Victorian Figures Page

"Our warriors in serried ranks assembled - Never quail, or they conceal it if they do."

--Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado, 1884

Victorian-era Figures

The Ouargistan group uses mostly Ral Partha 25mm (approximately 1" tall) figures. These are attractively sculpted in a wide variety of types, and have been readily available in our area of the US. As market tastes swung to larger figures, they went out of production, but are now available again. They are true 25s, or very close, and their small size is a distinct advantage in gaming. The group also has numerous old figures from other lines, including Custom Cast, Heritage, and some elegant Stadden 30s that are a bit tall, but too lovely not to use.

An assortment of military figures. From L to R: Two Stadden 30mm riflemen, a Ral Partha early Sudan-campaign Egyptian, a Ral Partha Gurkha, a Highlander officer in glengarry and trews from GDW's Space-1899 line.

To see more military figures, click the picture.

Victorian civilians were fairly difficult to find until the advent of several Gothic-horror type lines, such as Ravenloft, Call of Cthulu, and Dracula, brought a number onto the market. Now those lines are difficult to get--if you see any that you like, don't put off buying them. Fortunately The Foundry has stepped into the breach with some lovely civilians in its Colonials, Darkest Africa, Victorian and Wild West lines, and Eureka and other companies now offer civilians also. GDW's Space 1899 range had several good figures and are in and out of production. For a while Lledo metal vehicles included plastic figures which were a bit large, but useful. Various Wild West ranges often have good Victorian-era civilians. It is possible to convert figures from other periods -- Mithril's beautifully-sculpted Middle Earth range (now, alas, becoming scarce) has yielded several figures which could be used as-is or converted.

Several civilian figures. From L to R: A nobleman on safari from RAFM (I think); a young lady in a summer dress, actually a reworked elf maiden from Mithril's superb Middle Earth line; a refugee, modified from one of the gothic horror lines (Call of Cthulu, perhaps); and a native merchant from the Mithril Middle Earth range.

To see more civilian figures, click the picture.

Many native figure types have the advantage of being quite easy to paint, which is good because you will need to paint lots of them. The Ouargistan group uses Ral Partha natives as well as many from Custom Cast/Heritage (now out of production). Since natives are not generally regular troops, it pays to mix different types and bend them into different positions (if you can find figures of bendable metal any more), so that no two are quite alike.

Sudanese native figures. From L to R: A Custom-Cast/Heritage Hadendowah spearman (the famous "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" of Kipling's poetic tribute); two C-C/Heritage Dervishes; a generalized Islamic figure of uncertain manufacture.

To see more native figures, click the picture.

For a haphazard listing of commercially available Victorian-era gaming figures,
GO to the Figure Sources page

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