While the red-coated line fired blind volleys into the smoke, the green-jacketed 95th took aim. The Rifles carried the Baker rifle — a rifled barrel that spun the ball and made it accurate to two hundred yards and more, where a smoothbore musket was hopeless past eighty. It came at a price: the tight ball had to be forced down the grooves, so a rifleman loaded far slower than a musketeer. That changed how they fought. Instead of standing shoulder to shoulder, the 95th spread out in open order ahead of the army, using cover, picking their targets — officers and gunners for choice — and trusting each man's judgment. Trained for initiative and marksmanship, they were the thinking edge of Wellington's army.

The eight-figure set is the Rifles in a skirmish — an officer with sword and red sash, a sergeant, a bugler, and five riflemen running, firing, and loading the Baker, all in dark green with black belts and the stovepipe shako. Note the bugler: riflemen fought too dispersed to hear a drum, so they were directed by bugle-horn calls. The set makes the skirmish line of a British diorama. Throw it out ahead of the British Line Infantry it screens, set the kilted 92nd Gordon Highlanders in the line behind, and place it all under Wellington at Waterloo.

Tradition of London model 705. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer, a sergeant, a bugler, and five riflemen, 1810. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.