40mm Casting Report 3 - Creartec

Over the holidays, I received a few more of the Creartec Napoleonic casting molds. Firstly, # 41 903. This is a companion mold to # 41 904 covered in a previous post. 41 904 will cast the marching French infantryman and drummer, 41 903 makes an identical fantassin and officer.  Creartec missed an opportunity here, the marching figure should have been elite company in one mold and center company in the other.  The masters could have easily been modified to do that.

Next we have # 41 903, Prussian infantry in the same marching pose as the French and another figure in the toylike "running infantry" pose, like the old Britains Highlander.

Once again, these are very much in the Schneider bleisoldaten style.  There's a companion mold I don't have which contains an officer and musician (unfortunately not a drummer but a bugler).  All of these basic infantry figures are very easy to cast.

Finally, the French Cuirassier mold # 41 901. 

This is an odd one, casting a noticeably smaller figure than the British dragoon of the same series. Further, from the lack of a carbine & cartridge belt and the trim at the bottom of the cuirass, he appears to be originally intended as an officer. Yet there's no corresponding trooper, this is it. There a good and bad points to this mold. Good - the sword held down at the side completely avoids the "guy brandishing a knife" short sword cast problem. Bad - despite the reinforced hooves where they connect to the base (and an awkward bit of painting there no matter how you treat it) the rearing horse pose is subject to breakage. At any rate, this is the painted result:

Where do I go from here ?  Not sure.  There are things I like about these, but I feel that Creartec erred in parroting the Schneider style with this series.  I think hobbyists would have been better served without the retro design quirks, by sticking with the semi-round ambiance (and lead savings) but more in the mode of Holger Erikkson's Prince August figures.