Gunners and Some Comparisons

First I have some pictures of the newest additions to my imagi-nation armies, some guns and gunners.  Then some comparison pictures of the three manufacturers' gunners.  As usual, click or double click on the pictures for larger images.

I've just completed three gun crews and two guns (the third gun having been painted some time ago) for my Britannian, Gallian, and Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces.

First up is a Britannian 6-lbr and its 5 man crew.  The gun is a Miniature Figurines (if I remember correctly) model while the gunners are RSM-95 figures.  This is the second 6-lbr for my nascent Britannian forces.

Next up is a battalion gun for my Gallian forces.  The gun is a "Scruby" (now manufactured by Historifigs) small Napoleonic cannon which will be playing the role of a "Swedish" style 4-lbr.  The crewmen are RAFM French gunners painted as two artillerymen (in blue coats) and two artillery laborers (in grey coats).

Last is a battalion gun (another "Scruby") for my nascent Kreis Obere-Sachsen forces (one of the Reichsarmee circles).  The gunners are Miniature Figurines SYW French gunner figures.  The one of the right rear has been modified by cutting off the lintstock and gluing on a lever.  The color scheme comes from a Reichsarmee gunner's uniform posted some time ago by David Linienblatt of the Not by Appointment blog.

I also thought that I would include some side-by-side pictures of the RAFM, RSM, and MiniFig gunners so you could get an idea of their comparative sizes and hefts.

RAFM (left), RSM (center), MiniFig (right)

You can  see that while the RSM gunners are a little taller than the other two, they aren't completely out of scale.  I cheerfully use many different manufacturers on the battlefield and once the action starts, the differences tend to disappear.

Sailors and Marines

Last night I completed the sailors and Marines that I had on-hand for my upcoming Capitania General de Florida game which will involve some naval action as well as land action.  Some of the figures in the pictures below have been painted for a long number of years and some were just done this month.

As usual, please click on the pictures for a larger image.

These stalwart officers will command the row-galley and some of the gunboats.  All four were recently painted.  The front three are 25mm Miniature Figurines while the one in the back is a 25mm Abbott figure.  The officer in the center is from the old MiniFig Pirate line.  The one of the left is from their Napoleonic special wagon set.  The one of the right is labeled as an AWI figure but I couldn't find a correlation of his number to the current list.

These armed sailors are also 25mm MiniFigs.  The three firing figures are from the AWI line and the three in the rear are from the old Pirate line.  I have others of these that I use as New England Continental regimentsin my AWI American army.  Three are old figures that have been painted for years and three were just painted.

These 25mm MiniFig sailors are all from the old Pirate line and have been painted for years.

These are RAFM figures from their F&IW line.  They are supposed to be SYW era British Marines but the small mitres don't exactly match what was being worn at this time.  So I've painted them as grenadiers from the 24th Foot who just happen to have been seconded for naval duty.  They will appear again as part of the converged Britannian grenadier battalion in later battles.  They were just completed last night.

The galley and the gunboats require gunners to serve their artillery and these 25mm MiniFig Pirate line gunners will fill the bill.  One figure (second row, far left) is from the Napoleonic special wagon set.  Four of the figures have been modified to hold a lever used to train the guns.  All were recently painted.

These are the rest of the gunners who have been painted for several years (or longer in the case of four of them).  All but two (center rear) are 25mm MiniFig Pirate gunners.  The two that are different are from a manufacturer whose name I have forgotten.

I wish that I had more of the old MiniFig Pirate line figures.  They made excellent ship's crew and gunners.  But I'll just have to get by with what I have for my game in two weeks.  Between now and then I'll be laboring to paint the guns for the ships and get the ships ready, including equipping them with sails.

"True" 25mm Figure Comparison

On Friday, poster "FirstBrigade" was asking about what metal figures would match with 1/72 scale plastic figures. He was primarily interested in Napoleonic figures. You can read the thread here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=148784

I've been wargaming long enough that I have a good selection of what is referred to as "true" 25mm figures - Ral Partha, RAFM, MiniFigs, Scruby, etc. This picture shows a small selection of those figures compared with Italeri and Revell/Accurate plastic figures.

From left to right: RAFM F&IW Highlander, Italeri Napoleonic Russian Pavlov grenadier, MiniFig Napoleonic Prussian fusilier, Scruby (now produced by Historifigs) Napoleonic Prussian musketeer, Revell/Accurate AWR British infantry, and Ral Partha Colonial British infantry.

The black line is 1" (25.4mm) from the base of the background, giving a rough comparison of figure height. As you can see, only the Scruby figure comes close to the height and heft of the two plastic figures. But all of them will match well in separate units on the gaming table. Our group here in Jackson, Miss. (USA) utilize these brands (and others, such as Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler, Warrior, Custom Cast, and Hinchliffe) in our "25mm" medieval, horse and musket, Napoleonic, and colonial armies. You can see how they look on the gaming table by visiting our web site: www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer , clicking on "Pictures of Games," and then scrolling down and looking at the various battle reports.

I hope that this has helped.