"New 28mm Company, 1898 Miniatures" Topic

I am mulling over diving into the Spanish American War in 2017 and came across a (new?) 28mm Spanish company I never heard of before today, 1898 Miniatures.

They look very good! Website is in Spanish, but between Google translate and a year of high school Spanish I can muddle through it and see that it is very well done, with some useful stuff like uniform references.

Anyone recognize the sculptor? I may take the plunge and see if I can do a test order despite the risks of shipping from Spain even during the holiday shipping crunch.

Cheers

~ Steve

Steve,

Great find. They look like top notch figures.

BTW – If you go to the TIENDA (shop) tab there is a translate to English button at the upper right side.

If you do order, please keep us posted. I would be interested if the match with the Old Glory SAW line.

Thanks,

Vince

Good find. Nice figures!

Steve:

If you do order, please keep us posted.

Yes, ditto here. Last time I had some 1898 troops was in the late 70s. We could use some well-rendered US troops, hope they find time for them.

I may take the plunge and see if I can do a test order despite the risks of shipping from Spain even during the holiday shipping crunch.

There is/was location on the web (USPS?) that listed such international advisories, but haven't been there for quite a while. I see they do take Paypal…

Hi Vince. Thanks! I hadn't noticed that and have been using Google translate. I was wondering the same thing re Old Glory figures and found this comparison shot. No OG stuff, but still looks like they would work unless OG is unusually big or small. I ordered the package deal with all the figures and the free bonus figure, and if you include shipping it comes to about $1.77 USD per figure for 35 figures which seems quite reasonable.

Excellent new range

Agreed, great find!

Look great.

These are excellently proportioned; you could almost believe they're human! And the painting takes just the right approach for tabletop viewing distance, suggesting the presence of the stripes rather than trying to precisely replicate them.

I agree with Martini about the suggestion of stripes being effective. At the museum where I worked we tested a Spanish artillery officer's uniform from the Span-Am War and found that the blue and white stripes were so incredibly narrow that the uniform looked light blue at a distance of 15 feet.

axabrax – As you are diving into the Spanish-American War, consider joining the Yahoo group. A decent amount of info in the files and links area: link

And I will have to add 1898 Miniatures to the links! This is exciting news indeed.

Hi

The sculptor is José Hidalgo. He worked for Miniaturas Beneito -54mm stuff, mostly- until Fernando Beneito's death in 2005.

The company has been created by Javier Gómez Valero (aka El Mercenario, as his nickname for his painting business), who also was the editor of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy back in 2006-2007, and then of Desperta Ferro. His brother, Rafa Gómez Valero, owner of the best miniatures shop in Madrid, Atlantica Juegos, also is one of the partners of this new venture.

To say that I am excited is an understatement. Besides the usual Spanish and American troops, they plan also for the mambises (Cuban rebels/patriots, take your pick) and Philippino combatants.

I have just received the first packs and they are beautiful. About time a SAW range of this quality was made!

As I write, showing in cinemas in Spain is a brand new production of "1898, Los últimos de Filipinas" which is about a company of Spanish soldiers besieged in a church in The Phillipines for 330-odd days.

A Spanish version of Rorke's Drift, you know the one… that battle which appears in countless books on 50 battles that changed the History of the World ;-)

Surely some of the best faces ever -what amazing figures

Is the movie based on real events? I ask because it sounds like a very similar, if slightly more prolonged, situation to the siege of 31 US volunteer infantrymen at Catubig on Samar Island in 1900.

RE painting Spanish uniform

I did my Old Glory in a color called Duck Egg Blue.

It's a very light blue (almost white). I pick it after viewing some pinstriped shirts s will as watching the movie Rough Riders.

Henry

Yes, it does.

A small detachment of Spanish "cazadores" (50 soldiers) under the command of Captain Enrique de las Morenas (died in the siege, being replaced in the command by Second Lieutenant Saturnino Martín Cerezo) was besieged from 30 June 1898 until their surrender in 2 June 1899. They weren't aware that Spain had surrendered the Philippines and thought that the Philippinos were trying to trick them into giving up. Only when Martin Cerezo read a Spanish newspaper where there was a report of a intimate of him being destined to Malaga, he became convinced that the news weren't fabrications and surrendered the detachment (39 men were captured, and another 19, including two priests, had been killed during the siege; 6 men had deserted the post)

One thing little known is that in April 12, 1899 a small US detachment from the gunboat "Yorktown" (Lieutenant Gillmore, commanding 14 men, with one Colt machinegun) tried to link with the Spanish garrison, but it was ambushed by Philippino guerrillas and forced to surrender (4 dead and 10 prisoners, Gillmore being liberated by US forces in December 1899).

Aguinaldo, the Philippino leader of the resistance against Spain first and then the US, gave orders to treat well the prisoners, both US and Spanish. Those orders were obeyed, even to the point of captors being hungry in order to feed their captives first.

Wow! What a great scenario that would make for a game! I'd love to see the movie as well.

If anyone is curious about the free promotional figure that comes with the package deal, Eloy Gonzalo, I found this interesting excerpt from a book in PDF format

Although the figure comes from a specific episode in the Cuban/Spanish war (and a famous statue in Madrid), he would probably work as a sapper or saboteur. He's holding s can of oil and a torch, so something's going to burn!

He could serve to any scenario with "blocaos" (literally, blockhouses). They were very common in Cuba along the "trocha", somewhat less in the Philippines.

The "trocha" was a short of defensive line formed by strongpoints linked by a road (trocha is another word for path or road) and in some parts protected by barbed wire. There were two "trochas" in Cuba, the most important was the one that separated Oriente and Puerto Príncipe provinces, -there the rebellion had their main support-, from Santa Clara province. A smaller "trocha" separated Pinar del Río province from La Habana province. Those defensive lines had been build during the so called Ten Years War (1868-1878), and they had work pretty well. However, according John Tone, they were in ruins when the second war of independence started, in 1895. The garrisons (Cascorro, where Eloy Gonzalo was destined, was one of those) were vulnerable to insurgents attacks.