Campaign Figures

25mm 16th Century

by Tim Jones

As a Renaissance gamer, I was very pleased to see an ad for a new range of figures in my chosen period. I had been planning to raise a Spanish Army, and sure enough there were ten figures from the appropriate period! Size-wise these figures fit right between Minifigs and Essex. They are very similar to Hinchliffe. While I have not painted any yet, I believe that they will mix well with either line. The Campaign line includes English, Dutch, French, Imperialist, Turks, and Spanish of the Armada period.

The Heavy Spanish Pikeman holds his pike upright, has standard infantry armor, and wears a cabasset. This figure is a good Spaniard with lots of beard. The halberdier (#147) wears almost the same armor as the pikeman, except he has a morion helmet. The low crown on the morion is poorly cast; it has a lot of pits. A little extra primer should smooth it out nicely. The halberd is held at port arms. Where it crosses the chest, it just flows right into the cuirass - ugh! The Sword and Buckler (#148) figure is a real disappointment, being unimaginatively posed at rest. He wears plate armor on his arms, as he should. His morion is poorly formed. it bulges out on one side to the front and the back part of the crown is missing entirely. Worst, the buckler is not round. It is kind of egg shaped and smooth, with no decorations. The sculptor missed a good chance here to make a figure that would have worked very well as both an officer and a regular trooper.

Among the cavalry figures is a Spanish Man-at-Arms. The lance is very nice; the way it is cast it will be very easy to drill out and replace it with brass stock (I do that will all my figures now before I paint them). The rest of the rider isvery nice, with a short cape over his armor. The horse stinks. The neck is too narrow and too long. it spoils an otherwise nice figure. The horse may also be a little short in the body. It is hard to tell with the neck as it is. I will not put any of these horses on my table? Another rider is a light Lancer. I really like this figure. He is armed with a lance, held upright, and a pistol holstered on his right side. These riders all come with the saddle and tack as part of the rider, not on the horse.

The Genitor is also a disappointment. The figure is really great, except for the adarga shield. It should be flat or "V'd out" shaped when viewed from the top, not rounded. in addition it is not symmetrical, nor is the heart-shape well portrayed. The line includes a mounted Arquebusier, but I did not order any. A personality pack is offered, with the Duke of Parma and two standard bearers. The standard bearers are very nice and could be mixed in with either the Lancers or Men-at-Arms. The Duke is nice but a little plain. The horse provided with this pack is much better than the other, but a little on the small side.

These figures are available from Stone Mountain in the USA, at a price of $3.95 per pack; six infantry, or three riders and three horses in each pack. -

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