Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Tuesday 2 November 2010

Art Miniaturen

Another manufacturer who is still doing well, but a rather different style of figure. Jorg Schmaeling's super 1/72 metal figures are, in my view, diorama-style, and very nice too - a little pricey, but lovely. Art Miniaturen are also nice, helpful people to deal with. Herr Schmaeling is happy to provide odd figures from his listed sets, and I understand that he will even consider spare parts - hats, pelisses and so on.


Apart from the price (which is not astronomical, by the way), the only other slight snags are

(1) there is occasional flash trouble - these figures are very detailed, but no compromise is made in animation to ease the casting process - some of the older figures can display signs of mould damage, particularly swords and muskets, and horses' legs can require a bit of dremelling to make them perfect

(2) Schmaeling does not accept payment by credit card or PayPal (at least he didn't a couple of months ago) - this is a bit of an issue for UK residents, since the good old British banks still make it very expensive to transfer money internationally. It is not a real stopper, but how you choose to work around the problem is up to you. I would never, of course, advise anyone to send cash euros in a registered letter. Perish the thought.


I have only one unit which is entirely Art Minaturen - my beloved French 3rd Hussars. These cost me a real arm and a leg, since I felt that my painting could not do justice to such fine figures, so I commissioned the very talented Jez Farminer to do the full collector-standard paint job on them. I am very pleased with them, but I cannot afford to follow this route very often!

I have some French voltigeurs, and a good number of command figures. Here are a few pictures, which I hope speak for themselves.




Finally, here's a conversion - I produced this Spanish colonel by grafting a Les Higgins British Light Infantry head on to an Art Miniaturen Belgian officer figure. The width and quality of the range make these figures ideal for conversions.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely items you've got there, especially the 3rd Hussars! I've long admired the Napoleonics and 18th century figures produced by Art Miniaturen. Sadly, I finally opted for 25-30mm, so that door is closed I fear. Nevertheless, delightful figures, singly or en masse.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is this the guy who used to do a vast range of resin artillery? Factory painted all sizes and eras, about 25/28mm, look a bit like they might be Elastolin or Merten until you look closer and realize they are resin.

    I have a whole box of slightly manky resin artillery and (I think) someone told me they were Art Miniaturen?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know nothing of manky resin artillery - I guess anything is possible. Anyone know about this? Jorg - are you out there...?

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, no, no, they are beautiful when new, mine were manky because they'd been left in the sun or near a radiator and had all collapsed into a heap!

    ReplyDelete
  5. OK - hold the lawsuit! - I think we could still do with a bit more background on the resin products, though. I hadn't realised that resin deteriorated in this way.

    Cheers

    Tony

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmmm...I've long considered getting some of their civilians and I think they did a vivandiere set as well. The lack of credit card facilities and the necessity of ordering through Mrs. Kinch (whose German is fluent) have always held me back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If you email them they are very accommodating.

    Tony

    ReplyDelete