After establishing their name with a variety of 1:32 sets, 'British Infantry 1815' was the first 1:72 set from A Call To Arms. The figures are in fact scaled down copies of two of their excellent 1:32 sets - 'Waterloo British Light Infantry' and 'Waterloo British Foot Guards'. While sets of Waterloo British infantry have long been popular subjects for sets, neither the light infantry, nor the Guards, had received any attention when this set first appeared, so these figures offered something new as well as simply adding to the British infantry already available.

The eight poses are divided equally between Guard and light infantry. Looking at the Guards first (top row), they are wearing Belgic shakos with an oilskin cover - an authentic feature that was a first when the set was released. Despite their label as 'Guards' they are perfectly suitable for most regular line or guards regiments. With only four poses the range is naturally limited, and none of them are firing or reloading. The first figure in our picture is perhaps the weakest of the poses, since it is not entirely clear what he is doing. Perhaps trying to use his musket as a club, or parrying some blow, but there are many other poses that would have been more useful. However, the poses are very nice and do not generally repeat those produced by other manufacturers. Uniform and equipment look good, although two have their water canteen on the right side, and one has his in such a place that it interferes with his musket, which is odd (only sergeants wore it on the right). All the men wear their Trotter knapsack and full kit. All the Guards have wings on their shoulders, meaning they belong to a flank company (either grenadier or light) rather than a battalion company, which means these figures only represent a minority of ordinary Guards (just two of the 10 companies in a battalion), which is an odd choice.

The light infantry figures were particularly welcome as at the time no other manufacturer made light infantry. Once again only four poses means their use is somewhat limited, but four poses is better than none, and unlike the Guards all the poses here are conventional and so very useful. Having said that, we might have preferred one pose to be loading his musket in some way, which would fit well with the tactic whereby such men went out in pairs, each covering the other while he reloaded. However, light infantry could also act just like any ordinary infantry, and frequently did so, so all these poses are appropriate. The men wear the standard infantry uniform along with the typical shako for light infantry in 1815, with a large bugle-horn badge on the front, and all is correctly done including the wings on the shoulders. Again two of these poses have their canteen on the right side, where it gets in the way of the cartridge pouch, so would not happen in reality. Like the Guards, the Lights all wear full kit, including the knapsack, though we do wonder how often they chose to leave this behind when skirmishing forward of the main line.

All the figures are very well sculpted with good detail and virtually no excess plastic or flash. They paint up well and would grace any collection or army. Putting more than one troop type in a box is a pet hate here at PSR, and this set certainly suffers as a result. Mixing types means fewer poses per type, and can be very annoying for buyers. You can't simply build up a strong contingent of light infantry without also acquiring large numbers of unwanted line or Guard. Overall, however, this set was a welcome addition to the available British Napoleonics, although the small variety of poses means it will only really add to the sets produced by others, which would subsequently include several sets of light infantry offering many more poses.