"Favorite 15mm ACW Figures" Topic

What are your favorites and why? For infantry mine would have to be Old Glory. Between the Union and Confederate figures offered, there must be close to 100 different poses. I mainly use the marching figures to avoid the "the bayonet in the back" syndrome, but their advancing figures usually have their muskets pointed up at a fairly high angle, so are also useful (like Hood's Texans and the Iron Brigade).

the warrior ones are much under rated …

Yup, Old Glory, simply the finest.

Original Old Glory Dave Alsop sculpts. I also really like Battle Honors/AB Miniatures.

Plus 1 Cleburne

Heritage, I like the look. I have others as well, Old Glory and Stone Mountain fill in gaps.

My collection for the ACW started about 32 years ago, and I am still painting BTW. It started with mostly Stone Mountain, Minifig, and some TTG. I have since added figures from Feikorps, Frontier, BH/AB, a ton of Old Glory, some Falcon, and some Peter Pig markers. I have a soft spot for the old ones, Minifig, TTG and SM. Outside of Stone Mountain and Minifig, the largest group by far is Old Glory. I really like the animation and variety of poses. Some of the sculpts are a bit weird but overall a really good range. Stone Mountain is another one that I really like. Very complete and has a good mix as well. Their artillery is the best IMO. Frontier had some nice stuff. Unfortunately I got to them too late. Falcon was ok, bases are too big and thick. Freikorps is very nice but more true 15mm so a bit small if you care about that. I have a crush on the TTG stuff, big heads and all. The artillery used to be crap. Not sure if they improved it. Minifig is Minifig…..

I sold all my 15mm for 10mm but graduated into kalistra figures fantastic strong metals.

For 18mm I really love the Blue Moon range. They have good proportions and detail with lots of great poses.

Mark

I have Stone Mountain, many old Minifigs and Essex – Old Glory look nice but I have so many already – - -

Cleburne, I have heard about Dave Alsop's OG figures and have always been intrigued as to what happened to them. Any information as to why OG stopped producing them? Or if there are any good pictures floating around the internet?

My second favorite would be AB. size-wise they match up with my OG better than Blue Moon and the available sculpts are great like everything else I've seen from Anthony Barton.

I just started painting up some Blue Moon that I purchased a couple of years ago. Where does the time go? Lol My first 24-fig unit consists of a mix of Union troops in forage caps advancing and skirmishing in light equipment. I trimmed off the bayonets of the advancing troops so they would match. Not a big fan of the spade bayonets but little to no flash and when you trim the bayonets, the rifle size is consistent with the figures that have no bayonets.

For artillery my go to is Stone Mountain for the accuracy and variety of gun tubes. Their crew figures are great too.

As for cavalry, I have AB and OG unpainted, but for look I would have to go with the AB.

For cavalry, I like Blue Moon and Battle Honors. They're both 18mm scale I think. Blue Moon also has the best Plains Indian Wars cavalry and Indian figures.

I like Essex the most overall except for the small bases making it hard to mount them on stands. I also like the Old Glory for the variety of poses, but find the flag poles to be more delicate than other manufacturers' figures. Also, some of the poses don't have enough support between the figure and base so I find they snap off more easily than the other manufacturers' figures. I agree the best artillery is by Stone Mountain. I have lots of Stone Mountain figures, but find the oversized rifles on some to be a bit cartoonish. Also have Minifigs (from various times ranging from the strip ones to the last ones made here in the States), Blue Moon, Heritage, Peter Pig, Freikorps, Frontier, TTG. Oddly enough I don't recall having any Battle Honours or from Anthony Barton. Plus one or two types from various buys that I have no idea who made them.

Boy, I sound picky, don't I?

Gamertom, naw you're like the rest of us. :) Everyone has their preferences when they've tried as many different brands as you have.

Russ Haynes – the Company 19th Century Miniatures owns the molds, but I was told that the original production molds had deteriorated to the point of no return. They purchased all the molds from Old Glory Miniatures. What happened to the master molds I cannot say. They must be somewhere out there. They are undoubtedly my favorite 15mm ACW figures.

Perris, too bad. I'm sure I would have liked them.

Peter Pig for me! I may use AB for some of the staff and artillery, but the lack of bayonets on the AB Marching poses puts me off their infantry. Plus the Peter Piggies have so much character!

Russ, unfortunately, Dave passed away in the early 90s. You can tell the difference in the various OG style figures.

Thank you Sparker!

Another vote for Heritage.

Cleburne, what set Dave's 15mm ACW apart from what OG currently offers? I have heard that his 25mm figures were multi-part. Were the 15mm compatible in size to the current figures? Sorry to ask so many questions. I'm just curious. Would love to see a pic or two, but thanks for the info.

Mostly AB and the rest are Old Glory as those two figure sizes are similar and mix well. I would stick exclusively to AB if they had a bigger range.

I fell like I am piling on, but Old Glory simply were and are the finest. I cannot forget how exciting it was when Russ and Connie released those first 100-pack with 40 different figure types in the bag. Before that, packs of 24 and all pretty much the same. Outstanding. And the Heritage figures deserve some love too. They are a bit small by today's standards but were exceptional figures. I still have some to this day,.

Normal, me too. I remember a friend bringing in the new 100 packs. It was amazing. Before that we just had Stone Mountain. All the poses were the same. It was electrifying.

Russ, if you mean the newer 18mm Blue Moon, I don't know. I don't own any.

It is especially confusing that the large bag Civil War offerings from Battle Honours and Old Glory came out about the same time, and are now both under the same roof. There was a third one that came out at the same time, whose name eludes me, but I think they imploded pretty quickly.

I had bought a fair few of these figures some time ago that I thought were OGs. I have lately done some checking and they are BH's. The BH figs today are unchanged from days past.

Cleburne, no I was referring back to the size of Dave Alsop's 15mm figures. Were they compatible in size to what OG currently offers? Just curious. Thanks for the information. ☺

Dave Alsop's 15mm figures were what I would call a true 15mm figure. The new Blue Moon figures, of which I own around 200, are an 18mm figure. They, too are of a very high quality but are much bigger than the old Old Glory figs. For me, they were too large to put on the same table. I believe the Old Glory 15s currently offer are a match for Mr. Alsop's figures.

Old Glory 15s are the same. Some of the old Dave Alsop figures are still mixed in there. Blue Moon, as said, are closer to 18mm.

The molds are not important, it is the original sculpt that is the key. Molds come and go as they wear out. It is up the company that bought them to make sure the molds are up to par. Another vote of OG 15mms. Dave Alsop was the best, and unfortunately he was killed in a tragic car accident. :-( He really helped revolutionize the hobby.

I used stone mountain figs

My ACW 15mm ACW collection also goes back 40 years, and includes a mix of Stone Mountain, Freikorps, Old Glory, AB Battle Honors and Frontier.

Really Like AB but OG has the most variety of poses. On the table they all look the same now. Painting some OG i had laying around now.

Another vote for the old Heritage figures

AB. Some of favourite 15/18mm figures of any period.

Stone Mountain, before them most of mine were Minifig.

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thevikingforge.net

I have OG and Blue Moon for my ACW and my SYW. I like them both. I used to have Minifigs 2nd and Confederals.

AB and Blue Moon… I am reluctant to paint any other brands these days.

A couple pics over on TMP thread: TMP link

Larry

AB are excellent. I also think the original OG are great. Naismith (true 15mm) were fantastic for their time as well.

My ACW figures total somewhere north of 3500 – all painted and based – and include all makers mentioned above EXCEPT Blue Moon. Blue Moon's 18mm size just does not fit in with the others. A couple years ago I rebased all the figures – mixing them all together regardless of manufacturer. I like the variety of sizes and poses and do not see any further rebasing (at my age, I don't have that much time left). I guess, if I had to make a choice, my favorite would be Battle Honours/AB. Followed by Old Glory.

Old Glory 15s or now Blue Moon. If I was doing the period today, it would be in 10mm

Stone Mountain in the 1990s single pose regimental packs… easy to paint, well animated, and easy to convert. Wish I could get them now like that…. I loved that line, but sold them off just prior to 911.

Old Glory.

AB's exclusively. They are belatedly enlarging the range and have recently added Rebs in kepis, Iron Bde and Zouaves marching.

XAN Miniatures are my favorite. Excellent sculpts, and they are compatible in size to AB and Blue Moon.

Freikorps 15 are not necessarily my favorite but very much worth a mention. Serious research went into them re equipment, uniforms. Huge variety of uniforms present even the obscure early war ones. Massive array of field and fortress artillery. I think at some point not that long ago they redid the molds too at QRF.

Thread necromancy: <insert spooky music>

After purchasing the Warlord ACW starter set and realizing there is no difference between the Union and Confederate miniatures, I've decided to sell it and start properly.

What manufacturer would you suggest for a newbie to 15mm ACW gaming? I'm starting from scratch, so I'll be army building.

I own Brigade F&F and Regimental F&F. Can I base for one and use for both?

I just painted enough German and Russian WW2 15 mm for a game of Bolt Action or Chain of Command. I'm a bit put off that my German Plastic Soldier Company figs are a different size than the Russian infantry by the same company and in the "same scale"!! FRUSTRATING and I want to avoid any snafus with ACW. I've been wanting to play ACW for 31 years – played F&F at a game store in November 1991 and have wanted to game ACW all this time.