"15/18mm French Cavalry for 1799/1800?" Topic

What 15/18mm French cavalry figures would you recommend as suitable and correct for the late revolutionary/early napoleonic period?

I'm especially looking for Heavy Cavalry wearing Bicornes?

Thanks,
Colin

Check out Minifigs UK, if you are willing to use the smaller true 15mm figures. The French Revolutionary wars list various bicorn heavy cavalry. I have the hussars in mirliton and the hussards de Liberte and like both. I don't have any of the heavy cavalry – I cheat and use later Napoleonic horse.

Battle Honours
Excellent Austrian cuirassiers, also British heavy cavalry, also French heavy cavalry, AB / Eureka – Austrian dragoons with hat.

Battle Honours as v W suggests are the best purpose made figures. But they are small by later standards and also the moulds of some BH figures have now deteriorated badly, leaving poor castings.
My alternative choice would be the new AB figures Spanish Napoleonic heavy cavalry in bicorne. These are beautiful figures and the basic outline is good- bicorne worn jauntily sideways, lapels on the coats, old fashioned holster caps.
Some details aren't right though, they wear long gaiters with buttons rather than boots, although that's just a matter of smoothing out the button detail. The arrangement of cross belts isn't quite right either, although similar to late period Royal equipment, which many units would still have used. The hats also lack regulation plumes, but again not all units seem always to have worn them.
For all this they are v nicely sculpted figs with a sense of slightly shabby swagger about them- fitting for Rev period French.

BTW- don't forget that many/most Regiments de Cavalerie of the Revolutionary period also had an Elite Company complete with bearskins. In the big shake up of 1803 which produced the smaller number of Cuirassier Regiments, these companies were abolished, as the Cuirassiers were all deemed elite troops.

Magister Militum also do them. I think they are 15s as opposed to 18s so should fit alongside Minifigs and Battle Honours: link

Here's one of their cuirassiers:

I'd rather have larger 15s than the smaller size that minifigs and magister militum supply, plus I don't like ranges where there is only one pose.

I quite like the idea of using the Spanish, though AB are expensive and I'd probably add the plume to the bicornes using green stuff – so I don't want to spend loads on AB to then convert them. I may go with Warmodelling and try out one pack first to see how they look.