Shiny Happy Minis

It's been quite a while since I posted here, but I'm excited about a new tabletop miniatures project, so I thought that it might be time.

Quite a while ago, I painted up a set of old Prince August 25mm (true 25mm, not the 28 - 30mm beasties that are common these days). And appropriately, I painted them in glossy, simple, old toy soldier style. They looked so fun and amazing, but I really didn't know what I wanted to do with them, so they just sat on my shelf.

Well, a week or so ago I ran across them, took them down, and admired them...and then the sickness took hold: "Maybe THIS is the scale that I really want for my tabletop gaming," I thought. "These are big enough for my aging eyes to actually see," I rationalized. "And look at how those bright colors 'POP'. (Never mind that I have an insanely nice - and expensive - collection of 18mm AB Napoleonics).

The fever had taken hold, and I started researching online to see if I could really put together an entire Napoleonic collection with old, out-of-production, 25mm miniatures.

I not only found several potential candidates, but I also stumbled on at least three other guys who are doing EXACTLY this sort of project right now. Perhaps there is something in the wargaming water. Perhaps there is a global 5G message going out that demands that old wargamers return to the mother ship. I don't know why, but they are doing this...and now, so am I.

My research turned up several 25mm product lines:

1) Prince August -
Strengths: I like their simplicity, size, and look. I also have hundreds of them that I bought 5 or 6 years ago on ebay for no reason at all.

Weaknesses: The line is not very extensive (almost entirely Waterloo, and very limited at that). And worse, anything that I don't have now or can't get on ebay, I'll have to cast myself. The company sells 'do-it-yourself' moulds. Ugh! I'm not much of a do it yourself person.

2) Tradition -
Strengths: They are currently manufactured, and have some good content and a bit broader an offering than P.A.

Weaknesses: I suspect that they are a bit smaller than P.A., so I'll have to be careful about mixing units. They also do not make all of the nations and units that I need, so they aren't a total solution.

3) MiniFigs -
Strengths: They have current production, which is, apparently, a bit larger than the older (out of print) 'S' line. They have almost everything that I could want in Napoleonics. The line is quite extensive for 25mm.

Weaknesses: What is with the GIANT SHAKOS and HELMETS?!  They look positively outlandish in some of the figures. Unfortunately this eliminates some of the extensive offering.

4) Del Prado -
Apparently, back in the misty past (I haven't been able to discover exactly when), an Italian company named Del Prado launched a line of painted 25mm Napoleonics called 'Relive Waterloo' which they sold as a subscription along with Napoleonic booklets. Every week (month?), the lucky subscriber would get a new issue in the mail. The small packs of 2 or 3 miniatures (Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery, Officers) from the battle of Waterloo were quite nice: good sculpts, and very solid paint-jobs.

Weakness: These are not available anymore and the only way to get them is on ebay and such.

To kick off my new project, I acquired a small parcel of them to give them a look. I received the first batch, and immediately tore them out of their original packaging to enjoy them (collective collector coronary)...

Well, they are truly wonderful! The paint jobs need a little bit of help due to a bit of fading and cracking, but I happily dove in and breathed some new life into these wonderful figures.

Here is the product of my work:

Belgian and French Carabiniers

Prussian and Dutch Hussars

British Lifeguards Heavy Cavalry

British Officer and French Dragoon (Paint Conversion from a Cuirassier)

As you can see, I also tried my hand at a paint conversion. As I put together the lists of units that I'll need for the French army, I was alarmed that there was no 'good' French Dragoon on any of the lists. I'm especially partial to French Dragoons, so this hit me hard. So hard that it was a distraction for a couple of days as my brain spent an illogical amount of time trying to solve the problem.

Then on the third morning, the solution struck me! There are too many Cuirassier in the Del Prado packs. So many, in fact, that collectors complain of just having too many of the things.
"I wonder if I could just re-paint them to look like Dragoons," I thought. They do have similar helmets, swords, and even horse furniture. The problem is the cuirass. On most miniatures, it is prominent, and very detailed. Luckily, the Del Prado Cuirassier figures are more simply made, and are small enough that the eye really can't see the cuirass once the paint conversion is complete. The illusion is actually quite good. Problem 1 solved!

I look forward to this project, and to eventually gaming many Napoleonic battles with these beautiful, colorful, glossy figures.