Redoubt has released some artillery crew figures for its Victoriana line. All are British and are in Home Service uniforms and helmets, making them suitable for “what if” gamers playing hypothetical European battles or invasion-of-England scenarios. If you’re a historical purist playing games set on the colonial frontier, you might want to snip off helmet spikes and file off regimental badges. If you’re like me, you’ll leave them on just because they look spiffy.
The release includes 10 figures and one gun. The figures measure 30M on the Barrett scale. They’ll tower over any 25s but should mix OK on the same table with newer 28s unless you’re a real stickler.
Five of the ten are horse artillerists: standing/jerking lanyard, standing/hands over ears, running with shell, standing with rammer, officer kneeling/hand raised. Three of these were received for review and are shown in the photo. The horse gunners are wearing corduroy breeches with very fine detail; some care will be needed during painting to prevent filling in the tiny texturing. The breeches are tucked into knee-high boots with spurs. They wear no belts or equipment.
Four are foot artillery: kneeling with lanyard (shown), kneeling/hand raised, standing/open hands to hold rammer (rammer extended), standing/reaching for haversack. The foot artillerists all have belted tunics, haversacks, and canteens, and wear their trousers over their boots.
The tenth figure is a seated officer, suitable for use as a driver or commander in Redoubt’s range of Victorian steam-powered tanks. The gun is a British 9-pdr which I haven’t actually seen. I can only assume it is the 9-pdr muzzleloader, as the note indicates it comes “with rammer, etc.”
These are very serviceable figures, comparable in all ways to the rest of Redoubt’s extensive colonial range. All of the samples suffered slightly from stubby arm syndrome. The kneeling figure in the photo is supposed to be yanking a lanyard. The cord was cast with the figure, but unfortunately, it’s very fragile; mine was bent in shipping and snapped off when I tried straightening it. Those are minor quibbles about otherwise very nice miniatures that compare favorably to most other figures in the same scale. As there isn’t much else available in home service uniforms, they’re a nice addition to Redoubt’s catalog. The price is $1.60 per foot figure. Available from Miniatures Service Center, 1386 Portofino Drive, Yuba City, CA, 95993; tel. (530) 673-5169, http://www.miniatureservicecenter.com
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