Dear Strelets,

Another set with loads of interesting and useful poses with application well beyond the label. I'll use some for Guard chasseurs à cheval in trousers and boots, others as élite hussars. As 'General Picton' mentioned previously, the large colpacks are particularly impressive and well done. The inclusion of the ladies is a top addition as is the Great Man in a completely different pose.

Thanks Strelets for you continued, regular and unceasing output.

Regards, James

I would buy this set just to get the two young Ladies. The second one is lovely and the one we've seen before looks better from this angle, I may still want to trim the brim of the bonnet a bit, I'll have to see the figure.

And I don't have as many Napoleons as some here so this one will help me to catch up.

Which means I'll be happy to get this fine set of Young Ladies in Regency/Premier Empire dress; and, albeit with some uniform issues mentioned in the other thread, it looks I'll be getting 12 very nice bonus figs. :relaxed:

I have the excellent Revell set but there were five squadrons at Waterloo, so I'd be happy to have these guys taking their ease in reserve. they could also be used as elite companies for hussar regiments. Some would work well for picquet duty and I think the drinking and smoking chaps are really cool, fun figures; they just won't be part of the duty squadron guarding the Emperor.

The horses heads do look a bit mulish to me. Which may be of some interest to the guys who have been clamouring after mules. For some reason I don't get too hooked up on the accuracy of horses and horse furniture. I kind of view the horse as part of the base for the mounted figure and if it's not exactly correct I get over it. Maybe once painted and with the riders in place I won't notice the horses heads.

I'm tempted, though as most others I'm well stocked with the old Revell and Italeri models. But here there are ladies ... 😊.
Am I wrong or are Strelets finishing their latest sets much faster than the WoSS sets (Musketeers etc) announced last year? Still no boxes visible here. I'd really like to see those published and then perphaps something deserty to keep our WWII friends from suffering further from figure dehydration 😄.

I am very disappointed that Strelets reuse again the weak horses of the prussians. I can live with generic horses but not with shrinked horse-skulls which are to be reworked intensivly to look like horses. These "horses" aren´t even suitable as mules which have bigger skulls in relation to theirs bodies.

I will buy one set only for the women. It´s a pity with better horses, it could have been certainly more. Cavalry aren´t only riders.....

I can only agree in regards to the level of sculpting for the horses in the Napoleonic sets.
Theres only so many spare horses someone has in a spares box, and no way am I going to go and buy boxes of other cavalry sets just to get the horses to use for Strelets cavalry troopers. Would make the Strelets sets expensive in the long run. Not to mention then end up with a load of horseless riders from other sets. Its just not a practical solution.
So improving the horses quality is a absolute must as far as im concerned. Finding better horses everytime Strelets makes a new cavalry set just isnt sustainable. If the current sculptor struggles with horses, find someone else to do the cavalry. No point constantly asking someone to sculpt cavalry sets if they cannot sculpt horses.
Its like asking someone to make artillery sets only without the gun barrel.

This is a set of which I shall probably buy just the 1 box, to use for Napoleons personal guard. They are too well uniformed and relaxed for me to use for anything else. The Revell set still wins that role.
The more relaxed poses will be somewhere in the rear around the field hospital perhaps....having maybe brought a comrade in for treatment & taking the opportunity to have a quick break.

You're absolutely right about the horses, Roger. I remember well buying several boxes of Italeri French Hussars just to get some horses to remount Waterloo 1815's Line Lancers and Italeri's Line Chasseurs. Though imho the horses in those two sets were far worse than the ones here, which are just not great.

"....which are just not great"?

Sorry Flambeau, but these horses are really failed. Look theirs missing bellies, some strange legs and skulls.

Only Redbox (the italian renaissance cavalry) and Haet (all napoleonic austrian wagon-horses) have produced still more strange horses with ridiciolous anatomies.

Oh well, I just tried not to be too harsh and save as little as could be saved.
But regarding ugly horses:
Italeri Prussian Light Cavalry ...
HaT Russian cossacks ...
Italeri French Light Cavalry (wrong saddles) ...
A lot of the early Mars sets ...
Airfix French cuirassiers ... ok that's unfair they're from the stone age of our hobby ...
And while the list is admittedly somewhat short these ARE worse.

For a diorama and viewed from afar I suppose our friends will do, but of course if you compare them to what has been achieved by this company and others with other sets, they fall rather short.

The sets you mention Flambeau do indeed have poor horses so you are correct.
I wasnt impressed with the Italeri Prussian & French light cavalry sets overall anyway. The Prussian dragoons are giants with odd poses and postures. The French set had the same problem as the infantry set.....rather chunky, well fed, fellows who seem to have lost their necks and chins!!
Mars i dont think ive ever bothered with and im not a fan of the Airfix Cuirassiers as they just didnt seem to have the "presence" of heavy cavalry to me anyway.

I think in relation to Strelets horses,it is not that they are the worst horses ever made, instead its that they are indeed poor....AND being reused again in other Napoleonic sets, so it will be a recurring problem. Strelets can do much better I think, which in a way is a complement to them and how far they have come.