Napoleon's Beautiful Daughters: Aliexpress Napoleonic Cannon review

Napoleon was a big fan of cannons, fondly referring to them as his belles filles (beautiful daughters). He had of course made a name for himself initially as an artillery officer. 

A French artillery battery about to fire in the upcoming QuackingFilms "Battle of Talavera" animation. 

Representing these cannons with the traditional LEGO cannon is "okay", but to really capture the look and feel of the period, a specialist piece is unquestionably best. 

Luckily enough, such cannons are available on Aliexpress, and don't cost too much. You can pick one up the through this affiliate link for less than £4 plus relevant tax.

The cannon arrives nicely packaged, and from the product image I'd rather expected the carriage to be a single piece with wheels to attach, so was pleasantly surprised to find an amount of brick-built building was required.

As you can see from these images, the cannon is built in stages and then each segment is put together to create the finished article.

The cannon carriage is a little fragile and so will come apart without a huge amount of force being applied. For a stationary piece or for a small amount of movement it's fine, but I wouldn't recommend it as an actual child's toy. Having said that, it is spring-loaded, and fires a 1x1 round brick a similar distance to the standard LEGO cannon, so a child who manages to keep it together would surely enjoy it!

Colour-wise, artillery crews would paint their cannons in similar colours - the green perhaps is a little bright and clean for a cannon the field, and looks very much like it's rolled off a production line. I'd be interested to see if others have attempted some "weathering" techniques.

I picked up the cannon version of this as that was my immediate need for my own Battle of Talavera animation that I'm making. There is a Unicorn Howitzer version also available that I'll review when I get one!

Overall, I would say that despite its slightly bright colouration and breathable nature, it is still a fantastic model and captures the look and feel of a Napoleonic cannon, and I'm sure Napoleon would be proud to call it his beautiful daughter. Click here for an affiliate link to pick one up from AliExpress!

Of course, you'll be requiring a cannon crew, and thankfully our favourite compatible brand has released French and Russian artillery crews. A review of the French is coming soon.

Thank you for reading this review. Please let me know what you think of the cannon and I'll see you next time!