Agreed on Airfix Prussian animation, and lack of height, but for me their equipment was too perfect, and of course bayonets in scabbards were never seen. The arrival of "H" sets of Landwehr prompted a huge project to replace 1800 Airfix. I haven't yet convinced myself that these need replaced again by a further 1800 strelets :0s

It also seems that a lot of 1815 British Infantry sets have wings on their shoulders and thus represent flank companies. To my knowledge only the Airfix and Revell sets show the center companies, though I could be wrong.

Yep they dont have any wings.
Ideally any set would have both centre and flank companys represented in the correct ratio.

I think British red coat light infantry all had wings though.

Dear Roger,

The centre companies had those 'tufts' on the ends of the shoulder straps. Only the centre companies had the bigger 'wings'.

'Retire' old figures? Never! For me, new figures simply add to the old, be it variety or to increase numbers for larger games or smaller figure to man ratio.

For the bicentennial we did a game of Waterloo with as many Airfix on the table as we could. I'd like to do it with all infantry (at least) represented by Airfix figures and love the idea of 'phoney' Wateroo with all the British (and perhaps allied infantry) represented by Highlanders, for the pure fun of it...

Regards, James

James,

The photos of the bicentennial Waterloo that you staged and which are shown on the Avon Napoleonics site are quite magnificent, and the large numbers of well-painted Airfix figures is noteworthy. It is good to see these very famliar figures standing the test of time and continuing to look good on the wargaming table.

My figure collection is large but finite, and so I have to set some limits on numbers! I 'think' my late Napoleonic French have circa 35 infantry battalions (average 20 figures per battalion) - although there may be a certain unit creep with a few more Young Guard battalions, so lets say 40. So, around 800 figures in the French infantry; that is quite a lot, and with cavalry and artillery added takes the total for this particular army to well over 1,000. But over time it has not proven to be particularly arduous or even expensive to replace/renew most of these. If you like collecting figures (as I do) but have to limit your armies, something has to give. :grinning:

I do continue to use 'old' Airfix figures elsewhere in my collection...although I cannot now bring myself to continue using the old French Waterloo cavalry set I'm afraid.

Hi James

Do you mean the British Light Infantry (such as the 51st & 52nd) had tufts as well? Ive only seen images of the light regiments with shoulder wings for all companys.

I am aware of line regiments having tufts for center companys and the Grenadier/Light companys having wings. I thought Light regiments were different.

Or have we got our wires crossed? As when i made my comment about no wings, I was referring to the Airfix & Revell Waterloo British Infantry sets as per a previous comment.

If someone could indeed confirm whether the British Light regiments had just shoulder wings or also had companys with tufts, id be greatful as I plan on painting the 52nd Oxfordshires soon. Also some images show them with white belts, some with buff. Does anybody know which it is supposed to be?
Thanks

Dear Roger,

Ah, sorry, I did not read your post correctly--don't know how! My apologies. Yes, light inf. all had the 'wings', as you said.

Cheers,

James

No worries. 👍

I too have a large contingent of Airfix figures, most are still usable & dont look out of place with newer figures.
The only Airfix sets i wouldn't use anymore is the french cavalry & Line infantry as they are looking well past their sell by date,though i do like the cavalry man standing holding the horse & I have a stand of ten of these poses & are looking out for more.