Early War British Infantry: Renegade Miniatures

Firstly, I am going to look at what figures are available for British Infantry of the BEF for the second half of 1914. There are four manufacturers with appropriate ranges: Renegade, Great War miniatures, Musketeer and Woodbine Design Company(Gripping Beast). The Foundry ones are really too old now; with gnomish proportions and hardly any variations in pose.

Renegade

The first ones on the market were the Renegade figures and I already have a couple of dozen of these. They have the following appropriate figures:

WW1B01 BRITISH SKIRMISHING A

WW1B02 BRITISH SKIRMISHING B

WW1B04 BRITISH COMMAND

WW1B05 BRITISH HMGs (VICKERS)

WW1B14 18 POUNDER GUN & CREW

So Renegade have 8 poses of infantry, 4 poses of command, 1 pose of Vickers Gun and an 18pdr and crew. the figures are pretty chunk (sculpted by Mike Owen) and are reasonably accurate. My main criticisms are that the detail of the packs isn't quite right (the distinctive cross straps on the back pack aren't there), the rifles are rather too large and there is something not quite right about the hats. Also there are a lack of firing and, particularly, kneeling firing figures. In fact they do make a firing figure (bringing the total pose to 9) in their WW1B13 pack but only one out of the four is suitable for the early war period becuase of the headgear. Positives are the characterful faces (they really look like WW1 people), the fact that you can buy them in discounted larger boxes and the command set which has some lovely figures in it.

Now I have actually painted 16 of these so going for another manufacturer would be a big jump but the range is quite restricted. Next time I will look at Great War Miniatures Range.