March 2023

We are pleased to add the 95th Rifles to our Napoleonic range. An iconic unit of the British forces, they are distinctive with their green jackets and Baker rifles. The 95th Rifles fought the entirety of the Peninsular War and then at Waterloo, forging their reputation in the Napoleonic Wars. 

Common wisdom is that the green uniform was the British Army's first foray into camouflage; not so. King George wanted to style his scouts and skirmishers along the lines of the German Jägers, who had green uniforms.

Being shorter, the Baker rifle was more suited to skirmishing and was more accurate than the Brown Bess musket issued to general infantry, doubling effective accuracy from 100 to 200 yards. This resulted in the Rifle Brigade becoming known as sharpshooters as well as scouts and agile light infantry.

Many histories both real and fictional have been written around the Rifles. These figures are a welcome addition to our Napoleonic range and the dynamic poses crafted by David Cowe have echoes back to some of our most popular figures in the Zulu and American Civil War series.

We offer two sets of 95th Rifles; the first set is standing figures - an officer and troopers alternately reloading and firing, the second set with three pairs of troopers kneeling (one reloading, one firing) reflecting how the men operated in pairs to protect each other while reloading.

 

156 95th Rifles, Waterloo 1815 (standing)

 

157 95th Rifles, Waterloo 1815 (kneeling)

The complete Te Maori range as it appeared for sale on our pre-owned section of the website

For collectors looking for out-of-production Imperial sets, we have some exciting pre-owned sets to list on our website soon:David Cowe will be listing for sale his collection of mint condition early series Imperial figures.

This is your opportunity to not only source some hard to find early sets, but to do so with as-new sets from the personal collection of Imperial's creator and master sculptor.

We will be listing these at the end of April and will send out a "flash" email to notify collectors when they are listed.

We also have some sets from other vendors in our discontinued Zulu, Sudan and American Civil War ranges to list, so keep an eye out on the pre-owned section of our website for those. 

 

For collectors who haven't seen our pre-owned service, we have recently started offering pre-owned Imperial sets for sale on our website on a consignment basis. This is a service we offer to anyone looking to sell their Imperial products, be it duplicates in a collection, deceased estate sales, or just looking for someone to take over a cherished collection.

For current collectors, it's a great way to buy some discontinued Imperial sets with confidence in their condition, and because everything listed is in stock, the sets are available for immediate shipping.

We inspect every set for authenticity and condition, and photograph the actual set (not a stock image) for listing on our website.

 

Check out our Pre-owned Collection here

Custom painted NZ4 as 3rd Battalion, 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade, note the black buttons and shoulder patches. The service history label can be seen in the background.
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We recently completed a special order for a New Zealand based customer for three sets of World War 1 NZ figures. The customer wanted our NZ4 figures to be painted as Otago Infantry Regiment (OIR) to reflect the unit that their relatives had served in.

We had the idea to go a step further and document the service histories of the individual soldiers on a label inside the boxes. So began a journey uncovering the histories of two New Zealand servicemen, which revealed some surprisingly detailed information, meaning a more complete and accurate picture of their service could now sit alongside the verbal history of their whānau (family).

We discovered that one of the men had served in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and was killed in action in 1917. We also learned that the other serviceman had been one of the first New Zealand soldiers, part of the 1,400 strong Samoa Expeditionary Force in August 1914, aimed at seizing the German wireless station in Apia, Samoa. Afterwards he served on the Western Front, only to be seriously injured in the winter of 1917 and sent home to New Zealand.

Close up of the NZ4 figures painted as 1st Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment, note the unit identification patch on the nape of the uniforms. The service history label can be seen on the inner lid of the box.
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We painted one set of NZ4's as 1st Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment with the battalion's cloth badge on the nape of the neck. A second set was painted as 3rd New Zealand (Rifles) Brigade with black shoulder patches (triangles to denote the 3rd Battalion), and the black buttons and badges of the Rifle Brigade.

Complementing this was a set of ANZAC nurses who would have cared for the wounded serviceman.

We are happy to offer these documentation and custom painting services to customers looking to mark the service of their relatives in WW1.