Thursday, October 26, 2023

AW F&IW French and Giant British Drummers

These are the last AW figures from the large (for me) order I made from Noble Knight last month. The infantry are left overs that along with a few extra figures from earlier units are painted up as Volontaires Étrangers with green facings and waistcoats. With 3 earlier painted infantry figures there are now 11 of them - just shy of the normal 12 for regular units in Rebels and Patriots. As there were a few desertions during the Louisbourg siege, mostly by Germans, this could account for the missing figure. The drummer with them actually belongs to the Marines - replacing one of the "extra" figures stolen from the unit with repainted green facings. The mounted officer is painted up as a general officer and can represent Governor Drucour, who commanded the French during the Louisbourg siege.

Again, these figures are on the larger side of 28mm, and quite robust and sturdy for gaming. The mounted officer reminds me of Front Rank sculpting - if not even a bit larger overall.
The drummer figure doesn't have the sleeve lacing sculpted so I just painted it on as it is normally depicted on the coat.
The picture above shows, left to right: AW French drummer; AW British drummer; Foundry British drummer; AW British drummer; Foundry British drummer. The picture quite clearly shows the gigantically proportioned British Grenadier dummers. When I ordered them, they were intended to be used the Foundry guys, but as you can see they are way too huge. What makes the sizing worse is that the British drummers were usually youths of smaller stature than the rest of the men in the unit (as the Foundry figures are). I plan to use the two giants as some sort of objective markers. Maybe allowing the French to capture them for victory points.
The rear view shot above doesn't show a big difference in size between the AW British and French. As mentioned in a previous blog post, it's interesting to see the size/sculpting-style differences within the same range of figures sometimes.

Next up will be adding flags to the French units that have bearers. Incidentally, I ended up scanning and resizing (smaller) the French Marine and Cambis Regiment Flags of War flags I ordered. Beautiful as they are, they are too big IMO. They towered over the already largish AW figures. From what I read online, the French flags at the time were approximately 5 feet square - more or less. The Flags of War ones would be about 6.5 or 7 feet when compared to the AW figues which I estimated should be somewhere below 6 foot tall as an average height. I also downloaded some images of flags for several other units.

Well, so much for now. Appreciate your visits and comments, and until next time - wishing you all the very best!

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you very much again, Jonathan! Warmest regards, Dean

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  2. Lovely paint work Dean, but those AW figures are BIG BOYS!
    I agree about flags too - I remember reading somewhere that the average height of British Napoleonic infantrymen was 5'4" or thereabouts - if you were 5'8", you were a grenadier - so if 28mm = around 5'6" let's say, then a 6'6" flag should be about 32mm square? If the French ones were 5' square, that would make them around 25mm ?

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    1. Thanks for the great comment, Keith. I have sized the flags to come up to around the eyes of the figures. Also, since these figures will be used in skirmish games, the smaller flags should make moving individual figures easier. Warmest regards, Dean

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  3. Most beautiful details, and work Dean!

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    1. Thanks a lot, Michal. Warmest regards, Dean

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  5. More wonderful eye candy Dean, thanks for sharing.
    I always tend to oversize my flags, it's too difficult to try and get the exact size as per regulations.


    Willz.

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    1. Ps I tend to do my flags for 28mm figures 35 - 40mm
      Yes it is larger than the regulations but looks good on the figures.

      Willz.

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    2. Thanks for the nice comments, Willz. I agree large flags look good on table. Since these figures will be used in small skirmish games, I didn't want to hinder movement so didn't want oversized flags. Kindest regards,Dean

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  6. Great work on very detailed figures. Quite the size difference. But lovely work on all.

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    1. Thank you very much, Joe! Yes, for skirmish gaming, which these will be use in - larger and robust should is better for handling individual figures on the table. Kindest regards, Dean

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