Eureka miniatures 100 Club Saxons

I ordered a fairly huge number of Eurekas' 100 Club Saxons.

Basically I ordered Musketeers, Grenadiers and some Fusiliers with which to make up the von Rochow Fusiliers. I ordered some other bits and pieces, more on which later. I left off ordering the Leibgrenadier Garde figures because I couldn't afford them and also because my RSMs were filling that role quite nicely. I may order some later.

Initial impressions are good. Excellent sculpting as ever, fine finish to the miniatures, no mis-casts, and some difficult casts were pulled off with characteristic aplomb.

I ordered way too many of everything as usual and find myself with enough lead to build four and a half battalions of Musketeers, a battalion of Fusilieers and one of Grenadiers.

Each troop type comes with Officers, NCOs and Drummers appropriate for their arm. The Musketeers and Fusilieers include standard-bearers; the grenadiers do not as they were the converged companies of several different regiments and as such did not bear colours. Grenadier and fusilier Officers are armed (finally!) with muskets rather than pole-arms which is a very pleasing touch. Great faces on the figures too, who seem to be marching along with every evidence of zesty panache.

One small quibble here is that half the command figures are marching along in poses similar to the private soldiers, while the other half are at the halt, standing at attention as though accompanied by an as yet non-existent firing line. This kind of makes fully half the command figures I was supplied with look pretty odd. What are they doing? Directing traffic?

The best thing about this range is it's completeness. There are extras over and beyond the normal 100 Club ofering; Eureka have really pulled out all the stops here it seems to me. There is a mounted General, there are mounted regimental Officers; afoot there is a pioneer, complete with axe and leathern apron. Did I mention the oboist and hautbois? They are there. There are gunners for the battalion guns, albeit in somewhat static poses.Did I mention the battalion guns? It seems to me that Eureka are offering the light artillery left over from their old "Countess Sandra" 7YW Amazons as battalion guns. They fit the bill well enought it seems to me. Nicely cast little weapons they are too.

At this point I come to the problem that I perceive with the range. I have to make a rather large confession here: I assisted the commisioning party with some of the uniform research. As I understood it, the range was to be of Saxons of the Seven Years War. Specifically, this was to be the Saxon army as reconstituted after Pirna in 1756. To that end I provided my materials which had convinced me that the Saxon Army of the time wore collars on their coats.

I can see my girlfriend rolling her eyes at this point, but bear with me, I'm anally retentive on these things.The Eureka castings do not have collars on their little coats. Nor are there lapels visible on their waistcoats. To me this does not read as the Saxon Army of the 7YW, but rather of the 1742-45 period of the War of the Austrian Succession. My Stephen Manley booklet and my book on the Saxon Army by Wolfgang Friedrich suggest to me that the Saxons of the time were adopting a collarless, unlapelled coat. My Sapherson, Pengel&Hurt and (again) Wolfgang Friedrich lead me to believe that a collared coat was worn in the Seven Years' War.

I ought to note that Richard Knotel disagrees and is with Eureka on this one; who am I to argue with him? I do think that there ought to have been made some attempt to reconcile the different indications provided by the sources. It does highlight a problem that Eureka have with these 100 Club projects insofar as they have to rely on the research of the people proposing the projects. They've been caught short before with their AWI Marbleheaders, I seem to remember, which is a pity.*

I'm not sure what the solution is, perhaps Eureka need to do some independent research on the projects their commisioning parties put forward, perhaps.

All this being said, I recommend these figures most heartily, especially if you are - as I am - rather more interested in the War of the Austrian Succession than the duller Seven Years' War!

If you do take them as being of the WAS, then please do remember that the Fusilieer castings will serve as Grenadiers in the earliest part of the conflict.

Hohenfreidburg, Soor/Sohr and Kesselsdorf await!

*They were missing pikemen and African-American soldiers, I believe.

Eureka miniatures - recent releases

Eureka Miniatures

Empire of the Petal Throne, The Crimea, Napoleonic Russian Militia, Japanese Schoolgirls and Modern German Infantry. Stop press! – Arquebusiers de Grassin.

Empire of the Petal Throne

Empire of the Petal Throne? Tekumel? What’s that? I’d never heard of the fantasy world created by a Professor Barker, so I did a little research and apparently Tekumel is a world that has been colonized by various humans and aliens and then (by mysterious means) dropped into another dimension where, as time has passed, their technology and origins have been forgotten. Naturally now, humans being humans, the stage is set for war.

The costume style brings the Roman to mind, albeit in plate armor, with South American flourishes in the form of long feather plumes and exotically-bladed weapons. These are heavy infantry indeed, armed with sword, spear and bow, the idea being that one could represent “The First Legion of Ever-Present Glory”, the personal unit of one General Kéttukal who is himself represented here in miniature form.

This is the first release in a proposed much larger range that will include the various human and alien nations of Tekumel – one can only assume that initial sales will continue or curtail this range.


The Crimea

Sculpted by Mike Broadbent

Turning now to the 1850s we come to a rather catholic collection of additions to the Eureka 15/18mm Crimean Range.

To begin we have a rather full selection of French infantry. These consist of both Command and Line in Kepi or Shako. The greatcoat-clad troops are in firing, advancing and marching poses. Gorgeous. If you’re not too fussy about firearm detail, the kepi-wearing troops might be willing to serve in the Franco-Prussian War.

There are nice foot and horse crews (three figures each) in fairly static poses for a lovely little six-pounder gun.

For the Russians there is a very attractive group of three mounted and three dismounted Staff Officers all in the peaked cap.

Note that while billed at “15/18mm” these figures to actually measure 18mm from foot-to-eye.

Napoleonic Russian Militia

Sculpted by Tony Barton

As with their Crimean Range, this addition to the AB Napoleonic range is 15/18mm range which in Eurekas’ case seems pretty much to mean 18mm foot-to-eye. As ever, they are very nicely proportioned with excellent anatomy and attention to detail.

Sets R19-20 are of the St Petersburg Militia, armed with pike and musket in static poses. R21 offers firing and loading infantry. Dressed in greatcoat and peaked cap – this latter I assume was the signifier of the St Petersburg men, as the Moscow Militia are differentiated only by their head-gear. This is in the form of a tall, cylindrical, peak less shako.

Tony has also sculpted up three generic staff officers as well as very nice representations of Generals Kutuzov, Platov and Bagration. All have a lovely sense of the age to them.

Japanese Schoolgirls

Sculpted by Mike Broadbent

They duck, they weave they perform explosive high kicks that in conjunction with their flippy little skirts, show you pretty much what they had for lunch.

These are the Japanese schoolgirls. There are seven poses available; four are pulling various martial arts moves, three are waving large samurai swords about.

They are sculpted in something like the “manga” style – short torsos, exaggeratedly long legs, prominently displayed underwear; I am sure that Tarantino fans would approve.

That being said, at a time when here in Australia at least, we are having a debate about the sexualisation of young children, I think these figures are in poor taste. At the very least, I wonder what sort of image this presents of war gamers both within and without the hobby...

Modern German Infantry

Sculpted by Kosta Heristanidis

This set off figures comprises three iterations of the same set of 10 or so poses with differing levels of kit; i.e., in full kit with or without gas-mask or, lightly equipped without gasmask. These last are billed as a “zombie containment team”. The troopers are armed with G-36 assault rifles, MG 5s with separate bipods and man-portable AT weapons

Additionally, in a supporting role; three HQ staff designed to go with Eureka’s’ recently released office furniture set.

These are as handsome a set of modern troops as you are likely to see. I expect to see them in any of a dozen peace-keeping operations from Bosnia to “somewhere in Africa” on the one hand, and fighting off hordes of zombies or resurgent neo-Sovs some time in the near future on the other.

Strange to say, I’m finding it hard to decide whether it’s their anatomy or just the general military clutter they are draped in that lends the figures a certain chunkiness.

Still, all up, these are really cool.

Arquebusiers de Grassin

Sculpted by Alan Marsh

Fruit of my very own “100 Club” project, the Arquebusiers de Grassin owe as much of their fame to the pen of Charles Grant as to their actual exploits on the field of Fontenoy in 1745.

Comprising the usual 100 Club mix of three command and a number of troopers, you get an Officer, an Ensign and a Hornist blowing heartily on his “trompe de chasse” and five troopers in poses inspired by the 1750 drill manual.

The level of surface detail on these figures is excellent – two examples are the lace brandenbourgs on the Officers’ coat and the fleurs de lys on the trooper’s caps. The hunting horn is a delicate and complex casting that is produced in one piece with the musician and must have caused the mould-maker some pain. Flash on my samples was almost non-existent; there is evidence that the hunting horn must have had to be fairly heavily vented to get it to cast properly, but this is easily tidied up with the surreptitious use of the family nail scissors.

Eureka 28mm Infantry retail for $AU2.75; 15/18mm Infantry for $AU0.86; staff sets for $AU5.45.