Louis's Heavy Hitters: 28mm French Artillery for the French and Indian War

One of the potential benefits of collecting figures to wargame the French and Indian War is that cavalry units are almost nonexistent in the forests of North America and artillery is really limited to large sieges which are mostly outside the scale of skirmish games like Sharp Practice. It makes it easier to collect and paint what feels like a full force.

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have a look at what was out there. Sharp Practice does have rules for cavalry and artillery, after all. There's metal and even some plastic artillery kits out there, but most predate (War of Spanish Succession) or postdate (American War of Independence) the period I was interested in.

As far as I can tell, the only readily available option that wouldn't involve some kitbashing or sculpting (something I wanted to avoid for a piece that will likely see limited use) is this metal set from AW Miniatures. They also carry an equivalent kit for British artillery, I believe.

I could tell from the listing that the figures were on the large side and somewhat crudely sculpted, but they weren't that expensive, so I decided to try them. As a result of the limited time we had to play out our campaign and my lack of enthusiasm for the models once they arrived, I've only recently got it painted up.

I can't complain too much about the sculpt of the cannon itself, and the carriage was fun to paint. It wasn't the easiest to assemble, but if you've ever put together one of Warlord's metal artillery pieces for Bolt Action, it's a walk in the park by comparison.

I attempted to add some weathering and chipped paint onto the carriage, mostly because I thought it would just be a little more interesting. I'm not sure the effect was successful, but I'm not going to be going back to do it over either.

I've been griping about the figures, so let me talk about them some. They're chunky, poorly proportioned, bow-legged, lacking in variety, and poorly detailed. I hope the sculptor of the figures isn't reading this.

Here's, from left to right, a Warlord/Conquest figure, an AW figure, another (modified) Warlord/Conquest figure, another AW figure, a Brigade Games figure, and one more AW figure. As you can see, even taking into account the slightly different basing, these figures are massive.

I am well aware that the Brigade figures are on the slim side and that the Warlord/Conquest line is known to be a little on the short side. Both are far more detailed than the AW figures. I'd say I'm almost reluctant to put these figures on the same table together.

I know Galloping Major figures are quite large, so maybe they'd scale well with that line. The Galloping Major figures appear much more detailed than these. If the problem were one or the other, detail or size, I think it would be easier to overlook.

I'm sure it will still see use at some point — after all, it's a damn cannon, and cannons are cool — but I'm greatly disappointed with the models. I'm glad I decided not to order any other figures from the same line.

Most likely, on a table full of figures and terrain, you wouldn't notice the discrepancy quite so much, but I wanted to give my unvarnished opinion of these. You won't be seeing them in the campaign, at the very least.

Speaking of the campaign, I was quite pleased with the reaction to the first battle report, and I'm hoping to get the next one out this coming week. We'll see how reality effects my plans.