Forming Armies for the Waterloo Campaign in 6mm

The following was a collection of three emails relating to forming armies for the 1815 Campaign using 6mm figures from Heroics & Ros. I used it often when purchasing and basing figures for the Waterloo campaign and trust it is of use to others..

Andrew Nicoll writes:

Prussian Landwehr infantry were basically all in the long blue coat & flat blue baker's cap. I expect any of MPN6, MPN20 or MPN21 will be OK for them.

Prussian Landwehr cavalry were theoretically the same, and all were lance armed. Since regular Uhlans wear a shako, I think you'll need to get MPN5 for both (assuming it's regulars), and try cutting the hats down for Landwehr. Unfortunately there's rather a lot of them about.

Dutch/Belgian are more complicated. Belgians wore British Belgic-type shakos, the Dutch a wider shako that I have one source calling Austrian - style. That sounds like MBN1 or MBN22 for Belgians, and either MBN19 or MBN21, or MAN1 or MAN13 for the Dutch. Some of the militia wore British stovepipe shakos, so use MBN19 or MBN 21 for these.

Dutch/Belgian heavy cavalry sound like French dragoons, but without a picture of their headgear I can't be certain. For the light cavalry use French hussar figures, MFN12. Technically these should be in late period French hussar shakos, but I've no idea what H&R do.

Dutch/Belgian artillery wore British type uniform, but with Austrian-type shakos. I'd guess you need to use MFN3 or MPN4 for these.

The Nassau units wore a French-style uniform in green. Their unit organisation was as for the French, so French figures would be suitable here. That means a mixture of Fusiliers (4 companies), Grenadiers (1 company) and Voltigeurs (1 company) per battalion. 1st regiment had Grenadiers in bearskins, everyone else was in shakos.

Hannoverians & KGL basically as for the British, the Hannoverians at least having Belgic Shakos. Hannoverian militia wore all sorts of stuff. Theoretically it was as for the regulars with Belgic shako, but one battalion (Bremervorde) is noted at Waterloo in green jackets and blue trousers. Several other units had blue jackets faced red – the opposite of the regulations. What headgear they scrounged is anyone's guess. Picking figures for this lot is difficult, but I'd be tempted to settle for British with stovepipe shako.

Brunswickers are very hard, as all had shakos with tall falling horsehair plumes, and the infantry wore hussar-type dolmans. However since the uniform was entirely black it possibly doesn't matter too much who you use. Some had Russian-type Kiwers, so 1 unit of MRN7 and one of, say MAN6 might be ok? Hussars had shakos, so again French, Prussian, or Austrian should do. The two 'elite' infantry battalions (Jaegers & Avantegarde) wore Austrian-Jaeger style korsehuts, so use MAN3 for
these.

The French are pretty self-evident, except that it's worth noting that both the infantry and cavalry had basically dispensed with colpacks for elite companies by this period - everyone was in standard headgear for their arm of service (shakos for infantry, chasseurs a cheval and hussars, combed helmets for heavy cavalry and line lancers). I believe that only the Old Guard wore Bearskins, so for the middle & young guard use grenadier figures for all companies. (However the Britsh Grenadier Guards are reputedly so - called because they beat the French guard at Waterloo, and believed them to be the Grenadiers of the Old Guard. However it was the mostly middle guard who mounted the final failed attack, so perhaps some of them at least were in Bearskins?)

Geoffrey Wooten writes:

Depending on how purist you want to be in 6mm......

Nassauers were French-like, but the Grenadiers (in at least one of the two units, and probably both) had a distinctive 'Kolpack' style bearskin.

Brunswickers really had the long 'rock' type coat - Prussian style rather than french - and the Leib units had funny bedragled-looking plumes which hung down.

I think Hanoverians had the stovepipe, not belgique shako, and some of the brit line units had also not been converted. The 28th famously springs to mind, but there were others too.

Austrians for Dutch - probably ok in this scale but watch out for the backpacks.

Dutch/Belgian Carabinier horse didnt have breastplates, of course. Double check for plastrons.

British light dragoons had quite a distinctive bell top to their shako and quite exagerated plastrons, if this appears on the 6mm figure. Most continental LC shakos seem to have been fairly straight sided, and with a more subtle coat design.

I know what you mean about Prussian landwehr cavalry. They were a real dogs breakfast (so were many of the line units). Whatever you do, they will be wrong, but with the exception of only one or two units no - one can say 100% what each unit wore, and in which squadrons they wore it!

Blandford still do one of the best books on uniforms of Waterloo, and have a go at the Prussain cavalry quite well. It's recently come out again in paperback.

Martin Soilleux-Cardwell writes:

Yes, I have somewhere a grubby scrap of paper with all the H&R figures I intended to use for the 1815 units. But I seem to have lost it. I know I was going to use French for Nassauers and Brunswickers. British Belgic for Hanoverians, British Stovepipe for Hanoverians and the odd Prussian unit that was British equipped (two or three regts I think).

British Belgic for Belgians. Austrians for Dutch. French Carabiniers or British Lifeguards with the caterpillar helmet crest for Dutch Horse.

Most German and Netherlands light cavalry could use the British Light Dragoon figure with the shako. I'll probably have some French Chasseurs a Cheval figures spare too and in this scale I'm happy to press these into Netherlands service.

I was going to stick 4 to 6 Uhlan figures on the back of the Brunswick Hussar brigade to represent the Uhlan squadron, for these I will use Prussian Uhlans (can't be bothered to buy a whole 20 figure pack of other lancers just for these few).

The Prussian Landwehr cavalry are a problem, they wore all sorts of various things and H&R just don't produce anything close to some of them. They will just have to use the standard Prussian Uhlan or Hussar figure but with various paint jobs to camouflage the fact that they are, underneath, all the same. The Prussian Landwehr infantry look fine.

It's my understanding that the Netherlands & Hanoverian artillery was British equipped and uniformed.

As regards the French, you need to paint 'em up as a real hotch-potch. Lots of brown and grey overcoats (fortunately H&R make several French figures in overcoats), lots of Grey/brown/ cream/buff/white overalls instead of breeches and gaiters. Chop off most of the long plumes on the grenadier and voltigeur figures and mix up your units so that overalls, overcoats and jackets are mixed.

Sadly H&R don't make a French figure in the soft field cap which was worn a lot in this campaign, mainly by the guard. The H&R Old Guard figures have the traditional bearskin which wasn't worn by all the guard. I think I will have to mix in some line figures to give an impression of a guard unit that is not uniformly dressed.

The 4th Chasseurs of the Guard were a real mess, mostly veterans taken from their parent units and not given a new uniform so make this unit up to look real messy.

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