British Standard Bearer and NCO

Just in case you are not on the mailing list - PA have finally released the mould for the British standard bearer and NCO.

Also the is currently a 40% discount on the other moulds in the whole SYW range - so if you want some more moulds now is your time (no I'm not on commission)😊

Partizan, Oct 12th & North America

Partizan - Newark - October 12th 2025

Along with Simon Miller (the author of the To the Strongest rules), I am putting on a display/participation game using my 40mm SYW collection. The game will be on a 12' x 6' table and will be based on the Battle of Kolin, using a draft version of Simon's new 18th century rules.

If any of you are planning to go to Partizan, please pop in and have a chat, and if any of you want to join in the game let me know in the comments below and I will let you have more details.

SYW - North America

Chris has sent me some pictures of the figures for the initial release of figures for the SYW in North America. These figures are near complete so should be released in the (PA) near future.

(I recently bought a copy of the Muskets and Tomahawks skirmish rules and am hoping steer PA towards producing enough figures to allow a French and Indian Wars 'skirmish' game to be played?)

British Rangers

There will be four figures in two moulds comprising:

• Officer with musket pointing
• Ranger firing
• Ranger loading
• Ranger advancing

There is a large variety of heads, which as usual will be interchangeable, also the officer will have a separate hand so he can have either a musket or a tomahawk (probably not the separate arm shown). These four figures, with head swaps, should be enough to make a nice skirmishing unit.

Native Americans

Initially there will just be a single mould with:

• Native American firing
• Native American advancing

The heads will be interchangeable, and hopefully for the advancing figure both hands will be separate to allow the musket and tomahawk to be switched. It is appreciated that two figures are not enough for gaming purposes (but PA wanted to release them now). It is intended to produce (hopefully many) more figures in a variety of poses and clothing to allow interesting gaming units of different nations to be collected.

Future plans for the North American range

As discussed above, it is planned to add further Native American figures.

PA already produce moulds to cast French and British regular 'close order' units, and the 'advancing' figures look OK in a skirmish game. At a later stage it might be worth adding a single mould to each of those ranges with firing figures - this is a very long term idea.

Militia units played a significant role in the war, so it is planned to produce moulds to cover those figures.

As usual comments welcome.

Progress & Standing Infantry Command

Progress

British Standard Bearer and NCO

I am told that "The British standard bearer and NCO  moulds will be out this week" - we shall see😌

North American Theatre

After a long vacation in Middle Earth (Mithril Miniatures), Chris is back on the SYW range and is currently working on troops for the North American conflict - I will write more when I have some pictures he is happy to release (I have seen the work in progress and they look nice).

Standing Infantry Command

Back in June there was discussion about what SYW moulds to do next, and one of the things on the list is a set of standing command figures to go with mould PA3129 'Jager', which were deliberately designed to also be used as generic (Prussian) infantry standing and kneeling firing. 

The initial idea was for two moulds with four figures:

1. Drummer
2. Standard Bearer
3. NCO
4. Officer ???????????????

I personally don't use figures standing firing, so the choice of figures and poses is to some degree 'up for grabs' - so comments please?

Drummer

I would suggest a drummer in 'Prussian' SYW uniform with a similar pose to the old HE27 mould. 

The issue is do you want it with lace on the arms as PA3102, or without as PA3104. My preference would be without. (I only have PA3102 and get tired of cutting and filing off the lace to use as Austrians!)

This was back in the early days when they had the figures painted for the packaging.

Standard Bearer

There is a standard bearer in the HE range, however I'm not that keen on the pose as it just looks too casual. I think it would look better either held in two hands, or with the pole resting on the ground.

A quick search of the web came up with this, he could either have it raised or on the ground . An NCO in this pose would do the job?

NCO

As discussed above, the standard was carried by an NCO, one option would be to have a single NCO figure to act as both the NCO and standard bearer. I suspect the pose which is a combination of both figures, with a standing pose, the man's left arm holding the sword (as right hand figure), but right arm closer to the body (as right figure), with the body part rotated to be suitable for semi-flats  - again what do you think?

Officer

There is standing 'General Officer' in mould PA3127, however the lapels on the coat are a bit heavy and he has no gorget - is he acceptable or is something else needed?

Discussion

Please note that these are not even on the to do list yet, however PA have told me they have received requests for these moulds, so I will pull together some ideas and collate it for them.

As I don't have a lot or personal interest in these moulds, this is one to open up for discussion in the comments.

As a starting point - IF PA were to produce 2 moulds, and the officer is considered OK, then how about:

1. Drummer as HE27 with no arm lace.
2. Dual purpose NCO/standard bearer as right hand figure,
3. Musketeer at ready (someone send a link to preferred pose)
4. Musketeer loading, as PA51

The two musketeers would not only be additions to the firing line, they would also add to the light infantry poses (that is something I would use).

Over to you!

Musketeer at the ready

Stefan has suggested the following pose. He would probably look OK mixed in with the firing line, however I 'm not sure he would look right as an addition to the light infantry skirmishers?