After Great Britain, Austria was the most persistent enemy of the first French Empire, going to war against France in 1798, 1805, 1809 and 1813.
Between them, the four main manufacturers of 28mm plastic Napoleonic miniatures (Hat, Perry Miniatures, Victrix and Warlord Games) introduced no fewer than 14 French and British 28mm Napoleonic cavalry sets before Perry Miniatures took the plunge to develop plastic cavalry sets for the other great powers of the Napoleonic Wars. A full decade after Victrix and Perry Miniatures introduced the first 28mm plastic Austrian infantry, in 2020 Perry brought out this first 28mm plastic Austrian cavalry to go with them. Good things come to those who wait.
Austrian cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars consisted of five main types: cuirassiers, dragoons, chevaulegers, hussars and uhlans. This is a review of Perry Miniatures’s AN80 28mm Austrian Napoleonic Cavalry, 1798-1815, box which enables you to build the first three of them. This fine set is a welcome addition to Perry’s range of 28mm plastic Napoleonic boxed sets, enabling you to build the Austrian cavalry that fought at battles like Marengo, Ulm, Austerlitz, Aspern-Essling, Wagram and Leipzig. (I have also published a review of Perry Miniatures’s new A100 28mm Austrian Napoleonic Hussars box here: viewtopic.php?f=37&t=4185).
Perry Miniatures 28mm Austrian Napoleonic Cavalry, 1798-1815.
History
The Austrian army operated five main types of cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars: cuirassiers, dragoons, chevaulegers, hussars and uhlans (or lancers). The cuirassiers wore white coats with large steel breast plates and Roman-style crested helmets. The dragoons wore very similar uniforms, but without the steel cuiraisses. The chevauleger, which were light cavalry that served a similar role to the French chasseurs á cheval and the British light dragoons, were almost indistinguishable from the dragoons except for the colour of their coats, slightly smaller horses and light cavalry bridles on their horses.
Austria reorganized its cavalry several times during the Napoleonic Wars. In the 1798 military reforms, the cavalry was extensively reorganized and all the regiments renumbered. The previous differences between dragoons and chevauleger were abolished and two new regiments were raised to create a total of 15 regiments of light dragoons, wearing dark green jackets. There were 12 regiments of cuirassiers. Both cuirassiers and light dragoons were equipped with new Roman-style helmets that were introduced to the infantry at the same time. These uniforms were worn through the War of the Second Coalition, including the battles of Marengo and Hohenlinden.
In the reforms from 1801 to 1805 that followed Austria’s defeat in the War of the Second Coalition, the number of cavalry regiments was reduced, with four of the cuirassier regiments being disbanded. The chevauleger regiments were revived and again split from the dragoons, though not necessarily reflecting their previous existence. Three of the chevauleger regiments retained the green jackets, while the remainder and all the dragoons wore white jackets. At much the same time a new cavalry helmet with a higher crest was introduced, which would be worn for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars.
These miniatures can be built to represent Austrian cuirassiers or light dragoons in the War of the Second Coalition, or cuirassiers, dragoons or chevauleger for the later Napoleonic Wars from the battles around Ulm and at Austerlitz in 1805, through the war of 1809 into the campaigns of 1813 and 1814.
What’s In The Box
Like most of the other Perry Napoleonic cavalry boxes, this set contains enough parts for 14 horsemen. The box contains nine sprues in grey hard plastic, a sprue of bases and a detailed uniform guide. So there are 10 sprues in all, of four different types:
- One command sprue, with parts for an officer and a trumpeter or a standard bearer and their horses.
- Four identical trooper sprues, with parts for three troopers.
- Four identical horse sprues, with three horses each.
- One sprue of bases in a green hard plastic.
There is little or no flash, just a fine mould line that’s visible close up in good lighting that needs to be scraped off each of the figures.
The command sprue has the parts for an officer and either a trumpeter or a standard bearer. The trumpeter’s horse is identical to one of the horses on the trooper sprue.
The four trooper sprues offer cuirassier or dragoon torsos with three types of helmet, a wide variety of right (sword) arm options and both full and empty scabbards for each trooper.
The four identical horse sprues contain parts for three horses each. Each left horse half can be joined to any right horse half, giving nine slightly different horse poses. The separate heads allow for the distinction between the heavy cavalry bridle used by the cuirassiers and dragoons and the light cavalry bridle used by the chevauleger.
As usual with the more recent Perry Miniatures sets, and particularly the newer cavalry sets, the box is carefully thought out with a range of head and arm options that offer a wide variety of uniform options and poses.
The box enables you to build cuirassiers, dragoons or chevauleger, which differed primarily in whether the men wore armour and in the details of the horse’s bridles.
Each trooper sprue contains six torsos, three wearing a cuirass (for cuirassiers) and three without armour (for either dragoons or chevauleger). There are 12 right arm options including three empty-handed arms. Those offer some more relaxed poses, as does the head wearing a fatigue cap and the spare helmet.
Assembly
The sheer variety of this set means that you need to do a little planning before assembly. Beyond the obvious decision of whether to build cuirassiers, dragoons or chevauleger, you also need to decide whether you want the men wearing the earlier helmets and queue of hair or the later helmets, and whether you want a trumpeter, a standard bearer or both.
There is a fair amount of assembly to be done. Each cuirassier or dragoon needs legs and torso, a head, a right arm, a sword scabbard and a picket stake, and each horse is three more parts. The figures are well engineered and the parts fit together easily. All of the troopers fit onto all of the horses.
The command sprue contains parts for an officer and either a trumpeter or a standard bearer. But since the horse and trousers for this figure are identical to the other troopers, you can build a trumpeter or a standard bearer or both from each box (or, conceivably, neither if you are building both cuirassiers and other cavalry).
The horses need more assembly than most earlier Perry cavalry sets because of the separate heads. The separate horse heads enables a distinction between the heavy cavalry bridle worn by cuirassier and dragoon horses and the light cavalry bridles with an X across the forehead worn by the chevauleger and light dragoon horses. Although that enables Perry to offer multiple types of cavalry in one box, I don’t really like the arrangement because the parts don’t fit perfectly resulting in a slight gap or line down the horses’ heads.
Like the other Perry Napoleonic cavalry sets, each left horse half can be joined to any right horse half (except for the officer’s horse), offering nine slightly different horse poses. However, unlike the other Perry cavalry sets, a couple of the resulting poses look a little unnatural, for instance with all four horse legs forward. Two of the the three troopers’ horses, and the officer’s horse, have their heads looking to one side or the other, which looks a little odd en masse.
Summary
This is a fine looking set of well-proportioned, characterful, accurate and beautifully sculpted miniatures. I don’t love that most of the horses have their heads titled to one side or the other, but that is a small complaint about a lovely set of miniatures. At a list price of £20 in the UK, or £1.43 per horseman, the box is also great value for money. You will be hard pressed to find metal miniatures for much less than twice the cost of these cavalry. Highly recommended.
