Now that I have samples painted
of (insofar as I know) every manufacturer of Great War British (late war)
infantry (which I am of course using as Canadians) I thought I’d post some figure
comparison pictures – because many miniature gamers are very concerned about
such things. I’m not as concerned as others… )although I did recently pick up
some 6mm Sci Fi infantry I thought I might use as proxy Imperial Guardsmen and
though they are lovely figures, they are taller than the GW Space Marines that
I have… so… I’m not so sure I’ll be using them…).
There is at least one other
manufacturer of Great War British that I can think of – but in that particular
case they only do early war (the the SD caps) and were of no use to me.
Manufacturers represented here
include:
I have also included the Great War Canadian figures that I modelled, moulded and cast myself - just for interests sake.
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)
Officers
I don't actually have any UNITS of Great War British (or Canadians) by Scarab Miniatures, but I do have the one pack of officers, so I thought I'd include him in the line-up.
I don't actually have any UNITS of Great War British (or Canadians) by Scarab Miniatures, but I do have the one pack of officers, so I thought I'd include him in the line-up.
Lewis Gunners
Most manufacturers also make a No.2 or Loader for the Lewis Gun. From left to right-ish we have Great War Miniatures, 1st Corps (slightly behind), Brigade Games (in the middle up front), Renegade Miniatures (in the middle at the back), Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, and Wargames Foundry.
Old Glory doesn't make a loader, but they do make their lewis gunners in standing and prone firing positions. The standing one is meant for using in a trench - with a bipod out front to prop up on the parapet - where the prone one is meant for use on the advance out in no-man's-land. I'm not a HUGE fan of prone firing light machine-guns - or light machine-gun TEAMS - largely because they take up more space than they really need to on the tabletop. They are useless in trenches and buildings - or at least they look SILLY in trenches and buildings. They also don't fit into my uniform storage system very well. At least Old Glory makes some kneeling figures so there is at least some gradation within the unit, which is more than I can say for some other manufacturers...
Like, say, Brigade Games... Their packs include one team advancing and one that is prone and firing. I could be a little more forgiving if their other packs included figures that are kneeling... but then don't. They don't even include any other figures that are FIRING!? It's prone firing machine-guns and everyone else is just advancing, like they're on a stroll through the park... and they ain't cheap. At least with Old Glory, they're (relatively) inexpensive and you get a pack of TEN Lewis Gunners - five prone and firing, five that are standing and firing - enough to have one of each available for each unit, depending on whether they are defending or attacking!?
What's even worse is that even though they make highlanders - they don't make highlanders with Lewis Guns (or at least didn't at the time, I haven't bothered to go back and check) so I had to convert one out of one of the prone teams!?
Most manufacturers also make a No.2 or Loader for the Lewis Gun. From left to right-ish we have Great War Miniatures, 1st Corps (slightly behind), Brigade Games (in the middle up front), Renegade Miniatures (in the middle at the back), Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design, and Wargames Foundry.
Old Glory doesn't make a loader, but they do make their lewis gunners in standing and prone firing positions. The standing one is meant for using in a trench - with a bipod out front to prop up on the parapet - where the prone one is meant for use on the advance out in no-man's-land. I'm not a HUGE fan of prone firing light machine-guns - or light machine-gun TEAMS - largely because they take up more space than they really need to on the tabletop. They are useless in trenches and buildings - or at least they look SILLY in trenches and buildings. They also don't fit into my uniform storage system very well. At least Old Glory makes some kneeling figures so there is at least some gradation within the unit, which is more than I can say for some other manufacturers...
Like, say, Brigade Games... Their packs include one team advancing and one that is prone and firing. I could be a little more forgiving if their other packs included figures that are kneeling... but then don't. They don't even include any other figures that are FIRING!? It's prone firing machine-guns and everyone else is just advancing, like they're on a stroll through the park... and they ain't cheap. At least with Old Glory, they're (relatively) inexpensive and you get a pack of TEN Lewis Gunners - five prone and firing, five that are standing and firing - enough to have one of each available for each unit, depending on whether they are defending or attacking!?
What's even worse is that even though they make highlanders - they don't make highlanders with Lewis Guns (or at least didn't at the time, I haven't bothered to go back and check) so I had to convert one out of one of the prone teams!?
Bombers
Firing
Brigade Games doesn't seem to have any firing miniatures - well, other than their Lewis Gun team. All of their other miniatures are upright and advancing. Which further makes me wonder WHY they had to include a prone Lewis Gun team!?
Advancing
Two advancing figures from Great War Miniatures. People often ask me: "which is your favourite?" I find it hard to pick, I like all of them... well... most of them. I like some things about some, other things about others. This picture above illustrates one of the reasons I think overall I like Great War Miniatures the best - beyond the clean, easy-to-paint details - it's the little extra things like shovels and picks - that you see being carried in pictures of assaulting troops - that give the guys just a little bit of character.
Kneeling
I don't seem to have any kneeling figures from 1st Corps, Brigade Games, or Great War Miniatures - and I never did make any myself. Generally, for modern-ish wars, I don't mind kneeling figures at all - In fact if there are prone and standing miniatures in the same unit I'd really rather there also be a few kneeling guys - so there is some gradation within the unit. Though for the Great War, if you're using trenches, guys that are kneeling and firing in trenches look a bit odd... or course prone guys inside trenches are even worse...
I included two from Old Glory because they had one thing that I don't think anyone else had - a rifle grenadier. I also included four from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design because... well... because they HAD a lot of different poses - all of which I though were great.
Casualties
First row, prone, left to right: Old Glory, Gripping Beast/WoodbineDesigns, Great War Miniatures
Second row, standing, from left to right: Wargames Foundry, Great War Miniatures
I did take a separate picture of the different highlanders I have from some of the manufacturers, but then realized I didn't have examples of all the ones I own - Brigade Games was missing - and I don't even have highlanders from some of the manufacturers that produce them, so I decided to not include it at this time.
I do also have figures from Tiger
Miniatures for the CSEF (Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force), but
I haven’t painted any of them yet and they would never really be mixed in with
these I’m using for the western front anyway, so…
Earlier I did a comparison of Great War Vickers Teams.
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
The rest of 6th Brigade.
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