Sharpe and Harper

I just took delivery of my Sharp Practice set of rules from The Two Fat Lardies (ghastly name!).

http://www.toofatlardies.co.uk/

The rules look pretty good although they need an umpire which is slightly offputting but maybe someone at the club might want a game. I like the fact that you only need a few dozen figures a side. Lots of Quatre Bras skirmish possibilities, so an excuse to buy more Perry Miniatures (especially now they are planning plastic figures!).

The real reason I bought the rules was for the (not) Sharpe and Harper figures given away with the first 250 sets. There have been otehr S&H sets in the past but I haven't like any of them. I thought they looked a little odd to start with but that is because these are anatomically correct figures. This is a welcome initiative although it does present the problem of what figures will be compatible with them. Hopefully there will be more Richard Ansell sculpted figures for this range (there are some more generic riflemen promised, although I would like to see some with caps rather than all in shakos as illustrated on their website).

http://www.albanminiatures.com/index.php

I have lined them up next to a Perry sculpted Foundry Rifleman and a Perry Miniatures Frenchman. The Frenchman is not as anatomically right as the Ansell figure but is close enough for me I think. So we can see Sharpe and Harper skirmishing around La Haye Sainte at some point!

There are many nice things about the figures not least of which is the fact that Harper is taller than Sharpe. They have also sculpted Sharpe with his French backpack! I have just based and undercoated them and this brings out the detail which is very crisp indeed. I am not sure they look much like their TV counterparts and in fact I think they look more like the paintings from the UK paperbacks of ten years ago. Given this I will probably paint my Sharpe with black hair!

I have been off painting for a bit as the work involved in getting ready for my new high-powered job has been taking all my time but I am really keen to start these two; always a good sign. In fact while waiting to finish this post I have started on their skin!

I have wanted to do some Peninsula figures for ages and if this range grows it could give me the excuse I have been waiting for to buy all those lovely Grand Manner buildings!

In looking up the height differential between Darragh O'Malley, who plays Harper, and Sean Bean (6 inches) I noticed that there is a new Sharpe TV film in Post production, Sharpe's Peril, which like the last one is also set in India.