I was browsing through eBay a couple of days ago and was looking at some figure packs from Museum Miniatures on buy-it-now deals and noticed these rather nice carts and wagons. Now I don't know about other wargamers and miniature collectors, but I've always liked a bit of useless eye candy to sit around the game table as nothing but decoration. These pieces of the collection add no combat value to your army, but I have always thought that they can enhance a table.
So two wagons were duly ordered, and only a couple of days later they dropped through the letterbox. I had no idea how these would scale; whether they would be traditional 15mm and tiny compared to newer figures, or whether the quality would be poor - even though judging by the picture on eBay they looked decent.
Having opened these, I saw immediately that these are really nice models. Simple but highly effective.
They came packed in small poly bags, with the traditional folded card with company name.
The first wagon was a simple flat bed carrying sacks, pulled by two small ponies (I assume these are small horses comparing them to the figure that accompanies them) and a figure of a civilian driver on foot. This fellow will be fine for any period from late medieval, through renaissance, to the late 18th century. Now that I see them I will use these alongside my Vendean figures as the broad brimmed hat matches their look.
The flat-bed can be used without the sacks and is just as nice without the load.
Both wagons fit together really easily, and even without any gluing you can see how well the parts go together. I probably won't glue the sacks to this base so that the miniature can be used with or without load.
The hay wagon is a bulky bit of kit. The hay load is massive, so much so that you don't actually see the wagon. The rear wheels fit directly onto the hay load. Overall this is a great looking little set and I'm looking forward to painting it up.
So how do these scale up beside my other figures? Obviously these have only put together for the photos, so they don't have the same height advantage of having a base under them, but they look fine beside both AB and Blue Moon's Austrians.
As I said, these will be part of my Vendee collection, and here is one of them alongside some Vendean rebels.
Once I paint these I'll post up the finished pictures, but I'm already confident they will look great alongside my army.
A while back I posted my Vendee figures on TMP, and among the comments was a link to Stonewall miniatures, a company based in Cornwall, and their range of 15mm Republican and Royalist figures - Les Carabiniers Cassique. You can find their site here... LINK
Unfortunately there are no photos of this range and a google search failed to reveal any information.
So I placed a small order: LCC05 Republican Mounted Generals; LCC22 Grenadier Command in Bearskin; and LCC12 Royalist Volunteers.
The figures have arrived, so here's how they looked...
The figures come in zip-lock bags with plain coloured card labels which are hand written.
The figures themselves are traditionally scaled 15mm, rather than the larger 18mm scale miniatures. They seem reasonably well cast, with a little flash. The detail is there but not great, so I'm not sure how, or if, my limited painting skills will bring out the best in these.
The Royalist Volunteers come in mixed poses, and these are quite interesting poses. There's even a multi-part figure with separate weapon - I'm unsure how well this will go together. I think these will mix well enough with the Alan Touller range although they are styled differently.
Here is a comparison picture. There are (from left to right) LCC x3, Alan Touller x2 and Magister Militum's Revolutionary French x2...
The next set is the Republican Mounted Generals. I had hoped these would give me suitable figures for my Marengo project, and there may be one I can use. To be honest, I'm slightly confused to what's what in this pack. There's an obvious general wearing a bicorne, a figure with bicorne and standard, one wearing a bearskin and another with a shako. Any help identifying what these should be would be great.
Again these are cleanly cast, but one horse (top left) has a poorly cats leg that will require some green stuff. Another is quite a small horse, with short legs, but these are not the worst mounts I've seen.
These scale well with other brands. Here, these are (left to right) LCC, Alan Touller, and Warmodelling.
The last pack, Republican Grenadier command in bearskin, I had hoped may have been suitable for Consular Guard, but these are for much earlier Grenadiers. I expect these guys should be wearing white uniforms. Not sure if I like these as much as I like the Royalist volunteers, but they may paint up nicely.
All in, I think this is an interesting range, and if I ever get serious about collecting the earlier Revolutionary period I will probably get more of this range. If the quality had been a little better I may have been more tempted.
Every now and then I feel the need to distract myself from my Austrian army... first it was expanding the collection to include the French, just to avoid going white uniform crazy... and then I read a little more about the era Marengo was fought in and looked at adding some Piedmontese to the collection.
I also found the Vendee Rebellion to be a fascinating part of the Revolutionary Period and had to have a set of the Allan Toullier figures. The website for these is currently down, saying "under construction", but hopefully these figures from France will be available again soon.
I've only done one small unit of these as I don't really want to get too distracted, but I'm sure the Austrian army at Marengo would have loved to have seen a Royalist uprising happen during 1800 to distract Napoleon.
So here are the figure, all from Allan Toulliers range, with the flag artwork created by myself (and available in 15 or 28mm if anybody wants these).
