heres a few pictures of the first greens Paul just Emailed me,cheers Ray for the photobucket info.
good fortune and happy gaming Nick

Huzzar Nick,

Glad to see you got the Photobucket thing sorted...
Onto the infantry figures...Wow fantastic sculps...these are far better than the cavalry that we've seen so far.
Keep them coming

Ray.

Are those Prussians in the top picture?

Very nice!

According to the Ebor blog, they're actually Dutch. Based on a Wagner plate, I'd say.

Arthur's right they are Dutch grenadiers,but with a small amount of reworking the front plate of their cap they could be Prussian grenadiers,the Prussians had a scallop effect on the front of their caps,turning them into Prussians would make sense,I would really appreciate any info on Prussian musketeers as my source work seems a bit sketchy,did the musketeers wear tricorns and did they have anything perculiar to them.

good fortune and happy gaming Nick

Prussian musketeers wore tricornes. This Knotel print may help.
http://www.grosser-generalstab.de/tafel ... 03_01.html

Most pictures depict the sword belt worn under the coat.

One thing I would suggest is that you do musketeers with cockades on their tricornes. The English did not have them, but many if not most of the German allies did.

Hi fellas here's a picture of the reworked pistol and carbine,the carbine still needs a bit of work on the sleeve and flintlock but I think these are much nearer the real thing.

good fortune and happy gaming Nick

Very nice! Can't be many more responsive figure producers than Ebor!

Nick,

Don't take this the wrong way, but where doe's your idea of cavalry having carbine's in this period come from.
Horse and Dragoon regiments were armed with muskets simular to the Foot.
Cavalry carbine's came much later and the musket armed dragoons of this period would dismount and act as infantry usually using some cover.
At Blenheim, 12 squadrons of dismounted French dragoons defended a barricade between Blenheim village and the river Danube.
On the British side, after the two failed assaults on the village, Ross's dragoon brigade (7 squadrons) were ordered to dismount and help Lord Cutt's infantry regiments to surround the village.
So I would suggest a longer barrel making it into a musket.
The other thing you need to think about is that some cavalry tactic's had changed from about 1690.
Dutch, Danish and British cavalry were charging in with sword in hand and Marlborough discouraged his cavalry from using the pistol.
The French on the other hand trotted into pistol range stopped, fired a volley and then continued their charge.
It was found that the pistol volley had little effect against the allied cavalry who had more momentum.

Cheers,

Ray.

Ray. I cannot think of any manufacturer who "arms" their cavalry with muskets. The French certainly armed their cavalry with carbines. The royale carabiniers even took their name from their long sidearm. Many dragoons were armed with muskets but certainly by no means cavalry.

I concur. Carbines had been the standard issue long weapon for cavalry on both sides of the Channel since the mid C17th. Only dragoons were issued with muskets because they were still technically mounted infantry.

Well all I can say is, the slung "Carbine" on the Front Rank horse figures look like muskets to me, at least for the British.

Ray.

This has more to do with Alec Brown's sculpting style than a reflection of historical reality, Ray.

Fine figures though they may be, one of the reasons I never went for the Front Rank WSS range is the size of their weapons. Now I understand that most sculptors have to exaggerate the thickness of muskets and carbines to ensure the bloody things survive the vagaries of mould-making and casting - not to mention the less than delicate handling of the finished product by some of their proud owners. Accurately-scaled weapons in 28mm are fragile to the extreme and anyone who has handled Conquest Miniatures FIW figures will know what I'm talking about.

The problem with Front Rank is that Alec went a little too far in his quest for sturdiness and solidity. Now don't get me wrong, I think the man is a highly talented designer and for my money he sculpts the best faces in the hobby bar none, save perhaps Mark Copplestone. I'd rate him even higher than the Perry twins in that respect, and that is extremely high praise in my book. I'm a little more skeptical about his anatomy, particularly the legs/groin/lower body junction, which seems a little off to me on some of his dollies, but there's no doubt the man can push putty.

His WSS weapons are just absurd, however : his cavalrymen's carbines do indeed look like muskets, whereas the infantry are all proudly toting flintlock Stinger missile launchers. I bought some French dragoons a few years ago because.. I well, I just love French dragoons, but while I liked a lot of things about the figures, the proportions of the weapons were a definite no-no for me.

So Nick's figures are definitely more correct in terms of scale accuracy. If I wanted to be finicky about it, I'd say the weapons could even be slimmer still, though that would be at the expense of solidity and ease of casting as explained above.