Hi Team
I've received confirmation from Neil at Reinforcements By Post (RBP), that he's finished my order and is almost ready to post. Just some packing and wrapping to do now.
Throughout the whole process, (pre-order questions, dispatch to his team in Bangladesh, and actual painting), Neil has been very helpful and maintained excellent lines of communication.
I'll post a more detailed review of the work done by RBP once the figures arrive, but in the meantime checkout the pictures to see what the team at RBP have done.
All figures are painted to RBP "Museum" standard, (equivalent to Fernando Enterprise's "SHOWCASE" standard):
Here at left we have some French 9th Chasseurs A Cheval. Part of IV Corps of the Grand Armee of 1812.
The basing looks pretty good. Initially I didn't want any basing done, as I normally prefer to do that myself, but it's so cheap to have RBP do it, (cheaper than if I purchased the bases and did the basing myself); I would have been a mug to do it myself. Neil's guys did a better job than what I could have pulled off myself anyway.
The miniatures are AB Miniatures purchased from EUREKA MINIATURES here in Victoria. Have I mentioned what a great bunch they are at Eureka?
Next (at right and below) we have some French Line Infantry. Mostly OLD GLORY (OG) figures, with a few AB's thrown in for some additional variety. OG are the type of figure that will look either really good or rather CRAP depending on the skill of the artist. As you can see here, they look FANTASTIC (I think). As the figures were to be based for AGE OF EAGLES, they should be 4 per base. Neil's team did a great job of fitting on the casualty figures and still making the bases look suitably "Regimental". Furthermore, as my original intention was to do my own basing, I sent a number of figures that weren't divisible by four. Consequently Neil had to make best with what he had, as explained in the email he sent:
"You had odd combinations of marching and 'advancing/attacking' figures
in units. You also had strange numbers (not divisible by 4) of
figures. I have tried to put your bases together so that you can
easily play with them on the table. That meant shoving the advancing
figures to the back and having them 'bayonet' through the front rank.
If you have them at the front you will never be able to go to column.
Your casualties and dead figures desperately tried to control whole
bases because they are elongated. I tamed them as much as possible.
Next time you will have to lay all the figures out for units to make
sure they work. Otherwise you will be asking for a disaster. I also
suggest that you go for marching figures as they work best. I have a
few firing lines and advancing units but they create headaches on the
table. Never try to mix up the figures in units.
I'll be working on basing templates for the future so people can work
it all out at home before sending figures to me. If I have a backlog
now it is going to be worse in future and I won't have the chance to
fix mix ups.
Please let me know if the figures are OK for you".
All good suggestions, and exactly how I would normally do business. But like I said, I did intend to do the basing once I had the figures back home. I'm pretty happy with the results
Here at left we have some of the 13 Highlanders I sent. These guys were to be painted to match a sample I sent. I can say it appears that this has been done. I'll confirm that the job has been done to perfection once I have the miniatures here. I must say though they look pretty darn good! Again, the figures are the magnificent AB Miniatures.
Finally we have some OG 10mm Prussians. Now i must say I'm very impressed with the work done here. I think I'll base these guy to use with my the MIGHT & REASON rules by Sam Mustafa, (a pretty good set of rules I think). Check them out at:
http://www.sammustafa.com/mr.html
Just look at the detail on these little guys!
Cheers for now!