Started as a desire to fill a niche of providing medics for a 28mm 1813 Prussian army,
Westfalia Miniatures grown little by little in 2012 with various odd projects to the verge of releasing a line of Saxon Napoleonic miniatures in 2013. As I had mentioned
before, I recently received a couple packs of their miniatures, and I figured I'd give you a closer look and a little overview. (Click to enlarge the pics as always.)
The first pack is a eight figure set of
Hanoverian Jaegers from the Feldjaegerkorps von Kielmannsegge (Say that three times fast!) These chaps were raised in the spring of 1813 from foresters and huntsman and wore a uniform reflecting that origin with semi-civilian caps that were later replaced by shakos in 1815. They fought with destinction at the Battle of the Goehrde, the siege of Hamburg and finally during the 100 Days Campaign ending with Waterloo. Overall a very lovely and detailed set of miniatures that may someday inspire me to paint up small force from Hanover, but for now will fight alongside my 1813 Prussians as another unit of Jägers.
Above are the first four figures in the set: a captain, hornist, and two jaegers; one wearing a civilian cap. In the pics below are a Scharfschuetze (Sharpshooter) and three more jaegers to finish the set. While I'm no expert on authenticity, they match the Richard Knötel plate quite well and are full of details like tin cups, cap badges, and the Scharfschuetze having a double breasted kollet and the others single.
Being the ultra light fighters that they are, the poses are full of
action. They can easily be paired up in two man teams as they are wont
to do: one firing and the other reloading/repositioning. The real scale anatomically correct proportions of these Paul Hicks sculpts
rivals the fine work of the Perry Brothers, as opposed to the dwarfy
shortness of the Wargames Foundry line or the slightly wide/chunky
miniatures from Front Rank and Calpe.
The second set I received was the original pack of
Prussian Medics. The set contains two Compagnie-Chirurgen, one Battalions-Chirurg, and one Eskadrons-Chirurg. Again these are finely detailed and scaled figures that can be used in advancing battalions and firing lines among the troops, on casualty markers, or find a place on a command stand or rear echelon vignette.
Both sets were very clean castings with very little to no flash. Mold lines are hard to find and imperfections in the metal almost nonexistent. The quality of the metal and casts more than match the quality of the sculpts. Also there's nothing small, fidgety, or easily breakable about the casts. Even the rifles and running poses feel strong. The poses seem to have been designed with this in mind along with ease of casting, and small breakable parts like swords are strategically sculpted along the leg for example.
Perry - Westfalia - Perry - Westfalia - Perry - Westfalia - Foundry - Westfalia - Foundry
Although I don't have a wide range of miniature manufacturers available for comparison, you can see they scale favorably with Perry Miniatures (French are the same, Prussians slightly larger) as well as Wargames Foundry (slightly shorter). All in all, these miniatures should have no problem fitting in with most Napoleonic ranges, within units or on the same table top. The realistic scale is probably the number one thing I love about sculpts from Paul Hicks. If Westfalia's upcoming miniatures are anything as good as
Roger Morrow's Poles (also sculpted by Paul Hicks), then it looks like I'll be painting some Saxons later this year. :-)
So if you're into 28mm Napoleonics, be sure to visit the
Westfalia Miniatures site and see their latest and greatest. Here's a
link to their recent newsletter. The customer service and friendly communication I received was top notch. I was careful not to call this post a review, because it really is a well deserved product endorsement, and I wish them the best of luck in the future! :-)
Finally, I thought I would include another quick mention of my new Napoleonic blog
Immer Vorwärts! which covers a joint project set during the 1813 Campaign in Germany.
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