Sunday 7 February 2010

Slow Down. You Move Too Fast.

It's been a slow couple of weeks, certainly as regards my painting. I've not been in the mood, post-Xmas housework and tidying/sorting has been higher on my To Do list, and I also had to take a few days off to visit a very sick friend who is just recovering from a major operation. Lots of excuses, and not a lot of work done. But that's the way of things.

I re-started the other day, and cracked on with the ACW figures. I have now completed the painting on all the Union Infantry and Artillery, and am working on the Brigade and Division commanders. I have a few Union Cavalry in kepis, but am in no hurry to start on them. I also did a couple of mild conversions of Reb Cavalry who's slouch hats were a bit mis-moulded. A few quick snips and a bit of filing quickly turned the slouch hats into kepis and added a couple more figures to my Union Horse. The centre figure is the conversion; the headgear is now close enough for me to be happy.



As far as the Johnny Rebs are concerned, I have based the two Infantry units and the Cavalry unit I swapped with John Preece, and have added two guns and their crews. I am currently working on two more Infantry units and the Reb Brigade and Division command.



I am looking at adding at least one colourful Zouave regiment to each side. But there things are a bit problematic. Spencer Smith produce but a single ACW Zouave, and that one is turbanned. One pose is rather a limited choice, especially as SAE produced many poses for these regiments. So I have to look elsewhere and am wondering how well the Tradition 30mm figures will work. Granted they are over double the price of Spencer Smiths, but they have a larger range of Zouaves including the command figures. Now sadly there are no images of them on the Spencer Smith website... So does anyone know if the Tradition ACW ranges will be a good match for 30mm Spencer Smiths? The last thing I want is bulky modern caricatures alongside the "toy soldiers".

It would not look right.

9 comments:

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

There are pictures of the Tradition 25 & 30mm ranges on the tradition site.

http://www.traditionoflondon.com/index.asp?page=Home.asp#

There are others who could answer compatability more definitively than me but I suspect the 25mm figures would be a better match for the Spencersmith than the 30mm range.
-Ross

DC said...

The Tradition 25s match pretty well with Hinchliffe and Garrison - if that's any help. As for their 30s i dunno - i've only ever seen their AWI figures and they are the largest '30mm' figures i've seen - probably more like 35mm. Willie are smaller, but more expensive, quite different in style, and you'd have to take zouaves from the FPW range.

cheers.

Hugh Walter said...

200433371748 on eBay now - if you're quick, I've been outbid and cirtainly wouldn't go higher than £7, but - things being worth what someone will pay for them - you may give them a differant value, two hours to go!

Poacher said...

Thanks for that eBay link, Maverick.

I didn't bother, in the end. Too rich for my blood. And for plastics, too..!! Bound to be brittle

Ta anyway!

chrissie
xx

Poacher said...

Thanks for that info DC.

Very odd. If one checks the ranges, then the titles for the Tradition Spencer Smith 25mm, they match the Spencer Smith site's Tradition 30mm. Only the Spencer Smith ones are almost twice the price!!

I shall check out the Tradition offerings from their own store.

chrissie
xxxx

Hugh Walter said...

They finished at a ridiculous amount didn't they? eBay is total madness, I struggle to get 99p for a mint set of anything even WWI artillery or similar, but get a handful of half painted brittle non-complete sets spread over two thousand years with a bit of Hong Kong thrown in and the crazies bid each other up to thirty quid!

It's the same with Lego, half an ice-cream tub of rubbish will get a tenner, but a sorted set of '60's one-stud blocks with letters on them (used for the old shop-fronts that went with the H0 vehicles) doesn't sell twice then scrapes through at 99p?

I'm going to have to empty all the beautifully sorted stock I've built up over the last 30 years from their boxes/bags etc...tip them all into the bath and stir them with a dustpan while adding HK crap and flicking paint at them! I'll make 100 times what I'd make selling them as 'quality' lots?

Paul said...

Hi Chrissie
The closest match i have seen for H/E
SSM ACW is Hinchliffe X range, another
company advertising true 30 mil ACW
figures popped up in the early ninties
but there long gone & i cant remember
there name

Paul

Paul said...

I think that company was called Echolon Design, wonder what happened to them
Paul

Poacher said...

Thanks, Paul.

Side by side the Hinchcliffe look a little too tall and bulky.

The real problem with the Spencer Smiths is that, being copies of copies of copies, they have "shrunk" over the years. I have some first generation copies of SAE figures, and they are noticeably larger than the present range from Spencer Smith.

John Preece showed me some Tradition 25mm, and I was surprised to see they were very close in height to the current Spencer Smiths. As they have a large range of ACW, I shall order a few next week and see how they "mingle" on the tbale top.

Thanks for your suggestions. :-)
chrissie
xx
ps, not heard of Echelon... or perhaps I have forgotten them.