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"Best looking 15mm ECW?" Topic


20 Posts

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899 hits since 4 Jun 2009
©1994-2009 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?

Plessiez05 Jun 2009 9:06 p.m. PST

I'm having trouble finding pictures of a lot of manufacturer's miniatures so I'm interested in your opinions. I put a lot of time into the painting side of the hobby, so I'm looking for something that has good detail and will look good painted up.

Peter Pig seem well sculpted but I'm not very keen on the style of their faces.

Museum miniatures have pictures on their website (which is great) but they're not the best paint-jobs in the world so it's hard to get much of a feel for the figures.

Thanks in advance

Personal logo Extra Crispy Supporting Member of TMP05 Jun 2009 9:24 p.m. PST

I have very close-up photos of the Black Hat (formerly Gladiator) range on my site:

link

eddy195706 Jun 2009 8:50 a.m. PST

Testudo has a nice range.

link

Plessiez06 Jun 2009 5:11 p.m. PST

I thought Testudo were no longer being made?

Personal logo jsmcc91 Supporting Member of TMP07 Jun 2009 4:17 p.m. PST

The Old Glory range is also fully pictured on the Old Glory 15s site.

Jay

burlesonbill Supporting Member of TMP07 Jun 2009 4:23 p.m. PST

Testudo are not being produced. There have been several posts recently regarding their legal status, both by the sculptor and the business owner (or manager), both on TMP and on various Yahoo Groups. They also both clearly stated that the last order they sold and shipped to Stonewall in the UK was several years ago, so there is a definite "question mark" concerning any figures advertised or purchased from that source.

You might want to check out these links from other TMP threads which pretty well cover your question.

TMP link

TMP link

Basically, almost all of the ranges mentioned in these posts will paint up well and reward good effort. Some are obviously more detailed than others, but some are also more animated and provide some of the best looking units once painted.

I'm also in the middle of a project to review and rate all of the available "15mm" figures suitable for the last quarter of the 17th century (not the same period, I know), that feature most of these same maker's. I have published some comparison shots of inked figures angainst a 4mm X 4mm grid with decent close-ups so you can evaluate them against each other.

link

Of the ranges pictured, Hallmark, Editions Brokaw and Venexia do not do ECW/TYW figures at this time. However, all of the others do and the figures will be comparable to these. As to my personal preferance for my TYW French and ECW Scots, I mix primarily Museum and Old Glory 15's, but do add in selected Freikorps15's, Essex and Donnington for variety in the ranks. One of the previous TMP links does have a link to a comparison shot of ECW Scots that I did.

Bill

Oh Bugger08 Jun 2009 6:49 a.m. PST

Freikorps15's available from LKM are very good indeed.

Timbo W08 Jun 2009 11:41 a.m. PST

I like Matchlock miniatures, but sometimes there is difficulty getting some figures eg cavalry.

Jubilation T Cornpone11 Jun 2009 4:14 a.m. PST

Museum Miniatures are excellent sculpts. Well worth getting.

Plessiez12 Jun 2009 5:43 a.m. PST

Thanks for the responses everyone. And nice work on the wars of Louis XIV blog burlesonbill.

Lead Snob13 Jun 2009 9:56 a.m. PST

Matchlock and Testudo if you can get them.

Timmo uk14 Jun 2009 5:03 a.m. PST

Testudo

burlesonbill Supporting Member of TMP17 Jun 2009 10:13 p.m. PST

Gentlemen;

Just my humble opinion, but answering this question with any reference to Testudo is a bit like telling someone looking for a new car to find a DeLorean or a "new" Jaguar XKE. They may be wonderful, but if nobody is producing or selling them (legitimate castings), what's the point? And Matchlock isn't much better until they work out their production problems.

So, soapbox aside, if you're looking for complete ranges still in full production (and likely to be barring something unforeseen), then the answers are:

Peter Pig – Complete, some excellent sculpts, but small figures, don't mix well in the same units with other makers, these are "true 15's".

Gallia (available through Warrior) – An older, smaller range, not really very complete and they don't mix well with most of the other figures mentioned.

Freikorps15 – Complete, some excellent sculpts, larger than PP but smaller than some others, closer to about 16 or 17mm, won't always mix in the same unit, but do look good in separate units in a mixed army.

Essex – Complete, some complimentary figures available from other ranges, mix well with Freikorps15 and some others, they have their own style and people either love them or hate them, I like them very much in selected roles and love their horses (which they will sell separately).

Donnington – Way beyond complete, one of the most comprehensive ECW and TYW (and even Dutch Wars) ranges around, slightly chunky but clean sculpts and castings, mix well with Museum, Irregular and Black Hat and some Essex and Freikorps15, also available individually letting you mix a few in here and there.

Black Hat – Slightly larger figures, will almost mix with Testudo, but will mix with Donnington's, Museum, Irregular and Old Glory, fairly complete range

Museum – Reasonably complete range (I would like to see a few more figures added), good sculpts, mix well with Old Glory, Donnington, Irregular and some Essex and Freikorps15.

Lancashire Games – Not mentioned yet, larger figures, very inexpensive, very animated with reasonable sculpts, paint up well, will mix with Testudo and some of the larger Donnington's in size, fairly complete range

Old Glory 15's – Very complete range, and offers a companion TYW range with figures that will mix, great variety of poses in each pack, very animated armies possible, all the sculpts are not as sharp as they could be (particularly faces), but they do reward a good paint job. You could do an entire collection with just OG and still have a lot of variety and animation, but they also mix well with Museum, Essex, Donnington, Irregular and Freikorps15.

Irregular Miniatures – Very complete range with some complimentary types, not my favorite sculpts by Ian Kay, but presentable and paint up well, mix well with OG, Museum, Donnington, Minifigs, Freikorps15 and some Essex, also available as individual figures letting you mix a few in here and there.

Minifigs – Complete range with complimentary TYW figures available, mix well with Donnington, Museum, Irregular, Freikorps15 and Essex for size. Some poses a bit "stiff" but still very good figures. People either love or hate Minifigs horses, but their riders will fit on Essex horses and some others.

I think that's all, but I probably missed someone who will get their knickers in a bunch. BTW, here's the comparison photo I did of ECW Scots. Shown here are (l to r) 2 Museum, 2 Freikorps15, 2 Old Glory and 2 Essex. The grid is 4mm X 4mm with incremental marks at 2mm so that you can judge the overall size.

picture

Bill

Personal logo Dropship Horizon Supporting Member of TMP21 Jun 2009 2:08 a.m. PST

Excellent review and even more excellent blog Bill!

Your side by side comparisons really do kick into touch those off-handed comments that gamers can easily mix figures because "men aren't all the same height" or similar sentiment.

I really do like the Lancashire Games miniatures but there is no way they will fit with my older Hallmark and Irregular Minis.

Great to see some pics of the Donnington range.

I felt your comments on the various ECW manufacturers are very fair and certainly match my opinions in the most part. Though I have a lot of time for Minifigs and used figs from their TYW command sets and cavalry within my own ECW armies

I'd like to add Stronghold to the list. They have a good range of minis, some of my favourite command figures and lovely ECW personalities.

Look forward to your future reviews.

Regards
Mark

burlesonbill Supporting Member of TMP21 Jun 2009 3:51 p.m. PST

Mark,

I actually wanted to include Stronghold's "Sedgemoor" range in my Late 17th Century review (as well as Matchlock's similar range). But after correspondence with Mike, he declined due to the housing problems he's had and an inability to actually produce the figures right now. As regards Matchlock, well, similar story, both their US agent and the owner of Caliver declined to fill an order or provide samples due to "production problems". Maybe sometime down the road we'll be able to acquire some of both and I'll add them as an update.

Bill

Tumbleweed29 Oct 2009 6:32 p.m. PST

Visit the Viking Forge website: vikingforge.datasquire.net
We have photos and blow-ups of photos for all of our Matchlock 15mm ECW for your review and comments.

pilum40 Supporting Member of TMP29 Oct 2009 6:43 p.m. PST

Bill:

They all look pretty small to me! :)

Steve Miller
DFWIrregulars

mrkprkr Supporting Member of TMP29 Oct 2009 9:57 p.m. PST

New Testudo is back in production. Please see the TMP link on this messageboard.

burlesonbill Supporting Member of TMP30 Oct 2009 3:30 a.m. PST

Steve,

We're not all blessed with the Rat Palace for a venue, some of us have to play "army" sized games on 4 X 6 tables. And even if I had the Rat Palace, that would just mean hundreds more 15's.

And, "It's not the size that matters". Didn't a "hostess" mention that one of those times we closed the bar in the old Holiday Inn Lakeside in Austin years ago? Or maybe it was Chelsea Street Pub near the old Royal Guardsman in Dallas? If you'll remember, I played 15's by choice back then too.

Wish I could make it to MCon to try your ECW game, good luck with it, the figures look great!

Bill
Sir William the Aged
warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com

emu2020 Supporting Member of TMP01 Nov 2009 7:51 p.m. PST

Tumbleweed, some of those pages look to be broken.

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