Dutch Napoleonic Infantry, 1815

HaT Industrie 1:72 Scale Figure Review

Dutch Napoleonic Infantry, Waterloo 1815, 1:72 Miniatures HaT Industrie 8025

Readers of Military Miniatures Magazine selected Dutch Infantry as one of their Top 10 favorites of the Wishlist 1998. The list was forwarded to popular plastic miniatures manufacturers and HaT Industrie released their Dutch Infantry the following year. The result is well worth it, as can be seen in the photo. The miniatures represent Dutch Infantry Flanquers at Waterloo, and there are separate heads included in the set to convert them to Belgian Flanquers or Dutch-Belgian National Militia wearing surplus British Stovepipe shakos.

48 miniatures in 9 Poses – 23 mm equal 166 cm height
- Officer (4)
- Soldier with open hand marching (4)
- Soldier marching (4)
- Soldier march-attack (4)
- Soldier standing at attention (4)
- Soldier advancing (8)
- Soldier standing, firing (8)
- Soldier kneeling, firing (8)
- Soldier kneeling, receiving (4)
Musket (4)
Pennon (4)
Drum (4)
Horn (4)
Spare Head with British Shako of 1812 (4)
Spare Head with British Stovepipe Shako (4)

Evaluation

Good choice of subject. The Dutch-Belgian Flanquers are unique in this scale. Unfortunately, the figures represent only elite company soldiers wearing the distinctive shoulder rolls. These shoulder rolls need to be removed carefully, to create centre company men who made up the majority of troops in the infantry battalion. Dutch-Belgian infantry battalions consisted of ten companies, including one heavy Flanquer (grenadier) and one light Flanquer (skirmish) company.
The loading and firing poses are very suitable for wargame units.
Satisfactory casting quality. Obvious flash and mould lines need to be removed prior to painting. The editor used the Rai-Ro ZEP-70 heated spatula to blend mould lines into the surface of the model.

HaT Industrie would have been better advised to turn one of the marching Flanquer poses into a marching centre company man. In fact, the same pose might have been used for both, one with and one without shoulder rolls.
The separate pennons included in this set are too small be of any use as infantry flags. They might be used as French infantry company marker flags.
The marching figures exhibit a serious motor coordination problem: their legs are not in line with the pelvis. Either their are intentionally strutting their stuff or they must be carrying a superheavy backpack. The officer figure has a similar problem. His left thigh is turned out, but the lower left leg is straight. The stance of the soldier standing at attention is correct, he is the best of the batch.
The soldier with the open hand is an an infantryman on the approach march, when the musket could be carried on the left or right shoulder at will. The figure looks a little silly when its carrying the separate drum by the small peg attached to the instrument. Military drums are suspended by a leather strap suspended across the right shoulder so that the drum rest on the left side of the body. Both hands need to be free to play the drums.
There is no figure capable of holding the horn supplied in this set.