Revell seem to have avoided making Napoleonic figures for a long time. Perhaps they felt there were already too many such sets, but when they did begin making them they chose to make theirs quite distinctive, and in the case of the British artillery they chose the foot artillery, a unit that had never previously been made by anyone else. Revell have certainly developed a knack of creating superb artillery sets, so how does this one measure up?
The sheer number of poses here is very typical of Revell. No one pose has more than two copies in a set, and this allows duplications such as the sponge-man, with one pose sponging the gun and another standing aside while the gun is fired. There are a high proportion of officers, but still plenty of crew for the guns. One particularly interesting figure is the man in shirt sleeves, with cupped hands apparently feeding a shell into a barrel. It is very unusual to see manufacturers include figures in anything less than perfect uniform, yet such a casual sight must have been common.
The men wear the 1812 pattern uniform, which was almost identical to that of the infantry in all but colour. This allows some easy swapping of figures between artillery and infantry simply by painting variations. The uniform of these men is correctly sculpted, and includes the 'Belgic' shako in its waterproof cover, which again is a realistic feature rarely reproduced in miniature. The drivers correctly wear a Tarleton-style helmet and jackets with plastron-style front that mark them as members of the Corps of Drivers.
The set includes three guns, presumably one for the team and two for service by the crews. All are identical, and the barrel length suggests it is a 9-pounder, which became the standard British gun of the later part of the wars. The level of detail on the gun carriage is extremely good, with just about everything that could be included present. Two niggles are that the lifting handles at the base of the trail are filled in rather than actually handles, and the axletree boxes seem rather squat. However the carriage does include the (simplified) elevating screw, which is good to see.
The limber and team are well sculpted and correctly detailed, at least as far as could reasonably be expected. Naturally the traces have been much simplified, but not as much as some other manufacturers are inclined to do. The limber is excellent and well detailed, and each horse is different, making a far more believable model. The team are stationary, and indeed one of the drivers is modelled standing beside one of the horses. This looks nice, but some customers would probably prefer a more generic galloping pose with all drivers mounted. There is one problem though, and it is a biggie. There should be at least 6 horses in the team, and ideally eight. Four would not have been considered sufficient to pull even a 6-pounder on campaign.
A number of small accessories are also included in the set. The stacked muskets is a nice idea which can just as easily be used in infantry camp scenes, and the separate packs highlights that the gunners would not normally wear these while in battle. The two shells are probably meant to be common spherical shell on a wooden shoe, but have no detail. They could be placed in the hands of the shirt-sleeved gunner. The leather buckets would be a common sight, and the extra sponges and ammunition chest are useful too.
Though the detail is good throughout, one or two of the figures have not been well realised. For example, the man crouching, while a good idea in itself, loses a lot of detail where the mould cannot gain access, which is a shame. We also found that there was a significant amount of flash on many of the figures, so some trimming is necessary. In general parts fitted together well. This is a very good set in many respects, but the small team and some untidy extra plastic spoil it.