As my group have been engaged in a Russo/Japanese war campaign in Manchuria it was only natural that we would spend some time seeking suitable figures. 15mm being the chosen scale samples were sought from various makers. As this is a late colonial period many figures from that era are suitable, but WW1 figures also proved a rich source. FRONTIER FIGURES This company does some interesting bulk packs of Japanese and Russians. The Infantry packs are really intended for the Boxer Rebellion and therefore include armed sailors, which are of more limited use for many wargamers, although I was pleased to have some. However the company were happy to send some packs without sailors in them. These are quite good value for money although I must confess I was horrified at the amount of flash that had to be cleaned up. This was not so much a difficult task as a time consuming one. I guess we wargamers have become spoilt and don't quite expect that any more but this was the worst I have seen in many years. There were a couple of things that I found 'sloppy'. Out of eight packs, not one had the advertised number of figures in it. The variation was between one and five short, regardless of infantry, cavalry or artillery and I was disappointed that the error does not seem to extend to having 'more' than advertised just occasionally. One pack had quite a lot of broken bayonets, which would have been forgivable considering they had been tossed about in the post all the way to Australia, however what was amazing was that the number of broken bayonets exceeded the number of figures in the pack with broken bayonets!! One could only conclude they had been packed that way. None the less, once cleaned up the Japanese Infantry were quite pleasing. Photographs of Japanese Infantry always seem to show men of small stature, in relation to which their rifles and long bayonets appear very large. With these figures therefore I found the rather hefty bayonets gave them the 'right look'. Once painted up and placed en masse on the tabletop. I was very pleased with the visual look of these figures, although I admit that at close examination they are perhaps not as well designed as others on the market. My conclusion was that I liked them sufficiently to purchase more units of these figures for my armies. Similarly the Russian Infantry also look quite nice once cleaned up and when painted were very satisfactory. Their bayonets do not seem to be as large as those on the Japanese infantry so that again made them seem 'right' when painted and added to my collection. The Command figures were reasonable. The artillery packs were very interesting, although the guns were extremely dubious. One thing not found with any other manufacturer were the artillery limbers on which one can mount a machinegun. These were particularly useful and the Machineguns themselves some of the most accurate for type, I have seen. Quite correctly the Russian pack had Maxims to put on the Limber and the Japanese Hotchkiss guns. These would be very useful for 1914 period battles as well. Certainly in both packs the number of artillerymen is generous, although the limited pose gets pretty boring. It did however enable me to get ahead on the number of gun crews I needed and some have been diverted to use with Pioneer and HQ units. These artillery & machinegun packs are good value and although the Japanese guns are too incorrect for anything but discarding, the Russian ones can at least be made to look very nice with a bit of work. The Cavalry were a bit of a disappointment when first seen, but for the Japanese, when painted up, the did look nice and were quite correct in detail. I think it is only fair to paint figures up before passing final judgement and in this case they passed. The Russian Cossack cavalry are not as good, looking a bit too awkward and toy soldierish. None the less I like a variety of appearance in my armies so these were consigned to some of the irregular regiments where they look quite nice. MINIFIGS I can never understand why some fussy wargamers seem to consider knocking Mini-figs a great sport. The figures are reliable, lack flash and always give value for money. I agree that some other brands may be superior in some aspects, but hey…when you are collecting a large army you need a reliable source of value for money figures that can be painted straight from the pack. Most of the worst critics are those who seldom get around to actually putting a painted army on the tabletop so my group is most fortunate in being quite free of them. The first I tried were the WW1 Infantry. They painted up with satisfaction and little need for cleaning up. The uniform details are so close to 1904-05 that they can be swapped between periods without any difficulty. The next group I painted up were as a result of a search for troops in nice long greatcoats and I was surprised to find some in the Crimean range that looked good. They have peaked caps and very long coats. Some of the equipment is wrong but since there is not much of it this was not a great problem to remove or simply paint to look different. Similarly the muskets trimmed into a reasonable representation of rifles. Doubly useful was that a very similar uniform is worn by some of the Cavalry so it was possible to make up dismounted units. If this seems a lot of trouble to go to it must be remembered that at the time the conversions were done, this seemed the only source of troops in typical greatcoat uniforms. The range of Cossacks and other Cavalry available from Mini-figs made it possible to make up almost any regular or irregular unit one wanted. Similarly the Crimean artillery crews in long coats and peaked caps look great and mingled with those from FRONTIER provided an interesting variation. IRREGULAR MINIATURES The first Russian and Japanese troops to join my 1904-05 armies were from the BOXER REBELLION range of this manufacturer. I have to say at this point that without fail and regardless of all those I have seen since, the standing Russian Infantryman is by far my favourite figure of all time. The animation is great with several variants within the same figure. The uniform is wonderfully 'scruffy' and when painted up they leap out you and declare themselves "Russians" to even the dullest senses. The officer figure matches them well and I think that when making these up the figure designer must have had a stroke of pure brilliance. Like all Irregular figures there is almost no flash or cleaning up. One can simply unpack and start painting. The artillery figures are similar and the officers from these can be used to provide more variation with the infantry. The Japanese Infantry from the same period are rather bulky, especially the artillerymen and officers. None the less the quality of design is good and equipment is correct. The infantry figure has a variant without hat, but its single position gets a bit repetitive, something overcome with the Russian figure by having several variants. I have painted most of mine in the dark blue uniform as a matter of personal preference but if done up in khaki, these figures are useable right up to the mid 1930's. Because of a lack of correct looking Japanese with Hotchkiss Machineguns across all the brands, I overcame this by purchasing some Irregular WW1 French MG teams and converting them. The kepi conversion is not as hard as it might seem and the result was quite serviceable. French and some Prussian figures were also the only way I could add a General staff, the conversion of which was a little more difficult but still not too hard. Cavalry of the period are good to excellent. The Russian Dragoon figures are very attractive, their slung rifles being wrapped in a protective cloth. The Cossacks are armed with the sabre rather than lance and have several face variants. These Russian cavalry are excellent but the only mounted officer available is depicted on a horse rearing backward which is great occasionally but rather limiting if collecting large numbers of troops. The Japanese cavalry are also quite nicely done with the rifle slung at the correct (opposite) angle compared to the Russians. Unfortunately there is only one charging position and again the officer is mounted on a rearing horse. Luckily there are very few Japanese cavalry in use during the 1904-05 war so this is not as limiting as with the Russians. Because of the boringly plain Japanese cavalry uniform the detail of these figures is very helpful in making them look good. I found the intermingled well with those from FRONTIER. Having already collected enough figures to start a war, I was a bit surprised to see myself confronted by a whole new range of WW1 releases from Irregular. Undaunted I ordered a range of the Russians and was delighted to find them excellently animated and interestingly uniformed. One can get variants in greatcoats, or without, in peaked caps, even the revolutionary period Schlem and a sort of felt parka type head cover. If one files off the point of the Schlem it makes another variant of the fur hat and of course the parka type head cover was worn across many periods as protection against the elements. One group are distinctively Siberian Infantry in greatcoats and fur hats. These painted up very nicely and would fit in to any period right up to WW2. The troops in the Schlem type hat would be suitable right up to the Russo/Finnish War. As with the Infantry there are Officers and drummers in a choice of overcoats or without. Those without fit in very nicely with my old favourite Russians from the Boxer range. The machinegun teams are very neatly done and look very nice. I was very pleased with these when painted up. The Machineguns are of correct proportions, unlike the WW1 British machine gunners from the same manufacturer, who look like they are wielding a cannon!!! In this range the cavalry comprise Dragoons and Cossacks. The former are every bit as good as the Boxer range and some of the nicest bits of figure sculpture you will see in 15mm. They have more variants than the Boxer figures. The Cossacks have two variants of fur hat. A sort of baggy wide topped version and another smaller one with slightly conical shape. These are lance armed. Perhaps the only real problem with these cavalry is that the horses themselves are always in the same position, which can get a bit repetitive. ARTILLERY As mentioned already, the actual guns from FRONTIER are incorrect and those of IRREGULARS are even worse. Some of the MINIFIG guns can be used, especially some of those from the Boer War range. Although I confess to being the designer of the extensive REALLY USEFUL GUNS range, I none the less do use some guns from the above manufacturers because again, I like a variety. However in the RUG range I did make a specific point of designing guns that will suit this period and this therefore is the only way I know of to obtain the Japanese Arisaki 7cm field gun in 15mm, as well as some of the early howitzers used in this war. In general therefore I found that finding sufficient figures to do the large Russo/Japanese period armies I needed for the campaign, was not all that difficult. Some of it depends upon the imagination of the wargamer in spotting likely conversions that can relieve the eye from seeing too much of the same figure, however that can be a lot of fun. Back to The Gauntlet No. 13 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com