"Old Glory vs Essex" Topic

I'm starting a new 15mm Napoleonic collection and am torn between Old Glory 15s and Essex 15s, Old glory is cheaper, but Essex has well organized websites, and quality miniatures. So i'd like to know what you all think, Old Glory? Or Essex?

Have you taken a look at this:

link

These include side-by-side reviews of the 20+ makers of figures in 15mm.

I like the Fantassin for obvious reasons: they are the brand I sell in my web store!

But if you're definitely limiting the choices to those two here would be my advice:

OG are very inexpensive, but in my opinion the quality ranges from excellent to, well, the opposite of excellent. Also, you may find you have lots of unused figs since they come mostly in bags of 50. Or you may want just 12 but still have to buy 50. So I'd say look before you buy.

I'm no fan of Essex – I strongly dislike their "gnomish" proportions. But they are beautifully cast and extremely consistent. If you like one pack odds are good you'll like every pack in the range. Plus the small packs let you buy very efficiently. If you hate one pack, though…

One popular option is to buy your rank-and-file from Old Glory and your command stands from another brand.

Just my $0.03 USD

I would suggest Chariot (I would as we own the range, but all of my 15mm Napoleonics from before I stopped playing with and started making figures are Chariot).

magistermilitum.com

My French, Austrians and Poles are all Essex. I bought them for exactly these reasons, quality miniatures, well organised site and you don't have to buy them in huge packs where figures are left over;

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Actually a slight problem with Essex Austrians is that the flag is cast on the miniature. Worth knowing. As fas as I know other nations are not.

Hmmm… For the same money as Old Glory, you could have Battle Honors… Bang for the buck compared to sculpting quality, Battle Honors is the way to go. I think even Mark states so in his side-by-side comparisons. Some have posted that some of the newer Old Glory lines are almost as good as AB. But I couldn't tell you which. Mark's site will have the French and Brittish (line infantry) as a great comparison of almost every figure line available (and some not available).

Anyway, I ordered what I could with Battle Honors, filled in some gaps (minor gaps) with Old Glory (only the ones recommended in the posts in another thread where I ask about Old Glory and Battle Honors Prussians). I will probably take Mark's advice and have command and elite units by AB figures.

Depending on the army you are building (which you don't mention, hint, hint… LOL), you may have to look at several ranges to fill in all of your unit needs. Contrary to Mark, I happen to like Essex but Battle Honors are even nicer and cheaper (as long as you are building many units). AB makes the best 15mm Napoleonics. Eureka are probably almost as good. But I am not going to pay the price of entry for these lines for the bulk of my troops. Hence, building mostly with Battle Honors as they have most of what I need. I will fill in with AB as mentioned before as they have an awesome Napoleonics line.

If you are wanting the best and don't mind the extra expense, I would look at AB, Eureka, Battle Honors and Fantassin; in that order. If you like Essex, I would consider carefully as the other mentioned lines are either a little more or a lot less (Battle Honors). I can't speak to Minifigs or Chariot but I have heard good things about their lines too.

If it were me and I had no way of looking at examples of figures either in person or online, I would but a sample from each manufacturer. Or, if you have the time and aren't too far, I would go to a major gaming convention such as Historicon coming in July in Pennsylvania. Me, I am far from almost all conventions! LOL

Chris
San Antonio, TX

AB are beautiful figures, but they have gotten damn big and are extremely expensive. Fantassin are probably second-best, but you can buy them for about the same price as Essex or any other import line. If cost is an issue, I would go Battle Honors and OG mixed, with only a few command figs from other lines. If money isn't a big issue, go Fantassin with AB mixed in for command figures and others. If money is no object, you should probably do 28mm anyway.

I just got some Battle Honours and a few OG in last month's sale. At 30% off, the price was unbeatable. I liked all the BH figs. The OG Dutch Milita and Art Crew were fine; the Nassau infantry were a little weird — the grenadiers were 15mm like the Dutch, but the rest of the ranks jumped up to 17mm. You must be this short to be a grenadier?!? If they got those heights the other way around, I would have been happier, but at the sale price it was $9.80 USD for a pack of 50, so I'll live with some wierdly tall Nassauers.

Both OG and BH only make 1 size gun carriage, and supply different sized barrels. The OG carriages are bigger, the Brit guns are comparable to Minifigs 9#. The BH carriages: Brits comparable to MF 6#, and the French to MF 8#.

Based on my small sampling, I'd recommend the BH over OG when possible. Get both for artillery for different sized carriages, but you'll need to find 12#ers elsewhere. Overall, they're pretty comparable with Minifigs.

(which you don't mention, hint, hint… LOL),

Yeah sorry, i'll be collection French and British 1812-1815 at first, then maybe work on some Prussians and maybe even Dutch.

My final goal is to be able to play Waterloo, though thats going to take time.

The other plus of Fantassin that Extra Crispy demurely failed to point out is that he sells them in packs related to actual game-unit sizes, so you can minimize figure wastage. A big cost-savings (potentially) and also makes it easier in starting out—just tell him you need x battalions of line with y battalions of grenadiers, plus command, to fit "Shako" rules for instance, and away you go.

I like in order:
for 15mm
BH
OG
MiniFig [MF, but didn't want to put those letters out there without some context ;-)]

While I appreciate the AB & Fantassin, I found basing them up, they are sooooooooo much larger than the other makes, I know use them only for special units…Guard infantry & cavalry where I want the units to really standout on the tabletop…..now everyone knows when the guard makes an appearance. I decided that since they are excellent sculpts AND expensive, I would reserve them only for special units from now on. I fact I'll be taking some nicely painted Fantassin Polish Uhlans to the flea market at Historicon among a bunch of other Napoleonic/ACW/WWII figs I'm taking to sell.

I think i like the Battle Honors line but can't find a good page that sells them! I want pictures, so i can tell what the poses look like. Anyone know a site with pictures? Please tell me, and thank you.

I just finished a Spanish army made up of Essex, Fantassin, Minifigs, Old Glory, and Battle Honors.

I love the Essex castings. Very neat and well detailed. I like the style very much.

The Minifigs are very nice, but small compared to everyone else.

Old Glory had some really weird castings. It was clear on some figures that the master had bent in the molding process, but was used anyway, (one figure is running forward with his head bent so far to the side his ear is on his shoulder). Also, the OG have very brittle bayonets and the sculpting style is kinda crude compared to Essex

BH didn't impress me very much.

Fantassin made stuff no one else does. That is their only redeaming feature. They are massivly larger than anyone else, they are crudely cast out of a hard metal, they have tons of flash, narrow back packs, and they have butcher knives for bayonets. I'm staying away from this line from here on out.

In the US:
oldglory15s.com

No pics though — a common hazard with companies that already had an extensive line of figures long before they ever got a website. The prospect of photographing them all is quite daunting, even though it would be extremely useful to potential customers.

Do AB and Old glory/Essex mix? I would think there is a size difference with AB slightly larger.

OG mix with Essex much better than AB or Fantassin do with Essex. Essex's sculpting styles is distinct enough that I personally wouldn't mix them—OG plus Essex might be okay, or some OG with AB and Fantassin.

I've always found Essex to be great figures, very clean cast and in poses that are easy to paint. They look great on the table, and come in bags of 8 figs for infantry. Their cannons are super. They also do All the Brits you will need, and the French, and nearly all of the Allies. (Use the Stovepipe Brits figure for your Dutch militia.)

Essex themselves are good to do business with, very reliable and prompt, they will also discount a bit if you are buying a full army, and you can see everything they sell on their web site photos.

I wouldn't bother with stuff you cant see before you buy it. I've seen too much dross out there on the table! That's just my own preference though.

Other members of my club, btw, are buying Lancashire Games by the bucketful. The ones I've seen look OK when painted up, and half the price of a premium casting.

If I were going to start 15mm from scratch, I would use Battle Honors and AB figures.