Wellington at Salamanca, 1812

del Prado 1:30 Scale Figure Review

Wellington at Salamanca, 1812, 1:30 Miniatures del Prado.

Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, was born in 1769, in the same year as Napoleon. Following a mediocre school career at Eaton, Wellesley entered the British army at the rank of Ensign. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel already in 1793, commanding the 33rd Regiment of Foot during the disastrous Flanders campaign of the Duke of York. He later followed his older brother Richard Wellesley to India and quickly rose to Major-General. Arthur Wellesley led the British forces of the Second Anglo-Maratha War, 1803–1805, in the course of which he won the Battles of Assaye and Argaum. In 1808, Wellesley landed in Portugal with 14,000 men and fought an arduous war against the French army of the peninsula, until his Anglo-Allied army crossed the Bidassoa on 7 October 1813 and marched into France. When the cease-fire was signed in 1814, Wellington and Napoleon had not yet faced each other on the battlefield. Their first and only engagement came in 1815, when the two talented commanders met at the Battle of Waterloo, which Wellington was able to decide in his favor thanks to the support of the Prussian army. Wellington never lost a battle at which he was personally present.

Evaluation

Horse and rider are anatomically correct.

The 16-page Osprey booklet contains many colourful illustrations, it describes Wellington’s successful peninsular campaigns, his first and only engagement with Napoleon at Waterloo, and his political carreer after the Napoleonic Wars.

Compatible with 1:30 scale military and civilian miniatures made by King & Country.

The horse furniture has not been painted well.

Wellington does not hold the horse’s reins in his hands properly.

The Iron Duke is riding without a saddle. Perhaps the saddle was to have been painted on the saddle blanket as is typical of other del Prado cavalry figures.

This del Prado napoleonic cavalry miniature of the 1st Duke of Wellington is dressed in a relatively unspectacular fashion, it’s not one of the highlights of this series of 1:30 scale miniatures.

del Prado miniatures

del Prado Miniatures