soldatini are sculpted incorrectly. The most practical remedy is to mount the soldatini on more accurate horses taken from Italeri o Revell cavalleria sets, just like Klaus Hinderks has done in his diorama. Some sculptors may want to concentrate on riders e fanteria, e let another, more experience colleague take care of the horses.

Utilizzo Storico

• Lancieri Francesi, 1812–1815

Conversione

• Compagnie d’élite de Chevau-Légers Lanciers
  Use Rai-Ro modelling wax to convert the shoulder straps into fringed epaulettes.
• Cacciatore a Cavallo francese, 1812–1815
  Replace the elmo lancieri con un shakò, ed arm the soldatini con curved light cavalleria sabres instead of lances. The 1^o reggimento di cacciatori is reported to have worn un elmo a cresta in ciniglia very similar to that of the Chevau-Légers Lanciers.
• Dragoni francesi 1812–1815
  Replace the elmo lancieri con un elmo dei dragoni taken from Italeri’s dragoni francesi, ed arm the troopers con sabres instead of lances. This conversion provides soldatini suitable for the other half of dragoni francesi regiments who had vertical coat pockets, e which cannot be recreated accurately using Italeri’s dragoni francesi.
• Light cavalleria of other nations allied con la Francia, i.e. Saxony, Württemberg, Bavaria, e the Confederation of the Rhine. These conversions typically involve a head-swap, e there may be other small differences in uniform o equipaggiamento.

The Chevau-Légers Lanciers wore an attractive dark green uniform con colourful facings which looks great in miniature as well. Anyone building dioramas o recreating Napoleonic battles in miniature will want to raise a reggimento o due of this troop type. The HäT soldatini are a nice toy, but the serious modeller will have to invest a lot of effort to fix the obvious mistakes e sculpting flaws.

HaT Industrie Soldatini

Bibliografia

• Knötel-Sieg: Handbuch der Uniformkunde, pp. 179-180
• Funcken, L. & F.: L’Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats du Premier Empire, pp. 59-61
• Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniforms of 1812, Plate 9
• Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniforms of Waterloo in Colour, plate 56
• Allevi, Piersergio: Soldatini, p. 12

Domande più frequenti

Per ulteriori informazioni, per favore contatta la redazione di Rivista Military Miniatures nel Miniatures Forum.

Soldatini Francesi Napoleonici

– Pubblicato: 26.02.2000 – Aggiornato: 21.08.2008
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