As readers of this blog will recall, I have always loved the old 28mm line of German Colonial figures once produced by the Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company. Today I received an unexpected but most welcome message from Richard at HLBC who remembered my interest and an old email query about his figures. Much to my delight, he told me that he has just reimagined and released a new line of German Colonial figures in 28mm and they are magnificent - easily the most detailed and accurately uniformed figures available. Naturally, I just placed a large order.
There are plenty of excellent figures for use in German Southwest Africa, including those wearing field caps as well as the classic "sudwester" slouch hat, and a beautiful patrol of camel riders, complete with proper harness including the bucket style rifle holster used by mounted troops in the colony. There are also seebataillon in 1900 Bortfeldt helms, and machine gun sections for each head type. But there are also east Africa Schutztruppe Askaris, Schutzruppe in 1904 Bortfeldt helmets, and East Asian Expeditionary Force (in 1900 Boetfeldt helmets and side cocked straw hats)! All are stunningly and meticulously detailed with proper uniforms and equipment, and there are even heads wearing all the different hats and helmets to convert other figures for your table.
It is a wonderful return to a fantastic range. I will lobby for more additions (Hereros and Namas? Heliographs and Feld Lazaretts?) and look forward to painting some of them up in the near future!
