"Impartial advise needed." Topic

Hi Y'all, I am considering buying me some ACW 15 mm figures/minis, and was wanting to know which TMP'S thought were the best. I am a long time fan of Essex minatures and all of my 15mm armies are made from their figures. I am contemplating using them for this 15mm project but just thought I would ask what other people would recommend. The thing that spoil the Essex ACW range for me ( and this is purely a personal thing) is that the muskets seem too short. I am also considering the Blue Moon range, they look nice on the web site and I like to give Big Andy custom when I can as he is a top bloke, but having not seen any of these figures in the flesh I am dithering a little. One last think please try to be non partisan, ie don't say Blue Moon are wonderful just because they're American like yourself, or that Peter Pig is great because your from the South West. Anyway thanks to anyone who replies, all the best ..CH.

I have always liked Old Glory for ACW, their poses are great, you can get good looking armies with a lot of action to them.
They have everything you need as well.
Blue Moon look nice, and Essex have always seemed a little chunky to me…..But this is just my opinion.
My 15mm ACW are a mix of various manufacturers that I have gathered over time in trades, So really anything you find interesting will work.
At 15mm you won't really be able to tell the difference from a distance anyway….IMHO

My ACW is mostly Stone Mountain and Freikorps, and I'm generally happy with them, but if I was starting over, I'd focus on AB Miniatures ( available from Eureka) and Battle Honors, which I believe were also carved by Anthony Barton.

Check out this great resource for comparisons

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I need to update that page with the new Blue Moon, and my own Scale Creep brand as well…

Glen,

I have a mix of Battle Honors, Stone Mountain and now Blue Moon ACW figures. I have moved over to Blue Moon for all of my new units. They have a very extensive range, and the figures are very well done anatomically and paint up very easily. They are however big 18mm, so they may seem a little larger than other manufacturers. I have a lot of Essex ancients and they are also easy to paint, but I don't have any of their ACW.

Mark

AB are my favourite but I think they are also the most expensive.

Battle Honours are nice, although limited in poses. Blue Moon are my favourite. They already have an extensive range, and more are on the way. They paint up very, very nicely.

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AB Miniatures 15mm available through Eureka. Tough to beat the Tony Barton sculpts.

I used stone mtn as well as musket miniatures ACW more than any other. I do have a few odds n ends from fol.ks like essex, minifigs, old glory, battle honors, etc. Too many to remember.

I have a few blue moon and like em, but since they are larger, I'll use them for other missions.

I like Old Glory alot. And I think they work well with Essex. Should work well with Stone Mountain too.

old glory, stone mountain, musket, and soon(just got my army card, and i feel like a king!) blue moon. these are what i use.
old glory hold a special place in my heart. i was at the historicon at camp hill. pa. when they were first released. 100+(and a few casulties thrown into each bag!) for $15. USD i dream of that magical day, somenights…

Hello chaps, thank you all very much for some very excellent feed back, especially SCOMAC who I think Blue Moon should give commision to as he has persuaded me to go with Blue Moon for this next project. Thanks again to all…CH.

I would suggest Scale Creep and AB for some extra added variations. The idea is to spot a unit at a glance from 3 feet away. one of the best ways to do this, is to have units from different manufactures. So while you may wish to go with OG for most of your army, you may want to consider having a unit or two from someone else.

I have number of Battle Honors and my favorite pack is the Iron Brigade pack.

hows the figure mix in the BH iron brigade pack?

Firing, loading, etc. and a guy waving his hat. The pack is Iron Brigade/Western and includes the Western Old Abe eagle mascot on his stand.

Bayonets are not fixed (good, because they won't break).
The Union marching in greatcoats have thin muskets/bayonets.

That's the thing. Having a bunch of non dicript units is pretty boring.

I have a bunch of 15mm, but I've switched to 10mm. But the idea is the same. Have individual units that you can spot at a glance. A predominate shade of grey works well for the rebs, along with similar poses. Union units even though mostly dressed the same, can be made to look distinctive in addition to Zoauve and other variations, if you go with other manufacturers.

However, I would go with a single company when it comes to cavalry and artillery and Generals. the horses vary widely.

I like both Old Glory and Battle Honors/AB Miniatures. I like 15mm Old Glory for the variety of poses. I like Battle Honors for the detail, even if the poses are fewer. I think BH has more sculpted small details such as more belt and cartridge box plates, metal clips on canteens, buttons, and bayonet scabbard metal tips. Yes, I know many times the soldiers ditched the metal brass plates, but I like the detail it provides. Most BH packs also have better sculpted rifles than their Old Glory counterparts.

Blue Moon are really 18mm, but look very nice. If you went with all Blue Moon you would probably be happy too.

I have enough miniatures to fight Gettysburg at a scale of 1 figure = 40 men and 1 gun model = 8 guns.
AB figures are superb but are very expensive.
Freikorps are excellent, good to paint but are fragile.
Minifigs are OK.
Essex are good value and easy to paint.
Old Glory the animation of the figures can be excellent; some of the detail can be super or very poor? They paint up very well.
Blue Moon are really big 18mm Old Glory figures, sculpting is crisper but are very, very expensive. Paint up extremely well.
Scale Creep are OK.
Stone Mountain are dated but good.
North and South figures are cheep but paint up well.
Lancashire Games figures are cheep, bend easily, some castings are good, some are very poor.
Hope this is a help.

battle honors Old Glory or Musket Miniatures

I also have a division each of Rebs and Yanks from Stone Mountain Miniatures. Very robust figures with rifles that don't easily break. Not much detail though. Smooth clothing, that is, no molded on folds in the clothing. Not much variety in poses, but there is variety in the heads. All in all, very easy to paint.

Musket Miniatures are almost exactly the same. A mix and match between the two companies would be a great way to go.

Also, the barrels on Stone Mountain's artillery are the most accurate in ACW 15mm, in my opinion. I use Stone Mountain artillery, and base them with Old Glory artillery crews.

Once again thank you all very much for some great info, I am very grateful. Moonhippie3, could I ask why you switched from 15 to 10mm and how many 15mm figs/minis did you have at the time of the switch. Old Pete I was surprised that you thought Blue Moon very expensive, I think of them as slightly more expensive than the average. Anyway thanks again guys…CH.

Freikorps 15 – Some of the figs can be a little brittle but the breadth of their range and the sculpting is superb. You can get specific units like Terry's Texas Rangers or the 2nd New Hampshire in their grey uniforms and funny hats. Their Berdan Sharpshooters are really nice. For my Confederates I sprinkle in some of their Mexican War and Texas Revolution figs. They are true 15s not sure how they would look with AB or Blue Moon. Work well with the old Heritage/Empire figures.

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A lot of people for some reason like Stone Mountain. But in my opinion they are not sculpted well. Most of the figures are humped over like their back hurts or have a hump back. Some of their figures are so thin they look two dimensional. I do however like their wagons and accessories.

"Freikorps 15 – Some of the figs can be a little brittle but the breadth of their range and the sculpting is superb.

That's my experience too except that the metal used now is not brittle and has not been so for well over a decade.

Most of my ACW are Frei Korp available from QRF who have added some new figures to the already massive range. My one cavil with FK is that the gunners are a tad too small. I will replace mine with Essex when I get round to it.

I have about 150 Battle Honours figure they are excellent too but muskets tend to snap and they are noticeably bigger than the FK ones. Eventually when I have painted up FK replacements I will sell mine off because of the incompatability in size.

BTW check out Grimsby Wargames for some lovely free ACW flags the designer posts here as 'nevermore'.

Hope this helps.

except that the metal used now is not brittle

Yep that brittle metal was already out of use before we took over the range in 2003…….

Yes, I forgot that the brittle was gone. My figures are the old school ones. I would always buy a little extra because I new a few would break in transit.

Funny thing about them is that somewhere down the line there must have been a different sculpture because some of my figures like for example my FPW French Chassuers are bigger than the rest of the range. I still like them a lot. In fact I am just finishing up some Turcos for my next FPW game.

I am in the process of replacing my old ACW collection of Minifigs, Stone Mountain, and Essex 15mm's with the the Old Glory Blue Moon 18mm's. They are considerably larger, but look okay on the table as long as you don't mix them in units with other (smaller) figures.

Extra Crispy didn't you used to have a few pages on your site that compared, side by side , the dimensions on the various lines? Plus I think you once made the astute observation that having consistent paint jobs hold units together more than using the same manufacturer.

I only use Peter Pig.
Lots of character,crisp detail, lots of variety and best of all tough -especially in the weapons department.

BLUE MOON….definately cannot go wrong…

If you like more animated and more variety within poses:

Old Glory 15s (by 19th Century Miniatures) and Blue Moon (by Old Glory)

Scale Creep also has nice figures though I do not have any to compare to the above.

Stone Mountain & Musket Miniatures make some nice stuff too.

If cost is no concern, quality of casting is highly important and uniformity of pose is acceptable or preferred, AB makes a very nice ACW line.

Cheers,

The Bandit

Hi everyone, thank you all very much for some very helpful feedback. I recently managed to win an ebay auction for 3oo Old Glory figures that cost about 20 pence per fig so I was very happy with that and was even happier when they arrived as they are lovely figures. I am still going to have a look at the Blue moon range as I have heard so many good things about them so I may do my Rebs using Blue Moon (over Alabama). Anyway thanks again for all your advice, best wishes…CH.