[Commercial] Introducing Bloody Miniatures P.57 Release 10 painted :)

[Captain Blood]

Thanks for the feedback Jim
Glad they arrived safely and good to know they (more or less) fit together with the excellent TAG cavalry, which I also have quite a few of.

My observation on this would be that the TAG horses do vary in size quite a bit. Here's a quick comparison shot of the largest of the TAG horses with the most upright of the Bloody horses.
As you can see, the TAG horse has a more exaggerated dome to its rump, making it a good few mm taller in the hind quarters. Interestingly at the shoulders and neck, they're not so very different. Because of the high rump and backbone, the TAG saddle certainly sits higher on the horse though.





For my money, the Bloody horse is more anatomically correct (I've just spent half an hour studying dozens of horse photos ). But of course, anatomically correct is not necessarily what wargamers are used to, or therefore want
I'll leave you to make up your mind about the faces... Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Here's another one - horses in more or less the same pose. Once again, the rump is more rounded and raised on the TAG horse (on the left), otherwise, much the same size? As you say, they fit together reasonably well.
(The TAG riders are definitely more diminutive overall, even allowing for the particularly short legs in this example).





In the meantime, I've done three fairly simple head-and-hand swap conversions of the three Bloody cuirassiers, to create a unit of six (pending the arrival of further Bloody armoured horsemen in a future release )

[OSHIROmodels]

Jolly splendid 

Where's the flag from?

[jcspqr]

I agree.  The Bloody Miniatures Horses are anatomically "better." 

[Captain Blood]

Jolly splendid 

Where's the flag from?

Hand painted 

[carlos marighela]

Gorgeous! The banner is superb

Veritas liberabit vos. Bible never said the truth would set you free-handed though.

[jcspqr]

might I suggest a set of heads that would work as Finns?

Jim

[Harry von Fleischmann]

For me, the beauty of the Bloody range is the sheer characterful nature. Part of this is nostalgia, as a lad I’d buy ECW figures when I saw them and 1970s stock being what it was, that led to a lot of 25mm officers waving swords and far fewer pike or shot than I really needed. The Bloody range delivers that swashbuckling look but with added rank and file who are also swashing their buckles. Gamers of a certain age will remember “The Flashing Blade”; uniforms aside, some of the Bloody Minis seem to have stepped out of that or perhaps “The Last Valley.” As to where the range goes? I’m not sure if I need the full 20+ unit pack but if that helps fund more characters then, good.

[Captain Blood]

For me, the beauty of the Bloody range is the sheer characterful nature. Part of this is nostalgia, as a lad I’d buy ECW figures when I saw them and 1970s stock being what it was, that led to a lot of 25mm officers waving swords and far fewer pike or shot than I really needed. The Bloody range delivers that swashbuckling look but with added rank and file who are also swashing their buckles. Gamers of a certain age will remember “The Flashing Blade”; uniforms aside, some of the Bloody Minis seem to have stepped out of that or perhaps “The Last Valley.” As to where the range goes? I’m not sure if I need the full 20+ unit pack but if that helps fund more characters then, good.

Ah, thank you. You understand my motivation and ethos perfectly

The first metal figures I ever bought were five 25mm ECW figures (an officer, drummer, and three firing musketeers) made by Hinchliffe Figurines. 9p each. This from a long-vanished model shop near Croydon. It would have been around 1973/4 and I was 12 years old. I remember my father inquiring if I really intended to blow my entire week's pocket money on five little metal men in such a foolhardy manner? (I did!)
The pristine silver figures were duly decanted into a classy little blue Hinchliffe box of their very own, nestling jewel-like in royal blue tissue paper*. It was the start of a lifelong indecent obsession, because I then went on to buy a lot more. Also a lot of Minifigs (only 8p each!) from Bill Brewer's Rye wonderful Stamp & Hobby Shop in Peckham.
Like you, I always had way too many command, character and personality figures compared to rank and file, because they were just more interesting!
Anyway, a mere 47 years (and several different ECW armies bought and sold) later, I finally reached the inevitable end point of that formative childhood experience with Bloody Miniatures

* Inspiration for the Bloody red tissue paper that wraps every batch of model soldiers I send out

[Harry von Fleischmann]

Our first metal experience are very similar except I bought 3 minifigs middle earth figures in Cowes. A few weeks later the Minifigs catalogue landed and that was that.

I’ll admit now that for a lad who loved history, my grasp of the pike & shot era was very flimsy. All those 25mm renaissance on one page? Must be from the same time….the Spanish had morions in Flashing Blade, the French had floppy hats. The cavaliers had floppy hats…you can see how for a 13 year old with limited pocket money, this wasn’t going to end with anything except a chaotic mess of figures I liked but….a wargaming collection it was not. .

[Bloggard]

yes indeed. similar experience re: hinchliffe and the lovely boxes. To begin with, BMW model shop in South Wimbledon (as well as Hamleys! - special boxed set of Brit Nap. Inf, iirc).
Then Brewer's emporium (he went 'essex' in a big way, but still had hinchliffe 'out the back').

Perry miniatures have almost got it right in this regard - nice boxes - but then awful artificial fibre-wool material that catches something awful on the metal figures' doo-dads. Or such was the case when I last ordered, anyway.

[Captain Blood]

Yes, I'm not a fan of their sponge padding. As you say, it does tend to snag on all those sharp little casting tendrils 

[Harry von Fleischmann]

This is Bloody Minis relevant, honest….
I remember that the Minifigs catalogue had a pic of a large ECW cannon, I seem to think it dwarfed the 25mm crew figures. Probably a culverin? Now, my Bloody collection is recapturing the nostalgia of that range - so are there any suggestions for such a monster artillery piece that would fit with Bloody figures repurposed as crew?

[Arthur]

Dunno if it will prove large enough for your purpose but the Bicorne ECW cannon is a fairly big (and expensive!) piece of ordnance : unless you move up one scale, I am not aware of anything larger currently on the TYW/ECW market (I may very well be mistaken here though).

https://www.bicorne.net/acatalog/BIC-ECWG001---Cannon-768.html#SID=31

[Codsticker]

...so are there any suggestions for such a monster artillery piece that would fit with Bloody figures repurposed as crew?

Possibly one of the GW old plastic Empire cannons?

[Captain Blood]

I remember that the Minifigs catalogue had a pic of a large ECW cannon, I seem to think it dwarfed the 25mm crew figures. Probably a culverin? Now, my Bloody collection is recapturing the nostalgia of that range - so are there any suggestions for such a monster artillery piece that would fit with Bloody figures repurposed as crew?

I've got a selection of ECW/TYW guns from cannons and culverins through demi-culverins and sakers down to falconets and frame guns. Nearly all mine are from Bicorne I think (I got them a long time ago ) although a couple may be from TAG. They all fit well enough with Bloody Miniatures.

The biggest of these is the cannon: https://www.bicorne.net/acatalog/BIC-ECWG001---Cannon-768.html#SID=31

Here it is with a stand-in Bloody crew for scale... (yes, he's reading the instructions). Doesn't exactly tower over them, but certainly comes to around chest height...





I'm never going to produce guns for Bloody Miniatures because there are hundreds of perfectly good ones on the market in this scale, and they're all pretty interchangeable.

I will however, in the fullness of time, produce a pack of open-handed Bloody characters suitable for artillerists, engineers, diggers, builders, whatever. They'll come with a sprue of artillery implements (ramrod, linstock, powder ladle) plus tools like spades and crowbars.