A companion to the Hinton Hunter and the Old Metal Detector blogs, dedicated to the first "true 25mm" figures of the Minifigs S Range, produced between 1968 and 1975.
Thursday, 18 June 2020
FN 42s French Sapeur
I recently acquired four of these figures - true to form one of the veterans has sloped off somewhere, and gone temporarily AWOL.
Hmm. An interesting photo. If these are Minifigs, they may be older than S Range. I certainly have a number of S Range Sappers from around 1975 and they are different from these. Mine carry no musket and the axe is held over the shoulder. I'll send a link to a friend of mine who has collected Minifigs from way back and does still have some pre-S Range Napoleonics (from when they were originally sold pre-painted) to see if he can comment.
Terry, the figures pictured are S Range. They all have legible codes FN 42s scratched on the underside of their bases.There are pictures of Miniature Figurines 20mm range (to which I think you are referring) FN 42 Guard Sapeur and FN 43 Line Sapeur, both of which are clearly different to this figure, on the gallery page for Miniature Figurines on the Vintage20Mil site. The Sapeur you describe with axe over shoulder and without musket is FN 43 from this earlier range.
This site is one of a family of (currently) three blogs for people interested in old 20mm and "true 25mm" wargames figures. The others are the Hinton Hunter (concentrating on Hinton Hunt) and the Old Metal Detector (other manufacturers).
Minifgs S Range figures can be hard to identify with absolute confidence, partly through a lack of contemporary photographic catalogues, partly because the code numbers scratched on the underside of infantry figures' bases may be obscured by later basing or by filing, and because code numbers are not present on cavalry figures, while one Napoleonic Lancer looks very like another.
If you spot any mistakes in the attribution of any of the figures here, or can supply pictures for any of the figures missing them, I would be very glad to hear from you.
Contacting the Lone S Ranger
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2 comments:
Hmm. An interesting photo. If these are Minifigs, they may be older than S Range. I certainly have a number of S Range Sappers from around 1975 and they are different from these. Mine carry no musket and the axe is held over the shoulder.
I'll send a link to a friend of mine who has collected Minifigs from way back and does still have some pre-S Range Napoleonics (from when they were originally sold pre-painted) to see if he can comment.
Terry, the figures pictured are S Range. They all have legible codes FN 42s scratched on the underside of their bases.There are pictures of Miniature Figurines 20mm range (to which I think you are referring) FN 42 Guard Sapeur and FN 43 Line Sapeur, both of which are clearly different to this figure, on the gallery page for Miniature Figurines on the Vintage20Mil site. The Sapeur you describe with axe over shoulder and without musket is FN 43 from this earlier range.
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