Early War arrives

My birthday present arrived three days ago, only three months after the event itself. I was OK with this because it was my preorder for Lancashire Games new early WWI range. I worked out what I would need for a French and a German army for 1914. Initially I had planned to buy the British rather tha nthe French, but after reading Ian Senior's Home before the leaves fall I changed my mind. If you haven't read this book and you enjoy WWI, I heartily recommend it. I borrowed a copy from the library and was so impressed that I ordered the paperback version entitled Invasion 1914 in order to be able to refer to it regularly to devise scenarios.
Anyway, I thought I'd post some pictures of the figures as they are very nice, but they are also very big - 18mm rather than 15mm - and people wondering whether they mix with figures like  Peter Pig might want to have some comparisons.

A base of Lancashire Games WWI Germans Marching next to a base of Battlefront Late War Germans.

Left to right: Battlefront, Lancashire Games, ESCI 1/72 (20mm), Perry Miniatures 28mm

So calling them 15mm is a definite case of scale creep! I'm not perturbed though, as I had not planned to mix these figures with any other companies. The Marlburians that I painted were of the same scale, and it made them very easy (and enjoyable) to paint.

Lancashire French Dragoons on the left, my 15mm Crimean Cossacks on the right.

The same sizing is true for the cavalry, which is just as well, or the horses might look a bit silly next to the infantry. I am really impressed with the cavalry figures - the ones with the upright lances are particularly well molded with virtually no flash in he difficult area between the lance and the trooper's leg.

An example of the German artillery and 77mm field piece

The artillery is of the same scale. The gun sculpts are utilitarian rather than excessively detailed. For instance, the seats on the gun shield of the 77mm are not sculpted. They come in three pieces - the gun and carriage are one sculpt with two wheels to glue on. I like this because fiddling around with lots of parts on 12 small guns (6 German and 6 French) doesn't sound like my idea of fun. They should paint up quite nicely.

A German unit

Finally here is a German platoon that I based up just to see how they fit together. They are on standard sized Flames of War MDF bases that I bought from Sarissa Precision. In Flames of War this is a platoon, but I'm looking calling it a 'unit' - which could be a platoon, company or a battalion depending on how people want to see it. In my mind it is a battalion. That makes having an artillery battery in support make sense.

I'm looking forward to painting some trial figures once I've got the next part of Geoff's commission out of the way - the Samurai and peasants are about 1/3 finished.

Nate