French Cuirassier

While pulling together the miniatures for my 25mm Shiny Waterloo Project I have really enjoyed finding vintage figures on ebay that need some love.

Restoring them to their former glory (or perhaps better) is very satisfying.

Many of the 25mm miniatures that I find on ebay were manufactured by Minifigs. One challenge that I found with cavalry figures by Minifigs is that the horses are too small for the riders, which makes the cavalry look less than intimidating, and a bit odd. So early on in the project I decided to remount them with larger, more appropriate horses.

These French Cuirassier figures are mostly older Hinchliffe riders mounted on new production Hinchliffe horses. The bugler in the second rank is a newer Minifig rider on a Mirliton horse. The officer in the second rank is an older Minifig rider on a new Hinchliffe Horse.

I purchased the riders on ebay and repainted a bit directly over the old paint. When possible, I keep the original paint and just touch up figures with fresh paint and more vibrant colors.

The best horses for 25mm cavalry (imho) are:

Hinchliffe

(Horses without saddles, so these work best with riders that come with saddles attached)

My favorite is the heavy horse H2

Mirliton

(Horses come slotted to fit Mirliton saddles, which allows for great flexibility)

Connoisseur Miniatures

(Sold by Bicorne Miniatures)

(Horses come with saddles molded on)

Del Prado

Del Prado made some very nice painted Napoleonic figures sold in blister packs under the ‘Relive Waterloo’ and ‘Relive Austerlitz’ lines.

The cavalry figures are pretty good, but their heads/ helmets are oddly small and don’t mix perfectly with Minifigs and Hinchliffe. Therefore, I have taken to prying the riders off to harvest the magnificent horses. This seems a bit of a shame, but the result is quite good when the Del Prado riders are replaced with cavalrymen from Minifigs or Hinchliffe.