"15mm BH Confederation of the Rhine - Reviews / Photos?" Topic

Hello,
Title rather says it all – I'm interested in the pack BCO1 sold as LINE INFANTRY (ANHALT, COBURG, HILDBURGHAUSEN, SCHWARZBURG,FRANKFURT, LIPPE, GOTHA, MENIGEN, WALDECK & WURTZBURG) – would these be of any use as Frankfurt Line Infantry for 1809 (I'm thinking of Laval's Division in the Peninsula and don't want to buy Fantassin).

Thanks
Malc

Without seeing them, based on their description, very much so. Battle Honours are more like 16mm figures rather than 18mm such as Fantassin, CGM, Old Glory and AB, etc. though.
They are some of my favorite figures since Anthony Barton sculpted those too and they can be had with a hefty discount when ordered in quantity :-)

Malc, great minds think alike. I am after the same info myself. Send me a note at baxterj at optusnet dot com dot au and I will send you something of interest.

John

But to answer the question directly, the Elting Frankfurt plates show a French style uniform in blue with red facings/green for the light coy. These were apparently worn post Talavera. Your standard French AB or BH would be ok.
Prior to Talavera they wore an Austrian style uniform with bicorne/bearskin. For these you would need some conversions.
John

Hi John,
Thanks for that – despite having lots of Spanish (and more than enough of numerous other little lead troops in the pile) to paint, I have a hankering to start Laval's Division.

I'm happy to make some compromises: link

AncientsGamer – I was a bit concerned that the Confederation troops would have changed their uniform between 1812-1815 (which is the period my BH artillery figures are designed for) and 1809.

As for the quality of the BH figures – I'd agree about size and general sculpting quality (although I think that Mr Barton really hit his stride once he started the AB line) but I'm more than happy to put the BH figures on the same table (or mix some figures within units). I think some of the more popular moulds are possibly getting a bit tired, so the last pack of French Line I bought was a bit rough, but my Spaniards were very nice.

But I'm derailing my own thread!

Malc

My understanding (for example from an old Osprey on the Hessians) was that assignment to the Peninsula accelerated the adoption of French style uniforms, including shako for bicorne or helmet. The old style uniforms are much more interesting, mind, and I am sure that if I was basing my figures on 1809, I would try to do old style figures. But as a fall back you can always do a paint job a standard French campaign dress figure, and no be too far out.

I don't think BH did any CoR troops apart from Bavarians before their TimeCast days. I know because at the time I was trying to do 1809 Confederation troops, and was looking for anything that would do for Hessians or Saxons. I used their Bavarians for Baden, which wasn't entirely satisfactory. I didn't think TimeCast are selling anything new, so I'm a bit puzzled as to what these figures are.

According to Haythornthwaite (Napoleonic Source Book) the Franfurt troops adopted a French light infantry style uniform in 1808-09: dark blue faced red.

Matthew – BaxterJ very kindly pointed me to a very old issue of Wargames Illustrated that had an advert from BH introducing the new Confederation of the Rhine infantry models (the same time they introduced their Austrians). They look very nice.

I've now updated my blog with a copy of the old advert ( link ) – unfortunately, the pricing has gone up a bit in the last 18 years!

Hey, in case you're still looking into/considering these minis, I was in your same boat, and ordered some sight unseen. As with any other products from BH, the sculpts are great. My one issue is that they're all the same exact pose, and the summary/description of the pack doesn't hit at this. They'll look fine when painted up, but they're all in an advancing, musket at the hip, type pose.