If you're a Napoleon fan (and I think you know by now that I am) you aren't so interested in the battle of Waterloo which is obviously the low point of his reign but your interests lie in the earlier more successful part of his career. Trouble is the uniforms are quite different, and most figures for the period deal with Waterloo. Recently several companies have started producing models for the Austerlitz period and this latest set from Italeri is a welcome edition to help the junior general refight the great battles of the beginning of the Napoleonic wars. Hat industries have done wonders for this era recently producing one of their best sets of Napoleonic 1805 soldiers in greatcoats. Also they have been producing the not so glamorous Russians in their 1805 uniform.Looking at the new Italeri set at Soldatini Online I think they've sculpted the bicorns too big but what the hell the poses are excellent. I might this winter start a project that's been in the back of my mind since I was about 12, that is recreating the armies of Austerlitz and the other great battles in this time in the history of warfare.
Thinking further the 1798-1805 period has lots going for it in terms of style - the attrition of the Napoleonic wars later on caused for a more practical look to be worn by the armies as they trudged through the mud of Europe. This era was the last time military fashions followed the civilian fashions in terms of things like hat and cut of the coat - an elegant swallow tailed look. Anyway Austerlitz is depicted in War and Peace and it being a battle of three (count 'em) Emperors it sort of defines the age nicely. Besides the British weren't in the battle and I find British Napoleonics a bit of a bore. Having said that the campaigns in the West Indies in the 1790s have always been something that has interested me - basically the armies there mostly died of yellow fever but that's warfare. So the snows of Austerlitz or the slave armies and forlorn disease ridden European troops fighting in Santo Domingo - I'll probably not do any of it but you never know...
PSR French Infantry
