Toy Soldiers for my son

For years I have been intrigued with miniatures painted in the old toy soldier style.  Irregular Miniatures has a line of 42mm miniatures that are aimed at exactly that itch.  A while back (13 years ago), I started collecting some and put together two Waterloo armies, and a smattering of figures from other time periods, including Zulu, American Civil War, and The Franco-Prussian dust up.

A few weeks ago my younger son (Ethan) turned 8 and it seemed like it was time to get him his own set of toy soldiers so that we can start to play on the tabletop together. So, I decided to order two small armies from Irregular as a starter set to give to Ethan for Christmas. If he enjoys them, we can add to the set.

I chose the Franco Prussian war for the armies.  It seems like a great period for classic toy soldiers and I've been reading the history lately.

I had a few figures already from my foray 13 years ago, so I dug them out and gave them some new paint and a fresh coat of gloss. I then ordered the rest of the Germanic and French minis painted from Irregular.  They have a nice painting service available so their customers can order the figures already painted.  I think that this is a great service.

I received the figures yesterday and based them up and gave them an extra coat of gloss (I like my toy soldiers REALLY GLOSSY).

Here they are:

 Each Army gets 5 Artillery, 2 Cavalry, and 12 Infantry stands, which I think represents a pretty average force ratio on the battlefield in 1870.

 Prussian Uhlans

 Prussian Infantry

 Bavarian Infantry

 Prussian Artillery

 Prussian Infantry. These were originally painted as WWI 13 years ago, but I re-touched them to make them fit in 1870.

 French Dragoons.

 French Chasseur a' Cheval

 French Imperial Guard wearing their bearskins.

 French Infantry

 French African Infantry

 French Artillery

 Prussians

 More Prussians.

 Frenchies.

 More Frenchies.

 Prussians Artillery

One more look at the Uhlans.

I hope Ethan loves them, and that this is the start of years of playing together. :)