Murawski Miniatures; Duchy of Warsaw Line Infantry review

By far my favourite Napoleonic figures to paint, and my favourite arm of any army, is the Line Infantry. In a Napoleonic army, you will have to paint a LOT of these guys, so you better enjoy the look of them or it's going to be a long and arduous road. Me, I'm always excited when painting the first few battalions.

Last week I received the Polish Line Infantry from Roger, both the Full and Campain dress. I had seen pictures but never the actual product.

After opening the package, the first thing I thought is the pictures don't do them justice. These are really amazing sculpts, Paul Hicks is getting very good at this sculpting thing. I especially like the faces, full of character and all very different from one model to the next, which is something you don't see often; I find that in many ranges all the soldiers have very similar looking faces. 

Examples from Roger's blog

A great thing about the range is the variety. The full dress consists of 6 different models of fusiliers, 3 different grenadiers and voltigeurs, 2 different officers +1 mounted officer, 2 different drummers, one eagle guard and one eagle bearer. The campaign dress are made-up the same way. And there is also an "extra" pack which includes a sappeur and a bareheaded fusilier. For a small range that makes up a lot of possible options. For someone (like me) who intends to mix both the full and campaign dress in the same unit, that means you can make a battalion with almost no duplicates. I like that.

I would say the style of figures is a mix of the Russian/later French Foundry and the Perry; not as stumpy as the old Foundry, but maybe a little more "caricature" than the Perry, and not much in common with the "anatomically correct" Richard Ansell style. Those who know me know I like my figures with slightly exaggerated features, as I find they look much better on the tabletop and are easier to paint, so I can say the sculpting style of the figures suits me well.

Another nice thing is the amount of details on the figures, especially with the campaign dress. They are carrying all kinds of extras you would expect soldiers to carry in campaign. I especially love the fact that the soldiers with fatigue caps have their czapka attached to their backpacks. Of course, I'm sure I'm going to curse when I actually have to paint all those extra details! Below is a pic of some of the details found on the campaign dress figures :

A czapka, a frying pan and an extra pair of shoes

Now I have to talk about the casting. It's nothing short of amazing. I cleaned around 50 figures and there were minimal flash and mold lines (and never in the faces!). I've never cleaned 50 figures in such a small amount of time. This made me very happy. But at the same time a little bit frustrated at all those other manufacturers who send us bad castings that take forever to clean...Anyways.

A comparison shot of a Muraski figure compared to other ranges in my possession is in order :

From left to right : Victrix, Foundry, Murawski, Perry metal, Perry plastic

As you can see they mix well with many of the popular ranges of the day, although the Victrix are noticeably taller than all the other ranges.

Conclusion : Great figures. Really. If you like the Poles of the era, you will not be disappointed.

So they sure pass the eyeball test, will they also pass the painting test? Well we're going to find that out very soon as a 24 figure battalion of these guys is currently on my workbench (well, along with 3 Canaanite chariots).

(Disclaimer : This is an honest review but I do feel I have to mention, for those who don't follow my blog, that Roger, the owner of Muraswki Miniatures, is a good friend of mine and I help him out with the business).