Dux Homunculorum: April 2010

Monday, April 19, 2010

Landsknecht Pikemen

Here is my first batch of Landsknecht pikemen, double based for DBA-RRR. Like the review on Plastic Soldier Review says, they are a bit of a nightmare to put together. But I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Wargaming the English Civil War in 1/72 Scale Part 5: Some More Figures

Since I posted my summaries of the figures available for wargaming the ECW in 1/72 scale I have learned of a few more options. So this post is a round up of other mainly metal figures that could be used to create mighty armies of Parliamentarians, Royalists, Covenanters or Scots Royalists.

First up, my Mars Scots Mercenaries of the 30 Years War arrived.

I'm not a fan. It is hard to imagine much use for them, although maybe the musketeers could be used if one were desperate. Chunky mouldings, muskets the caliber of anti-tank guns, horribly engraved tartan breeches… The sculptor doesn’t seem to have understood Highland dress, so there are some really weird arrangements of plaid. Save your money. I have a set of Strelets Jacobites on the way, and I’m hoping to convert them into C17th Highlanders.

More positively, Mr John Cunningham responded to my post and has been a goldmine of information about ranges of metal figures compatible with plastics for the ECW. He very kindly sent me a range of samples of 20mm Hinton Hunt figures that he now holds the moulds for. These are some of the ECW figures, along with plastic figures from Revell and ACTA for size comparisons.

The Hinton Hunt figures are sharply detailed, and would fit in well with most plastics although they are slightly smaller. Unfortunately this is particularly the case with a couple of the standing officer figures, which seem underscale. Mr Cunningham has obtained the moulds for all sorts of old and out of productions ranges of figures in 20mm figures available – everything from Wellington’s Sepoys to some very nice C17th Poles. You can see some of his other figures over on The Plastic Pelisse. He can be contacted at CunnJoh@aol.com

Mr Cunnignham also sent me some examples of ECW figures made by Les Higgins. The bottom row are original Les Higgins figures, the ones above are reissues made by David Clayton in the USA. As you can see from the yellow A Call to Arms and Revell figures these match the size of 1/72 scale plastics well, although the style is much less realistic.

Some other metal ranges worth a look:

Art Miniaturen

I have bought Art Miniaturen Napoleonics and they are superb. They also have a growing range of 30 Years War figures, some of which would work well for the ECW. Check out the figure of the general waving his hat:

http://www.schmaeling.de/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.schmaeling.de/

Garrison Miniatures

Thanks again to Mr Cunningham for putting me onto these. Garrison have a range of 25mm ECW. I haven’t seen the figures ‘in the flesh’, but judging by the scale in the photos on their website they should mix well with 1/72 scale:

http://www.garrisonminiatures.com/catalogue/index.asp?rName=English+Civil+War&rBrand=25mm%2017th%20Century

Historifigs

http://www.historifigs.com/soldiers_of_the_30_years_war.htm#1%20Scale%20Figures

No idea whether their ‘1 inch’ 30 Years War figures would match up with 1/72 scale, but they might be worth a look.

I think that’s all!