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:
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!
Sorry to see that that the Mars figures are a disapointment. I could use a half-sprue for my blog though. Want to work out a trade?
ReplyDeletemust point that i don't have the Hinton Hunt moulds but only the Les Higgins ones which are shown in your first picture, the second picture shows HH figures both original and recasts by Clayton
ReplyDeleteMars Scots, think they used a German set of prints depicting the Scots, these were done at the time and Mars have followed the prints very closely and as for the Strelets Jacobites not their best sets guessing they used a different sculptor
there was another metal figure maker from the early who did a range of ECW figures, Niblett the original designer for Airfix figures, these were true 20 mm much smaller than today's figures but very nicely detailed, long gone from the market but they may return !!??
There was also a 20mm ECW range by Rose - these only exist as a photograph in an old Rose catalogue, but if I ever manage to get my hands on some I'll put them out to join the other ranges.
ReplyDeleteEmail me your address and I'll post a couple of samples of the Garrison figures to you.
Rob
This comes ridiculously late to the party, but the Historifigs 1" figures will definitely NOT work with 1/72. They were Jack Scruby's attempt of many years ago to do what would now be called a 25/28mm range. It never caught on. Like most of Jack's work they have an Old School charm, but would not make too many folks happy today.
ReplyDeleteChris Johnson