I wondered if you might like a SitRep from the UK on 54mm Skirmish Wargames, for the pages of MWAN. The new 54mm Armies In Plastic British Infantry [4 boxes, one of each set: Omdurman, Boxer Rising, Boer War and North West Frontier] and the French Foreign Legion all arrived yesterday and I am surrounded by little plastic men! I think the figures are excellent - all the poses work except one, the "leggs spread" lunging one - the legs took awkward, like they are going in 2 directions at once. I think the variations are OK - but just swapping heads is less than I expected - I thought there would be genuinely different poses, like the officer. The kneeling figures don't do a lot for me either. because in a wargame they look silly when a column is moving along - but they provide plenty of heads for conversions and just a couple look good as substitute figures in a firing line. The poses which work best are the 3 advancing figures - whilst the top halves are pretty much the same, the leg variations really work, especially the one with the right leg off the ground. The other nice poses are the one reaching for a round from the arnmo pouch and the one leaning back in a defensive stance - both really excellent. Standing firing is OK. both with and without helmet. I'm still making my mind up about the one clubbing with the rifle butt - I think I might get to like it, actually. I like the officer, especially the %ersion in the fore-and-aft cap, a really nice touch. The chunky Webleys look good, and the pose works well - nice little characters, with a look of the aloof Brit about them, somehow. All in all I can't wait to get some cleaned up and based, primed and painted - they should come up well. In fact I have already started on them - and done one conversion to an Egyptian already. Its sad really - I just can't see a new set as what it actually is. I have to turn it into something else! I swapped the head [another helmet for other conversions] with a metal bare headed neuro and added a tarboosh, neckcloth and bandoleer, and Filled in the jacket front opening [after trimming off buttons] with Greenstuff - looks good. I have also converted 6 Accurate/IMEX ACW figures in jackets to Royal Marines in the Sudan grey uniform, by swapping heads with AIP Colonial Brits, adding shoulder straps with greenstuff, and replacing the muskets with Hinchliffe metal Martini-Henrys. I used the super colour plate of the RMLI at the Battle of Tamaii 1884, in Charles Stadden's Uniforms of the Royal Marines, Romford, UK, 1997, which I picked up second had for a bargain £ 11. These figures, along with the Highlanders, have inspired us to get into Colonial in a bigger way than before - at least since we did games in Stadden and Wiley 30mm, and we have kicked off a Colonial Campaign. We are still working on whether its set in an historically Soudan, or in our mythical African country of Sitruk - either would work, I'm sure, but the latter offers more freedom for troop types of course. The FFL are nice too - apart from our aerobics friend with the "legs stretch"! The back packs are a little short - molding problems I imagine, but the variations with the larger pans etc on some is a nice touch. Taking each in turn: kneeling firing and --receiving a charge" are OK, subject to my point above about the wargarnes limitations of such poses. Lying firing is an interesting one - same problems with this pose, but its good to have one for variety I guess. The two standing firing figures - one is the aerobics bottom half and suffers accordingly, but oddly I thing it works better firing than lunging with the bayonet. The other is a classic simple pose. The 2 advancing work fine, as with the Brits; one is a dogged "March or Die" pose. who really looks like he is trudging across the hot sands. The other is flying, the left leg really bent at the knee and conveying a last desperate charge with Rosalie! The "stepping back" pose is another nice one. The officer - a little disappointing as it is the WWI officer in a kepi, revolver in the right hand and the left arm up; actually I like the overall effect - a "en avant, mes enfants!" sort of pose. They should paint up very nicely, as FFL, Zephyrs or Marsouains - and of course, Spanish too, with a little modification. I do think they are better made than the Conte FFL, because they are chunkier, and the Lebels are substantial rather than made of barely set jelly! Back to MWAN #111 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum 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