Sunday, September 4, 2022

Pass In Review: #2 Day of Battle 3d Printed French & Indian War (**updated)

At last, the three sample F&IW figures are done. 

A Sergeant and private of the 47th Foot confront a  private of the Compagnies franches de la marine.
I suspect that grey or brown gaitors would have been more accurate but I like the look of the black and some regiments did wear them.)  


I had a hard time deciding on a rating for these ones but balancing what I liked with what I didn't, I ended up rating them 4/5.

First the Pro's: The figures are a good match in size and style to various popular 40mm ranges. The bodies and heads look too thick to me but so do 90% of other ranges and many gamers prefer it so I'll accept it. The resin takes paint well, is easy to trim or modify and seems to hold well with super glues. Having some separate parts, heads, some arms and weapons etc., helps those who like to customize figures.  

Perhaps near Fort Beausejour, or Louisburg, or Quebec...
Now the negative, while the French soldier in summer, woods fighting kit looks fairly accurate to someone like me isn't a reenactor aware of every detail, the British have some questionable detail which will bother some of us. In particular, the lace on these figures,  which is over scale is problematic. (If the figure was blown up to real size, the lace would be an inch thick or more! I didn't mark them down for that since it is a trend across manufacturers and is welcomed by many people as a painting aid though I see it as a hindrance!) .  The big issue for me is that the cuffs and lace patterns on the British were wrong. They resembled 1770's uniforms rather than the 1750's.  The larger cuffs should have a big vee with lace running up the yard. I see that the pictures of the boat crews in the catalogue show something a lot closer to the proper lace and cuffs, although some of the lace is even thicker. At least the resin makes it easy to scrape or sand it into something more realistic. (Mind you, it should be done before painting, he said ruefully...)  The sergeant's halbard was also problematic but it was easy to trim it to make it look like some sort of halbard. I couldn't find any historical reference to the gloves on the sergeant but didn't think it worth worrying about.  
** Note: When I was writing the post near midnight last night, it slipped my mind that I had looked at the pompoms on the hat and the cufflace and sergeant's gloves etc and then looked at the Day of Battle website to see if they had a SYW Prussian range. They do and these two figures in red were there, however, they were easy to convert so it was all worth the effort. 

Its been such a busy week and a tired one, tht they didn't get my best effort and techniques but they still came out as 'acceptable' to me.

So, will I buy any of these for myself? Yes, especially the boat crews and some indians and.........

_____

16 comments:

  1. >the cuffs and lace patterns on the British were wrong. They resembled 1770's uniforms rather than the 1750's.

    "oooohhh!" That 's the one thing that really gets my goat, too. (And, if they're Bri'ish Grenadiers, mitre caps instead of bearskins, if AWI.) AWI cuffs look my my own spring/fall jacket. er, minus a facing colour.
    7YW?
    Unbuttond dress shirt cuffs with somewhat flared cuffs...um, again, without facing colours...and lace...and buttons.

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    1. As the printer of these models I also must agree that the actual artist doesn't appear to know or care that much about the history. When I first starting printing these I had to point out that the British infantry did not wear boots. he quickly changed them go gaiters.

      When he first released the rowboat he had the rowers and the setups for their oars backwards. Once pointed out he did fix that. maybe there is hope :)

      Chris Parker www.dayofbattle.com

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  2. Good review of the figures, they look decent enough so may tempt me, yousr have painted up very nice indeed, especially like the French soldier, good work sir!

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  3. The large mitten or glove on the standard bearer does look a bit overdone. Will you do more? That is the question. Useful review for those contemplating such a project.

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    1. Well, I need more First Nation warriors and some rangers and these will be cheaper/easier than buying/converting more homecast figures. In any case I want some of the oarsmen to propel my exisiting boats as well as a few of the smaller boats on offer. There were a number of amphibious ops in the campaigns I'm most interested.

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  4. Inaccurate figures are one aspect I stopped worrying about quite a while. I did keep expecting the sky to fall on me but it's still there!

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    1. I never mind subbing in standby troops and don't mind most inaccuracies if they're not too blatent or important or would need a lot of work to fix. But something this distinctive which only takes a few passes with a file over plastic, I'll still do, as well as things like, say.. not wanting to put spiked helmets on 1900 French.

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    2. Knowing how many different uniforms were trialled by the French around then, I wouldn't mind betting that there is, somewhere, a prototype French spiked helmet (quickly squashed and swept under the carpet as 'too Germanic')

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  5. That figure looks like it may be intended to portray a Prussian NCO,

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    1. That thought crossed my mind before I assembled them but it didn't occur to me to look and see if Chris had a SYW range until they were 1/2 painted. The nco and private are both there to see. But by then I had done enough gentle conversion to make them passible. I should update the post since I had already put it out of my mind when I was writing the post near midnight!

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  6. They look great, Ross! And the halberd actually resembles a halberd now and not a fantasy weapon or something from a 1970s Hong Kong martial arts film. Count me among the few (only) who like the oven mitt the sergeant is wearing. I think it makes him an identifiable character. "Ol' Ove Glove" perhaps?

    I have some resin figures I have yet to try cleaning up - I hope they go as easily as yours seem to have gone.

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    1. Thanks. Only one way to find out about the resin figures......

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  7. Hmm, I dunno. As they are the same price as Sash and Saber 40mm metal, I'd rather have the metal, frankly. I can't understand why the price points are the same for resin as metal. I thought the whole reason people were moving to resin is the price of metal? And if I wanted the "toy soldier" look [which I sometimes do...LOVE AIP!] they cost a fraction as much and stand head and shoulders above 40mm. Or am I missing something here??

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    1. Fair enough, when I compare the prices, the resin figures are about $2.25 vs $3 per figure plus cheaper postage. For someone with ample funds thats not worth considering but for someone with little cash that can be significant.

      Of course I don't care much for Sash & Sabre's with exaggerated detail and big heads, as popular as that look is. But then I'm also very happy to homecast and when I bother to sculpt my own, I get something more like really old school for proportion and in scale detail but that mostly makes a grumpy old geezer with old fashioned taste :)

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