To be fair i never took to the emhar sets I bought all the sets when they came out & they are still
at the back of the stash unloved
I am far too busy trying to catch up on my Strelets sets at the moment

The British was the pick of the Emhar sets. Those figures are accurate, highly detailed & a joy to paint. A nice firing line can be made up, the figure biting the cartridge & ramrod user are really nice figures. Together with the HaT set, it would take a really brilliant effort to make a set that eclipses those sets. Personally, I would leave the line & concentrate on sets for the British Light infantry such as the 43rd & 52nd regiments for example, part of Major General Robert Craufurds light brigade, & of course a set of the Rifles skirmishing.

The Portuguese set is unfortunately a mix of line & Cacadores, which limited the poses for each, but with no other set of Portuguese infantry on the market, its been better than nothing. I would like to see a set for each, especially for the later part of the war, when both them & the Spanish were equipped & uniformed from British stocks (stovepipe shakos etc). Theres nothing on the market for them.

The Spanish again are nicely made, but the pose choices could of been better. Mixed with Hats Spanish, all the main poses seem to be catered for, but there is room for improvment. It wasn't long before this type of uniform dissappeared during the Peninsular war, with men dressed in all sorts of ways for a while. Eventually again they were equipped from British stocks. So these later men would be better to make a new set for, as like the Portuguese, there isn't anything out there.

The French however are probably the weakest of the 4 sets. Some of the poses didnt fit in too well with fusiliers & there is a general lack of bayonets, but the main issue is they are too nicely uniformed. The French more than anyone suffered supply issues during the Peninsular, so these figures are too neat. They are fine for other areas of conflict before the Bardin reforms, but for the Peninsular....they needed a more scruffy appearance. Covered shakos, loose trousers etc.

Roger, you are so right on the Emhar sets. I've had them for years waiting to be painted. I expected to mingle the Brits with the figures I already have (including HaT and some other companies) - with the Strelets sets I can put them in line with my HaT guys; just as I intend mixing the Strelets Firing Line with my Belgique Shako'ed HaT Brits for Waterloo.

When I was in we always had guys who'd lose their heads if they weren't attached. A few guys without bayonets would add to some realism IMO. I just hope they get along (LOL).

I also bought some extra HaT Peninsular Brits I hoped to paint as Portuguese to mix with the Emhar guys. I had bought sets to build an entire Spanish and Portuguese Corps complete with Artillery and Cavalry I could do decent conversions.

Of course, if someone was to come out with accurate sets out of the box...

Ha ha acute…

That’s the true and the malediction of our plastic hobby…

Not the same in metal but I am always faithful to plastic..

Personally I would like to see a set of British infantry for the early Peninsular War in stovepipe shakos and knee breeches with gaiters and perhaps suitable opponents. As for Light Dragoons - I already have a Strelets set ...

That would be a good set to see! Certainly a different look to the normal.
Athough i'm not sure how long into the war the breeches & gaiters would of lasted. They probably wore them under Sir John Moore's ill fated campaign. However even then, only at the beginning as the long retreat so-say left the men looking a right mess. Some didnt even have decent footwear by the time they got to Corunna from what I have read, let alone gaiters.

My preference for any British Peninsular infantry would be to target the redcoated light infantry first. Apart from 1 reasonably average set, there is nothing out there. Not only would this be an ideal subject for the Peninsular War, but the set would be useful for the entire war even Waterloo, as they didn't change over to the Belgic Shako like the line did. So it would be a set with a wider scope, thus potentially reaching more customers from Strelets point of view.
In my mind, this would mainly be a firing set with mixed kneeling/standing poses both firing & reloading.......with bayonets attached of course! Also include some poses involved in skirmishing, showing the light infantry tactics Sir John Moore converted his regiment (the 52nd) into, along with others like the 43rd, 51st, 71st etc.
Then maybe a set of 60th/95th rifles purely skirmishing, or half a box skirmishing & the other half on the march? No silly poses like in the Italeri set such has that poor semi-kneeling chap holding his rifle in a really uncomfortable way!!

Then after those 2, I would maybe do the line infantry in breeches & gaiters, as that appearance would of only been for a little while at the beginning of the war, wearing just the trousers probably by the time they fought at Talavera. Such a set would look great but probably suffer from the same issue as the Emhar Peninsular French......they would look too "parade ground-esque" for the majority of the war.

As for the cavalry, yes I too have the light dragoons from the Egypt range, but another set would do no harm, utilising the newer, sharper sculpting style.

Anything Napoleonic is welcome, in my book, and makes a nice change from this endless desert stuff! However, I think we need to be realistic about the limited resources of time and investment by Strelets.

Strelets' approach has continued to be to fill gaps in an existing era with novel troops/poses, or to produce figures for a period that has not previously been done—the latter often represents both!

Thomas' suggestion of troops in ragged campaign dress fits well with the former aim, late Spanish and possibly Portuguese, the latter.

Personally I'd rather see big gaps like Austrian hussars and pre-1808 Russian hussars (perhaps even 1813-14 Prussian cuirassiers) covered before any troops that have already been done. Of course there are big gaps in figures for the Revolutionary period...

Regards, James

I agree that Strelets will only have so much resources to make figures in one go. They do however seem to be flying when it comes to the WSS range, whoever that sculptor is deserves a medal, not only is he/she able to produce these masters so fast, but 9 times out of 10, they look amazing, very accurate & of a extremely high standard. Horses too.

But in general, yes only so much can be done at once. Hence my wish that Strelets maybe complete any current or future planned sets suitable for Waterloo, Leipzig, Borodino etc, when it comes to Napoleonics. There are still figures for each battle that would be nice to see, but whether Strelets has any intention of making them, only they know.

Then maybe once space in the production line allows, move on to a potential Peninsular range. To my knowledge, none of the sets I have suggested have been done or if they have, it's been 1 single set & a poor one at that. (E.g the British Peninsular Cavalry, British Light Infantry (redcoated)). Ok so the rifles have, but the excellent Revell set is long out of production & the Italeri set is rather poor in terms of figure sizing more along 25mm scale and the poses are a poor selection. A set specifically with a range of poses based on the act of skirmishing would be a more niche product compared to the other 2 sets.
The redcoated light infantry again could use a set with a more mixed range of firing/reloading standing/kneeling figures in the process of independent fire, rather than a volley. They had muskets with rudimentary sights on them (forget the exact name of the pattern....long land something!), as per their training compared to the line infantry. A few other poses moving around in skirmish order would set a set off nicely. Such a set would blow the socks off the exisiting one!!

But as I said above, in regards to the Peninsular British Line Infantry, HaT & Emhar have pretty much got that wrapped up nicely.....providing the HaT set will still get produced reasonably often to keep up with demand. The only opening I realistically see for a line set, is like Alan mentions, one with poses specifically for in the midst of a siege like those at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz or San Sebastien.

Now for the British light dragoons, there is the Strelets Egypt set, but that is an older set using the older sculpting style which wasnt to everyones tastes (I personally liked it & have a couple boxes somewhere). Not sure how much longer they can be made, but if there is still plenty of life left in that mould, Strelets could always just continue to make them & then concentrate on masters for British heavy dragoons & the Portuguese & Spanish cavalry. Of course the French could use cavalry, but again, nothing too perfect looking.

The later war Portuguese line infantry, Cacadores & the Spanish have barely, if at all, been done. Same goes for their cavalry & artillery. So maybe these armys should be done 1st if such a range is started.