"Blue Moon 15mm/18mm with...any other ranges?" Topic

Not having seen them in person yet, I gather that Blue Moon is much closer to 18mm than 15mm. Are they compatible with any other ranges? I'm thinking of the old Mini-Fig 'Super Detailed' 15mm lines as well as some Eureka.

I did a cursory search on the message boards, and while I found a lot on what lines Blue Moon is not compatible with, little on those that they are.

And any period will do.

Thanks,

Jeff

A little bit of "asked and answered", at least in regards to ACW.

link

Eureka is brutally honest on the scale of the figures that they sculpt and make. Blue Moon should be a close match with their 18mm. Old Glory 15mm should be fairly close too. As the link shows, it depends on what you find a good match. I think too often we get into the desire to have figures the same height, which is not the case in real life. I would say that the scale of weapons and general proportions are more important.

Minifigs is a no. They are closer to true 15mm plus they are slimmer.

I agree that the size of the weapons and equipment is more important to me than the height of the figure.

It's been years since I've seen the Minifig Super Detail range up close, but I remember that they worked in that extra detail by making the figures bigger than, say, Heritage's Napoleonettes or other true 15s.

I painted up a unit of OG 15mm ACW and a unit of Blue Moon 15mm ACW at the same time and the size difference is noticeable. The OG figs might mix and match depending upon pose, but the Blue Moon officers, sergeants, and artillery crews are definitely 2-3mm taller.

If you're looking for a really close match in size and weapons, "Blue Moon" match really well with the old "Battle Standard" ACW figures. I believe they are still available, but don't remember who carries them at this time.
Otherwise, I use Old Glory and Battle Honors with the "Blue Moon" figures and it's not a noticeable difference when in different units. I haven't tried mixing them in the same unit with them.

For pirates, where I already own tons from various manufacturers, I'll use the greater height of the Blue Moons as short-hand for greater skill/morale, etc of the figure. Same with the Old West and every range where individual basing is the norm.

For Old West, I don't mix them on the same stand but I do use Minifig, Frontier, Peter Pig and Blue Moon in the same game. Minifigs are certainly thinner and Peter Pig certainly smaller but as the saying goes, from table height, it isn't that noticeable.

I'm going to order a pack or two just to size them against my BSM ACW, and my soon to be re-released British Napoleonic Peninsualr troops. Both my ACW and Napoleonic range are more in line with the 17-18mm version of 15's (scale creep I suppose), but I haven't had the opportunity to compare them side by side with the Blue Moon products.

Be careful in making generalizations about the entire Blue Moon 18mm. I have purchased figures from both the ACW and Great Northern Wars/Marlburian lines. These appear to have been sculpted by different artists.

The figures in the ACW line are much nicely animated and bodies are well proportioned. These are really fine figures that stand up well in quality and size to other larger-sized 15s (Old Glory) or the 18mm AB line.

The GNW/MAL figures are thinner, the hats and faces are not well rendered, have casting problems (extra metal around the legs and scabbards that has to be trimmed off) and there is little variation per pack. That said, the price is right, and they look fine from the usual 3-foot standard on a wargame table!

The ACW, GNW, and MAL ranges were all sculpted by the same designer, put in the same molds by the same mold maker, cast on the same machine with the same metal by the same people.

As far as poses and? I believe an ACW soldier would be more animated then a 18th century soldier -- Also --the OG 28mm 18th century figs got stiff critisim for "too much animation" and "too many poses" so we stuck with a more rigid pose on purpose for these.
Regards
Russ Dunaway

For SYW I have found that the French (from FIW range) are a good match to Essex in terms of height and bulk. They are not too bad alongside OG (but not in same unit) and Eureka are OK, although they seem to have bigger heads than Blue Moon. Minifigs definitely no-far too small.
Quality of Blue Moon castings that I have had is excellent and the figures stand up, even before glued to bases, unlike OG!

Russ, thanks for correcting my observations about these two Blue Moon lines. I am definitely a fan of "greater" animation, and really find the ACW line to be in a class all its own. It seems like the faces of the ACW figures have a lot more character to them as well.

As for the other issue mentioned, I would ask that you look into what appears to me to be a mold problem with the MAL/GNW's. Having painted my way through several packs (30 figures each), I have found that there is excess metal around the lower end of the sword scabbards on quite a few of the infantry figures. There are also some cavalry scabbards that are shorter than they should be. In contrast, I have not experienced any problems at all with the ACW line.

Thanks for listening!

Slightly off topic – but the Eureka MAW Kentucky Volunteers are excellent figures that could be painted up and used for CS troops if you aren't worried about the scale creep:

link