"How do Connoisseur figs match up with Front Rank?" Topic

Okay, I said I would never post here again – so I guess I am not a man of my word, but that was for a different matter – And I know you guys know the answer to this question -
How do Connoisseur figs match up with my Front Rank and Calpe? Also, how do Elite's figs match up with same? Is it worth it for me, I live in USA so it is really expensive to buy battalion packs of Connoisseur and have them shipped so before I start investing in all this different figs I need to know how there going to look against my Front Rank and Calpe – whose figs I love to paint – thanks all

I have loads of Connoisseur and seldom mix Front Rank. Elites blend better. I find Front Rank too stocky and lack the 'campaign' look when mixed with Connoisseur. For my French, I've limited it to standard bearers in great coats. I keep my Front Rank separate. Again, Elites are a better blend in my mind. I don't own any Calpe so I can't comment.

It breaks my heart to write this but £1.00 GBP for £1, on the whole they don't these days. Even with the discount for btn packs Connoissuer work out at 90p each. If you go for Front Rank's btn deals then they cost about 93p.
(My personal opinion is that a realistic price for connoissuer is about 70p a figure at most)
Connoissuer are a lot more tricky to paint than FR or Calpe. I've painted A LOT of Connoissuer over the years and know what I'm talking about.
Having said that, SOME (quite a lot) of the figures are still real gems, but unless you know the range inside out like I do it is pretty difficult to know which figures are good and which are not. The truly pathetic website doesn't help. Some of the figures look pretty poor these days, not all by any means, I must stress some are still fantastic.
The Horses are still pretty good but again slightly overpriced.
The Personality range and its associated (and unique) horses are still top notch.
My personal preference would be for Elite.
Front Rank, while nicely detailed, are sometimes a bit chunky for my taste and a little unimaginative in their poses, but each to his own.
Elite are on the whole pretty good quality. You can view a lot of their range on the website. A lot of their ranges have a colossal amount of variation in them.
If you go for the brigade pack deals that they regularly put out at christmas (like right now until the end of January) and buy in bulk then the price of Elite drops to about 70p a figure which is highly competitive. (I've just ordered a big old lump of Austrians).
Mr Moreby is quite amenable to "mix and match" stuff within his btn packs if you ask nicely (spending plenty of money helps in this!!)
Elite are a lot more painter friendly than Connoissuer, possibly slighty less so then Calpe, but then again, Calpe are a total joy to paint and few, if any, manufacturers match them in this dept.
Generally I would go with Elite and then use Connoissuer for some units which are good figures/unobtainable elsewhere.
Calpe Prussians are pretty much unbeatable, though the Elite Prussians (some of which was designed by Peter Fitzgerald anyway) are very good.
A Connoissuer unit side by side with an Elite unit looks fine on the table.
there are lots of Connoissuer and elite stuff (plus a bit of Calpe) on my blog here:
itinerantwargamer.blogspot.com

Thanks both of you for your comments – christot – that is interesting to me that you are not that high on Connoissuer – for the price they are asking I figured them to be outstanding figures since I have never seen them --- besides their Personality range, as you say then, why would I want to spend about $60 USD or more inc. shipping for say a French Line Btn.? – then it must seem Elite is another manufacturer that I should checkout – I love Front Rank's stuff – they have been good to me and I will never stop buying and painting them – and of course Calpe – I also have a lot of Foundry but I try to stay away from them now – It really is a lot of money and time to be a painter and player of Napoleonics -

I love Connoissuer figures (I've got thousands of them),and I still buy them, but I was trying to put myself in your position as someone who doesn't know the ranges.
Check out Elite is my advice in a nutshell.

I think of Connoiseur as being similar to good ol Hincliffe, from the Peter Gilder age of wargaming. One man's meat etc (I collect them all) but I'd say Front Rank, Calpe (and Perry's and Victrix) are a completely different type of sculpt and lifelikeness to the more old school sculpts of Elite, Hinchliffe (and Foremost), and Connoiseur.

Just my view, don't bite my head off!

Oh, yes – I do have one unit of Dutch Perry's – and I was thinking of buying some of their Brunswicker's – unless of course now I go with Elite's –
Also I need a better Marshal Murat – I have a Foundry of him but he looks so puny next the Front Rank -

RomanRep: a few thoughts:

[1] since you already have FR and Calpe figures, it might be best to stay with FR is you want some consistency in the "look" of your opposing French & Allies. FR certainly offers the widest variety of figure poses and campaign/formal uniform attire, so you can't go wrong there.

[2] Elite and Calpe are similar in height and heft/thickness so those ought to work together.

[3] Connoisseur and Elite are sculpted in a similar style, what I call "Impressionism". In mass, they have a certain "movement and dynamism" to their figure poses that look good. The Connoisseur figures will have less detail than the Elite figures. I imagine that the Elite range is what Connoisseur figures might have eventually evolved into were Peter Gilder still alive and sculpting today. If you don't like painting eyes, either range looks good with the eye sockets darkened with brown red paint (Impressionism, in a word).

[4] There has been some scale creep in the Elite range, so some of the figures will be taller than the Connoisseur figures. I agree with most of what Christot says about the various ranges. There are some real gems in the Connoisseur range, such as the Saxon heavy cavalry (Zastrow cuirassiers and Garde du Corps), the French Guard Horse Grenadiers, Guard Lancers and the line cuirassiers, the French line infantry advancing pose with the musket at 30 degree angle, Russian Pavlov Grenadiers and most of the Russian cavalry.

[5] While I wouldn't mix the various figures together in one specific unit, save for maybe a miscelleous command figure or two, Napoleonic games tend to have large masses of troops -- this fools the eye somewhat and allows you to get away with putting different figure brands on the same table, if not in the same unit.

[6] I find the Connoisseur figures easy to paint, largely because they often have less equipment on them than other ranges such as Elite and FR.

[7] Elite figures are generally very good. There aren't too many clunker figures in the range. I like his march attack and advancing poses, stay away from the charging poses as the muskets and bayonets stick out too far, making it hard to push the bases together for a column formation or for transportion/storage.

[8] I would agree that Connoisseur are priced a tad high, in relation to some of the newer ranges. You might be able to negotiate a discount with a larger purchase of figures.

[9] When in doubt, order a few samples and see them first hand for yourself. We all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to figures and you might not like what I like, etc.

Let us know what particular units you are interested in. We could then guide you through a selection of the wheat and the chafe in each range, particularly Christo, who must have thousands of the figures on his table.

thanks Alte Fritz – maybe I should re-phrase my original post – I do not mean too – nor do I "mix" figures together, ever, in the same unit – I meant mixing them on the tabletop but keeping the same fig manufacturers together – It would be nice to order "samples" but from what I have seen on the "Bicorne" website – one cannot order the Connoisseur's in samples – only in the btn. packs, etc., – so before I ordered a load of them I wanted to know how they matched, based together, next to a a Front Rank, based together, unit –
the Foundry's I have, as stated, are puny compared to FR and Calpe – Perry's seem on the tall but thin side – unlike many Napoleonic gamers – I am NOT that particular – the stuff costs too much and I have my family to consider – so I need to paint and play with what I can afford – but I do love painting very fine Napoleonic figures – and I need to just keep building my armies -

Here's a photo comparing British from Redoubt, Front Rank, Old Glory and Elite.

link

I found Elite to be much taller than the other three. And looking at their figures in general, I'm not pleased with the poses.

I, too, have been curious about Connoisseur.

Roman: I believe that you can buy individual figures. You are clicking on the wrong link (Battalion Packs).

Click (1)main catalog; (2) Connoisseur range; (3)French or what ever country you want; and (4) infantry or cavalry and that will take you to a listing of the individual figures, all priced at one GBP per foot.

link

The above link will take you to the French infantry part of the catalog. Give it a try. I've bought individual figures in the past.

You can order the Connoisuer figures individualy from Bicorne, its just the website, is, as I said, rubbish.
Go to "main catologue", then "connoissuer" then "the nationality" then infantry cavalry, whatever.

Fitz's comments are (as ever) spot on. One thing I would add is it slightly depends on how you like to present your units and their sizes. If you like regimented units of 1 pose in smallish btns (say 16 to 20 figs) then I'd go with Front Rank. If you like a lot of variation in pose within a btn, and/or you go for bigger btns (30+) then Elite/Connoissuer come into their own.

See? Fritz is always one step ahead of me!!

Here is a link to Bicorn's Gallery showing some of the Connoisseur figures

picture

Left column of pix at top = Wurttemburg figures
Left column of pix at bottom = French flank company figs
Right column at top = Russian? Hussars
Right column at bottom = Brunswick artillery crew

I believe that the remaining pix are of the Bicorne, rather than Connoisseur, ranges.

Hi,

I was curious, any comment on the "Swedish" connoisseur figures.

The only other manufacturer is Eagle as far as I know.

John

I think the Swedes were designed by the son, Chris Gilder, and they were not up to the standard of his father's work. I would take a pass unless you can't find anything else.

The detail on the Swedes is actually pretty good, Chris' efforts didn't have the same flair as his father's but he wasn't a bad sculptor -just didn't possess the same love and enthusiasm.
The pic of the Russians are actually Prussians, but I've no idea where the trumpeter is from…might be a conversion, might be a Bicorne figure. All of the figures appear to have been "tweaked" slightly (arm bends, possibly steel sabres added)

thanks all – I am getting a better general idea – and yes, I was mistaken, I thought you could only buy btn. packs for Connoissuer- then, as has been said, their website has something to be desired as one can purchase individual figures – I was not smart enough to figure that out on my own –
Swedes are definitely hard to find –
I will buy a few of these and Elites and see how it works out -

glad to be of assistance, if you do have any questions about them then drop me a line, more than happy to help

On DerAlteFritz's recommendation (because I value his opinion) I recently ordered a couple of battalion packs of Connoissuer Bavarians. Anyone have anything to comment on regarding the quality of the Bavarians? I know it was said on this discussion that some lines are better than others with Connoissuer. Thanks!

As I remember the charging figures are better than the advancing, but they both mix nicely,and the firing skirmishers are good. I like them.

link

Here is a link to my blog. I shot some pictures of some old leftover Connoisseur Bavarians so that you could see them up close. Sorry about them not being painted, but I think that they still look fairly good by today's standards. I just might have to paint them to find out how they will look.

some of the other figures are only partially painted (Dutch Lancers) but I thought that you would like to see them anyway.

thanks for the that A. Fritz – I cannot wait for my order(s) to come in for these different figures – but I am sure I will remain loyal to Front Rank -

link

Here is a link to some uniform plates of the Bavarian army. I hope that you are not using that light cornflower blue on your Bavarians. I'm going to use the darker color when I get around to painting them.