Napoleonic Russian model comparison
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| Left to Right: Frontrank, Comissar, Avanpost, Foundry, Warlord, Perry, Comissar, Perry, Comissar |
After two years of collecting of Russian Napoleonics for 1812-1814 campaigns let’s see how I rate their quality. Of course it’s very subjective. Also the resin and metal model quality is subject to mould weariness. Older the mould, worse quality you get. There are two surprise on negative part – the quality of Perry, who were always synonymum of excellent historical miniature. But their metals were realy poor. May be they cast so fast they are unable to keep quality. The other surprise were customer care of Foundry which is not what I expect in 21st century, especialy contrary to Frontrank and it’s customer care. I get 1 model from whole lot where the mould has moved. I informed them, just to check if there are not issues with their other cast from the same batch, ane they sent me one model immediately back.
My “weapon”
of choice is Frontrank and Avanpost, with plastic Perry to build the bulk of
the infantry battalions.
AVANPOST
Avanpost
are simply the best Russians on the market. There are issues if compared to
other companies as they are Trues Scale, thus looking subtle. Other issue is shako
question of course, where Avanpost comply with Russian thesis on it – no saddle
shaped shakos but with 18111 sultans. I have only resin miniatures, the resin
is of excellent quality, it’s not hard, brittle resin, but in quality on the
same level as GS Failcast – but without any issues the GW has had with their
resin models. Let’s call it “plast-resin”.
Spears and bars are cast with metal wire inside. I saw people have
issues with small horses – but they are the same size as Perry, but are not
that bulky and has smaller heads. I am no expert on horse proportionality, the
look well with the figure, though.
COMISSAR MINIATURES
I don’t know
if it is me only, but my models from Comissar was really badly cast, a lot of
mold line, miscas and bent parts, unicorn barrel has missing details and some
thin parts are not well. But nothing you can’t clean with scalpel and files.
Nevertheless, the poses, the faces, the details are excellent. Also the range
of models is great, not offered by other companies. Horse Unicorn, Cossack
Artillery, several different Cossacks, Generals and of course NCO and Ober officers.
So apart the cast the models are great. My issue is with thick sultans and
musket/bayonet details. All of the NCO are well build men. They will look well
next to Frontrank or Warlord and are same size, but bulkier to Perry and of
course bulkier to Avanpost. Horse Artillery crew are smaller and tinier to the
NCO, same size as Perry artillery.
FOUNDRY
I have
about 12 Foundry models all of them in overcoats. The models are well cast,
facial features are nice. The bayonet has triangle shape, musket is not huge
handcanon, but is lacking several details. They are but bulky for their size so
they will mix well with Perry.
FRONTRANK
Frontrank
is what we call now „heroic 28mm“. They are all big bulky men, the details are
very nice, unfortunately we have very limited number of poses, with some of
them really weird, in order to do casting easier. Frontrank is sculpted for
easy to paint, easy to build army. They do excellent job in that but being that
huge, they are of limited use. There are only two different faces used. I love
Frontrank and have most of metal models from them. They look well next to Warlord sizewise. I
have issues with bayonets, looking more like broadswords. Another issue is
hands sculpted to hold wire lance. They are more like pincers, with huge long
fingers. It does not look well.
PERRY METAL
I have
three different Perry metal units – horse artillery, armed villagers and
skirmishing jagers. The Jagers are terrible models. A lot of details are
missing, facial features are weird, the cast was awful. Horse artillery are small
tiny, with a less detail, more contrast will be nicer, they do not paint well.
The partisans look good though. The models are not helping you to pain it, the
details seem shallow, more contrast would be nice. Great details on musket and
bayonets.
PERRY PLASTIC
My biggest
issue with Perry plastic is that there are only marching poses, and then they
are not marching but walking. The quality of detail Is now, but I will prefer contrast
on textile wrinkles and facial details to be more expressive. Unfortunately
decisions to have mould line running through face, is really a bad one. It will
not help you painting but the models will look great. Except for poses and
Faces the one and only plastic set is great and you will build a lot of options
from it. One notice – pompon colours are wrong on the leaflet. Also there are
no stab officers, only ober officer, so no chefs the battalions. I don’t like
the choice of summer uniform. To sculpt gaiters and buttons for them will be
easier to remove then vice versa.
WARLORD METAL
The metal
command for plastic sets are good, There are issues with mold lines, and all of
models has big heads with shako to comply with plastic range. Unfortunately
there are no heralding devices for the flag poles, which is very sad.
WARLORD PLASTIC
Plastic
Warlords set are the worst model from all sets. They have issues with
proportions, lacking a lot of details which are lost with cast. They are
sculpted for easy plastic manufacture, unfortunately it means a lot, a lot of
things are simplified so there are missing details. If you can get them cheap
(sprue sales) they are cool, but as a choice between Perry and Warlord I would go for them. They scale well with Frontrank
and Comissar. Bulkier 28mm, but the shako and head made them look bigger. They
main advantage is that they are easier to pain then Perry.
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