Napoleonic, WSS & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Tuesday 2 November 2010

Art Miniaturen

Another manufacturer who is still doing well, but a rather different style of figure. Jorg Schmaeling's super 1/72 metal figures are, in my view, diorama-style, and very nice too - a little pricey, but lovely. Art Miniaturen are also nice, helpful people to deal with. Herr Schmaeling is happy to provide odd figures from his listed sets, and I understand that he will even consider spare parts - hats, pelisses and so on.


Apart from the price (which is not astronomical, by the way), the only other slight snags are

(1) there is occasional flash trouble - these figures are very detailed, but no compromise is made in animation to ease the casting process - some of the older figures can display signs of mould damage, particularly swords and muskets, and horses' legs can require a bit of dremelling to make them perfect

(2) Schmaeling does not accept payment by credit card or PayPal (at least he didn't a couple of months ago) - this is a bit of an issue for UK residents, since the good old British banks still make it very expensive to transfer money internationally. It is not a real stopper, but how you choose to work around the problem is up to you. I would never, of course, advise anyone to send cash euros in a registered letter. Perish the thought.


I have only one unit which is entirely Art Minaturen - my beloved French 3rd Hussars. These cost me a real arm and a leg, since I felt that my painting could not do justice to such fine figures, so I commissioned the very talented Jez Farminer to do the full collector-standard paint job on them. I am very pleased with them, but I cannot afford to follow this route very often!

I have some French voltigeurs, and a good number of command figures. Here are a few pictures, which I hope speak for themselves.




Finally, here's a conversion - I produced this Spanish colonel by grafting a Les Higgins British Light Infantry head on to an Art Miniaturen Belgian officer figure. The width and quality of the range make these figures ideal for conversions.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely items you've got there, especially the 3rd Hussars! I've long admired the Napoleonics and 18th century figures produced by Art Miniaturen. Sadly, I finally opted for 25-30mm, so that door is closed I fear. Nevertheless, delightful figures, singly or en masse.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  2. Is this the guy who used to do a vast range of resin artillery? Factory painted all sizes and eras, about 25/28mm, look a bit like they might be Elastolin or Merten until you look closer and realize they are resin.

    I have a whole box of slightly manky resin artillery and (I think) someone told me they were Art Miniaturen?

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  3. I know nothing of manky resin artillery - I guess anything is possible. Anyone know about this? Jorg - are you out there...?

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  4. No, no, no, they are beautiful when new, mine were manky because they'd been left in the sun or near a radiator and had all collapsed into a heap!

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  5. OK - hold the lawsuit! - I think we could still do with a bit more background on the resin products, though. I hadn't realised that resin deteriorated in this way.

    Cheers

    Tony

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  6. Hmmm...I've long considered getting some of their civilians and I think they did a vivandiere set as well. The lack of credit card facilities and the necessity of ordering through Mrs. Kinch (whose German is fluent) have always held me back.

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  7. If you email them they are very accommodating.

    Tony

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