Skirmishing in style – Banat-Grenzinfanterieregiment No. 1

During a visit to Australia I had the pleasure to visit Eureka miniatures. I intended to get some 15mm Hoplites for my Carthaginians, but ended up leaving with some very nice Seven Years War Grenzer miniatures (18mm). I would like to use them with the Ganesha Games skirmish rules Song of Drums and Shakos, slightly modified to match the context of the Seven Years War. All I need now are some Jägers or other light troops and off we go.

Sculpting quality and pose

The troopers are depicted in various firing and loading poses, all action poses well suited for skirmishing Grenzers. There are seven different poses in total, among them an NCO and musician.

The details are crisp and easily distinguishable facilitating painting them. The only less defined area are the eyes. I could see this being an issue, if you paint the eyes of your 15mm minis.

I could not find any inaccuracies of equipment, making them historically correct and suitable to depict a variety of Grenzer regiments.

Casting

The guys are well made and clean up was very easy. All details are well defined and I could not detect any casting artifacts. A small problem is the very soft metal Eureka uses. While this is good for the details, it makes some of the muskets very bendy and one needs to be a bit more careful with the miniatures when gaming. Apart from straightening some muskets after I took the miniatures out of their blister, this was not an issue so far.

Painting the Grenzers

I decided to paint them up as the Banat-Grenzinfanterieregiment No. 1.  After a one week painting session the miniatures were finished. The metal miniatures did not mislead. The rich detail guides the brush and makes it very easy to achieve a good result. The blue might be a tad too light to represent the historical uniform colour properly, but I aimed for more contrast.

Conclusion

The Eureka Grenzers offer a very good selection of dynamic poses and convince with excellent casting and sculpting quality. They paint up well and are – in my opinion – the best money can buy in 18mm scale.