New 3mm ACW from Oddzial Osmy: Review and Comparison

Well, as a self-confessed small scale fanatic, I suppose it wasn't going to be long before I got my hands on some of the new kids on the under 6mm block, in the shape of the latest 1/600th American Civil War range from Oddzial Osmy. Now ACW was a possible candidate for a future project using 2mm figures, but having seen the preview photos on TMP and elsewhere, I couldn't resist buying a few packs to see just how these would shape up against the old favourites, and so I thought I'd give a run-down of my impressions, and also how they compare to existing ranges in the 1/900th to 1/600th area.

First off, I got my order via Fighting 15s here in the UK, who have an excellent website with some great illustrative photos of the various minis, and must be given special mention in that Ian Marsh over there was extremely helpful after a Post Office mix-up led to my package being returned to the Isle of Wight - he sent it back on its way lickety split after an emergency phone call - so top marks for service to them!

http://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk/american-civil-war-757-c.asp

The minis from Marcin at Oddzial might be familiar to the growing group of gamers that are using his WWII and Modern ranges, but were new to me outside of what I had seen on Web; they arrived in the ubiquitous ziploc baggies attached to some clearly labelled branded cards, and immediately impressed with their overall proportions and clarity of sculpting in spite of their miniscule size. Below we see a representative group in their 'fresh-out-of-the-packet' state:

(All photos on this Blog should be clickable for an enlarged, Macro view)

The first thing to note is that whilst there was a total absence of flash, there were venting remnants from the casting process as you see above. These were easy enough to remove using some small sharp scissors, however I must say that as these minis are made with some very high quality metal/pewter, they are very hard - so I mean sharp scissors or snips! For filing away any small nubs of these vent left-overs where present on the base, a good needle file was also a help.

As you can see, the cannon pack, which contains thirty guns, one smoothbore, one rifled on each of fifteen strips, also require cutting to separate, although an integral groove makes this much easier.

So just how big are these little guys? Well, that's something I hope to illustrate throughout this post - although it's important to note the background squares on the cutting mat are 1cm by 1cm, here's a quick reference with a stand of the 1/600th infantry up against a strip of SYW grenadiers by Heroics & Ros; ostensibly 6mm, although better described as arguably closest to 1/300th in scale:

Each 3mm strip from Oddzial is a smidgeon under 20mm wide by 3mm in depth; the figure height including base I would say is 5mm, not including any protuberances such as the rifle muzzles or flags; the standard bearer measures for instance just under 8mm from bottom of base to top of flag.

Given this size, the sculpting quality on display here is second-to-none, the figures have decent human proportions, and the weapons, heads and headgear are not over-exaggerated or ugly, which can sometimes be an issue in smaller scale minis.

Below, on the left, the front view of an infantry strip, and to the right the reverse of same; you will immediately spot blanket rolls, canteens and ammunition pouches:

Overall, given the somewhat scruffy nature of field uniforms during the ACW, I applaud the decision to mix both soft hats and kepis amidst the strip, however this might not be to everyone's taste - at least it is true to say that such consideration to detail in minis so small shows great credit to their sculptor/designer.

The overall rear of an infantry strip once more:

and then the rear of the command strip which includes two standard bearers, an officer with sword, and a drummer - who, by the way, is the only figure which is wearing a backpack:

I'm trying not to trip myself up with too many superlatives here, in that the very nature of painting and using such small scale miniatures might be anathema to some, whilst I am something of a fan of them to begin with, but objectively, these are great creations given their relative size.

So just how do they compare to similarly scaled figures, particularly when seen up against the long existing 2mm or around 1/900th ones, and more importantly, the two perhaps less well known ranges that are ostensibly 1/600th in scale.

Both Peter Pig and Tumbling Dice in the UK offer some infantry or ground troops to complement their respective ACW Naval and multi-period Aircraft collections, although as I have discussed in previous posts on this Blog, the scaling is rather individual to each manufacturer:

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/search/label/Peter%20Pig%20Range%207

Below we can see the new 3mm ACW cannon on the left, next to a 2mm gun from Irregular Miniatures, and on the right, the artillery group from Peter Pig's range 7 which is advertised as 1/600th - (that's a UK penny in the pic for scale):

I should say that the Peter Pig piece has had a light ink wash just to improve the definition in the photos; I think the artillery from the two 1/600th manufacturers would sit pretty well alongside one another - the integral figures on the Peter Pig mini are definitely shorter and less well defined than the new Oddzial ones, but the thicker base part would offset this to some extent.

An illustration of the artillery crew strip from Oddzial; again, excellent and vivid sculpting - ramrod, bucket, lever and ball all visible - it is important to point out that if you intend to use all five figures per each gun crew, then with 15 strips per pack, they will of course only match 15 guns, so you'll need an extra pack to accommodate the thirty cannon in the gun pack.

Next a quick look at the skirmisher strip, which again does not disappoint in terms of looks, and would give some 1/300th models a run for their money - they come in a lateral strip, with useful grooves between each figure base to allow ease of cutting into individuals; a figure with rifle levelled and one loading his piece both have soft hats, the two firing figures are in kepis - it is true to say that the kneeling firing figure does 'stand' a little tall in comparison to his counterpart, but given their overall size, this is not too detrimental:

Now the command strip, again with a 2mm Irregular mounted group for reference, and then, on the right, another command group from Peter Pig:

The latter piece has a nice animation, but is somewhat scruffy - the size difference with the new 3mm is more pronounced, I think. Oddzial's figures are again mounted so that they may be cut as individuals, and although my photography might not do them full justice, they are a useful trio, and bode well for the sculpted, but not yet in production cavalry figures that I believe are to come soon.

Talking of cavalry, just as a size comparison, let's see them up against the others - at left, a 2mm strip from Irregular, at the rear a cast-together cavalry block from Peter Pig, and at right a cavalry strip of riders in shako from Tumbling Dice - definitely the largest of the bunch:

The infantry proportions are similar, when seen against the other three companies' output as above:

The cast-together block from Peter Pig is clearly smaller than the new figures from Oddzial, and at the rear, somewhat indistinct in my photo, the 'giants' from Tumbling Dice; this impression is reinforced when comparing the skirmish strips/groups of each:

Of course, the figures from Tumbling Dice and Peter Pig were never designed as centrepiece parts of their ranges, but are there to augment their otherwise finely scaled ships and aircraft, whilst the 2mm from Irregular is obviously in a whole league of its own; I think the new 3mm ACW stands apart in both intent and delivery, and probably would bear better comparison against 6mm figures under such criteria - certainly, your intentions and commitment to a scale as a gamer is important here, whether choosing generic stands that represent large formed bodies of troops, or preferring a more detailed look whilst retaining 'Mass' on the table top.

Talking of which, I thought I'd mention one small wrinkle that struck me when ruminating on just how one might base up these figures; for me, the appeal of smaller scale figures is their ability to depict large formations in a more realistic manner, so as an example, I initially thought of employing a 60x30mm base with 6 of Oddzial's strips across its width as maybe a regiment.

What immediately stood out to my eye was the fact that the design of the command strip means that the standard bearers with flags would be off-set to one side - I'm no expert on the drill of the period, but to me, these always look best centred whether in the front or rear ranks - more Hollywood than Historical, perhaps, but just what I'd prefer:

This brings up a slight problem, for when the straightforward solution of cutting the strips to size, and enabling the individual placement of figures comes up, you run into the very hard nature of the metal they are made from - without a groove, these Line strips are little beasts to cut accurately, particularly when trying not to damage the figures either side.

A compromise, then, might start off looking something like this - but I think you have to address the question as to whether this level of surgery is what you want from minis that are supposed to be easier to prepare, paint and field than their larger scale cousins:

I think that slight quandary brings me to my overall impression of these new figures - their excellent detail is both their strength and perhaps their weakness - as a small-scale gamer, I'm not too proud to state that the smaller mini can often be a short-cut to fielding Wargaming units without the 'master-modeller' touch required by the larger scales, and it might be said that the level of individual detail on these will draw one inexorably into the latter approach.

What makes these new little guys most attractive is their quality, but at the same time, might this very quality mean that you would spend as much time on each individual figure as you would prepping and painting a larger, say 6 or 10mm one?

This would somewhat undermine the generic mass approach, but depending on the individual, could be very rewarding - there's no doubt these would look great well painted en masse, but would they be as forgiving of a more 'broad brush' approach that makes 2mm so easy to field?

So, that's ten out of ten for their quality and overall value - currently £3.00 per 120 infantry figures, but a lesser score for me in terms of how they might actually figure as a practical project - I can't help feeling that the level of detailing required to really do them justice would equal that of 6mm, with a slighter table top presence, and am worried that the generic painting approach suitable for mass 2mm blocks would be rather letting them down, or indeed, would show up my cr*ppy painting all the more clearly!

I can't really find it in my heart to be overly critical, in pretty much all respects these are a class act, and I guess if you baulked at the tiny size and lack of detail of 2mm figures, but wanted a way to have a lot of units without the price of 6mm, then these would definitely fit the bill; just can't help feeling that for 6mm adherents, they might be a little too small and slight when deployed.

So, will I be plunging into 3mm ACW on the back of these little beauties, well...I'm still thinking about that one - I've heard that the 3mm scale buildings from the revivified Simply6 will likely be available from Fighting 15s and elsewhere in the future, and have thought that some of the output of Peter Pig's Hammerin' Iron range could also augment what is available, whether scenery, artillery or even shipping....and of course if Oddzial bring out the cavalry figures soon, and hopefully a pack of horse-holders, and some zouaves, and....uh-oh....they might be hard to resist, in spite of my reservations.... hey, I'm as much of a Lead Mountain builder as the next man.... :-).

Small Scale Comparison 3: Artillery and Command

A quick run through of the final part of my look at 2/3/4mm minis, namely the artillery, although in typically idiotic fashion, I forgot to purchase any of the actual guns available from Tumbling Dice in ostensibly 1/600th scale, (British 18pdr, German 77s and Russian 76s are available....) so this is more a look at well.....the limbers and draught horses, than the hardware, as it were.

In the photo above, you can see part of Tumbling D's ISL918, WWI Artillery Limber and Crew; each of the three limbers in the pack is matched by a set of three horses as above, and a further three being ridden by gunners, as below:

Pretty nice, really, the rider's shakos put me in mind of High Victorian, perhaps Crimean era gunners, definitely RHA, I think!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11384742@N06/4115303394/

Peter Pig, range seven, and Irregular, on the other hand, have the cast all-in-one-on-a-base approach, as we can see in the next photo:

(Peter P's Pack 10, 12pdr guns and limbers alongside Irreg's split trail gun from BG6)

I must say that despite it's size, the Irregular gun is excellent, with even some gunnery paraphernalia such as powder barrels, rammers etc visible alongside the gunners themselves:

The Peter P sculpt is rather nice with the gun just unlimbered and being readied for action, unusually for a wargaming piece, perhaps, we see the preparation, with a chap clearing the muzzle - you certainly wouldn't want to be firing with the horse and limbers in such close proximity!

Overall, though, a pretty nice mini, which I think would paint up well, a line of these would give a good sense of a 'battery' on the tabletop, rather than the usual view of the guns themselves in isolation, although of course this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, and doesn't have the flexibility of being able to pose the models separately, at your whim, on a base.

A comparison shot of all three types and sizes, then, with perhaps the better choice of Irregular's 2mm BG26, 'limber towing gun' for size:

Finally, a quick and dirty photo of the command stand available from Peter Pig, namely pack 42, which has a nice group of mounted and dismounted men in a huddle, against the classic RBG24 from Irregular:

The huddled effect of the larger group is perhaps somewhat to its detriment, making it hard to differentiate each figure, so this is a bit disappointing given the opportunities for better clarity in a bigger mini, but then as I've said before, these 3 and 4mm lines were never the main, major focus of the two other manufacturers in the first place, so you can't expect too much.

I think that pretty much sums up the differences between the three sizes:

Peter P's Range 7, is a little bit below par, given the dimensions of the castings when compared to their Irregular counterparts, and whilst Tumbling D's efforts definitely punch above their weight if you put them alongside the 6mm of, for instance, Heroics and Ros, they are rather static and limited in range and pose.

I suppose what I am trying to get at is that the ostensible 3 and 4mm minis suffer from falling in between the better balanced and resourced ranges of 2 or 6mm, so probably wouldn't set the world on fire if used in isolation; alongside the range of 'planes and ships from Peter P or Tumbling D that they were designed for: just fine, but not real contenders on their own.

Will either set of minis find their way onto my tabletop? I have a certain hankering after a 'Charge of the Light Brigade' type set-up with the Tumbling D shako-wearers lining up against the Peter P guns deployed in the far distance - a nice vignette, methinks, and that would explain the size difference, anyway!

Small Scale Comparison 2: Cavalry

A quick look now at the mounted figures available from the three manufacturers mentioned in my previous post, with some comparison shots of the various types. Below we see Irregular Miniatures' BG11, Loose Order Sabre Cavalry in the front, then Peter Pig's Pack 40, Cavalry Blocks, and bringing up the rear a strip from Tumbling Dice's ISL910 Mounted Cavalry in Shako:

Remember, all photos on this Blog should be 'clickable' for a larger, and often somewhat unflattering Macro view. What is immediately clear on close examination is that the cavalry block from Peter P, has little to offer over the more familiar 2mm one from Irregular, and is little more than being a larger version.

The camera has been somewhat unkind, particularly in the photo below, where for some reason it looks as if the horses sport some form of skeleton eye sockets, but I assure you that in the flesh these do not seem as exaggerated, and are merely the beast's ears!

The block's footprint, of course comes in at 25 x 6mm as opposed to the 15 x 4mm of it's smaller cousin, but I think I just expected more from the proportionately heftier block.

Of course, you're looking at twelve horsemen with a large, clearly visible flag, eight blocks per UK £2.30 pack for a total of some 96 horsemen. As you can see below, there are visible straps/sashes, although this is balanced by the disappointing headgear, but then again, of course this is meant to be an ACW unit, so I suppose is more in the line of a kepi rather than anything more substantial.

Finally we have the two types available from Tumbling D, namely the shako wearing cavalry and their counterparts, ISL910a Mounted Cavalry in Helmet. As you can see, the shako-wearers are lovely little sculpts, if a little passive, with four riders on a strip 30mm long by 3mm wide; they put me very much in mind of similar types available from Navwar/Heroics and Ros in 6mm.

Saddlecloths, a weapon valise, reins and headgear are all nicely sculpted, and had me wondering about a possible use for troops from the Crimean or Franco-Prussian Wars - mini hussars at a bargain price; 32 of these little guys at UK1.80 as opposed to 21 at £2.50 from the 6mm Heroics and Ros Range.

The helmet-wearers hold the same static pose, however this time with a domed head rather than discernible headgear - less coal-scuttle or Tommy Atkins type and rather more conformal, modern, or even sci-fi in shape - so to my mind miss the mark a little:

I guess that some conversion work would be possible here, although whether you would wish to get into something as complicated as that at this scale, notionaly 1/600th, although actually closer to 1/450th, as with the infantry - I'm not sure - headswaps on 4mm figures....hmmm....

even I balk at that!

As I concluded in the previous post, you simply can't beat the range of types available from Irregular in 2mm, although even with them, there are some problems with a lack of obvious headgear, but I certainly think that the Tumbling D minis are excellent given their size compared with 6mm ones, if too passive in pose.

I can't help thinking though, that at some point that they might end up getting a lick of paint as Cardigan's 11th Hussars... wouldn't be too bad either for Colonial/VSF era armies to accompany larger scale Land Ironclads....oh no, sounds like a whole new project........

Next post: teeny artillery!

Small Scale Figure Comparison: 2/3/4mm

I thought I'd take a look at some of the less well known ranges available down at the teeny-tiny end of things, and do a comparison of the various types. Most of you will be aware of 1/300th and 1/285th, i.e. 5 or 6mm figures made by various manufacturers, and of course the 2mm range from Irregular, but how about 3 or even 4mm figures?

To be exact, I'm talking about what are ostensibly 1/600th miniatures available here in the UK, but I think, in visual terms at least, fall somewhere around those sizes. As you will see in the photo above, the 2mm infantry from Irregular are at the front, those in the middle are by Peter Pig, and at the rear from Tumbling Dice.

(Remember, the squares on the backing surface in the photos are 10mm in size.)

First up, from Peter Pig's Range 7, "Hammerin' Iron", we have the Number 39 pack, 'Infantry Blocks', which are made to accompany and complement their 1/600th ACW naval; these are cast in a block form similar to the 2mm ones available from Irregular Miniatures, and similarly have cast-on flags:

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/range7.htm

(Scroll down to bottom of the page)

Crucially, however, these flags are depicted in pairs, which of course is perhaps more historically accurate for most 18th and 19th century troops at the Battalion scale and above.

This block measures some 26mm long by 6mm wide, and has nicely delineated individual figures, with a level of detail that allows a suggestion of muskets, belts and shoulder belts/sashes to be visible:

The troops are depicted in a close formation of four ranks, with the standard bearers quite properly placed in the middle to the rear of the front rank. There are 20 figures in each rank, for a total of 80 men. I'm not particularly familiar with formations used during the American Civil War, but to my mind at least, these deep blocks might stand well for Napoleonic French in attack columns, or perhaps early Seven Year's War European troops.

The pack contains eight of these blocks, at a cost of Uk £2.30 for a total of 640 men - not bad!

I would characterise these as 3mm, when compared visually to the 2mm miniatures made by Irregular, whose BG33 52 man two rank block seen in the first photo above, retails at UK 0.25 pence each.

Next up, we have an example of another 1/600th range, this time from Tumbling Dice, which is available to complement their excellent Aircraft.

It can be found in the 'Land, Tanks, Trucks and Guns' section of the post-1950 page of their PDF catalogue, although the minis are meant for use as WWI or II troops:

http://tumblingdiceuk.com/aircraftpost1950.html

(scroll down to bottom of the page)

Here we see ISL902 Close Order Infantry from the front, which has eight figures on a 20 x 3mm base:

The detail on these, perhaps is somewhat obscure, there are certainly no weapons discernible to my eye, and the headgear is similarly, rather generic, the kepi of early WWI French infantry perhaps?

The reverse depicts a clearly defined pack where even the straps are visible, although being somewhat exaggerated, put me in mind more of Sci-Fi troopers with 'techno' packs rather than their historical counterparts.

Although advertised as 1/600th, they seem to perhaps be closer to 1/450th, or at least nearer to a visual height of 4mm from feet to top of head.

Next, let's move on to the 'Skirmish' Infantry types available from the three manufacturers, seen below in a comparison shot:

First up, the ever-hard to photograph BG23 Loose Order Infantry Block from Irregular, depicting 10 troops; I've given the blocks from this manufacturer a light Ink Wash in order to make the detail a bit more visible in the pics:

This is matched by the Range 7, Pack 41 from Peter Pig, which has 10 men spaced across a 26 x 5mm base:

The reverse shows that these are perhaps as 'blobby' as their Irregular Miniatures counterparts, with clutches of men together making it hard to differentiate what is going on; perhaps a base with all of the figures prone like the one on the far right would have been better?

This is matched by the ISL901 from Tumbling Dice: 'Infantry in Open Order', a pack which contains 8 bases of eight troops, spaced out over 30 x 3mm:

These are twins of the close order troops seen above, again with the backpacks and kepi-like headgear:

Perhaps they would better depict the open line/extended order of WWI-era soldiers, but I think would struggle to be seen as those of WWII or later:

If anything, these minis would find it hard to compete with their larger 6mm cousins, although at 64 figures for Uk £1.80 are pretty cheap.

Not to denigrate this range, however, as we shall see in my next post, which will be looking at the Cavalry and Mounted figures available from all three manufacturers, you'll see that those of Tumbling Dice more than come into their own.

It is perhaps unfair to directly compare the more familiar 2mm minis with the 3 or 4mm ones, in that the ranges from Peter P and Tumbling D are really only designed as 'add ons' to the ships or planes that are the heart of the range; but if you find 2mm just too small to cope with, they do at least provide an alternative to consider.....

Next Post: Tiny Cavalry!