British Highland Infantry
Being a highland scot myself on my
father's side, I took great pleasure in painting up four regiments of the
famous scottish infantry as they appeared at Waterloo. Three regiments
wore tartans at Waterloo, and there are three sets of Waterloo Highland
Infantry available: all have found a place in my collection. The
fourth regiment was light infantry, and wore the more traditional stovepipe
shako and grey trousers. Modellers have the rare situation in these
sets of a choice between three excellents offerings. I used John
O'Brien's superb site
on painting highland tartans as a reference for these figures.
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Esci
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Highland
Infantry
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This set from Esci, packaged with the
light infantry, looks great. The "wounded buddy" pose, so popular
with Esci's sculptor, has been converted to a colorbearer with paper flag
from www.warflag.com. All other
figures are the original poses. These were the first highlanders
I painted, and I didn't knock myself out on the kilts, obviously.
The 79th (Cameron) Highlanders wore green facings and the Cameron of Erracht
kilt. The Esci poses are not ideal for wargaming purposes, as the
running figure especially bends and chips quite easily, but they are attractive
figures.
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Italeri
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Highland
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Infantry
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These are three of the figures from
the Italeri Highland Infantry set, painted as the 42nd "Royal Highland"
Regiment, also known as the Black Watch. They had blue facings and
wore the government tartan. The raised detail makes them very easy
to paint; Italeri's line is by far the best in this regard, and this
set did not disappoint. The kilts are very easy to paint correctly.
The only real drawback here is that the wings on the shoulders mark all
of these highlanders as flank company men. I have painted over much
of the detail on the wings to make a simple conversion to line company
infantry.
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Airfix
Highland Infantry
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The Airfix set was the first of the
highland sets to be issued, but is the hardest to currently find.
Again, raised detail is superb, and the figures are a joy to paint.
All of the Airfix are battalion company men, which may help explain why
the two follow-up sets portray the flank companies of these famous regiments.
I used the Airfix figures for the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders, with yellow
facings and a modified Gordon tartan. The tartan pattern corresponds
with the illustration on plate 17b of Philip Haythornthwaite's Uniforms
of Waterloo.
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A Call
to Arms
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British
Infantry
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The 71st (Glasgow Highland) Light Infantry
completes the set of highland regiments present at Waterloo. These
soldiers wore the regular British light infantry uniform, with stovepipe
shako, red coat with yellow facings and wings, and field service grey trousers.
The only emblem signifying their highland status was the Glengarry check
pattern worn around the base of the shako. The figures are taken
from the A Call to Arms British Infantry set. While the detail is
not great, this set provides the only stovepipe shakos to be found in plastic
until HaT Industries produces their own light infantry set.
This page last updated on 12 November,
2000
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