"HAT Miniatures anyone?" Topic

Hi, I've only just started collecting historical minis (after many years of meaning to) and began with Napoleonics. I've got a couple of boxes of Victrix British Infantry & Artillery and a couple of boxes of Perry French Cavalry & Dragoons.
I intend to get some metals, but the majority of my collection I intend to be plastic. There's some great stuff from Perry & Victrix and plastics are more affordable.
I've just discovered that HAT do a range of 28mm plastic Napoleonics. Could anyone tell me about them please? Are they any good? How do they compare in quality and scale to Perry and Victrix?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

They are dirt simple to assemble. The detail is nice and they are cheap. They are smaller than other companies though. I am using them with my Old Glory Naps. I may simply use a somewhat thicker base since their heft is similar. I like them!

Thanks,

John

Nice and simple they are not as crisp as the Perry or Victrix, I did not undercoat mine which helps keep the detail. They are smaller than the others. That said my Bavarians and French Light Inf are all Hat and sit happily with evrything else,

Tally Ho!

Like Nick said, I use HaT for my french lights in order to save some money for nicer figures like Perry or Victrix. Once painted and on the table, you can barely tell the difference.

Well i bought some HaT to be French Grenadiers alongside my Victrix and they were so small in comparision as to be unusable.

John, Nick, thanks. Saw a seller on ebay with some on offer so I may buy a box of Voltigeurs and see how they look.
Broadening the op a bit, any other plastics you'd recommend or are perry, Victrix and HAT about the only sources at the moment?

Sorry general & yoakley, your posts came through as I was typing my reply. Thanks for the response.

Try Warlord (Russians) and Perry (French and Brits) for plastics as well. I am also devbating about using HaT. I am using Old Glory Russians and Perry French. If HaT looks good with Old Glory I may mix them in.

I have reviewed all their Napoleonic sets on my blog. You can read through the links below, which do include some comparison shots with other manufacturers.

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Thanks Sockrwottt, scomac. Hoping to start an ancients collection soon and Warlord were going to be my first port of call for their Romans & Britons. Their stuff looks great so I expect their napoleonics will be good. Hopefully they'll release more.
scomac, will check your blog tomorrow (bedtime now, sleepy…) but the pic you've posted here looks good.
Thanks everyone.

I have the HaT 28mm sets and like them. I've done bavarians and prussians for Songs of Drums and Shakos with the French legere to follow. Intend to build prussians and Bavarians for Black Powder, also. They are quite cheep at scalehobbyist.co0m

Paul

I'm going to purchase a box or two of the action Chasseur/Voltiguers to provide skirmishers for my GdBde battalions. With 20 battalions that amounts to 120 skirmishers. A bit much for the wallet right now, so it seems practical to use the plastics until I decide which metals to finally use permanantly.

If in fact they're smaller figures, being on skirmish stands I doh't think the size difference will matter much. From the pictures I've seen, the figures and detail look ok to me. Heck, if I'm impressed enough, I may just say to heck with the metals.

@scomac
brilliant painting

Scomac, checked the links you provided. Convinced me to give HAT a try – I think they look very good. The comparison shots were very helpful – the HAT figures do have very natural looking proportions. They point out how cartoony some miniature ranges can look. The cost of HAT minis will certainly help when building up large units.
Thanks again – very helpful.

Most welcome. Enjoy the figures!

As an aside, the HaT figures fit perfectly with those made by Alban.

Perry and Victrix for Brits.
Victrix for early French (they're gonna take out early dragoons one of these days) and Perry for late ones (and Perry cavalry heavies for both).
Warlord, HaT and Perry for Prussians.
Warlord, Perry and Victrix for Russians.
Victrix and Perry for Austrians.
And HaT for Bavarians and French Legere.
Victrix and Perry can mix and even share pieces. HaT or Warlord can look fine in their own units, no trouble should be had…

Wolf, bishop, thanks for the comments.
Eptingmike, went to have a look at Alban but they're in limbo at the moment. Like the look of what little I've seen but no idea on prices as website is inactive. Hopefully they'll be up again soon – think their British rifles will be worth looking at.
Dogged – looks like a good summing up. All those manufacturers have the makings of great looking armies in plastic between them. Look forward to getting hold of some HAT stuff. Have you seen anything (metal or plastic) to beat Perry cavalry? As I mentioned I'm new to historic miniatures but I would think they're hard to match.

Ah I had forgotten that Alban was out of action these days. Hope they will be back soon as the figures are very nice. I have a handful of the Rifles and some Austrians and they are great. I don't remember them being too expensive. Certainly more than HaT but on par with other metals, IIRC.

Here are some 28mm Hungarian Infantry for testing purposes:

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