"Best 28mm artillery?" Topic

Who makes the best guns in 28mm?

Is metal or plastic better for detail? How about resistance to damage?

Does your chosen manufacturer have a good range of pieces? Do they sell guns on their own or packaged with crew? What about limbers and other bits and bobs?

Your opinions please, gentlemen….

The Victrix plastic sets are really choice. They come with many different barrel choices. If you're careful in construction, you can swap barrels for your needs of that battle.
The British guns also come with 3 limbers, meaning 3 extra sets of wheels. I scratch built some gun carriages and had more than enough guns.

Well, I like the Front Rank, Calpe, Murawski and Perry guns and crews. The detail on all three is excellent. Perry sells the crews with the guns. Front Rank doesn't. Both have great looking pieces. Can't go wrong with either. Stating the obvious that these are metal. I can't recall if Calpe sells guns and crew together. But I have some and they are also fantastic. Murawski guns came with crews. These are also excellent.

I think Front Rank and Perry have more extensive ranges. Calpe is more or less limited to Prussian, French and Saxon. Calpe's ranges are awesome though. Murawski is limited to Polish – but if you want Poles, they are awesome.

Front Rank has limbers (I think only French) while Perry has more limbers for other nationalities.

I haven't tried the Victrix guns and crews in plastic yet. I have been hesitant to try these because of how fiddly the infantry was to assemble. So many pieces…

I also haven't seen the Mirliton metal guns and crews in person yet.

Hope this helps a little.

Calpe guns come separately. Personally I prefer this as I can mix and match my crews as required. When guns come only with crews (as with the Perrys for instance) you can end up with lots of spare guns or gunners.

I have always been a fan of Elites artillery,Front Rank is my second choice.

I have a mix of manufacturers, but I found Sash & Saber are excellent. Even though the figures are smaller in comparison, the guns stand up in size to Hinchliffe, Elite, Front Rank, etc…. Nice detail also.

Offensive miniatures are also worth looking at. I believe they come with and without crews – but don't quote me on that…

Second the Victrix guns. They assemble easily, and look fantastic.

In my opinion Westfalia has the best French guns, gunners are separate.
Next on the list as mentioned by ccmatty, are Calpe, for Prussian, French and Saxon guns, gunners come separate again. I have pics of mine painted if you wish to see.
Front Rank are next, because I prefer a larger figure.
Perry are next, smaller figures but great sculpts as always from them.
Elite do good guns but they are big!

A vote here for Eureka – I've only seen the French but they are outstanding.

Elite look the part but are inaccurate.

Minden/Fife and Drum. The Russian unicorn is amazing, and the included ammo box is sculpted open, showing the projectiles inside.

I like the size of Sash & Saber – very intimidating.

I am a big fan of the old school Hinchcliffe guns. The detail is fantastic, down to the copper chain included with each model.

Rick

Lots of caissons and baggage wagons by Warbases.

My favourites are Connoisseur.

the package delivered by the Perrys, in my view, guns, limbers, good poses for gunners, horse teams, ammunition carriages, equipment waggons, forges, pontoon train, just look at the artillery and equipment for the Bavarian army, incredible.

And also Westphalia's artillery created by the talented Nils, just outstanding.

I can't comment on quality, but a while back I created a table with prices as a shopping reference for future purchases. The table mostly reflects early French in bicorn and Gribeauval system artillery.

EDIT: Can't cut-and-paste the MS-Word table into TMP, but reformatting seems to work.

French Foot Artillery  
                Brigade  Elite  Eureka   Front  Old     Perry    Sash &   Victrix  
                Games                    Rank   Glory            Saber             
                (USD)    (GBP)  (AUD)    (GBP)  (USD)   (GBP)    (USD)    (USD)    
12-pdr cannon   7.50     5.70   13.50    6.25   17.00*  12.00**  14.50    31.98    
8-pdr cannon    7.50     5.70   13.50    6.25   17.00*  n/a      14.50    31.98    
6-pdr cannon    n/a      5.70   n/a      6.25   17.00*  9.00**   14.50    31.98*** 
4-pdr cannon    6.50     5.70   13.50    n/a    17.00*  n/a      14.50    n/a      
6-in howitzer   6.50     5.70   13.50    6.25   17.00*  9.00**   14.50    31.98*** 
4-horse limber  n/a      n/a    20.00    17.20  39.00   17.00**  17.00    n/a      
6-horse limber  n/a      n/a    25.00    n/a    n/a     n/a      n/a      n/a      
*Old Glory price includes 2 guns.
**Perry gun price includes 4-crew (6-pdr/6-in) or 6-crew (12-pdr). Crews and riders are in shako only, not bicorn.
***Victrix crew for 6-pdr and 6-in are in shako only, not bicorn.

I like the Connoisseur pieces too. Big and make a real impression on the table. That said, the other manufacturers mentioned all make good models.I prefer manufacturers that keep guns and crews separate as this allows greater flexibility regarding how many crew you want to serve a particular gun model.

Thanks for the info, everyone!

I like the look, and price, of the Victrix artillery. Has anyone had any problems with breakages?

I had some miscast gun barrels in a French Artillery set but were replaced at my local shop .

If you treat these as a kit as opposed to just getting them onto the gaming board then they are a joy to build and paint with plenty of options. They are also very detailed and contain all the chains as well which is sometimes omitted from some of the metal models. If well built and painted they will look a treat on the gaming board.

How can you be on this Forum and call Victrix Artillery fiddly . Not the slightest problem .I use contact cement so might be to those who use something else .
I'm in the middle of building some now .
I bought 2 x Vx0018 and 1 x VX0017 french packets so I have 3 6pdrs , 3 Howitzers , 3 x 8 pdr and 3 x 12 pdr barrels .
The 3 packets carries enough limbs ,uniforms and Head wear to create any period 1804 -1815 of most Units .
Cerdic , No breakages in Victrix French as the plastic is softer and bendy

The Eagle Figures artillery looks good painted up. Come as sets or individuals.
Currently I only have Victrix British and if a little fiddly, in places, to assemble look great in my opinion.

How can you be on this Forum and call Victrix Artillery fiddly.

He didn't. He said he hasn't tried the artillery because he found the infantry to be fiddly.

I haven't tried the Victrix guns and crews in plastic yet. I have been hesitant to try these because of how fiddly the infantry was to assemble.

I feel the same way. Compared to metal infantry figures, the Victrix plastic infantry were very fiddly and slow to assemble. I still like the Victrix infantry, but the experience does make me wonder if I want to buy any Victrix plastic artillery.

I appreciate your details about the contents of the packages. I'm still mulling over which artillery to buy, and everyone's opinion here has been very helpful. Thanks, all.

And thank you Cerdic for starting this post. I've had the same questions for quite a while.

I can understand why guys would find Victix fiddly in parts. However if your into kit building I think Victix are a joy to build but perhaps not the quickest to take the field of battle.

For Oz punters I have to recommend the guns from Elite miniatures Australia. When I was thinking about my Russian project I was stymied as to how I could afford all the artillery. By chance, I got my hands on a whole lot of Russian gunners, and in the end Nathan from Elite sorted out the 24 gun models I needed.

They ended up damn cheap (comparatively speaking), and very good.