Warlord Games 28mm Polish Vistula Legion Review

One of my first interests in Napoleonics had to be the Polish Vistula Legion for obvious reasons.  I knew nothing about the unit when I first dipped my toe in this fascinating era.  To be fair, I still don't know that much.  I could only find limiting and conflicting information on the internet.

I was not going to let trivial little historical inaccuracies etc stop me from painting up these figures.  I was most surprised and pleased at just how well the Warlord Games Polish Vistula Legion Painted up.

The miniatures are the Warlord Games French infantry with metal Vistula Legion heads.  Warlord Games state they have put a lot of research into the unit so I take their word for it as they are generally pretty damn good when it comes to this sort of thing.

In the box you get 5 x  Plastic French Sprues and a variety of metal heads.  You get 4 x Command figures cast in metal.  It does not come with instructions and a complete Napoleonics newby like me had to work out what a Fusilier, Voltigeur and a Grenadier was and what head to give them.  A bit of research online and I figured out what is on the sprue.  I have captioned the images below with what parts in the box set are for Fusiliers, Voltigeurs and Grenadiers.  

Soldiers Left to Right - Voltigeur/Grenadier, 3 x Fusiliers

Backpacks Left to Right - Fusilier, Fusilier, Voltigeur, Grenadier, Fusilier

Heads from top to bottom - Drummer & Officer, Grenadiers in Czapkas, Voltigeurs/Grenadiers, Fusiliers

 Now with that sorted I put them together.  I decided to put Czapkas on my Grenadiers because they are cool and unique.  You only get 20 plastic soldiers in the box set so I have an additional box set incoming for free with a deal from Warlord and took advantage of their recent sprue sale to bulk up my unit.  I will be assembling some ranked up Voltigeurs.

These chaps paint up lovely. I first thought the marching pose was kind of boring however they look great ranked up and you can easily pick out the details.  The plastic is cast well and needs minimal clean up.  You only need to glue the head and backpack on so assembly is fast and easy.

I would highly recommend these figures and are great value.

Polish Vistula Legion Command - Sapper, Colonel, Officer, Drummer

Polish Vistula Legion Grenadiers wearing Czapkas

Polish Vistula Legion Fusiliers in Shakos

The first 20 painted

Polish Vistula Legion Drummer

A quick final note.  In the latest Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge my drummer ended up making one of the top entries for the themed round of Musician.  

Polish Vistula Legion - So much swagger