Sunday 15 June 2014

Moving forward ..... Campaign Game Miniatures.

Well, it has become clear to me that Essex Miniatures are just not as popular as they once were so due to very low bidding activity I decided to withdraw them from sale rather than risk seeing them go for a price that does not reflect the casting cost and painting time. I honestly began to doubt that I would even recover the bare metal cost! I have no need to sell them, it's just what I do from time to time, but the last week has been quite an upheaval. I feel foolish, but at times I can tend to behave what may seem irrationally to those who manage to hang on to their prize collections for years or decades.

Reading around various forums the main objections to Essex figures seems to be the basic anatomy and animation, 'stumpy' was one description I read. Certainly the range is old now, I was buying these self same figures 15 years ago and very little has been to upgrade the range, but that said I still like them. I had been considering beginning the British for the 100 days campaign using Essex, but time spent looking through the images on the Essex site did little to inspire me. I thought about using an alternative range but all I could see was AB's really, everybody is mad about AB's right now and justifiable so, but obviously they were not going to work with my Essex figs. They are also very expensive. I think this caused me some frustration and possibly led to deciding to sell up.

A couple of days however I came across a review of Campaign Game Miniatures 15mm British Napoleonics, they looked brilliant figures and I noticed that the reviewer made a comment re them being  shorter and stockier than the 18mm AB's, mentioning that the legs appeared a couple of mm's shorter than AB's ...... possibly a good enough match for Essex? So I'm going to give them a try and order a few bags of British line. Once I have some painted I'll give them a review here.

I'd not seen this range before, you can see the lists HERE, but they are sold in the UK by TSS. Inspirational photos, I especially like the line troops in covered shakos and the Dragoons.

Images linked from CGM website - lovely!


The French range is brilliant too!



I think they look fairly similar to Essex in stature, not as lean and thin as AB's certainly!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Lee - I've noticed before that the summer months are not the best time to sell wargame stuff on eBay with people on holdiay etc plus of course this year the World Cup as a distraction! I would suggest you try again in September if you really want to sell them or even better you could just keep them!!! I think the 100 days would be an excellent new project...

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    1. Cheers for that info Ian, I think I'll try and use them for the time being see if I can become more attached to them!

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  2. Hi Lee, while I'm not a great fan of the CGM British figures anatomy, they are cleanly sculpted and cast - which alone puts them well ahead of many makers. Their cavalry figures are very nice and will mix well with AB (but would be large next to your Essex chaps). - I have a CGM / AB French Dragoon unit in the painting queue at the moment..

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    1. Might have to think twice about this then as I like to keep everything in scale! I'll have another look at Essex Brits.
      Thank you.

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  3. They look nice figures, I'm a big fan of Essex minis.....yes they all do look the same without much variation, but they're still my favourite!

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    1. Nice to hear from another Essex fan Ray :-)
      Cheers.

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