Suggest manufacturers.

Joined: 21 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

Hi,
just wonder if there are any suggestions for figures? Not really familiar with naps figures. My LGS can get Essex figures so I may start with them.

Gazza

Site Admin Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 174

I think AB Figures are considered the best in the industry. I have one unit of Prussian Lancers from AB and they are really very nice sculpts. The only problem is they're almost closer to 20mm than 15mm.

Battle Honors/Old Glory do a really nice job as well. Their headquarters is not far from me at all and the guys there are really nice. There's something reallly cool about being able to walk into their shop and if something's not hanging on the racks you get to walk out with minis that are still warm from the molds. I was amazed with how accomodating they were by spinning a whole mold just to give me the one Scottish drummer that I needed.

A friend of mine has tons of old Mini-Figs that look really nice. I also have a great deal of new Mini-Figs that I'm pleased with. I think overall, the Mini-Figs have a little less detail (or just lower relief on it) but realize that some painters prefer that.

I don't have any personal experience with Essex figures myself, but the vibe I get online is that they're pretty close to AB figures. I probably shouldn't say that though without jumping back out on the other forums and confirming. I'm going on old memory on that, so other's who've had personal experience with them should probably comment there.

Maybe I'll go see if I can find that website with the side by side comparisons of the different manufacturers...

Joined: 16 Jul 2007 Posts: 16

Essex figs are nice, clean sculpts, with lots of detail. They tend to be a little short (some say Gnomish) compared to AB, etc. Their horses are nice and big compared to the rider (as good Biritish cav should be!) From what I've seen, AB horses are a little small.

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/nap_15_fre_inf_sbs.html

Site Admin Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 174

Well spotted, Mr. Sharpe!
That's exactly the site I was digging up a link to.

Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 34 Location: NZ

I've got all AB at the moment but I'm waiting on a small shipment of Fantassin Naps - I'll let you know what they're like.

cheers,

Evan

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:16 am

This was posted in another thread but I like the miniatures so here is the link.
When I get some painted I will post some pictures.

http://oldglory15s.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=201

Chris

Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 34 Location: NZ

whats the point of having a catalogue with no images ??

cheers,

Evan

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:41 am

Evan wrote:

I've got all AB at the moment but I'm waiting on a small shipment of Fantassin Naps - I'll let you know what they're like.
Evan

Fantassins Miniaturas are very good but AB it's the Rolls Royce again. We wait the BF's figures. Wink

We have also in France "Alain Touller Figurines" where you can find French 1812, Russians 1812, Ottomans, Poles, and some revolutionnary frenchies. But I can't find some good pictures. Crying or Very sad

Site Admin Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 174

Evan wrote:

whats the point of having a catalogue with no images ??

Yeah. Its a company local to me (geographically) and they're really nice guys, but I don't buy miniatures that I can't see before I buy them.

... well, ok, I once made that ill-fortuned forray into Mechwarrior figures where I didn't even know what was in the boxes - but that's an exception to the rule which I never speak of ... erm ... uh ... you guys are gonna forget you read that, right? Wink

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:52 am

Google is a friend for that Wink

Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 34 Location: Sylvania, OHIO

There are 2 styles of Old Glory Napoleonics. This is the results of the original sculpter passing on and the replacement sculpter's style. It is difficult to describe except that the newer releases were/are a bit cleaner looking. Dave Alsop (SP) was more of a realistic style of figure in its appearance and the newer style is more of a model figurine type. Both are very good and paint up in their style is most rewarding on the battlefield. I have both styles in my collection and they fit well together. *

* This is the opinion of a gamer/painter of Napoleonics of over 33 years and with over 15,000 painted figures that have passed by my paintbrush in that time.

**OK, I will get off my self serving soapbox now.... Embarassed

Steve Straub
Sylvania, Ohio USA

Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 89 Location: Naples, Fl

Dillingham wrote:

Quote:

I think AB Figures are considered the best in the industry. I have one unit of Prussian Lancers from AB and they are really very nice sculpts. The only problem is they're almost closer to 20mm than 15mm.

Do they fit in with your Old Glory collection, or are they totally out of proportion? If I were to go with the AB line, would I have to go 'whole hog'?

Don

Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 34 Location: NZ

I've got some OG15 1815 French infantry and they look fine next to the AB stuff. They end up about the same height because the OG bases are quite thick, plus they're a little beefier than the AB so the end result is they look fine next to each other in seperate units but I wouldn't mix them together in the same unit.

I also tried the Fantassin range, they are very similar in style to the AB, if anything even a touch bigger though! - you can mix them in with AB. The detail isn't rendered quite as well, and the back packs are amazingly small & narrow? The metal used is incredibly hard making cleaning up difficult. The foot figures are fine but I'm not that keen on the horses.

cheers,

Evan

Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 89 Location: Naples, Fl

I have some French that I think are Old Glory (might be MiniFigs) that are much larger than my old Heritage minis, so I will be able to make a comparison myself soon. Speaking of horses, do you have any tips on painting them? And do you go for a variety of colors, or should all in a unit be almost the same?

Thanks,

Don

Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 34 Location: NZ

I like a mix of colours but the trumpeter's horse should always be a white/grey horse unless you have more specific info! Some units tried to get the same colour horses but I believe that was not possible when on campaign. You could try giving elite/guard cavalry the same coloured horses & line regts multi coloured. I'm lazy when it comes to colour choice and instead of just poring over the vallejo range for the three tier colours I just got the Foundry Horse colours set - & I'm happy with that Cool

cheers,

Evan