I got a few figures from Pendraken recently to have a look-see after buying the Bloody Big Battles rules for the mid 19th Century. Having chatted to Leon over at Pendraken, he was happy to send me a few sample figures from five of their 19th Century ranges, which is much appreciated. I’ve decided to do a mini review / show and tell to repay his generosity, as well as some comparison shots with some Magister Militum WW1 figures I got a while ago but didn’t end up doing anything with yet (they’ll come in part 2 or 3).
I’m going to take some shots of the figures in the raw, undercoated, and painted up, so here’s the first looks. These are all straight from the bag too, nothing done to them, but I can’t really see anything immediately that does need doing to them. That’s some seriously quality casting there. These are just a very small sample of the codes that Pendraken do in these ranges – there are a *lot* of different offerings in each range.
Franco-Prussian war French
Some nice figures, I like these – A Cuirassier (I think), an officer, standard bearer, soldier in coat, and a drummer. The standard bearer is really nice looking, even has the fringe on the flag. I prefer open standards rather than moulded on flags, but this one is a really nice one. Oh, and Pendraken also do open standard bearers too in case you just want those. I think I’ll probably go with them and use this one on a command stand or something.
Franco-Prussian War Prussians
Another nice set, with some good sculpting. This time an officer, a Uhlan, drummer, another officer with sword raised, a jaeger, and a soldier in pickelhaube. There’s quite the variety of general infantry in this range, with two types of pickelhaube as well as some in feldmutze, and in tunic or greatcoat, so you can really mix and match, especially since there are two poses per code. I do wonder whether the Uhlan will mix with Uhlans of other ranges – one of the areas where there isn’t as much variety is the cavalry in Pendraken’s really quite large range.
Saxons
That’s a Reiter in cap rather than helmet (Pendraken do both), an officer, and two infantrymen. I like action poses / firing poses a lot, so these ones are right up my alley. I wouldn’t need a lot of these for BBB, which is a shame, because they’re some of my favourites.
Wurttembergers
Some more lovely poses, this time with the Wurttembergers. That’s another Reiter, and some line infantry, a horn player and officer. I particularly like the musician here, but all these poses are pretty good ones.
Bavarians
Finally we come to the Bavarians, with their distinctive helmets – not that much different to the Napoleonic era. That’s a chevauleger I think, an officer pointing, couple of infantrymen, drummer and standard bearer (without molded on flag). The photo doesn’t really do these little fellows justice, they’re some really nice, crisp sculpts. I’ve a feeling that at some point I might have to do some sort of Imagi-Nation 19th C BBB game so I have an excuse to get more of these than I need for normal BBB (it would justify getting more Saxons and Wurttembergers too).
That’s all for now, next post should hopefully see them undercoated at least, and maybe those comparison shots with Magister Militum’s WW1 ranges.