28mm Great War British from Foundry

Gaming the Great War has been a long-standing obsession for me. However, until lately, the focus has been on 1916-18 to the exclusion of 1914-15. I guess I always was a bit more attuned to the steel helmets/trenches/mud aesthetic than the service dress caps thing. But the early war vibe is cool in its own way - who doesn't love the funky drab pickelhaube covers with regimental numbers on 'em? - and it was likely only a matter of time before I got sucked in. The recent sudden passing of our good friend Glenn resulted in my acquiring some Foundry early-war Germans and a few French, and that also spurred along the new project in his memory.

So at the end of the summer I placed a large order with my Foundry supplier for British in SD caps and more Germans in pickelhauben (plus Uhlans!!) and this is the first product of that order. 

I have two more machine-gun bases primed; the machine-gun in the picture was actually painted by Glenn and touched up and rebased by me.

Four poses for the British - advancing with fixed bayonet, throwing grenade, kneeling firing, standing firing. All are clean-shaven except the grenade thrower - that model sports a wonderful bushy moustache.

The forty-odd models acquired allow for a nice size platoon - four sections of 10 men, plus two officers and some lads for a platoon command section.

For Warhammer Historical's The Great War rules, this could represent a battalion of two companies, each of two platoons.

Attached machine-guns as well, of course. It's too bad that Foundry didn't supply a third crewman for the gun.

Officer and command section. The officer carries a Webley and a sword.

The lads are fairly well equipped with Pattern '08 equipment, in "marching order", including large packs. However, the only pose that includes bayonet and helve is the standing firing pose. I guess the others will be subject to a dressing down from the Sergeant-Major for losing government property ;-)

I love the old Foundry Great War range. Sadly they're significantly smaller in stature than modern figures (the old Victoriana catalogue listed them as "26mm"!) so they don't mix well. There are a few poses left that might be available to supplement this lot - I'd like to get a pack of artillery crew and maybe some more command figures. Frontrunners for the latter are currently Mutton Chop as they're amazing Paul Hicks sculpts and seem to be the slightest built of the current field, but I'd love to hear from anyone who's compared them directly to Foundry models.