Just when I was worried about finding something to review, in comes a nice fat parcel from David Jackson, the U.S./Canadian representative of Chariot Miniatures--now, I like that. (And let that serve as a gentle reminder to you other metal peddlers.)
Chariot is one of the masters of the "clean" style of figures. You can see everything, and it's all there. They also have a flair for very nice animation in all scales. That said, let's get on to specifics.
For the pure Napoleonic buff, Chariot has Command & Staff for the Prussians, British, and French. These are true 15mm figures, the horses are some of the best I've ever seen done, and the detail is terrific. I do have a few minor quibbles, after all, why should anyone get away clean? All the sets have the characters you'd expect to see but ... Blucher is too thin. He looks about 30 (wish I did), and I'd like to see him waving his Schnapps flask. The same goes for Napoleon, but perhaps he's meant to be generic. Hey, and maybe the French bicornes seemed a bit small, but that's all minor stuff. Chariot's catalog has 10, 15, and 25mm figures and prices are given in both U.S. and Canadian $. These are some of the best priced, quality figures currently available.
One of the interesting things about this hobby is the devolving size of castings. Originally, the mainstay of the hobby was the 30mm figure- often homecast by gamers in a style that imitated the classic Scruby figure-kind of crude, to say the least. That was thirty years ago, and unfortunately I remember it all too well. Then there were 20mms and 25's which eventually replaced the 30s. And the next major breakthrough came with the advent of the true 15s. This shift to a smaller size was in response to the massive price increases that really killed off quantity sales of the 25s (leaving the 25mm market to be dominated by Minifigs and Fantasy Figures, who were primarily responsible for keeping 25s alive in the U.S. Even in those days I was only able to amass a couple of hundred thousand 25s (and that was only because of painting deals I made with the figure companies).
The point of this little ramble is that the 25mm figures produced today are becoming far and few between, and their use is mostly confined to dioramas and skirmish games. This isn't a bad thing, just a reflection of the times. I think that it may actually encourage designers to strive even harder to produce excellent figures.
Steven Phillips represents Bicorne Miniatures[USA. Bicorne is an old English firm, but Steve casts the figures here and there seem to be new additions all the time.
The figures themselves are 26-28mm and remind me of the old Hinchliffe school-only with accurate anatomy and lots of detail rather than the "chunky" Minifigs style. Steve was nice enough to send me mostly Napoleonic infantry and a few ACW. (They also carry a wide range of SYW.)
The French are represented by an advancing Carabineer in a colpack-very, very nice, with a lot of accurate detai-and a Voltigeur in a bicorne. I also have on hand the officer and an extra trooper for the early line horse artillery-all done to the T, and very nicely posed.
The samples of Austrian line and Grenadiers charging are also very well done.
To sum up, the Bicorne range has a lot of personality and a wealth of details. They are fine figures. If I have any quibble at all it would be that the bayonets could be longer. In fact, I'd definitely recommend that they be lengthened.
The French cover the 1806-09 infantry and artillery and Hussars. The Austrians take care of the basics. The artillery section is amazing and seems to include every gun ever made along with support.
Figure prices start at $1.25 for figures and $1.50 for horsesand go up for the rest of the stuff-reasonable,
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