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
It won't be long before you have the final set up..guess gonna have to rent a warehouse ...restocks arrived in uk ..no chasseur though but carabiner and longcoats and austrians...seems like hat have fresh impetus..chasseur are on some restock lists ...
ReplyDeleteWagram easy try doing waterloo..no hat help there !!!! No British ...
ReplyDeleteFrankly been collecting for 10 years ..moving house ..so all soldiers are in storage ..if ever in Spain look me up I'm always over here..guess stash of maybe 20k 1/32 ...for some god know reason I seem to have 2k bavarians ..armies in plastic virtually impossible to buy in uk now..acta basically just old stock .airfix ebay ..never liked timpo ...check out plasticsoldiersuk site ..selling some hat units at 3 quid ..my email is staceyjohnedwardskinner@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteStac; thanks for the comments. Your collection sounds awesome! I love Spain; since 2018 I’ve gone every summer but 1 (COVID 2020). I will reach out. Cheers
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