The Leib-Infanterie-Regiment held senior place in the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel's line — the "Body Regiment" carrying the title of the reigning house. It crossed in the first wave of 1776 with the heir-apparent Erbprinz Wilhelm named honorary colonel and stood with the British line through the long catalog of the war's hard fighting: White Plains in October 1776, Brandywine and Germantown the following autumn, Monmouth Court House in 1778, and the New York garrison years from 1778 to the peace. Its officers were drawn almost entirely from the lesser Hessian nobility — Junker families educated at the Kassel Kadettenanstalt, who served on standing commission and treated the American war as a long professional posting rather than a contracted tour.

This W. Britain figure shows a Leib regiment officer mid-stride with his spontoon raised — the half-pike whose blade carries the regimental cypher and whose presence marked him as a commissioned officer rather than a ranker. The officer's order is on display: yellow waistcoat cut longer than the rankers' and laced gold under the dark blue coat with yellow collar, lapels, and cuffs; yellow knee breeches with black knee-boots in place of the line's mid-thigh gaiters; a crimson silk sash about the waist and a gilt gorget hung at the throat. The crimson-and-silver sword knot and the silver fringe at the breast distinguish him from the musketeers of the Regiment von Donop standing in the same line. He commands beside fellow Crown officers like the British 43rd Foot company officer and shares the German cluster with the Brunswick grenadier of Riedesel's regiment.

Model: 16178 / W. Britain 1/30 (60mm) / matte finish / 1 piece set