"Best quality 28mm miniatures for AWI, Napoleonic, and ACW" Topic

Hi

What are the best quality 28mm miniatures for American War of Independance, Napoleonic period and the American Civil War.

I am thinking of purchasing miniatures from triangle miniatures and I have heard good things and Fife and Drum miniatures.

Thanks.

Perry Miniatures

I really like Fife & Drum, but they are currently mostly cover the 1777 Philadelphia campaign.

Agree with Margard on Perrys for everyhing else.

If you want to do AWI, you might buy a few Fife & Drum and Perry figures and see which you like best.

Foundry

Paul:if you will send me your contact information/address I would be happy to send you an assortment of free samples of the Fife & Drum AWI range for your inspection.

best regards

Fritz (Jim)

PS: a slight correction to DBF's comment, the Fife & Drum range can be used for nearly the entire spectrum of the AWI, not just the Philadelphia campaign. Note however, that the British are wearing campaign uniforms with brimmed hats and cut down coats rather than the formal 1768 Warrant Uniform.

Don't have any AWI or ACW; but for Napoleonics: Perry, Front Rank, Victrix, and Foundry. Foundry is probably the smallest of the group – basically shorter.

For Napoleonics, don't forget Calpe.

For ACW, Old Glory 2nd generation are touted as being very good.

Warning – I have neither of the ranges mentioned above. I base my suggestions on what I have read here from satisfied consumers.

Jim

I like Fife and Drum, Perry and Foundry for AWI. I also own a lot of Foundry ACW but, as noted, they are a little smaller than a lot of figs being made today.

For ACW I like Sash and Saber and Old Glory II – both sculpted by Chris Hughes.

I also like the above for Napoleonics but the ranges are more limited than for ACW.

Perry Miniatures are also very nice for both ACW and Napoleonics.

I have no AWI figures.

For American Revolution, Fife and Drum are my top choice. Perry Miniatures have a huge range of very high quality figures as well.

For the American Civil War, nobody is as good as Sash and Saber in 28mm. There are many outstanding ranges, including Redoubt, Wargames Foundry, Crusader, and Perry Miniatures.

It is hard to tell you the best Napoleonic miniatures without knowing what army you want. Certainly Calpe make some outstanding figures. Perry have some beautiful figures. I think that Eureka's Wars of the French Revolution range are nearly perfect sculpts. All of these are limited ranges, however.

For all the Napoleonic Wars combatants, in every period and every theater, I would say that either Front Rank or Wargames Foundry have the best figures.

I have been painting a lot of AWI and Napoleonic figures just lately. Most of the AWI have been from Foundry and Perry and both ranges are excellent. I don't have any of the Fife and Drum figures yet but the pictures look great. The range is no where near as big yet, though.

Perry is also coming out with plastic AWI soon so if I were starting a 28mm AWI project I would wait for those and see what I could do with that before starting on anything else.

For Napoleonics since November I've painted about 400 Napoleonic British. All but 50 of them have been Perry figures and the vast majority the plastics.

I also have painted a large number of their plastic French in the past too as well as the cavalry for various other projects.

They can't be beat. The plastic Brits are absolutely wonderful figures and I enjoy painting them still. I have about 220 more to go to complete the order I'm working and I look forward to it.

For AWI I'd try painting Fife & Drum and Perry before deciding which you like best. I suspect in the fullness of time the F&D range will become extensive.

Napoleonics – Perry but depends what you want to do. If it's the Peninsula War there are no Portuguese or Spanish in the Perry range and as yet no indication there ever will be. Thing is with the Perrys you never quite know.

ACW – Perry.

Perry for all 3.

Jaz
6sided.net – read the latest blog posts from our gamers blogs on our front page!

Perry but depends what you want to do. If it's the Peninsula War there are no Portuguese or Spanish in the Perry range and as yet no indication there ever will be.

On the other hand, Brigade Games has some very nice Portuguese and Spanish sciulpted by Paul Hicks, who is arguably as good as anyone else in the business.

brigadegames.com

Yep Perry would be the place to start especially for AWI. Supplement the Perry AWI with the Foundry models which were sculpted by the Perry's as well. Basically they started the line with Foundry and went on to pretty much complete it with their own company.

You are spoiled for choice if you are going to do Napoleonics. Perry, Victrix, Calpe, Warlord (which I think are Perry sculpts but not sure) and many others. Also take a look at Sash and Sabre.

ACW again Perry, as you can get a good start cheap with the plastics. The metals are all nice as well and once again the Foundry ACW are Perry sculpting. Another great line of 28mm ACW figures and with wonderful character are Sash and Sabre. Chris is wonderful to order from and is just a heck of a great guy. Be careful however as you will be tempted to look at his 40 mm ACW stuff and may decide to go that way instead. They are just beautiful models and not that much more expensive than collecting 28 mm.

Forgot to add the Old Glory second generation which someone did mention above for the ACW. Nice figures and available at a great price with an Old Glory Army card.

This is an odd one and I do wonder if it is getting into the realms of advertising. The whole question is too open to abuse I think, but I am still new to this forum, as only fairly recently joined. (6 months approx). I'll leave that to the editors, but it does sound a bit commercially driven, however innocent.

Any response must be personal and depends what you want the figures for. Quality is what you requested…………but value, en masse or individually, compatibility, hobbit versus human, range offered, service when you order?…..it is your choice and a compromise.

If you simply collect Napoleonic miniature figurines to look at (I do)….Perrys any day. Calpe are slightly better, still do concentrate on the Prussians….but that is changing. Westphalia are incredible but pricey and that bit larger for 28mm…….very limited range, but watch this space. Victrix amazing for conversion and parts to add to Perry plastics to make totally unique figures. The rest….Lord of the Rings figures in Shakoes! Wrists that reach their knees and heads of progeny of cretins (hypothyroidism from birth) mated to acromegalics (ie Jaws from 007 movies…it is all to do with your pituitary gland).

My tip. Do not compromise on figure cost. Work out the time you will spend on painting and basing and see if it is worth any compromise on your intial outlay. Compare one Starbuck's coffee with one Perry's French cavalry figure for value.

Deadhead has made a valuable point which always amazes me that needs to be made, no matter whether you are time rich and cash poor or vice versa – time is money – by the time you spend hours painting the figure, saving a few cents by purchasing an inferior sculpt is just plain daft!

And yes of course its a personal thing – so for me, Calpe figures if they are available in the right dress and pose, otherwise Perry or Front Rank, ideally plastics because of the time saving and detail and conversion opportunities, but metal otherwise. As Front Rank are slightly heftier than Perry, Front Rank Heavy Cav and Perry light cav works beautifully…

Napoleonic – Front Rank and Calpe
ACW – Old Glory 2nd edition and Dixon.
AWI – no idea.

RebelPaul, Architects of War link has the best price on Perry Miniatures. Can't be beated! You will be happier!

ACW – sash and saber, foundry, perry for me
AWI – perry and foundry all perry sculpts. I do like Fife and Drum and have picked up all the guns and crew plus enough for a couple of units. I really like the clean sculpts of Fife and Drum. They are next on my painting pile.

Matthew

ACW – Perry, Old Glory 2nd ed, Foundry. Other ranges worth a look are Rapier & Redoubt

AWI- Perry & Fife & Drum

Perry plastic zouaves & confederate charging boxes are outstanding. They also do various size deals Brigade,Division.

My tip. Do not compromise on figure cost. Work out the time you will spend on painting and basing and see if it is worth any compromise on your intial outlay.

On the other hand, a poor paint job can make the best carved figure look like crap, so if you aren't much of a painter, why pay extra?

/devil's advocate mode

Perry, Perry and oh yeah, Perry.

Perry, Old Glory 2nd edition, Sash and Saber

It's funny how quickly things have changed over the last 5 or 6 years – I remember thinking that Front Rank could never be bettered, and Foundry too. But nowadays, with Victrix, Perry, Calpe, and others, I find some of my old Foundry look like Orcs and Front Rank look rather stiff and unrealistic.
The biggest change has surely been in the "every man is different" look which the new figures, especially plastics, allow. The old massed units of 36 identical figures (which I drooled over as a kid) don't do it for me any more – but of course that's just personal taste.

I do ACW exclusively with Perry Miniatures. The plastics are inexpensive (30-40 figs for about $30 USD or so) and have some nice personality. I supplement the plastics with their metals (12 figs for $12 USD) for command, artillery and some more varied poses -- all of which I've very much enjoyed painting. I've been into ACW for about a year now and I've got about 250 of the Perry figures.

Check out some more pics on my blog: link

Another vote for Perry

My ACW armies (currently at 524 figures) but planned to go to 1,500 are and will be exclusively Perry.

The new plastic confederates are a joy to build and paint.

An interesting thread, for which I baled out quite a few years ago as I went to 1/72 soft plastic. BUT, it is interesting how fashions come and go in this hobby. I know that Perry figures are often described as the best, but I quite like the look of the old Elite/Connessieur (sp!) etc – they have a dramatic flair that when I see pics on this site just make me really impressed. often, the Perry style units are shown singly, painted well to the current standards and based to perfection with tufts, flowers, flock and a cannon wheel.

But they do not always appear to have the life of the Elite style figures. Wish I knew why that is. Something to do with them being quite fat (to me they are the grown up modern versions of minifigs). Nice, and clean to paint. But just sometimes lifeless.

Similarly, for AWI, I quite like what DaF is doing with his new range – something about that "minden" style of sculpting that works for me. Again, the Perry AWi will be in teh news because of their plastic set which can be assembled in two (yes TWO) whole poses, but DaF's stuff looks more "real" – movement, flair, poses, anatomy etc.

But at the end, it is always a personal choice. before I was seduced by the 1/72 guys (of which some are fantastic, some are goblins), I thought Foundry were marvellous. But as I have got older, I keep coming back to the Elite Napoleonics. I know they are not perfect, and often look skywards, but to my mind, their style en masse calls to my heart.

So I would always recommend that a person gets some samples and paints a few, alongside web research (well, sounds posher than looking at pics on the web) to match what they "vision" with what is available. Luckily, this hobby has always been a broad church, so we will always be able to enjoy so many different styles.

And cost v time. That is true to an extent, but painting styles and how different figures respond to those styles may dictate what time is taken.

Enjoy.

Perry is even cheaper if you order direct especially since the GBP is doing really poorly against the US dollar right now (about $1.50 USD per GBP) _and_ we don't pay VAT. So a 18 GBP box of Perry plastics is actually only 15, and then about $22.50 USD when converted. That's a deal.

Perry and Foundry. When I get to the 1777 Philly campaign I will look to use some F&D. Working on Saratoga right now.

Napoleonic: Calpe and Perry.
AWI: Perry and Fife and Drum
ACW: Perry and Sash and Saber.

As you can see I'm a big fan of the Perrys.