Last night I finished off the last of my little quartet of cuirassier trumpeters. This one is another Art Miniaturen casting - I have figures from two different Französischer Kürassiere Command sets by AM - one rather more recent than the other. The later set (which includes the chap in the photo) is more vigorously animated and more like modern plastic diorama box sets than the earlier one. This in itself introduces a very slight problem - it does limit the number of raw repeats; for example, the eagle bearer in the new set is bare-headed, having lost his helmet [duh], but it would be silly indeed if one had a number of cuirassier units, each of which had the same porte-aigle without a helmet. One such is OK, of course, but this is getting out of the normal run-of-the-mill for wargames figures.
A rather bigger surprise for me is that the newer set is a little bit larger than the older one. Nothing disastrous, but the Higgins/PMD troopers in my cuirassier division will be somewhere between the two sizes. Since all of AM's output is very officially 1/72 scale, and no messing, the idea that Herr Schmäling is introducing a smidgeon of refined scale creep is a novelty. Presumably the plastic sets with which he shares the market are getting a bit larger too? Who knows - whatever, it isn't a problem.
Just because it will cause trouble in The Cupboard if this guy doesn't get his photo on the blog when the other three did, here he is, at the top, with his PMD trooper mate. The more dramatic styling is quite fun - the two figures here are closer to each other in scale than the foreshortening effect of the camera lens seems to suggest. These are from the 2nd regiment - I'm definitely moving on to the officers now.
Would it be sacrilegious to suggest head swaps for a couple of the standard bearers Tony?
ReplyDeleteLee - this is an eminently sensible idea. I have a bit of a prejudice about converting newly-arrived figures, straight out of the pack (no good reason for this other than laziness). Apart from the fact that I only have 2 of these new "drama queen" sets to use up (which means it is not much of a problem, really), the dragoons and cuirassiers are a b**ch to do head-swaps on, since the helmets all have horsehair tails hanging down to shoulder-blade level. The 20mm Garrison French dragoons and cuirassiers have horsehair tails which are away from the body, but a 20mm Garrison head on an AM body is definitely getting into the realms of Young Frankenstein. The earlier AM set is OK, after I've jazzed up the horse poses by means of some swaps with the High Command(as discussed), but apparently I got the last 4 sets - it is now officially OOP (I think the trumpeter is shot - I haven't needed to use any, but they are definitely a bit streamlined - no doubt The Bold Jorg will do some new moulds). I'll be pleased to use a bare-headed porte aigle with one of the 4 regiments - a little conversation piece - and any odd figures can go in the spare parts box for the future.
DeleteI'm glad you cleared that up, my first reaction on seeing them was 'Has he gone plastic??' (Not that I object to plastic). Follow the market for the maker?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, very nice figures.
Hi Ross - yes, very plastic-looking. It's an odd contrast to insert very dramatic poses into units which are mostly very static-looking Les Higgins or Tim Richards sculpts, so I'll try to use them singly, rather than have a complete command group raging away in the middle of a statuesque regiment. Coming from the days of somehow trying to cobble together enough figures of the right size (as I do) to the point where I am considering matters of style in the mixtures is a bit of a culture shock for me!
DeleteOff with their head's! Great work Sir!
ReplyDeleteThey can carry on heedless, as we almost say in Scotland.
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