As I continue to build up my Napoleonic forces for the upcoming summer campaign, I have found myself acquiring a number of metal Minifigs figures.
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| Various artillery crew. 3 French Foot Artillery, 1 French Horse Artillery, and 1 British Foot Artillery. The mounted officer I believe to be a French line Horse Artillery Officer, and the fellow with the telescope a French Horse Artillery Officer of the Imperial Guard. All corrections gratefully received. |
At first it was just the odd command figure, but entire units of second hand painted figures have started being purchased - especially if I think they might be old 'S' range Minifigs.
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| French guns. The one on the right seems to have its wheels put on the wrong sides. |
The main reason for this is that I find the figures have a great deal of character - much like I find the Airfix plastics have a certain charm to them, even though there are much better figures available now, the nostalgia value of Airfix figures will always remain high for me. So given that I believe the 'S' Range figures were originally designed to complement the Airfix range, and fill the large gaps in the Airfix Napoleonic line, it seems only natural that I should like them as well.
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| These I believe are Minifigs S Range British Light Dragoons painted as the 16th Light Dragoons. |
My most recent purchase has been some rather nice figures I believe painted as the British 16th Light Dragoons (As always please feel free to leave corrections to my identifications in the comments!)
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| These will rebased and turned into a V&B stand that will represent the British 4th Cavalry Brigade during the Waterloo campaign |
The other group purchased is this rather interesting set of of what I presume are French Dragoons, with their metal helmets painted yellow rather than a more goldy/brassy/bronzy colour.
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| French Dragoons! These will require a little bit more effort in their refurbishment. |
The figures are smaller and thinner than the Minifigs Dragoons I acquired earlier (click
here for details), and the horses seem to be a much rawer sculpt, but never the less the effect is one I find pleasing.
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| Another view of the figures. One can never have too many Dragoons. |
I'm still processing through the last purchase of Airfix figures, but I hope to have figured out exactly how I plan to base them up in the next few weeks. The British infantry have largely all been painted with white trousers which may reduce their utility for the Waterloo campaign. One possibility is to paint their trousers grey. I'm reluctant to do this for two reasons: Firstly, the original paintwork is very nice, and secondly, it does start to defeat the purpose of buying prepainted figures.
