The principal purpose of light infantry was to skirmish with the enemy, keeping their skirmishers from your own troops, and hopefully discomforting or even harm the enemy formations before they were within range of your own. That was no different in the British army of the Napoleonic period, but all light infantry was also expected to act as regular infantry when no skirmishing was required. Thus all the training about heading into open territory in pairs and taking aimed shots at selected targets had to be forgotten when they were simply used in the conventional way, as formed bodies of men firing or advancing together. This set from Strelets, the second of two released at the same time, shows these men in this less glamorous but perfectly common act, moving forward with bayonet attached, which strongly implies they expect to come to grips with the enemy rather than simply snipe at a distance.

The troops in this set are basically all in one pose – advancing with bayonet fixed. Since such men usually kept the bayonet off when they were intending to snipe from a skirmish line, these are all moving forward as depicted on the box, and the pose is perfectly good for that. The small variances in the figures give a realistic, imperfect look to a body made up of such figures, so the one pose works well. The command figures are much more unusual in terms of pose, beginning with the fallen bugler, who is very neatly laid out and still clutches his bugle to his chest, so does not look like he has just fallen. The sergeant next to him is a more dramatic pose, apparently starting to collapse after a wound to the side. We found this pose a bit too theatrical for our taste, but it is certainly an unusual one. More dramatic still is the ensign, who is on the ground yet still heroically holding the colours aloft, as if straight out of a Victorian painting. Although hardly the sort of thing you would expect to see much in reality, this is at least a more convincing pose than the sergeant in our view, and certainly one of the most unusual depictions of a flag-bearer we have seen. Lastly we have the officer, who is energetically advancing with his men while holding both his sword and a pistol. Again this is an unusual pose, but we liked it, and it will probably be more popular with wargamers than the other command figures here.

The uniform of British light infantry differed little from that of the centre companies, and has been correctly depicted here. The ‘stovepipe’ shako was worn by all prior to 1812, and retained by some, including many light units, for several years afterwards. Although only a couple of the figures are facing the mould, on those the light infantry badge is seen on the front of the shako, and all have the short plume, also on the front. The laced coat with short tails is fine, as are the campaign trousers all wear. Only the officer departs from this look as he wears breeches and Hessian-style boots, which was a common fashion amongst light officers. All the men have the wings on their shoulders, as they should, and the downed bugler has the chevron decoration on his sleeves. The other three command figures wear a waist sash, and it is worth noting that the sergeant has his three chevrons on both his upper sleeves, a practice that was common in light infantry companies, so good to see here.

The equipment is the standard issue for all British infantry, amounting to the rigid square pack with rolled greatcoat, cartridge pouch, water bottle and haversack. This kit is present on all the privates, but none of the command figures, which is something of a surprise as we would have expected the bugler and sergeant to have most of it. The sergeant also offends as he is holding a spontoon, which would be correct for centre companies or grenadiers, but for light companies he should be armed with a musket, and so needing ammunition etc. The ensign is unarmed (a sword would be normal, but perhaps too difficult to sculpt on such a pose), and the officer’s pistol is an interesting choice. Officers were not issued with them, but then officers provided much of their kit themselves, and there are several mentions of officers carrying pistols, so this is perfectly reasonable here, although this man has not got any sort of a holster for it. By the same token his sword, which is perfectly straight, does not match the usual custom of such men to carry a curved sword such as might be held by a light cavalryman, but as he had the choice in such matters, and such a sword from the 52nd Light Infantry still survives, this is an unusual but not incorrect item.

Sculpting is pretty good, with fair detail, although not quite as sharp and clear as the best in the market. For some reason most of the cuffs are almost invisible, but the faces are quite nice, and that of the wounded sergeant is a picture of pain! The flag is unengraved, and as can be seen is badly damaged, but is not a great sculpt anyway. This is because it is quite a bit too short (should be 25.4 mm (182 cm) top to bottom rather than the actual 15 mm), and it has apparently lost, or disfigured, its finial. Some may prefer to substitute their own paper flag, which would be fairly simple in this case, although the staff is not long enough to accommodate a full-sized flag. However we have to report that there is quite a bit of flash on these figures, more or less on every seam, and thick enough to make it difficult to ignore, especially if they are to be painted. While far from the worst we have seen, some recent Strelets products have been admirably free of flash, so this was something of a disappointment.

The rigid pack and shako shape suggest a date range of around 1806 to 1815, and for that date range these are mostly accurate figures. The sergeant is the main exception, as he should not be here, but as he wears wings on his coat, he could serve in a company of grenadiers instead. The good sculpting could use rescuing by having the flash trimmed off, but the workmanlike advancing pose is eminently usable, though the more dramatic command poses are more a matter of personal taste. However this is a very useful set for much of the later Napoleonic Wars, when the Duke of Wellington made steady progress against the French emperor until the wars came to an end and Europe knew peace once more.