Hat Industrie 20mm 1/72 scale Austrian Infantry; Marching, In Action and Command

     Finally someone has done Austrians in my favorite uniform, the 1798 regulation with the classically inspired helmet. As with several of their recent releases HaT has provided a box of Command, a box of soldiers marching, a box of soldiers "in action" and then a sampler set with one sprue of each type in it.

         The sampler pack is a great way to get the figures and be sure that they are compatible with your other models plus it gives you a good look at what to expect from each box. All four sets are cast in a firm but still flexible yellow plastic that reflects the detail very well. There is a small amount of flash on some of the figures that will need cleaning with a fresh razor-knife.

        All of these sets are cast in the same type of plastic and have an equal level of detail (which is very good), style and anatomical accuracy so my comments apply equally across the range.

 

the usual above-average artwork

 

 

sprue side A, a nice variety of poses

I very much prefer marching poses because the minis are less likely to become damaged and, 

let's be honest here, soldiers spent a LOT more time marching than they did actively fighting

 

sprue side B 

 the figures anatomy is good, the poses are natural 

and sufficiently different that the models don't look like robots

 

close-up of the detail, the designer of the minis was kind enough to obscure the turnbacks on the coats by carefully positioning the absentee and cartridge-box so as to hide the coat-tails, thus saving the time and trouble of painting the facing-color on the turnback

 

 

     

 

more of the high quality artwork 

I wish that Osprey would take a look at recruiting this person

 

sprue side A

all excellent and useful poses but it seems that the sculptor was paying TOO much attention 

 to photos of re-enactors as all of the firing figures seem to be aiming rather high

 

all of the figures in this series can be used as either "German" regiments or "Hungarian" regiments, 

the only difference being the pointed cuffs on the Hungarian units 

(which can easily enough be painted into existence)

 

the minis exhibit a nice depth, 

you don't see the "flatness" that sometimes appears in plastic figures

 and the heads, hands and features are all properly in scale

 

 

more of that outstanding artwork,

officers would also wear the white jacket just like the troops

 

 

side A, 

the poses are realistic and can be used with any

 of the other sets without looking incongruous 

 

of particular interest is the spare heads for other units, 

I also like that they included the sapper figure with his axe

 

the colonel figure mounted on his horse is most convincing

the drum is a separate item which will ease painting

 

the sampler box contains one of each of the reviewed sprues