All armies needed engineers. They repaired the roads that the army marched along, built the bridges to cross rivers where none stood before, constructed field defences when required, and all manner of works in the event of a siege. Therefore on the march, they were toward the front of the column to pave the way for the rest of the army, and when in retreat, they were towards the rearguard, demolishing bridges and creating obstructions as they went. Perhaps the most famous exploit of Napoleon’s engineers was the crossing of the Berezina in 1812, when they constructed a number of temporary bridges across the river, allowing the Grande Armée to continue their escape from Russia.

A set of engineers, or sapeurs, naturally presents plenty of opportunities for some very different poses from the usual military ones. A couple of the ones offered here are handling large pieces of wood, and there is a great tableau of men using a two-handed saw to slightly shorten a log. There is also a running man with an axe, and another swinging one. The man handling the large barrel really appealed to us, which leaves three men with muskets. We couldn’t decide what to make of the figure in the top row holding a musket horizontally, but the two in the bottom row are moving about, and since they are carrying their weapon, perhaps they are expecting some fighting rather than manual work. The last figure is also carrying a torch, but all the poses are really interesting, and apart from the mysterious man in the top row, we liked them all a lot.

The costume of these figures falls into two groups. The first five figures are all wearing working rig, which is no coat but a shirt and waistcoat (some long-sleeved, some sleeveless), and comfortable trousers. Just as today you might see a soldier engaged in similar activities wearing combat trousers and a T-shirt, so in Napoleon’s time this was the normal unfussy and practical appearance, yet there are very few figures dressed this casually in the hobby, and we really liked all those here. Several also wear the bonnet-de-police forage cap, which was universal in the army, and while it was replaced by a new style in 1812, called the pokalem, this older type would have remained in use for some time afterwards, and could easily have still been seen on some heads even at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, so these figures have a good, long, period in which they would be correct.

The second five figures are very different. They wear full dress uniform, which for engineers was the uniform of the foot artillery. Presumably such men are on campaign, and do not have the opportunity to change clothing before commencing their toils, so are perhaps more likely to be operating close to the enemy. The most obvious feature of their uniform is the large metal helmet with crest and plume. This uniquely identifies them as engineers for the Imperial Guard, specifically the Old Guard. This unit was only created in 1810, and were originally charged with fighting fires at the imperial palaces. In the following years the unit was expanded, but only the first company (about 140 to 150 men) were attached to the Old Guard, and they alone retained the helmet as a mark of their elite status. As such, they also have the aspects of the uniform shared with the Old Guard, such as the open coat lapels and long coat tails. Thus their uniform did not change with the rest of the army after 1812. All the men have fringed epaulettes, which in other engineer units indicated the wearer as a ‘first class’ sapeur, but all wore them in this Guard company, so this is correct. A peculiarity of this set is all these men wear Hessian-style boots rather than gaiters of any sort. Generally this was a privilege of officers, so we think this very unlikely on these men. However, Jouineau (see bibliography) shows just such a man for the ‘Hundred Days’ period, though we could not find any evidence to support this.

There are bigger problems with the kit for these men. Those in working clothes have no kit, which is as expected, but those in full uniform have a very strange arrangement. Three of them have a pack on their back, of unusual design, but that is the sum total of their kit. No one has a cartridge pouch, nor a sidearm, yet all have the belts for both. This is illogical, and also impossible. The belt that held the cartridge pouch ( banderolle) attached both ends to the pouch – it was not a complete belt from which the pouch could be removed, yet that is exactly what these five figures are wearing. Even if it were possible, why would anyone choose to wear just the belt from their pouch? The same goes for their bayonet and briquet belt ( baudrier) – the fitting to take these two items was a part of the belt, but here everyone wears just a belt, so impossible and nonsensical. It looks absurd, and surely cannot have been deliberate, but as a sculpting error it ranks pretty highly.

Linear-A 3D printed figures are always little works of art, and these are just the same. Beautifully detailed and perfectly proportioned, the printing process has, once again, been well used to produce attractive figures in perfectly natural poses without the need for compromise. Nothing in this set requires any assembly – even the pair using the saw come as just one piece – so the poses are perfectly realistic, and detail is everywhere excellent, with perhaps the standout example being the eagle crest on the front of the helmets. The faces are great too, and some of the men have lovely facial hair features, which do add to the sense of character these figures possess.

Apart from the problems already mentioned, there are others. Both the axes in this set look absolutely enormous – even as felling axes, we worried that they were a bit too big to be credible. More importantly, all the figures are rather too tall for the average 19th century man. This will mean they will be somewhat at odds with any normal-sized figures placed next to them.

We also need to address the very rambling title of the set, which refers to the storming of a bridge at Charleroi. This was in 1815, at the start of the Waterloo campaign, when the French initially invaded the Netherlands, on 15th June, and a large part of the army was due to cross the Sambre river at the town of Charleroi. The bridge there was defended by Prussian forces, and had been barricaded, but due to bad staff work, the only French troops on hand to take the bridge were Guard sappers and marines. This they duly did, but despite being brigaded with the marines, the sappers were too small a unit to see any action at Waterloo itself, and only participated in the final withdrawal. Although it is not known for sure, historians think few if any of these men wore the helmet during this campaign, which after all included an eagle, something the restored monarchy of a few weeks earlier probably found objectionable! In any case, normal campaign dress was much like full dress, which these figures wear, but with campaign trousers over the breeches and gaiters, so there must be some doubt as to whether any engineer in Charleroi actually looked as superb as these figures. This would hardly be the first time a set of military figures have assumed a much finer appearance than was actually the case historically, but is worth mentioning here.

So in general we have two rather different opinions about this set. The five men in working dress are fantastic, very lifelike and hugely useful for many scenes. We can see many possibilities for them, and those without the bonnet could even be used for other armies. The five in an unusual form of full dress gave us plenty of room for doubt, and the missing items of kit seriously detract from their accuracy. In addition, they represent only a tiny group of men, which severely limits the utility of these figures. Not that we don’t want to see small units modelled, especially ones looking as fine as these, but these five are probably more for the collector than the wargamer or diorama-builder, we assume. All the figures are beautiful in themselves, and those with the helmets are certainly spectacular, even in an age of spectacular uniforms, so perhaps some people will overlook the historical problems and just enjoy them as models.