"A Little about Figure Style " Topic

"I recently attended a rather enjoyable wargaming weekend to help with running a large C18th game, using Charles's Grant's excellent "The Wargame" rules (other rules sets are available, ……they're just not as good! )

Anyway, the after dinner drinks discussion ranged far and wide, but at one point touched on the fact that the Crann Tara style figures look like they have been on a starvation diet etc…."

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Amicalement
Armand

The Cran Tara figure is much the better of the two anatomically, although the legs look a tad odd as the hip is too low. If the leg was lengthened with the hip a bit higher up it'd be perfect. By comparison the Front Rank is really dwarfish mainly due to the stocky proportions and over large head. FR also suffer from legs coming out of the waist owing to absence of the lower abdomen and pelvis – a real shame as the sculpting is first class and I was strongly tempted by their WSS range.

Careful! Some of us look "identical" to Front Rank figures….stocky, with overly large heads (but not necessarily large brains) and "dwarfish"! Probably from eating too much BBQ! …LOL!
Cheers!

BillyNM: +1

When I first started painting figs I really was bothered by the way the heads (and hands) were so oversized. The reminded me of toddlers and it seemed weird to paint them with weapons in their hands.

Now after years and years, I'm so accustomed to those odd proportions correctly proportioned figures seem odd… but I'm terrible at painting faces, so maybe I'll give them a go.

I took pictures of my Victrix plastic 40-figures unit of the 9th Foot – Peninsular war-to show to friends, and they both said, "what are those? Hobbits?"

My Napoleonic French for Spain are almost all converted Stadden 30mm for my infantry – very much toward the style of the figure on the right.

GdeP

Crann Tara up, Front Rank old.

Although I somewhat understand the "anatomically correct" figures for me they are not as appealing. The main reason is because there is less surface area to paint and by having more surface area you, potentially, can have more color. I like 18th century uniforms because there are so many different nations involved and some of them are quite colorful.
So I don't mind the "heroic" sculpts at all, unless they are WAY out of proportion because I have the opportunity to put more color on the figure which means more color on the table and, for me, that's what makes our games so enjoyable.
Lastly, I fully agree with 18C Texan. Way too much BBQ!

Ditto to 18th Century Guy