Triguard Miniatures are a New Zealand based company producing 40mm miniatures covering the American War of Independence, Medieval Europe, and the French Indian War, the latter of which we’re examining.
Triguard’s French Indian War range is quite extensive and worth taking a look at if you are considering playing out skirmish actions (or even bigger battles) in this 40mm scale.
Currently available are French regular, militia, marines, coureur de bois and even cavalry! The British army is equally well catered for, as are the Native Americans, and there are some nice personality models, such as Braddock, Wolfe, and Montcalm, not to mention the questionably obligatory “Last of the Mohicans” pack.
We’re casting our critical eye over some of the recent releases for the range; the Provincial Regiments. These regiments were raised and trained along regular lines and most states, such as Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, issued them with full uniforms. That means that the miniatures in this range could be used for any of these provincial battalions, as they all wear tricornes and have their coat cut short for campaign wear.
All are sculpted without gaiters, shown with just knee-length trousers, stockings, and shoes. Most have a tomahawk hanging from their belts alongside their regular issue cartridge box and haversack.
There is a good mix of poses across the range, with marching and firing line figures available alongside more dynamic poses that are clearly involved in a skirmish. Most of these metal models are single piece castings although some, such as the drummer and the charging pose, come with separate hands, arms, or weapons. The fit is good and the larger size of the miniatures makes the job even less fiddly than it might be on smaller scales.
A few of the private soldiers are shown with fixed bayonets but most are not. This is a nice touch and means the figures could be used to represent the provincial battalions that were raised as light infantry.
Officers, NCO’s, drummers, standard bearers and even casualty models are also available, making this a pretty comprehensive range.
As you might expect, the larger 40mm scale allows an excellent level of detail to be incorporated into the sculpts. All of the buttons on the jackets and the trousers are clearly visible, as are further details such as the flintlock actions of the muskets and some really great facial expressions.
It’s possible you’ve not considered 40mm for your FIW gaming but given that many of the skirmishes of that war were fought between small bands of Rangers, Native Americans, and French Militia, it certainly does lend itself to the scale. With such a comprehensive range that covers all of the major units (on both sides of the war) anyone considering getting started in the FIW would do well to check out Triguard’s full website for more details.
