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Review of Capitulation's Fontenoy à Culloden range
by Fusilier Roly Hermans
The Battle of Fontenoy, which took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, is the subject of a new range of 30mm figures sculpted in the style of those old Suren and Willie miniatures.
The new figures in the Fontenoy à Culloden range are being produced by a French shop called Capitulation. This company was set up by Christophe Coquet (who is in charge of the miniature reviews in "Vae Victis" (the French wargaming magazine) and Patrice Menguy (a well-known French wargamer and book collector).
Christophe Coquet dressed as an engineer, and, on the
right, Patrice Menguy as an ensign of the Royal Ecossois.
When
Christophe and Patrice wanted to start collecting Fontenoy figures, they
were not happy with what was commercially available. So they took the
step of employing a sculptor to create a range of miniatures to their
own specifications. They chose a well-known sculptor from Scotland - Bob
Naismith (pictured right).
The first release of figures in this range starts with the French (other nations will follow in due course). They come in two separate packs. One contains six different fusilier figures; the other contains two officers with pikes, one standard bearer (pole not included), one sergeant with a halberd, one drummer, and one grenadier. To celebrate the launch of this new range, Capitulation offer one free officer in parade dress with each purchase of a minimum of two packs.
The command pack. The figures come with the optional
weapons and equipment shown here. Click
here to enlarge this picture.
The fusiliers. Lots of variety in these poses. The
muskets and swords come separate, which allows for even more figure variations.
Click here
to enlarge this picture.
The figures are tall, very tall. I make it about 30mm to the eye-
brows, so they are considerably taller than my Front Rank SYW
troops. And, of course, they are much slimmer.
Some assembly is needed. The hand carrying the weapon is cast
separately, though with the lug and socket provided, they look as
though they will fit quite well. The swords and bayonet scabbards
are also cast separately, and need to be glued onto the appropriate
part of the belt, but in this case there does not seem to be a
locating lug. The drummer has a separate drum, and both his arms
need to be attached.
The casting is very good indeed. The figures have almost no mold
lines, though the separate weapons will need a little flash removed,
as well as the lugs that connect them to their sprues.
At first glance, there seemed to be a couple of what we thought were
casting imperfections on the coats of some of the officer figures.
It turns out these are holes in which to glue the swords - in some
cases you have to cut the swords in two and glue one part so that the
handle sticks out the front of the coat, and the other part
protruding from the rear.
Initially
I was not at first convinced by the leg positioning of these figures,
feeling they looked a bit flat-footed and awkward. But the pose is growing
on me. It may well be that the lack of arms is what gives this first impression,
because Christophe and Patrice have gone to a lot of trouble to reproduce
correct poses. They are members of the Les
Sujets du Bien Aimé reenactment organisation, so they take photographs
of reenactors wearing the correct uniforms and standing in suitable poses.
The sculptor just copies these photos - you can see the result in the
picture of a resin precast of the Aide-Major below (actually David A.Wilson,
vice- president of the "Le Grognard" figurines club in South Eastern France).
The faces are an absolute delight. There are even different
expressions on some of them. And their hair is depicted differently,
too. These will be great fun to paint.
Their belts and equipment are well-cast, though some
of the items are not familiar to me, as I am not very knowledgeable about
this era.
So it will require a bit of research to work out what everything is
and what colour it should be painted. For instance, the haversack
seems to have little tassels on each of the bottom corners - I'm not
sure what these are or what colour they are. And the fusiliers also
have an intricate powder flask or something - I'll have to try to
identify what it is and what colours.*
The weapons are beautifully done. The muskets even have such
authentic details as their slings on the side rather than
underneath. I was a little surprised at the shortness of the
bayonets, but with the attention to detail on these figures, I
presume that is correct. I was especially impressed with the halberd carried
by the sergeant - the point is decorated with two tiny
fleur-de-lis.
It is a shame that the command set does not include the pole, point
and cravat for the flag. Points are readily available from other
manufacturers such as Front Rank and Bicorne, but cravats
are not,
and unless you are adept with Greenstuff, you'll have to make do with
a home-made papar cravat.
Overall, they are very nice figures indeed. I'm going to order
another twelve of them so I can make up a 24-man battalion. They
won't fit in with my existing Front Rank French 18th century army
because of their bigger size, but I can certainly see them taking part
in skirmish games with my friend's Redoubt "Last of the Mohicans"
figures.
Pricing and Postage:
CEE members: The basic price for one pack of six figures is 12 Euros including VAT.
Rest of the World: The basic price for one pack of six figures is 9,60 Euros without VAT (you may have to pay your local taxes etc.) Capitulation will charge only what is needed to send the parcels. Click here to check the French Post Office prices.
Capitulation are happy to do "special orders" for wargamers who have big bataillons (more than twelve) and for whom the makeup of the blisters will not be so suitable - cost for doing this will be worked out case by case by sending them an email.
Ordering Information:
Capitulation accepts VISA (don't send your codes by email). They can accept international money orders with no charges, and can also accept Paypal payments on demand. Orders can be made to: coquet_christophe@hotmail.com
* Fusilier Eric Veitl writes: "The haversack was partially wood and leather. The wooden part was covered with leather. So it could be leather-brown or reddish-brown or whatever leather colour would be. The top was leather colour also, depending oon the regiment red (Scottish regiments for instance) or black. Underneath there are two pieces made of rope - some were rope coloured, some were blue or red. The powder flask (yes, that is what it is) was made of cow-horn with brass fittings." back to article
