Taking AIM
I happened to chance upon some much needed
additions to my 1809 project on a popular online
auction site. A very similar lot had appeared in
the same month the previous year. But then I
had mistaken the miniatures for small 15mm
and let them go. This time round, I was very
glad I stuck to my guns as the figures turned out
to be out-of-production 10mm AIM miniatures.
I had never seen a figure from this manufacturer before but there was much huzzaing in Project 1809 HQ when I discovered just how well they mixed with my large collection of Pendraken 10mm. Not only did they mix well but the figures I ended up with (254 assorted French foot figures) filled in many of the gaps in the Pendraken range. I got more than enough Old Guard Grenadiers for my 1809 project – not in firing pose or marching in wet-weather gear like Penraken’s offerings but just what I was looking for: dressed to guard the Emperor (not shoot him in the back) on a hot May day as in Fernand Cormon’s painting, The Battle of Aspern-Essling. I also got a number of the less flaunted Old Guard Chasseurs but unfortunately not as many as I needed. I was very pleased to see how the AIM Old Guard and ordinary rank-and-file figures differed in character – the Guard being taller and broader – and obviously not sculpted from the same dolly.
I was lucky to get a good quantity of AIM
French artillery gunners. The crews were made
up of five gunners. Five gunners just seemed
brilliant compared with Pendraken’s crews of
four, one of which was an officer – the officer in
effect reducing the actual gun crews to only
three. Including an officer at the expense of
losing a much-needed crew member seemed
crazy. I was grateful to have the AIM gunners to
boost Pendraken numbers and provide missing
poses. I also thought my Grande Batterie would
look better without a gold-trimmed officer in
every crew of four.
The sculpting style of the AIM figures certainly
had its quirks – the pigeon chests and bulging
cross straps of the Guardsmen being the most
obvious - but they included some superb detail
missing from other 10mm sculpts (while at the
same time omitting some features). The models
themselves showed signs of their age. They were
cast in the softest of lead alloy – some arrived
with muskets wrapped tightly around their
figure. Their bases were unfortunately the dead-
flat rectangular plinth type (complete with
obvious mould line) which harked back to the
days before textured bases became the norm. For
me, this always added more unnecessary work
to the basing process and I greatly appreciated a
sculptor texturing the space between a figure’s
legs – so that I didn’t have to!
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