Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Eagle Miniatures - review in brief

UPDATE 13.08.2007 : Added image of an RSM French and an Eagle Prussian Infantryman.


Recently I laid my hands on some samples from Eagle Miniatures. They are a company trading out of the UK with a small-ish number of ranges covering NApoleonics, ACW, Moghuls, 7 Years' War, 100 years' War, and a few Hadendowah in 28mm and in 15mm range covering Napoleonic Russias and the Franco-Prussian War. These ranges are all fairly eclectic and incomplete, the 100 Years' War range amusingly containing a King Arthur, a Knight returned from the wars and a Welsh Spear-man.

I ordered some sample French and Prussian infantry, a personality figure of Frederick the Great and a Prussian Dragoon.



Well, what a mixed bunch they were. Overall the figures are quite nice, really. The cavalry sit their horses well (unlike say, Elite!), the infantry are quite pleasing in their way too, although some more than others.

I would rate the animation of the castings as being a cut or two above Old Glory. What I mean by this is while the figures have some of that OG liveliness, they still maintain a certain stately poise. the sculpting of the figures themselfes is somewhat unrefined, perhaps even a little crude by todays standards. the figures are not "fine" in the manner of Staddens or RSMs, and to me represent a couple of paces down the road that leads to the Foundry stable of figures.

The figures have a few neat touches. I like the way the prussian dragoon had a notch cut out of the front of his shoulder so hos sword-arm (cast pointing out from his body) could be bent forward and secured with super-glue. The marching Prussian infantryman with shouldered musket is a gem, as is the Grenadier in the march attack pose. I was especially impressed by his mitre. Lovely, and I'd love more to create a grenadier batalion.



On the downside, I understand that this is an older range of figure and that there would be some flash from the review of another OSW-er. Fair enough, and this was removed with a sharp blade. Why though was I as a customer who clearly stated that he wanted some samples (the implication being that I wanted to test the waters before I dropped hundreds of dollars on a few 60-figure batallions) would you as a manufacturer supply imperfect castings? The Prussian Dragoon was missing most of his musket, and if you look at the secoind figure from the right in the picture of the Prussian infantry, you'll see the Ensign was missing the top half of his flag-pole!

And please, if you are going to market a personality figure as Fredrick the Great, it'd be nice if he looked like him!

The French infantry were OK, but nothing to set my world on fire. I'm sorry to say that my benchmark for French infantry is the old "Willie" range ang these suffer by comparison looking, simply, crude.

I'll paint these to solidify my view, but for now, I'd create a batalion of Grenadiers and a Dragoon Regoment with these figures, but probably stop there and carry on with my RSMs.

7 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Greg,

A side-by-side photo of these with a similar RSM pose would perhaps be a good idea.

Actually, not only with the foot; but with say the Dragoons as well.


-- Jeff

MiniWargamer said...

I wonder if the reason they left the flash on was more of a "truth in advertising" decision rather than an oversight?

I second Jeff's comments about the side-by-side comparison. Some of the figures look interesting (officers and such) but the difference between Frederick and his dragoon is amazing.

As an aside, I suggest that you put your comments on the pictures in a different color as the black is hard to identify.

Anonymous said...

A very nice review of the Eagle range. The Prussians are probably the best figures in the whole range. In general, stick with the marching figures when ordering Eagles and stay away from the advancing and charging poses because the muskets stick out so far in front of the figure that they are likely to break off with normal wargame handling. They also have a nice standing and kneeling firing line which paints up nicely.

Eagle figures are tall and will dwarf RSMs in comparison. Casting quality varies as Greg noted. Maybe orders need to be sent with requests to send only well cast pieces.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hi Greg,

An interesting and informative review. I have a sample figure from Eagle -- a mounted officer, I think. He is absolutely HUGE in comparison to my RSMs, Spencer Smiths, and Revell figures, so I won't be using him I'm afraid. On another note, your Regiment de Berry is looking fine. Eager to see them once all of the bases are landscaped.

Best Regards,

Stokes

old-tidders said...

I sampled the eagle miniatures prussian infantry, I found them OK and useable. Although I haven't bought any yet.

I also indulged in a regiment of hussars as well - very nice, just what I was looking for. I liked the notch under the sword arm to enable modifying the pose.

Frank said...

Hi Greg, I ordered a 36 figure battalion of the Prussians from Eagle, (inc 6 Grenadiers) and the amount of flash was indeed disappointing. I also ordered the Frederick mounted figure and had a chuckle to myself about him :-)

The mounted officer I bought, contrary to your review about fitting well on the horses, was inpossible to fit on his horse without major surgery to the horses reins, which I have now performed. I think once the flash is off them, they are quite nice overall, but personally I don't want to be spending the time I spent cleaning these up (only 1 six man company so far) when I could be painting. I probably won't order any more, on this basis, unless of course a pic from you of the nice Dragoon is available for scrutiny perhaps?

Cheers

Frank

Bloggerator said...

Hi Frank,

He's in the first pic on the article, right-hand side. I really liked him and am considering getting more.

Regards,

Greg