Irregular Miniatures
15mm League of Augsberg
and 25mm Abbysinian

Figure Review

by David Barnes

Colonial ranges Available from 3, Apollo Street, Heslington Road, York, Y01 5AP

I'll begin with the 15mm figures which I consider to be little "gems." I'll list them, comment and draw some of diem, not to scale. I have long been interested in the League of Augsberg period, 1685-1700. I have collected several small armies in 25mm over several years and I have 2 armies in 15mm - mostly Donningtons; earlier figures but some of their later and improved cavalry being added when they appeared. I also have a number of Dixons 15mm making up several regiments so I have a good many figures with which to compare these. Most of these Irregular Miniatures figures have up to five variations. As an old friend of mine from the South Staffordshire Regiment used to say "'Ere guz!' (Here goes!)

LA1 Musketeer standing with musket grounded. Big floppy hat, they had not developed into tricornes at this time. "Apostles" across his chest, sword behind his left hip, cartridge bag on the right. Left hand on his left hip feet apart. Good detail. Very cleanly cast. Excellent facial features for this scale.

LA2 Musketeer standing with musket shouldered. Barrel down on the shoulder, different hat. Paint these figures the appropriate colors and they can represent any army of the time. Military uniform was simply highly colored civilian dress (Easy to spot deserters!).

LA3 Musketeer standing firing. A good aim position, dressed as the last two.

LA4 Musketeer standing loading. He's holding the musket at the point of balance and could be clasping an individual charger (Apostle) in his right hand. Other details the same.

LA5 Pikeman standing with pike upright. A rather interesting bearded face on this one. A flat brim on his hat, no Apostles of course. Sword. Ali the pikemen in this range are provided with pikes - an appropriate length of metal rod.

LA6 Pikeman standing with pike sloped. An indeterminate position, neither "Charge your pike for horse," nor high or low line thrust. About 30 degrees to the horizontal. Again provided with a nice bit of metal rod.

LA 10 Infantry officer. Sword in his right hand point grounded. Floppy feather in his hat. Head on one side in a natural considering way.

LA11 Infantry NCO. With halberd. Sash across his chest (as echoed by present day duty Sgts in the British Army). Feet wide apart. "Wot are you on then Private Sentinel?"

LA12 Infantry standard bearer. Feathered hat, sash, sword and metal rod staff (provide your own fly plenty of firms print excellent in-scale flags).

LA13 Infantry drummer. Rather a small drum for the period but well modelled. Adequate figure. I may reinforce one of my armies with these.

Now the Abyssinian 25mm Colonials Range

COL7 Abyssinian warrior with musket. I'm torn by conflicting opinions over these figures, which are only part of a much wider range: Zulus, Afghan/Pathans, and "British or similar" infantry. Details and casting are, with a couple of exceptions, good. Infantry positions seem to me a bit strange. I wouldn't want several of the same crouching pose as COL7 that I got as an sample - however, "most figures have up to FIFTEEN variants" says the list. As Prof Joad used to say, "It depends what you mean by in this case, variants. COL7 has his rifle grasped very strangely in my variant - but great hair detail, cape and tunic breast decoration.

COL8 Abyssinian warrior with sword or spear. Typical "inverted soup plate" shield with large boss and swathed in robes and cloak. Some warriors wrapped themselves up like mummies before going into battle. They had the idea all those layers of clothes made them bullet proof. A large slashing sword in his right hand point grounded.

COL14 Abyssinian Coptic Priest. A very imposing figure this with his cape, stick and priesfs hat. Simple and effective.

COL15 Abyssinian standard bearer. The standard is a tall ceremonial cross really with a cloth tied quite high up round the staff. This may have had prayers for the unit written on it. The bearer has dreadlocks and beard, a crucifix round his neck and a whacking great dagger in his left hand. Highland dirk size.

COL16 Abyssinian parasol bearer. A simple figure holding the tall staff of the parasol. The parasol itself is separate and has a fringe all round.

COL17 Negus Menelik II (Abyssinian leader). Gesturing with his left hand he holds a rifle (not well modelled) in his right hand. He wears a type of solar topee and a cloak over a traditionally embroidered tunic. Quite impressive overall effect.

COL18 Abyssinian Galla horseman. Stirrups for the big toe only. A good rider figure with a better modelled rifle. The horse lets this group down. It's very narrow so that the rider wiggles about on it. His integral saddle will need to be well stuck to the horse blanket. However this is minor to the faults with the head of the horse. The attempt at modelling a proudly arching neck gets 5/10 because it is made too thickly. It works, just, from the flopping mane side, but is definitely wrong from the other side. From the front the horse's skull looks lopsided. Pity.

COL19 Abyssinian armoured Galla horseman. The rider is excellent tho' we could have done with a broad blade for the metal rod spear. His mail and long straight sword are just right as is his heavily swathed turban and heavy gauntlets. He is let down again by the horse. The base is terribly buckled and thin with lumps of ingate left on. The left foreleg is very skinny and buckled too. Maybe this is caused by the heavy- and well modelled - caparison the horse is wearing? The caparison has echoes of Persian cataphracts or Tang heavy horse. It is similarly protected and has the feathery ball the Persians attached to their horse's heads between the ears. The placing of the legs gives a good trotting action - but that's spoiled by the grotty base and insubstantial legs.

References.

"The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough"
"Le Guerre Coloniale Italiane 1885-1900, " Raffaele Ruggeri, Di Bello 07 Special, Editire Militare Italiana. (English "subtitles")

It is good to see Irregular venturing into these areas of interest. They deserve to be supported by wargamers. One hopes they will produce Italian soldiers to fight these stalwart warriors.

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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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