Following on from our brief review of Strelets Russian hussars here are a few photos of their set of dashing Frenchmen. Once again they have the 'signature' interesting and animated poses and chunky, rough style; including some fairly 'serious' horses!
Unfortunately, this set suffers from a major draw-back that the saddlery provided is incorrect for French line hussars as they have a shabraque which must be removed or painted over to leave only the (small) sheepskin (apart from the officers' saddlecloths)
An alternative is to use them for units from nations other than France; as Mark and I have done (see photos below).
Our friends at the Plastic Soldier Review gave this set an average of 8.6 (ranging from 10 for pose number to 7 for sculpting). We agree wholeheartedly with their conclusion that they have "something of the flamboyance of the originals and will doubtless serve well on many a table"; as our photos below attest.
Photo gallery
Strelets Set 096 French Hussars painted as Austrian 1st Kaiser Franz Hussars.
Strelets Set 096 French Hussars painted as Saxon Hussars.
ANF rating:
Thanks for the helpful review. I have never painted any Strelets figures, they look full of character, if somewhat "chunky".
ReplyDeleteIf, like me, you like the chunky style, you'll love 'em John! They are fun to paint for a rough painter like me, so a dab hand like you could work wonders, no doubt.
DeleteThose figures certainly do have character - lovely photos as always!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian for your regular supportive and encouraging comments!
DeleteSome beautiful photos in the review. I like the bulky Strelets figures. Too bad they're hard to mix with other manufacturers like Zvezda, HäT and Revell.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Benno
http://bennosfiguresforum.com
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment Benno. Your forum is a great source of inspirational photos of people's figures.
DeleteWe find that they all combine okay on the table in different units, but agree with you that it's a little difficult to mix them in the same unit!
It's been a long time since I last painted some Napoleonics in this scale but these guys are rather tempting! Great photos!!
ReplyDeleteYou must rectify that Rodger, no matter what the figures!
DeleteLooks like you got good use from the set. They would work OK for French in full dress with the shabraques worn... as in the glorious centerfold picture of a group of French hussars charging in volume 1 of Funken's book!
ReplyDeletePeter
Thanks Peter. That's a wonderful illustration isn't it? I 'spose that you could paint the entire shabraque as a long sheepskin or cloth (and sheepskin for the officers). The other (obvious) option is to swap horses with other figures, which is what I have done for French.
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