"Stark differences in Perrin miniatures" Topic

I'm not where I can post pictures, but I may not need to…

I purchased some Perrin minis from Noble Knight recently, then purchased some from The Last Stand (so newly cast, I assume). I sorted them by "backpack" or "bedroll", so didn't really pay much attention until I started cleaning flash, etc.

There is a stark difference in size between some of the figs (mainly size and especially girth). I'm thinking there must have been a mold change at some point and the minis bought from NK are older.

Is that the case?

The girth of a casting can change from one run to the next even with the same mold. It is a function of the clamping used on the mold before the metal pore. It is devilishly difficult to be consistent with manually tighten clamps, which is what most small run folks will have. The quality control is to examine the result and re-melting those casts outside the QC limit.

It appears I can't upload a picture without using a hosting site.

Anyway, my beef is that the miniatures I got are not the same scale across the line. Example: Perrin ACW2 Kepi, Backpack, Advancing (Noble Knight, thus second-hand) are mere mice compared to the Perrin ACW33 Kepi, Blanket Roll, Charging (assume newly cast from The Last Stand).

Which leads me to another gripe: lack of photos for 10mm products. I've ordered 75% or so of my collection sight unseen due to lack of photos of _unpainted_ examples at the various online storefronts. It would seem to be good business to post at least a picture of the raw product. It sure would be good customer service.

This gentleman has done a nice study of 10mm ACW figures:
link

My solution is to have different size thickness in bases (from Litko). I use, I think, .8, 1.5 and 3mm thickness. So I've mixed O.G., Good Ground and a couple of wonderful British companies together on the same table, but seldom in the same regiments.
By the way, O.G. "fivers" paint up twice as fast as individual figures! And if, for some bizarre reason you still want to paint individual figures, O.G. skirmish packs provide a great selection for a firing line unit.

The posting of images can be quite tricky on TMP.

Here is a guide provided on formatting, that will help:
TMP link

FASAfan, your gripes are very well placed. Casting are by size and not scale, and the interpretation of size varies wildly. The standing rule is the size is the distance from the sole of the foot to the eye of a person standing upright. 10mm in this case. In a perfect world that would be 1/160 scale, the same as N gauge rail models. Looking at the great size chart from d88mm1940, that would be about 3/8th of an inch or third line up, only the GHQ figures (the smallest) is even close. The entire hobby is plagued by scale creep, as among any size group the larger figures look more detailed and impressive. It would be so helpful if the markers would post imaged with a scale (as above) so that the buyers could have a chance to see the actual size. It often forces one to buy from just a single line to maintain the same relative size, and even that is not a sure thing.

D88mm1940:

I've referenced that image many times! Thanks for sharing again, as I can now easily find it for the future! I love the Old Glory strips; you are 100% correct and I am spoiled!

That's a great idea to use the different stand sizes. I'm currently using Litko 1.5mm thickness.

DyeHard:

Thanks much for the help. You are right on the dot: I spent a lot of time researching scale, lines, etc. (everything's a compromise) and finally settled on Old Glory. I'm very pleased, but got the Perrin Minis for some variety. I like those, too, but adding a new line has complicated things. I've got over 50 miniatures that I can't use right now unless I spend even more money to get figures to add to them (the poses I have won't look right together on the same stand). And that's not including the aforementioned figures with gigantism that I can't use, regardless.

Still, I'm having fun: I started in mid-January of this year and have done at least something with the project everyday except for maybe 5 or 6! I've wanted to do this since 1991 or so.