Hat Industrie has made many great sets and figures, for many eras, but particularly Napoleonics. Their French light infantry sets are universally great in terms of the composition and execution of the poses, the detailed sculpting and proper scale.
Unlike any other series of sets Hat did, for the French light infantry they did 1 mixed command set, and 3 separate “troops” sets, each set with 5 or 6 poses, for each of;
1. Chasseurs: in shakos
2. Carabiniers in bearskins (without front plate)
3. Voltigeurs: in busbys
My favorite set is the Chasseurs (3 of 5 poses shown)
But I love them all!
In fact I love the sets from this era of Hat’s production (I think around 2010’ish). The Napoleonic sets from then are universally great, including the;
1. Wurttemberg; 1 set line, 1 set grenadiers, 1 set gren/line command, as well as 1 set light infantry & 1 set light command.
2. Bavarian infantry in the 3 separate sets MAC (March, action & command) format
3. French elites in long coats (1 set troops + 1 set command)
As I’ve been putting my new Hat Austrian German fusilier figures together and into units it makes me very focused on how the figures in a set go together, call it pose optimization. I’m sure everyone has their own ideas what they like/want in a unit, and there is plenty of room for this. But when trying to organize my figures into so many units efficiency is key; I don’t want to have to buy a lot of extra figures, or stated a different way; I want to try to have the least number of leftovers when I am all done.
Versatile poses makes this much easier; so here are what I consider the best execution of the efficient flexible poses that make me happy;
Unsurprisingly 3 of my favs are from the Hat French Chasseurs. But I prefer the Hat Wurttemberg grenadier reloading pose, and the Carabinier marching poses to those in the Chasseur set. The Chasseur marching pose is slightly under scale, while the reloading pose is fine, I just prefer the efficient proportions of the Wurt gren better.
More on how these make for efficient units next time.
Cheers