"Starting 10mm Napoleonics -- is Old Glory the way to go?" Topic

Sculpts seem to have good reviews. Biggest range (at the moment). Good price -- excellent when you factor in the Old Glory Army 40% discount.

Tell me why not vs other mfrs…

Pendraken -- better sculpts? and lots of new releases planned for 2011

GHQ -- better sculpts? but higher price

Bend Sinister -- better sculpts? but limited range

Magister Militum -- figs seem stocky, but they offer Portuguese (for the Peninsula)

AIM and Minifigs -- GFI offline until further notice?

Cold Wars is in two weeks!

Thanks

I think the biggest advantage is the strips. If I were doing 10mm Napoleonics and they had Russians in great coats, I would probably start a Russian army.

It is a personal preference of mine, but I don't like strips. I prefer individual figures. Even when I have purchased OG I end up using cutters and splitting them into individuals. My personal favorites are Pendraken, good range and excellent sculpts.

Hi

I would buy a French fusilier sample (a strip or a couple of figures) from each of the companies mentioned and paint them up.

IMO how a figure paints up in relation to your style of painting can save you a lot of frustration down the line – and if you have been in the hobby for a while I am sure you will agree that the differences in casting, sculpting, raised or flat detail (and so on) make a big difference to how the figure paints up (and how much you enjoy the experience).

I painted some Austrian/British/prussian old glory 10mm a while back and found them reasonably easy going, resilient with good detail – I also found a fair amount of obscured/unidentified detail on them as well though – simply areas that did not belong or relate to anything in particular!

New resculpted Pendraken look nice, as do the 1/200 from Inkbiz.

I think I'd go crazy if I had to handle and base indivdually cast 10mm infantry.

I'd go for the OG strips.

Pendraken has some fine new sculpts and is releasing a slew of figures this year. Some of the older Wargames South stuff is probably not as nice. I believe the French are some of the newest if they interest you.

Bend Sinister are bigger and match up size wise with GHQ.
They will not mix with other ranges other than GHQ on the same stand. But lovely figure ranges but still limited in nationality but adding more everyday.

GHQ are not necessarily better sculpts. I think Bend Sinister are nicer. They are better proportioned and a bit taller. Great figures but I think that Pendraken or Bend Sinister are easier to paint up to a higher level. But this may not matter depending on your style. Not as many folds and creases with GHQ so you can't take advantage of dry brushing as much. As you stated, they are more expensive but then again, they are taller figures.

Magister Millitum seems to be a good range. I think the newer Pendrakens are a bit nicer. I think MM mixes with Pendrakens.

Old Glory has nice artillery. They paint up well but aren't as nice as the other lines. They are in fixed strips so if you don't like the 5 per stand look, it will be a bit of a pain to cut the strips to mount the way you want. They are very competitive in pricing though.

I am a 15mm guy but have researched 10mm quite a bit. Depending on what nation I was doing, I would go with Bend Sinister as their pricing is comparable to Pendraken and you get 12mm figures for the price of 10mm :-)

Having said this Pendraken is the way to go for closer to true 10mm. They are releasing more and more figures at a very fast rate. You could always fill in with MM temporarily if needed but eventually Pendraken should have a fairly complete line. Just looked at a friend's Pendrakens at lunch today, really lovely figures :-)

Thanks for the info.

I based my comments on figure comparison photos found on 10mmworld.com. Where the 10mm line crosses the figure seems to contradict what is generally said.

Pendraken Peninsular Shoulders Slim
Pendraken 1812 Line Chin Medium build
GHQ Chin Slim
Bend Sinister Eyes Medium build
AIM Eyes Stocky
Magister Eyes Very stocky
Old Glory no comparison photo

Now, I have seen photos online of painted Magister Militum and they look much thinner than on 10mmworld.com. And maybe the Pendraken on 10mmworld.com are not new sculpts as FreddBloggs suggests.

Overall I really like the detail on the sculpts by Pendraken, Bend Sinister and GHQ, but having not found many photos of Old Glory online, I cannot judge and choose.

I hope to be able to compare figs at Cold Wars, depending on what's there. But again, Old Glory at 40% off is hard to pass up. And no one is yelling at me to run away from them.

Nothing like a new period or scale to make you crazy! (But in a good way!)

I just got into 10mm Napoleonics last month, and I bought a pile of French and Austrians from Old Glory using the 40% discount. Overall, I'm very happy, and if you're just getting into the scale, I'm sure they would be a good introduction for you as well, as long as you are not determined to avoid strips at all costs (skirmishers, cavalry, and artillerymen are all single-mounted, though).

I really like how quickly they paint up, and with a little magic dip they look awesome, far better than the 6mm's I had been collecting.

I've painted both. The OG figures are excellent and not expensive. Pendraken are brilliant.

One thing to consider is the strip width for OG. That is going to define how wide your bases are. If you are cool with that, then fine. I have lots of OG for War of the Spanish Succession. I set my base width by the strip width. One issue is that there are two different strip widths for the infantry – so I ended up rebasing everything to the wider of the two widths.

Good point. I looked everywhere before I bought Old Glory, and I had a devil of a time finding out what the strip widths were.

Most of the infantry strips are a full inch wide. I have laser-cut litko bases, and the strips come very close to the edges of the bases. 25mm bases might be too narrow. Some OG strips are even wider (like the French command strips). I would estimate their width at 27-28mm. Not too glaring an overhang, especially if you are prepared to do a little trimming, but it's something I would definitely take into account when basing.

The inconsistency of the strips widths ruined them for me.

I went with ghq but would go redline or pendraken if I started again.

Schogun, if you pop us an email through (d.pengilley@btinternet.com), we'll stick a few samples in the post for you to have a look at.

I've played with some of the 10mm OG and found it very easy to snip the strips apart.

Sorry to add in late in the conversation. As stated above, the Pendraken earlier lines (which happens to be 1812+ period) are smaller. Their newer lines are taller and actually bigger than Redline.

GHQ are actually smaller than most lines at this point. I am sure at one point they were larger. The cavalry swords are too thin due to being closer to scale. They are not quite as robust either.

Redline are wonderful but they have slowed down their releases this year. Their Prussians match up more with MM and Pendraken.

Magister Militum has the most complete line and happen to be the most expensive these days. I can't find them discounted anywhere. I am in the U.S., please let me know if you know otherwise.

Old Glory have varying levels of quality. I hear that the Prussians are one of their better lines. I am assuming that the earlier lines are not as good as their more recent ones. I hear their cavalry (which is individually based) is a paint to mount up and that there are sizable gaps with many figures and their horses. Also, they seem to vary in scale from one pack to the next. I do hear their horses are nice too.

What line you go with depends on what army you want to do. Unfortunately, I want to do 1813+ Prussians which limits me to Old Glory and MM. Redline has only two types, line and Landwehr infantry now and they are similar to MM. Luckily Old Glory has nicer figures in this period. I am not going with GHQ because they are smaller than all the other lines at this point of what is available. But I may use them to fill in.

If you are going with French, British or Austrians, you are in luck with many choices. AIM will probably come back online early next year sometime. I hear that Tom Dye is returning from military deployment and will start up again.
I don't think he has a complete line either but may have some complete nations….

In the same quandry! Got loads of AB but because I go to town on them I'll be in the next world by the time I finish them! So, torn between 6mm and 10. Thing is I have not yet seen any pics of 10mm with the phwoooaar factor. I'm not saying there aren't any, just not seen them. Don't fancy OG strips, just not me, so if anyone can point me in the direction I need to be looking, some pics with close up detail, that would be great.
Many thanks,
Mike

Heavytrack1 for some pictures of 10mm painted up, see my blog (shameless plug) – 10mmnapoleonics.blogspot.com

The reality is that no range is complete enough – you will need to mix and match to get what you want. Most are ok with the 3 foot rule. I use mainly Reline, with Old Glory, Pendraken, Irregular Miniatures, Magistum Militum and GHQ to fill in the gaps.

Some to whet your appetite

More at the blog

Cheers

Ironlegs
10mmnapoleonics.blogspot.com

Ironlegs, many thanks, starting to dribble a bit lol!
I saw Pendraken have released some French / Russian campaign figs, but sadly no pics, unless i've missed em somewhere. Will contact them and ask some questions, again, thanks for the pics,

Mike