To celebrate paying off our mortgage, I recently jumped into 28mm Napoleonics. I bought early French from Front Rank, Brigade Games, Victrix, Perry, Eureka, and mounted officers from Calpe.
First, THANK YOU to all the manufacturers listed above. Excellent service from everyone, and I couldn't be more pleased with ALL figures. I have to give a little extra praise to Front Rank (Great Britain) and Eureka (Australia). My orders arrived in the States in just one week. Wow! But that's no slam on anyone else. I'm happy with 4-6 weeks delivery as long as you KEEP ME POSTED, and everyone did excellent.
About the figures…wow again! Amazing detail. Most of them are now primed and ready to paint. I should be able to paint these without resorting to the magnifying lamp I bought from Hobby Lobby for the smaller scales. That will be a nice change!
First impressions:
Front Rank: I will keep Front Rank in their own units. They are just ever so slightly larger than the others. Love the voltigeur in bicorn with upright plumes! It's been difficult finding figures in marching AND skirmishing poses in this uniform. Just my preference for voltigeur.
Victrix: I am not very good at assembling plastic figures. My fingers are not as nimble as they once were, so it took me a while. I like the variety of poses that one box provides. One box did not include enough figures to build two 24-figure battalions with skirmishers, so I am using metal grenadiers and sappers from Brigade Games. They mix well.
Brigade Games: As mentioned, the metal figures (formerly Victrix, if I recall) mix well with Victrix plastic. I prefer grenadiers in bearskin with a sapper in the grenadier company, and the Brigade Games figures will be the ones I use in units of Victrix plastic and even Perry metals.
Perry: For early French, the grenadier and sapper are in bicorn with the bearskin stowed on top of the backpack. Not my personal preference, but they do provide variety. It is possible to mix in Brigade Games grenadier and sapper in bearskin if I want. Also, Perry does not have any voltigeur in bicorn skirmishing, but once again Brigade Games has early Chasseurs in bicorn skirmishing that mix well with Perry.
Eureka: I'm using their Wars of the French Revolution (WFR)range for early Empire. They have voltigeur marching but not skirmishing, so I'm using grenadier in bicorn as voltigeur. I will have to customize them slightly.
Calpe: They don't have early French in bicorn, but I'm using F50 and F51 (mounted officers) for battalion and regimental commanding officers. They are on separate bases, so if there is any size differences with all other ranges, I can't see it.
I'm looking forward to starting this winter.
gets started with Flintloque.
