After the successful conclusion to the Seven Years War (known as the French and Indian War in North America), Parliament immediately began considerably reducing the size of the Army, which continued to be a lower priority than the Navy for whatever resources were available. When the grievances of the American colonists finally burst into violent revolt in 1775, there were around 7,000 British troops stationed in North America. This number would increase of course as the situation worsened, and further support would be obtained from loyal militias and German mercenaries, but ultimately, after several major defeats, a new government in London decided the war could not be won, and signed a peace treaty that recognised the independence of the Thirteen Colonies as the United States of America.

This set from HaT covers all the basic types of British infantry of the day, with the first six pictured poses being sentinels or fusiliers, followed by four poses of grenadiers and three of light infantry. An average regiment had eight companies of fusiliers, one of grenadiers and one of light troops, so using the quantities of each pose, the split in this set exaggerates the proportions of flank or elite types as opposed to ordinary fusiliers, but this is understandable as it does at least provide a more respectable number of poses for the elites. In addition we find four command poses, including a mounted officer, so with 17 different poses, this set does cover all the basics for any regiment.

While these figures look quite nice from a distance, a closer inspection shows that the detail is only fair, and not nearly as crisp and sharp as many other sets. In places this detail disappears entirely, so that muskets are pretty much smooth, some elements merge into each other, and the clothing does not have the sort of folds we would expect. Some of the straps are a bit too vague in places too, and the faces are bland and show no character at all, while some of the hands are quite basic. Perhaps the biggest problem with the sculpting is the bayonets on many of the muskets, particularly those of the fusiliers, as they are merely a pointy extension of the barrel, with no attempt to show the offsetting that allowed the musket to be fired while it was attached. The general proportions are okay, and for the most part there is very little flash, although in a handful of places it is still very evident.

The most numerous troop type here is the fusilier, as it should be, and we find six poses depicting these men firing, advancing and on the march. These are pretty standard and reasonable choices, although having two similar marching poses seems a bit wasteful to us. The last figure in the top row is advancing with musket held at chest height – an uncomfortable and non-regulation pose which should have been done much better in our view, with the musket at waist height. The reloading man is not great either, although this has always been a difficult pose to do well. The four grenadier poses are, of course, much more limited, with men advancing, marching and standing at attention. Again, not bad choices given the limited numbers, but the figure walking with fusil by his side is particularly interesting as he wears a sash and has a single fringed epaulette, so is a sergeant. This is a nice figure to have, but a luxury when only four poses are available, though all of these poses are pretty good. Then we have just three light figures, firing and advancing. Again we can have no complaint about any of these poses, which are appropriate for the common image of such men in action. The four command figures are in common but perfectly reasonable poses, with the drummer actually beating his drum and the ensign holding his flag up as he moves forward. Both officers have drawn their swords, and look good too.

In as much as the sculpting allows us to judge the uniform, everything here fits with regulation, which for the American War was the 1768 Warrant. The men wear the normal full coat with turnbacks, lapels and round cuffs, apart from the light troops, who wear a short jacket closed at the front and without ornamentation, which seems to have been one of several relatively common forms of clothing for such troops. The grenadiers have the classic wings on their shoulders, but we could not detect the single epaulette on the left shoulder that the fusiliers should have. The men wear breeches, stockings and half-gaiters, though this is an area where detail is unclear, but the light troops are again an exception as they appear to wear trousers or gaiter-trousers, which would be correct. The most obvious difference between the troop types is of course the headgear, and the fusiliers here all have the normal hat, which has been correctly done with a high front point, marking the evolution of the tricorn towards the later bicorn. The grenadiers all wear the bearskin cap with front plate, as formally introduced in the 1768 regulations, and this looks good here. Unfortunately, it appears this was not well liked by the men, and it is likely that it was seldom worn when in action, being kept for formal occasions. This is a heavy blow for all those artists, film-makers and modellers who have produced dramatic images of such men advancing into battle, but it is normal for figures such as these to show the ideal rather than the more grubby reality, and many people will be happy about that, which pretty much includes us! The light troops are different again, and several different styles of headwear are thought to have been worn by such men, but the simple brimmed hat with one side turned up and plume attached, as shown here, is a good choice. The drummer wears a bearskin (regulation, but again probably not always when in action), and has lace chevrons down his sleeve as well as winged epaulettes. The ensign and other officers have an open coat, sash round the waist, fringed epaulette and gorget at the throat, all of which is correct. The mounted officer is further distinguished by spurred riding boots, so everything is properly done.

Moving on to the equipment, these men are quite lightly kitted out. None have a knapsack, but the fusiliers each have a haversack, cartridge pouch, water bottle (of proper design) and bayonet scabbard. The grenadiers have the same except they are all missing a bayonet scabbard, and one private plus the sergeant have no haversack either. The light infantrymen have just a cartridge pouch and bayonet scabbard, so are light indeed, but we would have expected to see a powder horn, bag for their shot, and probably a hatchet too, though none are here.

All the privates have a musket, which we have already described as quite basic, and all the grenadiers have a sword. This was regulation issue for grenadiers at the time, but the evidence is that they never wore them when in action throughout the war, so technically they should not be here. The grenadier sergeant also has a fusil, which is correct as only the fusilier sergeants carried a halberd, and the drummer has just a sword, though this was usually a curved specimen rather than the straight one on this figure. The officers all have swords; they were supposed to carry a fusil, but often did not, so this is fine here.

A few other small details are also worthy of mention. The grenadiers all have the match case on their pouch belt, which is good, but they all have a hairstyle called ‘clubbed’, which is not so good. This style was the normal military style at the time, and so perfectly correct for the fusiliers and light infantry, and has been correctly done on those figures, but the grenadiers had their hair tied in a queue and tucked under the cap, so while it is a really small detail, this is an error here. The drum looks very good to us, and under the circumstances a good job has been made of getting the hands to look like they are actually drumming, which is rare. The flag staff is a bit too short, being 37 mm (2.66 metres) to the top of the finial when in fact it was about 3 metres in total length. It has the correct cords and finial, but of course there is no flag itself. This may disappoint some, but others will be pleased, and in doing this a lot of production issues are avoided, so we have no problem with this approach. From the position of the hands, it seems there is room on the staff for a flag with a maximum width of about 19 mm (137 cm), when the regulation size was actually 183 cm wide and 198 cm long, so any added flag would have to be under-sized too. The officer’s horse is in a good walking pose, and has a pair of pistols and saddlery which all looks correct. The man sits on this beast very well, but will need gluing if they are to be moved regularly.

While this set has a pretty generous 17 poses, it does cover a lot of ground, so each infantry type is limited as a result. With a couple of exceptions the poses are all good, although had it been our decision, we would have replaced the nice grenadier sergeant with a more useful man standing firing. Standing at a distance and looking at these figures, the impression would be perfectly adequate, but the vague detail and errors like the poor muskets do not stand close inspection, so compared to the beautiful set from Accurate/Revell, these come a poor second. The accuracy, however, is mostly good, and this set both expands on what is already available and adds new uniforms to the mix, so has much in its favour. Anyone modelling this conflict will surely find plenty of use for these figures.