Size Does Matter

If your experience starting out in this hobby is anything like mine, you probably found a local club or shop that piqued your interest in miniatures. In my case, it was a birthday gift from my wife. By that time I was deep in the Sharpe’s series of historical novels about the Napoleonic Wars, shortly followed by Napier, and Oman. I thought a miniature Napoleonic army would be fun to build. I decided on 15 mm miniatures as a nice blend between individual detail and being able to build a large army. So I started buying miniatures and painting them.

The reason I wanted to use a lot of manufacturers was to get as wide a variety of poses and variations as possible. Remember, I was building a scale model here, not an army for the gaming table. I decided to start with the armies at Talavera and began with the British.

I found, upon diving in, that my local shop had a good selection but limited assortment of miniatures. Since my goal was more modeling than gaming, I wanted as wide a variety of poses as possible. I started looking at combining miniatures from different manufacturers. I quickly learned that the description ”15 mm” has a wide variety of interpretations. As a result some manufacturers’ figures are significantly larger than others. How to decide which brands mixed well with which? Unfortunately I had to do it the hard way - order one or two packs from every manufacturer I could find.

Since I could not find a resource that let me see all of these brands side by side, I decided to do it myself. The following pages are the result. I began with British infantry from the Napoleonic Wars, since that is the first army I decided to build. Over time I have expanded the idea, and now have Napoleonic infantry for four countries, and a complete assortment for the American Civil War which includes infantry, cavalry, and mounted officers! At present I am working to get the American War of Independence (aka the AWI, known to us Yanks as the Revolutionary War).

There Is (Or Was) A Method To My Madness

For each set of reviews, I try to pick a similar pose - advancing. Of course, not every manufacturer makes every pose, but I try to get close. Then each figure is primed in black and painted. At first, I decided to do my very best basic block painting job - no highlights, no shadows. Also, I painted the figure “as is.” So if a strap “broke off” in the middle, I painted it that way. Of course, anyone can paint a straight line. The idea was to show the figure itself, not my ability (or lack thereof) to paint. However, I have since changed my mind. Moving forward, I will now show the best paint job I can muster. Now that I have painted about 1,000 figures in 15 mm (as of May 1, 2005), my best is not too shabby. At some point I will go back to the old pages and repaint them (but don’t hold your breath).

For a similar approach to figure reviews for World War 2 and other periods, drop by Wargames@Nordalia.

Page Updated May 1, 2005.

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