Saturday 21 February 2015

Cuirassiers



After the Old Guard, the Cuirassiers at Waterloo seem to have some iconic hold over the imagination.  Here are my Cuirassiers.  I have around a thousand and they are from many different manufacturers.  During the production of this entry I found 200 more, which goes to show this project is getting out of hand: to be exact there are 1109 Cuirassiers on parade.  I love the glint of silver which comes off massed heavy cavalry.


Les Higgins and Zvezda


Art Miniaturen and Kennington. The ensign is a conversion from the Italieri Dragoons.

Legio only ever produced one plastic set, their Cuirassiers.  

Newline -slightly smaller than many figures, but nicely compatible with Airfix and Esci, the mainstay of my cuirassier force.

Hinton Hunt - Hinton figures are so distinctive.  I have used a Strelets officer and ensign with them - they are surprisingly compatible.


Les Higgins and Art Miniaturen.


Airfix and Esci
A mix of metal and plastic
Strelets in cloaks.  The chunky nature of Strelets can be distracting but in this case the style works well with Cuirassiers.
Qualicast and IT.  Neither company lasted long and I wish the Qualicast figures were back in production.


Panorama

A few Call to Arms figures among the Esci and Airfix - the horses are too small, but are fine in this company.
More Strelets.  The plumes seem huge but contemporary pictures show this to be the case.
An RSM trumpeter with an Atlantic conversion.  They ought to be in the Bardin Green livery, but I like the reverse colours.
Les Higgins and Zvezda, which go well together.
The extra row are the 200 I forgot about!


























3 comments:

  1. Fantastic - apart from the wonderful spectacle and the gonzo bravura approach, this is wonderful therapy for all of those of us who are deeply envious - as described in Harry Pearson's lovely Achtung Schweinhund, you could take the role of the guy we can point to, whose collection is even more outrageous than our own.

    My sincere compliments - I really can't wait to see all this lot set up for the final diorama - what sort of ground scale will you need?

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  2. Hi Tony, it's only taken forty years! Well my plan had been to finish this year, for obvious reasons. But pressure of work means I still have some way to go....

    The other problem is location - it really will need a big space for 30,000 figures. All those German collectors have huge attics and basements and I don't. I did get in touch with the national Waterloo committee and they were quite interested, but even they couldn't think of a venue big enough.

    The other problem is that it really need a glass case to protect from dust, which would be a huge expense.

    Finally, I need to build the sections. I used to follow Blucher1815red on YouTube, and wondered how he could build his model in his attic Sioux running out of space. He seems to have stopped posting stuff recently, which is a shame as he is the most outstanding painter.

    So one or two problems to overcome

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  3. Ps some autocorrect kicking in with 'sioux' - where did that come from? Finally, I had a useful meeting with the people at the Green Jackets museum in Winchester who were interested in joing forces (their model is closed for renovation), but again we just couldn't work out how to create the space.

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