15mm AB / Blue Moon / Xan French Guns

The Query
So this post is (slightly) a warning to myself to do proper research before buying figures. Back in April when I began my (slow) Spanish project I started out by buying a Spanish Line Infantry brigade from Fighting 15's - this gave me four 32 figure battalions of Spanish Line Infantry fusiliers (the grenadiers are assumed to have been detached) but my Spanish infantry needed some artillery support. I went to the appropriate page for Spanish artillery and there were crew with a comment - "For suitable guns, we recommend French 6pdrs (AB-F42)". I had some AB guns so just bought some Spanish gun crews at Salute (a pre-order packed by Mr Marsh at the last minute!).

I think AB's Spanish gunners look fine - but they needed French Gribeauval 6lb guns to crew - Spanish artillery adopted the French Gribeauval system in 1783. AB make French artillery pieces (including a 6lb Gribeauval) but there seems to be a consensus that the "track" (the distance between the wheels) is too wide. I've got to say this is a view I have some sympathy with. So when I saw some nice Blue Moon British guns on JJ's blog I thought I'd investigate further.

I had some AB French guns already, and had bought the Xan Miniatures French Artillery piece from Empress Miniatures (along with crews - packed rather oddly in sixes; there are only four crew figures - you get a couple of random doubles as far as I can tell) at Salute. So, I dragged poor Giles ( Tarleton's Quarter ) over to the Old Glory stand to get a set of Blue Moon French 6lbers. Obviously, what I should have done, was do some research, and then bought some guns.

On the basis that figure manufacturers cannot agree on what "15mm" actually means when it comes to their figures, it isn't surprising that scale models of artillery pieces should vary too. The situation is complicated by the fact that the French made several changes to their guns during the Napoleonic period (starting out with the Gribeauval system, introducing the An XI system from 1803, and a bastardised version incorporating elements of both shortly thereafter - where the Gribeauval didn't soldier on unaltered).

French 6lb Gun History
The Gribeauval system of field artillery essentially specified that there should only be four calibres of tube employed: 6 inch howitzers, and 4lb, 8lb and 12lb field guns. Further, the components of each gun, carriage  and limber within it's calibre should be standardised - the first large scale instance of the use of replaceable parts. Other changes included assigning gun crew to a particular gun (previously gunners were part of a pool - so could be assigned to a six inch howitzer for one campaign and a 12lb field gun for the next) and battery.

The system was a big success and French artillery was equal to or superior to their rivals across Europe from 1780 onwards - but the system was subject to some criticism within the French army. It was said that the 4lb gun was too small for firing canister, and the 8lb gun was too heavy for mobile field artillery. In Italy, in 1800, Marmont utilised 6lb guns cast locally, and made changes to standardise fewer wheel sizes for the carriage and limbers. Upon his return, Marmont sent a report to Napoleon, who decided to appoint a commission to look at the subject.

In 1803 the Commission made a number of recommendations that were incorporated into a revised system (called the An XI, or "Year Eleven" system in English). Field artillery would have larger guns - the 6lb gun would replace the 4lb gun, and the short 12lb gun would replace the 8lb gun. Alterations were made to the gun carriage - the most visible of which was the removal of the travelling trunnion and the change of shape to the end of the trail (the "ski" kicks up more on the An XI).

There was fierce debate about the changes (not least because there were hundreds of 4lb and 8lb gun tubes cast, and literally millions of rounds of ammunition in storage). In practice, the 6lb cannon was liked but the carriage wasn't (it was alleged it had a tendency to break up on campaign).

As you can see from the above, very brief, version of events, the really anal wargamer can have a field day with French cannon (and you thought it was just shakos v bicornes and long tailed coats v Bardin jackets...).

So in summary, the anal wargamers guide to the French use of 6lb guns:

1789 - 1800: No 6lb guns in your Revolutionary War French Army (if you are intent on 6lb guns you will need to argue for the local use of captured artillery tubes).

1801 - 1803: Limited use of 6lb guns with Gribeauval or original foreign carriages.

1804 - 1808: 6lb guns with An XI carriages - according to the sources I've looked at Napoleon ordered construction of new An XI carriages suspended in 1805 after criticism of the new carriages. So there would also be 6lbers with older Gribeauval carriages serving alongside the new carriages.

1808/9 - 1810: 6lb guns with adapted Gribeauval carriages (1810 saw official re-adoption of the Gribeauval carriages).

So, this is one of those areas where the "official position" and the reality clearly differed.

The Models
Before we go any further the grid on the photographs is 5mm - also as I don't possess calipers I just used a ruler for the measurements and did them by eye.

Anthony Barton: AB-F42 - French 6lb Gun @£2.60*
This is a 6lb gun on a Gribeaval carriage. So some basic measurements - the outside diameter of the wheels should be 4 feet 6inches (146cm) and is 15mm in the model (so bang on 1/100), and the iron axletree should be 6 feet 5 inches (206cm). There is a 20mm "track"in the model (from one wheel to the other) so 6 feet 6 inches - now the question arises, did the measurement of the axle include the wheel and linchpins? I'd submit that it should - on this basis the model measures 27mm at it's widest point. The wheels have a slight indent (which is wholly accurate) but the hubs are much larger than in real life with the result that the wheels look (and are) too far apart. I'd surmise this is one of those moments where the anal wargamer has to decide whether he wants a playable piece or a wholly accurate model. The strapping on the cheeks of the carriage all looks in the right place - this is a very nice model, if one can get over the overwide look of the gun.

Blue Moon: 15 FE 02 - 6 Pound Gun @£2.00 (Six models for £12.00)
Looking at the carriage, it seems fairly clear that this is a 6lb gun mounted on a An XI carriage. Irritatingly, I can't find the detailed dimensions of the An XI carriage but it's size would appear to be closely related to the Gribeauval 4lb carriage. The diameter of the wheel on the Blue Moon 6lb gun is 16mm (5 feet 3 inches), the "track" is 20mm and the axle is 22mm wide including hubs (the indented spokes are more pronounced than on the AB gun so the effect of the wide hubs isn't so pronounced. So, the diameter of the wheels is possibly a tad big but on the width issue the Blue Moon carriage is much better. The carriage looks bang on in terms of shape and details - this is a nice model and is the equal to the Anthony Barton gun. Packaging six models together in one bag seems a bit odd though

Xan Miniatures NFA10 - Cannon 6 & 8lb @£3.00
Back to the Gribeauval pattern carriage - although this one has a wider trail than the AB or BM. 15mm wheels, 17mm track and 22mm wide including hubs. On this model the indent of the spokes is barely there, if at all. The hubs seem much smaller with the effect that, of the three guns, this looks most like it should from the front. In terms of the carriage itself the detailing is less exaggerated than on the BM model. I'd use this gun nevertheless, it looks "right" except for the width of the trail - if an opponent were rude enough to point this out I think I'd just suggest this was one of the multiplicity of captured guns in the French arsenal, and that Spain appeared to regularly draw the short straw in supply terms for the French army. If you look closely, you can see that the trail spikes are still mounted on the carriage. One comment I'd like to make - I bought this gun eight months ago and it has been sitting on my desk unassembled for most of that time - I'm embarrassed to say, I'm unsure whether this is the 6 or 8lb barrel!

*Unusually, the price of AB has been falling over the last year as the Sterling to Aussie dollar rate has moved in our favour - AB guns were £3.00 in January 2013 (I'm slightly disturbed by this as it means my leadpile has dropped in value over the last 12 months - although as I've been supplementing my stocks that should make up for it, I've been adopting the same attitude to my pension plan over the recession).

Spanish Use Of 6lbers
This exposition has clearly drifted away from what guns I should offer my Spanish crewmen to serve - logic would indicate that they should be serving a gun with the Gribeauval pattern carriage - I'm unaware of any evidence that they switched to the An XI carriage and there weren't many instances of the Spanish capturing French guns - generally it was the other way round! Furthermore, as I actually started to research this a bit (I bought a couple of very nice books on Napoleonic artillery while searching for information), I couldn't find any evidence the Spanish actually used 6lbers - at this point I felt confident enough to email Ian Marsh and ask what sources he'd used to back his suggestion, I also posted a query on TMP.

I got a very prompt response from both. Dr Steven Summerfield who said on TMP that the Spanish didn't use 6lb guns until 1811 - and Ian Marsh also quickly replied as follows - "The issue is largely that AB doesn't make 4pdrs, so to have a small looking gun you have to use the 6pdr. It's a long time since I made the suggestion on the site, and I suspect I assumed the Spanish, being somewhat prone to losing their materiel, would probably make good losses at some point with captured French guns after successful British actions and sieges.

However, your email has encouraged me to read around, and I will change the advice on the website.

As for limbers, you are currently stuck. Ideally you'd want oxen pulling a French limber, and that isn't a possibility." 

I'd asked what Ian what he suggested for Spanish limbers and caissons etc - logic would indicate French pattern equipment but the limber riders would be an issue. He responded as an afterthought that Eureka do oxen pulling carts, but that as he didn't have the moulds in the UK he couldn't offer the oxen separately.

This would rather disqualify the Blue Moon AnXI guns from service with my Spanish army - which is a shame as I actually liked the look of this model the most in just about every other respect. So, given the options, I could use AB guns and just have to try and overlook the overwide look of them - which will bug me, I know.

The question of guns therefore went into a hiatus for a few months - about a month ago I looked at the Blue Moon website and the French 4lb and 8lb guns both have Gribeauval carriages - I emailed BM and a very kind lady, Teresa, forwarded my question on to the designer (Gregory) who confirmed this was the case within a few hours of my asking the question (so top marks for customer service to BM). I therefore bought some 4,8 and 12lb French guns from Old Glory UK (if you have been counting, you will realise that this post has caused me to buy 25 guns of one sort or another!) which took about a week to arrive and very nice they are too.

Blue Moon 4lb, 8ib and 12ib Guns

Ok, so here we have the BM 4lber gun (BM reference 15-FE-01). These fellows appear in several GdB OOBs being served by French Horse Artillery crews, and also by the Spanish (so the guns that I originally thought would get least use when I ordered these a few days ago will probably be used the most, initially at least). I used an Osprey, Napoleon's Guns 1792-1815 (1) for the measurements quoted below.

The first thing I thought when I saw this model was "gosh that looks small" - and the first thing I measured were the wheels which are 11.5mm in diameter (so, at 1/100 that is equivalent to 1.15m or a shade over 3 feet 9 inches) - this is small as the Osprey quotes 1.35m (or 4 feet 2 inches). And in 15mm scale a couple of millimetres rather stands out. The carriage is 25mm long (and the Osprey gives a "cheek length" of 235.5cm) so not too far off the original. Now the common problem with gun models is that they look too wide, so how did the BM 4lb gun do? The Osprey quotes the iron axletree length as 197.4cm (or 6 feet, 5 inches give or take a fraction of an inch) - measuring from the inside of each wheel (so including the inner hub) gave me a figure of 1.5cm so way too narrow (remember those mm stand out at this scale) - the equivalent of 19 inches. If you measured to the outer hub (so at the gun's widest point) it would be pretty much bang on.

So, overall, this gun is out in a couple of respects - height of the wheels and possibly the width of the track and length of the carriage. But if you are looking to represent the smaller guns on the table this model works well overall - one of those instances where the look of the thing is better than the sum of the parts.

Next up, the BM 8lb gun (BM reference 15-FE-03). At first sight this gun and carriage is very similar to their 6lber. The most obvious difference is the "kick up" at the end of the trail of the 6lber is more pronounced (although not as pronounced in the book "Napoleonic Artillery" by Duncan, Duncan and Summerfield, page 71 - I'm surmising that the BM 6lb model is an M1808), and the Gribeauval 8lber carriage has two trunnion positions rather than the single position on the 6lb An XI carriage. The 8lber has the same size wheels as the 6lb carriage (so 16mm diameter, or 5 feet 3 inches), and the track is 18mm. The axle is 22mm wide including hubs. Frame length is 26mm.

Finally, the BM 12lb gun (BM reference 15-FE-04). My first thought after putting this thing together was that it is one big carriage (36mm long) dwarfing the other guns. Wheel height is again 16mm. Track is 20mm, and hub to hub width is again 22mm. My next thought was that the "kick up" at the end of the trail was quite pronounced making it look like an early An XI gun (the 12lb An XI retained the travelling trunnion so this isn't a point of difference like it is on the 6lber). Actually - re-reading my correspondence with the BM people, I didn't actually ask about the provenance of the 12lb gun so it may well be a An XI.

A few general comments about the BM guns: The castings were pretty clean - I didn't do any preparation to any of guns before assembling them for this review. One minor issue I noticed with all the BM barrels was that the mould looks to be poured via the righthand trunnion (as you sight down the barrel) and the casting is a little rough here which means that the barrel doesn't fit cleanly into the carriage "pulling" the barrel to the right as it sits on the carriage. But this is nothing that a few minutes with a file won't fix.

I'd also point out that all the guns came with ammunition boxes despite my neglecting to photograph them!

And here are a couple of pictures of the guns lined up together:

Ok, From left to right: Xan Miniatures, AB, BM 4lber, BM 6lber. 

From left to right: BM 6lber, 8lber and 12lber.

From left to right: BM 6lber, 8lber, 12lber and a BH 4lb (?) gun I had laying around.

From left to right: Xan Miniatures (and before anyone comments I haven't stuck the barrel on this one), AB, BM4lb gun, BM 6lb gun.

In conclusion, I'm sure I've made some errors in terminology and detail - if anyone wants to comment on my ignorance feel free and I'll make the appropriate edits! Anyway, I hope this is useful. 

Addendum

I was asked on TMP to add some more manufacturers guns - to be honest I'd thought about doing this but the above post was originally started about eight months ago and I'm now pretty fed up with it! Anyway, I've looked though the Bollinger LGA (that is La Grande Annee - not La Grande Armee) box where all the unpainted French lead is stored and I found some more guns.

Old Glory 

Now, I think these are OG (long time readers of this blog will be aware that several years ago - back when the US Post Service still let their citizens send goods by surface post - I bought a very big box of French, Austrians and Russians from a chap in California and these guns are from an unmarked bag from the box). Looking at the website of the current UK agents, TimeCast, just shows labels such as "Foot Artillery, Full Dress" with no mention of gun size or carriage type - so its difficult to review how close they are to the original. Both guns are cleanly cast with good levels of detail (I'm not really sure if that big barrel goes with the carriage to be honest - there were also some howitzer barrels in the bag too). So here are a couple of photos with some measurements.

Gun "A" - wheel diameter 11mm, track 16mm, hub to hub width 22mm, cheek length 25mm.

Gun "B" - wheel diameter 12.5mm, track 17mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 26mm 

Fantassin (Warmodelling)

After saying on TMP I didn't possess any Fantassin artillery I found a gun and crew. Again, I'm unaware of what calibre it is supposed to be (I bought a "division pack" from Dermot at CGM in Spain a few years ago after hearing good things about their figures from TMPers - and that was really poor advice...) as it is in an unmarked bag with some French foot artillery figures. I'll do a photo and give measurements - but frankly this was the worst casting of any of the guns with softness and flash in the area below the trail spikes on the left hand side of the carriage, more flash at the front of the carriage, and rough areas on the wheel rims (which also didn't fit neatly to the axles). The transom appeared to me to out of true giving the carriage a slightly twisted appearance. Finally all the other guns had an indent at the mouth of the barrel - not the Fantassin gun. Also the two wheels were of different thicknesses. All in all, it was a chunky mess! 

Wheel diameter 15mm, track 18mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 28mm.

And just to show how awful the Fantassin gun is here are two shots - the first from the rear showing (hopefully) how the transom is out of true. 

And secondly how the wheels vary in thickness.

Battle Honours

Now this is from a really old pack (back when they were Kitney & Company and included a cardboard stand along with the gun and figures) labelled ART5A - I looked back through my earliest Wargames Illustrated magazines and I think this a French 8lb gun. It is much smaller than the 6 or 8lb offerings from BM (or AB) but then so are the crewmen - this gun is much closer to the BM 4lber in terms of the carriage size. There is a clear mould line running horizontally down the middle of each cheek which is a bit obvious but apart from that is a very clean casting. I think it is one of the nicest guns of the lot - there is detail but it isn't exaggerated. I guess if you pair it with the appropriate figures it would look fine. 

Wheel diameter 13mm, track 17mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 24mm.

  

The above are from left to right: OG Gun "A", OG Gun "B" and the Fantassin Gun.

Left to right: Battle Honours, OG Gun "A" and BM 4lber.

Blue Moon / Xan Miniatures Review

So, the other Sunday I was browsing TMP (because if I did that then I wasn't painting) and came across a thread in the Napoleonic Gallery by "Rafa", a talented Spanish painter, who was showing off some French Line Infantry by a new Spanish company called Xan Miniatures. The figures looked really good (very similar indeed to AB) so in a fit of enthusiasm I bought a 36 man battalion and a bag of six skirmishing voltiguers. €15.93 (US $19.99 / £12.81) for the figures and €12.50 (US $15.68 / £10.06 for the postage). The equivalent AB figure packs from Fighting 15s in the UK would be £33.00 without postage (Ian Marsh offers free postage for orders over £50.00) so, if the quality is good then these will be very competitive.

At the same time I rashly ordered some Blue Moon figures from Old Glory UK. I'd looked at them on the web but not actually seen them when I went to Salute. I ordered a pack of French Line Infantry Centre Company and one pack of Flank Company figures (and the same again of Peninsular British Line Infantry) - in the UK these are packed and priced as follows:

Centre Company x30 figures (£11.00 / US $17.16 / €13.67)
Flank Company x12 figures (£5.00 / US $7.80 / €6.21)     

After looking at the Blue Moon command packs I thought I'd give them a miss - for one thing I have a ton of spare French Line Infantry command figures left over from the "Big Box" and for another, I just wasn't that keen on them. Postage was a very reasonable £3.50.

So, both orders were placed on  Sunday 17th June, and were promptly acknowledged via (I assume) automated emails from both companies. Tuesday morning I received a second email from Xan Miniatures telling me the order (No 13) had been despatched.

Friday afternoon I happened to be home when the postman came (at five o'clock - a huge increase in postal charges and my package arrives when I'm almost certain to be at work, no wonder I'm wearing out my shoes beating a weekly trail to my local sorting office). It was the Blue Moon parcel - evidently despatched on the Tuesday afternoon. Four small bags of figures, wrapped in brown paper and placed in a padded envelope. They were a bit squished but essentially okay.

Today lunchtime the Xan Miniatures parcel arrived - recorded delivery. Six days from Spain. Similar padded envelope but the figures were in good condition.

So, before I talk about the figures I guess I'd better get my personal prejudices out in the open. 

I regard Anthony Barton as the finest designer of 15/18mm Napoleonic figures ever. Nobody else in the industry has such a consistent body of work to their credit. Okay, I'll grant you the Perries have produced some wonderful figures - but very nice people though they are their work has all been in 28mm - and even worse they prostituted their immense talent designing fantasy figures for GW - and for twenty or more years they have ignored God's Own Scale, 15mm. I do harbour a little fantasy of my own that the Perries will one day produce boxes of 18mm plastic Napoleonics (if they just did a box of line infantry for each of the major powers that matched AB's style...) but until they do Anthony Barton is the DADDY. The more I paint his figures, the more I realise just how subtle his designs are and marvel at how the quality of his sculpting helps me paint a better figure. His horses are just wonderful, his men look like men. AB is pretty much the reason why I paint (admittedly slowly) Napoleonics.

But, my love for AB is not unreserved. Like the Perries AB appears to have designed what he felt like designing rather than completing a range - leaving his fans dreaming of late Russians in greatcoats, and French line infantry wearing bonnet de police. He deserted us for some years for the wilderness of 20mm WWII (producing some beautiful figures) and recently returned - but seems to have wasted his time on that rather boring 100 Days period, and early Austrians.

So, if I love AB so much why buy other makers? Well, I've read that nymphomaniacs always seek out new partners because they believe that the next person they have sex with will give them their best orgasm ever. And there is something of the nymphomaniac about my relationship with AB - I feel like those guys you read about in the papers, you know, the one's married to a beautiful woman who get caught having an affair with some floozy. I love my AB figures, and I know they are the best thing out there - but I see some beautifully painted figures on the Net and I've got to give them a try. Mostly, this try turns out more a one night stand than a full blown affair. I'm just looking for a bit of variety mostly - I'm not looking to replace AB but to supplement his work with the better figures from other designers. I say "better figures" because some designers come close some of the time - but nobody has yet reached the consistency of Anthony Barton. 

Blue Moon French Line Infantry 
Well, to be honest I wasn't expecting much from these figures - I'd seen some pictures on the Blue Moon site, TMP and ScoMac's Blog and where an Anthony Barton figure would be a solid 9 or 10, these were clearly not in that league. But having said that, my initial reactions were very positive. These are solid workmanlike sculpts that will fit in with AB figures - they aren't as clean or well defined sculpts as an AB but they are okay. 

I stupidly hadn't realised that the three figures you see in the pictures on the Blue Moon site are the three figure variations in the pack - so you get pose A, B, and C, each repeated 10 times (for the centre company) or 4 times (for the flank company pack). I was rather disappointed by this - I expected there to be head variants for each pose at the least. One of the pleasures of AB is that the variants are subtle enough to give variety but the unit still appears to be uniform. 

One pose in both Blue Moon packs has the guy leaning forward - he isn't going to fall over any moment (like his ancestors in the Old Glory packs tripping over a tussock of grass) but he will be standing out from the rest of your line. Where I'd score the other poses a solid 8 I'd deduct a half mark or so for this pose - if Blue Moon want to produce figures advancing at the double they should produce a different pack for that.

The figures didn't have much flash - frankly, with new castings like this I'd be fairly unimpressed if there was. One issue I found was that the metal didn't appear to flow into the pom pom on some figures - they are just vestigial in some instances.

I also realised (after I'd been looking at them for some time) was that I had ordered infantry in the Bardin uniform rather than the 1809 outfit - I suspect that this was due to my consuming most of a bottle of 2001 Roda Reserva Rioja before placing the order (absolutely wonderful wine - way too good to share with anyone else!). Fortunately, I have a unit of Campaign Game Miniatures in the Bardin uniform that I can mix these figures in with - and I'll mix the balance with late French in greatcoats.

I'll see how these figures paint up - if they don't drive me crazy I'll probably get some 1809 Blue Moon French.

Blue Moon British Infantry  
Again, these figures were rather squished by the Old Glory UK packing (or lack of it) combined with the tender mercies of the Royal Mail. The Blue Moon figures are made of a flexible metal so bent back pretty easily. My first impressions were again pretty favourable - these were good solid sculpts, allbeit with rather more flash than the French. 

Sorting out the figures (again three poses per pack) it became clear what the source of the flash problem was - the sculptor, presumably to suggest motion, had sculpted the right arm held out and back (out to avoid the cartridge box, back to suggest the motion I presume). Unfortunately this seems to have produced an undercut that the Blue Moon casting process can't handle - each figure has flash from the right arm to the cartridge box and tail of the jacket. There are three variants in this pack and each has the problem to a degree - it is clear that the further out the arm is sculpted the worse the flash. It cleans up without too much bother but, it seems to me, displays poor sculpting skill. I'd suggest this was foreseeable issue for the sculptor and the sculpts should have been returned for more work when test castings showed the issue, and possibly also poor research  - I think British Army drill said the arm not holding the musket should be held at the side. If the arm had been sculpted in this position it would have been more accurate and avoided the flash issue.

Additionally, one of the three sculpts in the centre company pack appears to have an issue with the musket. One millimetre or so below the bayonet socket and one millimetre above the point where the sling attaches to the musket is a crack - this seemed to affect seven out of nine examples of this sculpt. None have broken - but I'm now conscious of the weakness and will be thinking where I can place them in the battalion to minimise the risk of clumsy fingers (mine) breaking off the end of the musket and the bayonet.

So, I like the British figures, will paint them up and commit them to battle but I won't buy any more (I might change my mind after actually painting them) - at an average of 38p (US 59c / €0.47) per figure they are half the price of my ABs.

Xan Miniatures

This is a brand new Spanish company set up by a guy called JAGomez Bautista (but to make life easier for the rest of us he calls himself "Xan") in Leon, Spain. After seeing the figures painted by Rafa (aka Archduke Painting Service - click on the link to see much more of his wonderful work) I had high hopes for these. Rafa is a Spanish painter of great skill who does wonderful work on AB figures. The sign of a great winemaker isn't that he can make good wine in a good year from a good site - but whether he can make good wine in an awful year from a run of the mill vineyard. And in my view, it is the same with the best painters, whether they be producing works of art like Rafa, or more workmanlike (but excellent quality) miniatures meant for wargames like ScoMac. Scott MacPhee can take a unit made up of figures that I'd consign to the bin (well okay eBay) and produce something that looks good - give him AB figures and he generates something that looks wonderful.

So I was a bit concerned - was I going to open the envelope and find I'd been humbugged by Rafa's skill with the paintbrush? Well overall.....I'd say no. These are really good figures. No flash, natural proportions, and a good variety of poses. I've no idea of Mr Bautista's track record in sculpting but these figures are similar to the best efforts of Fantassin (Warmodelling) - I'd say they vary from good to excellent (whereas Fantassin varies from appalling to good in the same bag with the odd spark of genius once in a blue moon).

Blue Moon, CGM, Fantassin, Old Glory, AB, MiniFigs, Battle Honours, Xan, Xan, Xan, Blue Moon, AB.
The grid is 5mm.

AB, Blue Moon, Xan, Xan, Xan, Battle Honours, Minifigs, AB, Old Glory, Fantassin, CGM, Blue Moon

The Xan figures are cast in a metal that is harder (and a bit more brittle) than Blue Moon and I lost two muskets straightening them. This is a problem as I certainly wasn't being rough with the figures - it could easily be solved with a move to a slightly softer metal. I'd asked for figures with covered shakoes and as Xan kindly included samples of some marching figures with uncovered shako (which are just lovely) this won't be a problem - even if I didn't have hundreds of French Line waiting to be painted already.

The marching infantry are very good indeed - as a dyed in the wool AB lover what I was mostly looking for was the answer to the big question, would they fit with AB in the same battalion? For me the answer is most definately "yes". The faces are well done, the belts and turnbacks are well defined which should make it easy for me to paint them. The cuffs aren't up to AB standards but I could do a basic job with what is there.

There are several officers (in shako and bicorne) which are nice but possibly lacking in elan - the bicorne guy suits the marching battalion better. Two standard bearers, drummers and so on. All are good.

Essentially, imagine a talented sculptor sitting down with the AB French 1807-12 range in front of him and setting out to get as close to it as he could - so bayonet lengths work, figure height and general build mostly works, detail is crisp. It's all very good but not quite great (measured by AB standards - compared to other makers these are really good) - I'd still rate them a solid 8 or 9 out of 10 and will be buying more of these figures.

I ordered a Batallón de línea marchando "Lasalle" B (which has 36 figures) and a pack of skirmishing Voltigeurs. The battalion pack contained 1 officer, 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 19 marching centre company soldiers, 4 marching grenadiers in bearskin, 4 marching elites in shako, and 4 elites skirmishing. Not being familiar with Lasalle I'd assumed that I'd be getting 6 grenadiers, 6 voltigeurs and 24 centre company and command. Hence ordering the voltiguers to get a bit of variety in my skirmish screen.

This means I'll need to go back to Xan and add a pack of grenadiers (and as the figures are coming all the way from Spain I'll need to add some other figures too - of course).

I'm not too sure just what Xan Miniatures has planned next - but these figures deserve some love. So why not buy some toys for yourself with the excuse that you are helping the Spanish economy?