Trojan War 28mm: Foundry vs Redoubt
Sometime in April, I ordered some Trojan War figures from Redoubt Enterprises. I've only just received them two days ago, but I have to say that was probably my fault: having checked through the email correspondence, I realise that my mailing address was incomplete, and the figures had been sent back to them. Thankfully, some kind soul at Redoubt chose to follow on this matter by emailing me, and I've finally got my figures. To all the nice people at Redoubt, thanks for getting them to me.
I can now do something which I've wanted to for a long time, namely to compare Redoubt's Trojan War figures with Foundry's Trojan War line. The Foundry figures I got courtesy of Damien at Paradigm Infinitum, who brought them as part of an order for us (us being the Napnuts: take a look at our gallery).
This first photo shows a general comparison: Foundry figures are on the left, Redoubt figures are on the right. As you can see, both are comparable in terms of size. Each green square is 10mm large, so the figures reach 28mm from foot to eyes, more or less. With head-dresses and helmets, they easily push into 30mm. Redoubt supplies lead spears, which are thicker and more easily bent out of shape than the long steel spear on the left from Foundry. I may in the end reject both and go for stiff plastic, but at the current moment, Foundry's spears look more durable. Foundry's shields are also more decorated, if slightly smaller - their tower shields don't really tower that much (compare top left with the Redoubt one's on the right), except for the one in the middle left, which comes from the hero pack and belongs to (you guessed it) Ajax of the Towering Shield.
Next, a close up of the spearmen. Once again, Foundry's on the left, Redoubt's on the right (for a bigger version of the pictures, click on them). No complaints here, only the observation that Redoubt's sculpting of musculature is slightly less realistic: look at the forearms and chest of both spearmen. Redoubt's has a slightly Popeye-the-sailorman look, and the legs are slightly spindlier. Nothing that would be obvious once painted up though.
Now we look at the heroes. The figure on the left is Foundry's Paris (from the pack "Classical Heroes", TW1/5), while the one on the right is Redoubt's "Ajax, Prince of Salamis". The quality of scuplting is roughly the same, with nice detail from both sides - Ajax's feet are nicely detailed (though that's the part of the figure I pay least attention to when painting) and the leopard head on Paris' shoulder is a nice touch.
Last but not least, the all important Helen of Troy (TX14): what game would be complete without her there to remind our brave warriors what they're fighting for? And boy does she remind them - Redoubt describes the figure as being in Minoan court dress, in which case I'd certainly like to see what informal dress was. I've put her next to Foundry's Odysseus (from the aforementioned Classical Heroes pack), since they don't have an equivalent. Both look distinctly top-heavy - Odysseus' mighty crested helmet seems to be covering a head disproportionately large for his body, and Helen ... well, see for yourself. She ends up looking slightly ... stout.
Nevertheless, both are really fine figures. I bought these to start a 28mm Warhammer Ancient Battles army: I've already got a 20mm plastic Persian army (pictures here), and it was about time to move into another scale. Redoubt's pricing is much more competitive than Foundry's: a pack of spearmen costs £5 from Redoubt and £12 from Foundry. Foundry's sculpting is better, yes, but not £7 better, in my opinion. I will, however, still be ordering from them, but mostly only heroes and characters, to bolster up my army: at these prices, the majority of my army will have to come from Redoubt.
I can now do something which I've wanted to for a long time, namely to compare Redoubt's Trojan War figures with Foundry's Trojan War line. The Foundry figures I got courtesy of Damien at Paradigm Infinitum, who brought them as part of an order for us (us being the Napnuts: take a look at our gallery).
This first photo shows a general comparison: Foundry figures are on the left, Redoubt figures are on the right. As you can see, both are comparable in terms of size. Each green square is 10mm large, so the figures reach 28mm from foot to eyes, more or less. With head-dresses and helmets, they easily push into 30mm. Redoubt supplies lead spears, which are thicker and more easily bent out of shape than the long steel spear on the left from Foundry. I may in the end reject both and go for stiff plastic, but at the current moment, Foundry's spears look more durable. Foundry's shields are also more decorated, if slightly smaller - their tower shields don't really tower that much (compare top left with the Redoubt one's on the right), except for the one in the middle left, which comes from the hero pack and belongs to (you guessed it) Ajax of the Towering Shield.
Next, a close up of the spearmen. Once again, Foundry's on the left, Redoubt's on the right (for a bigger version of the pictures, click on them). No complaints here, only the observation that Redoubt's sculpting of musculature is slightly less realistic: look at the forearms and chest of both spearmen. Redoubt's has a slightly Popeye-the-sailorman look, and the legs are slightly spindlier. Nothing that would be obvious once painted up though.
Now we look at the heroes. The figure on the left is Foundry's Paris (from the pack "Classical Heroes", TW1/5), while the one on the right is Redoubt's "Ajax, Prince of Salamis". The quality of scuplting is roughly the same, with nice detail from both sides - Ajax's feet are nicely detailed (though that's the part of the figure I pay least attention to when painting) and the leopard head on Paris' shoulder is a nice touch.
Last but not least, the all important Helen of Troy (TX14): what game would be complete without her there to remind our brave warriors what they're fighting for? And boy does she remind them - Redoubt describes the figure as being in Minoan court dress, in which case I'd certainly like to see what informal dress was. I've put her next to Foundry's Odysseus (from the aforementioned Classical Heroes pack), since they don't have an equivalent. Both look distinctly top-heavy - Odysseus' mighty crested helmet seems to be covering a head disproportionately large for his body, and Helen ... well, see for yourself. She ends up looking slightly ...
Nevertheless, both are really fine figures. I bought these to start a 28mm Warhammer Ancient Battles army: I've already got a 20mm plastic Persian army (pictures here), and it was about time to move into another scale. Redoubt's pricing is much more competitive than Foundry's: a pack of spearmen costs £5 from Redoubt and £12 from Foundry. Foundry's sculpting is better, yes, but not £7 better, in my opinion. I will, however, still be ordering from them, but mostly only heroes and characters, to bolster up my army: at these prices, the majority of my army will have to come from Redoubt.
I too have both Redoubt and Foundry Trojans (see some in the photography section of www.LloydianAspects.co.uk). Yes, they are compatible. I think the Foundry (Perry twins) figures are more animated. Both ranges owe their design to one book: Peter Connolly's. The people at Redoubt are generally more friendly, helpful and accommodating. They picked out a suitable spearman for me to use as a man climbing down out of the horse!
ReplyDeleteI made my own horse.