Size: 27mm Sole to Eye
Poses: 4
Equipement:
- All sailors come with cuttlass bayonet either attached to the rifle or mounted
on their belt (about half and half)
- They are also carrying waater bottles, and all of the usual belts, straps and pouches
- Footwear consists of shoees with gaiters
Price: $20 US
From: J and T Miniatures, Package COL6
A photo of the figures is available on the website.
I recently purchased the Connoisseur Naval Landing Party in Sennet hats from J&T Miniatures. The package has 24 figures, including one officer. The sailors came to me in four poses, 8 advancing with rifle held before them, cutlass bayonet attached, these lads have the brim on their sennet hats turned up. 2 are in the same pose, same bayonet but with brim turned down. 2 have the brim up but the bayonet looks more like a "standard" bayonet rather than the obvious cutlass. The other 11 are marching with rifles on shoulder, cutlasses stowed on belts, hat brims jauntily turned up. The officer is in shore kit, with a soft cap and tunic, leather halter over his shoulders attached to his belt. He is cast open handed and appears to be waving his men ashore or else ordering them into the mud.
The figures are well cast in white metal with very little flash and are reasonably detailed without being overly so. Mold registration is good--it's tough to even see a dividing line on them. These lads reasonably sized width-wise too, not too fat, not too thin and will look fine on the table with my Old Glory, Foundry and RAFM figures.
I'm really happy that Joel has included an officer with the group. Too often I find that I buy a bag of figures and I've got two dozen privates and I've got to spend another $30 for a special bag full of officers (and then I've got too many). I also like the fact that all of the figures are useful; these are 23 *armed sailors*, unlike say Old Glory where in a pack of 30 figures you know you're going to get three musicians, four standard bearers and two poses of someone tying their shoe.
What don't I like? I think the officer pose is a little stiff and if you're into conversions, I'm not sure if there's much you could do with him. And I wish that there was either more or less of a mix of poses. As it stands there are two styles overwealmingly predominant and then just four figures that are different, I'd like to see more of a mix or else no mix at all. But I think I'm just picking nits with this last....
Overall I really like the figures and am glad I got them. And at $20 US for the pack, they're good value for the money. Delivery was fast, about a week US to Canada, and that included the July holiday in both countries.
If you're looking for sailors in sennet hats, these are a good buy!
Size: 29mm Sole to Eye
40mm Hoof to Eye
Poses: 2
Equipment:
- Lancers are cast with saddle attached
- Troopers are cast open handed, ready to take a lance
- Rifle and sabre are cast onto the saddle
- Officer's saddle has blanketroll attached behind
Price: $12 US for 6, horse and rider (Officer incl.)
From: J and T Miniatures, Package COL21
After some discussion on the Colonial Wars list (see links) about where to find cavalry, I finally settled on the Connoisseur Bengal Lancers from J&T. The figures are nicely cast in white metal. The riders are fairly clean of flash without visible mould lines. The horses have some flash, but clean up quite easily and the riders settle on their backs nicely without the large gaps that I've heard Old Glory sometimes have.
There are only two poses in each pack, 5 troops and one officer. The troops are all cast open-handed, waiting to recieve their lance. The officer rides with one hand raised in a motion of either "halt" or in the midst of "proceed". The officer is also distinguished with the more elaborate turban and belt sash and a blanket roll cast onto the back of the saddle. There are also three or four different horse poses. Overall, the figures are a little larger than RAFM's horsemen, but not overly so, more in line with the height of the Old Glory Mounted Indians I have.
What don't I like about them? Nothing really. They're good sturdy figures that'll make a fine addition to my table-top. As soon as I can get them painted up, Fane's Horse will be joining the infantry in China, lances sharpened to meet the Imperial and Tai-ping masses.
After a search for (seemingly rare) mounted soldiers, I'm glad I hit upon these. Good value for the money ($24 for a TSATF unit, exactly too, no extras!) and good figures.
Size: 25mm Sole to Eye (True 25s)
Poses: Matchlock 2
Archers 1
Cavalry 1
Pole arms 1
Jingal 1 (or 3 depending on how you look at it)
Equipement:
- one weapon of pack type
- cavalry come with pole arrm and bow/quiver
- jingal pack comes with 3 weapons with 3 crew each
Price: $15-20 US
From: The London War Room
Photos of the figures are available on the website.
I bought a whack of these figures a while back. I needed Imperials and Chinese are almost impossible to find these days outside of the OG Boxers, who just ain't gonna cut it for the Opium war Imperials. So I took the plunge and bought 2 bags of matchlockers, two of pole armed, a bag of archers, two bags of cavalry and a mounted general. I got them. I based them. I primed them. I started painting them. I still wasn't sure what I thought of them.
But I'm now done my first full unit and I've decieded. I really like them. They're an older casting, so they're true 25 in size, and the sculpting isn't as detailed as we've come to expect these days, but I find that doesn't really matter. Paint them up and stick them together on the table and they're really pretty. No, you can't see a grimace of determination on their metal faces, but that level of detail is lost on my painting style anyway. And it was while I was doing skintones on the cavalry that I realized that they've got a style and character all their own that I just really really like. They're little Buddas on horseback.
While they are slightly smaller than most of what's out there these days, it doesn't look like that much once they're on the ground. My OG Turcos are positively huge, but the Houston's Chinese aren't skinny or scrawny in any way, which really helps make up for the difference in height. Plus, traditionally, Asians tend to be shorter than Europeans, which also helps to even things up a bit.
What don't I like? Well, they had quite a bit of flash on them. I spent some time trimming them down, but it's not that bad a problem. The poses are fairly limited, but I like uniformity in my units. The biggest problem I have is the lack of *hard* edges between areas, which makes 'em tougher to paint. That's more a problem with my painting skill, though, not the figures. In the end, they paint up quite quickly.
If you're looking for Imperial Chinese, these are some of the only ones in the game these days. If you're desperate for heavy detail and extreme realism, you probably won't be too happy with them. But if you want an alternative and you don't mind the lower detail, they're nice, the price is really good, and the service from TLWR (as always) is excellent. Now I'm going to have to get the bomb-throwers and noisemakers to fill out my units.
As a follow on to this...
I recieved a very nice email from Sharron at London War Room apologizing for the flash
on the figures, since normally she cleans them all herself before they get shipped.
In this case the bags just slipped through by accident, which happens. So now I just
need to improve my painting skills to overcome those soft edges.... :-)
Tell me what you think.
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