French army

[Bendy_Straw]

Hey guys, two quick questions. I am working on creating a french army of the 1812 campaign, particularly the battle of Borodino, and I need your advice on how to build the infantry. I have my eye on the Zvezda set of French voltigeurs (set number 8042) and I was wondering if they can also be painted as grenadiers, since the only difference between the two was the colours of epaulettes and pompoms, if I am correct. As for the line infantry, I was thinking my best choice is Hat's set number 8095, but it contains no less than 100 figures, and I don't need that many. About 24-36 figures of french line infantry would do, as I am using them for creating scenarios based on the board game Battles of Napoleon: the Eagle and the Lion, and every infantry unit is formed in a column of 4 figures. I have options for cavalry and artillery, so this is not an issue, but I'm having a hard time deciding which sets to buy for infantry, since I want to have an army of both line and light infantry figures, but I don't want to be left with a bunch of them unused. I should note that historically accurate uniforms is a must for me, and a good quality of sculpting as well. Any advice is welcome and thank you in advance.

[C M Dodson]

Presumably apart from removing the cornet insignia the voltigeurs will work well.

You could try the Ehmar French for line fusiliers ?

Best wishes,

Chris

[CPN]

Hello,
There is a difference between voltigeurs and grenadiers which is the size of the back uniforms. In the light infantry these are shorter than the line.
Actually the closest for 1/72 visual are the Hat light infantry chasseurs ref 8219,8251,8252. Their tail uniforms are not that short so it will do.
Finally and unfortunately the Hat ref 8095 is not really nice in my opinion since the sculpture is one of their worst. The best would to get your hand on Italeri French infantry ref 6092 and replace their heads with shakos, the result is really good.
I hope this helps.
Have a very happy festive season.
CPN

[CPN]

A quick example from hat website:
http://www.hat.com/Othr8/Tung37P.html
Cheers
CPN

[MikeRC97]

Hello,
There is a difference between voltigeurs and grenadiers which is the size of the back uniforms. In the light infantry these are shorter than the line.
CPN

Hi CPN, by the "back uniforms" do you mean the coat tails? In this scale I don't think the difference is significant. Perry Miniatures sells their 28mm elite figures as voltigeurs / grenadiers:

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/fn7-voltigeurs-grenadiers-skirmishing/

@Bendy_Straw (great name btw) I highly recommend the Zvezda figures for your elites, I'm using their French Voltigeurs and Russian Grenadiers for my 1812 Sharp Practice forces (if you're interested here is a link to my thread).

http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21604&p=248125#p248125

For line infantry, I have Hat set 8095 and CPN is spot-on, they are not very nice. They are sculpted in the very chunky style you see with some metal figures (very similar to Front Rank 28mm). I prefer my 1/72 figures with realistic proportions, but to each his own. The figures are also made from a very soft plastic (sometimes referred to as the Hat bubble-gum figures) which makes removing mold lines a real chore.

CPN's recommendations of using Italeri 6092 as a base for the bodies but with head swaps is a good one, but if swapping all those heads is too much of a chore (understandable) another option is Emhar 7216 which are much nicer than the Hat figures. The knock on these figures is that the details are very shallow so they're a bit harder to paint.

[Bendy_Straw]

Thank you guys, sculpting is important to me as well, so hat 8095 is not a good choice. I think I will go with the Zvezda one and my line will only be grenadiers. I actually have more french line, but they have the latter uniforms, which most units didn't get in time for the 1812 campaign, but some of them did in Davout's corps if I'm not mistaken, so I can use them there. I actually tried making shakos for the italeri 6092 set, which I also have, but it's a hard job. How do you recommend I can find heads to replace? Also great work on these voltigeurs, I hope I can paint mine that good as well. Edit: I found a website that sells replacements so I think I'm good to go