More Photos of Barry Minot Figures

Some weeks ago, I acquired some Barry Minot sculpted tricorne era figures from an eBay seller. At the time I mentioned that I would take some more pictures of them. Well, I finally got around to it!

Both pictures show a comparison of the three poses (firing, at ready, and advancing) of the Minot figures I received to some other manufacturers' figures. The Minot figures appear to be Prussian, but they will probably become another regiment in the army of the Margraviate of Carpania.

From left - Sash & Saber Russian, Minot firing, Minot at ready, RSM95, Minot advancing, and Old Glory Prussian gunner.

You can see that the Minot figures are very similar in size to the Sash & Saber, RSM95, and Old Glory figures. Since all I was able to get were Minot hatmen, I'll need some command figures, which will probably come from RSM as these appear to be the best match in style and size.

Philosophy of Figure Compatibility

The following comment was made about my previous post:

"You seem to happily mix troops from different manufacturers without problem. What's your opinion on this?"

And it struck me that I do tend to mix troops from different manufacturers in my various armies. So I decided to pontificate on this for a bit.

My current 25/28mm imagi-nation Seven Years War armies are composed of Old Glory, Sash & Saber, Front Rank, Foundry, Eureka, Miniature Figurines, RAFM, and London Warroom figures. With very few exceptions, the manufacturers' figures are not mixed within individual units, but are mixed within various commands. With the exception of the MiniFig and RAFM figures, all of them are, in my eyes, comparable in height if not in heft. I acquired them by various methods, primarily via eBay and direct purchases. I like all the manufacturers figures, not having any real favorites.

My 25mm Napoleonic armies are just as eclectic, with Miniature Figurines, Scruby, and Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler figures being in the majority, with smaller contingents from Hinchliffe and Warrior. Many of these have been acquired over the years going back to the early 1970s. Again I rarely mix manufacturers' figures within a unit.

My 25mm medieval armies are just as mixed, with even older out-of-production lines represented. And my Victorian Colonial armies are primarily Ral Partha but with a good leavening of MiniFigs, Scruby, Askari, London Warroom, and Falcon.

But once they are deployed on the tabletop and the battle begins, the differences seem to fade into the background and all you see are your courageous troops engaging the enemy. As you can see, I am not a "size" purist although I think I do draw the line at say putting the newer "heroic" 28mm lines in with my older "true 25mm" Napoleonics, so you won't see Redoubt or Calpe (great figures though they both are) in with them, just as I don't have any Ral Partha Renaissance in with my primarily Foundry Renaissance armies, the Rals are just too small for my eyes.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you with my ramblings, but the question did make me ponder my past troop acquisition decisions and contemplate my future ones.

Good gaming to all!!

Jim

"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.