"Best Historical Range of 2011 (Final Round)" Topic

Tough choice. They are all excellent ranges and all desrve an award.

I think I've read on the blogosphere about someone getting excited to build a new project with each one of these lines of figures.

It is a tough choice. I went with Fife and Drum, as they are well proportioned in a way most miniatures ranges are not. They are moving the hobby forward.

Still, I could easily have gone with Blue Moon ACW. I like them so much that I have considered replacing all my thousands of 15mm ACW with Blue Moon.

Man, that was a tough one!!!

I too went for Fife & Drum, but I'm also a HUGE fan of the Empress ranges.

I also voted for Fife & Drum -- the excellent proportions and clean castings have gotten me back into AWI after a long absence (last time I painted and played previously was during the bicentennial!).

Are these polls for 2011 or 2012?

They are for ranges released in 2011.

Another vote for Fife & Drum

Wow, surprised by the result so far Fife & Drum range just leaves me cold, if I wanted miniatures like that I'd just go with 20mm plastics. Both Empress and Perry Ranges listed their I would place way ahead.

I am honored that the voters selected Fife & Drum Miniatures as the Best Historical figure range of 2011 and want to thank everyone for their support. There are so many nice figure ranges to choose from, making the final tally more meaningful.

We made even more progress in 2012, bringing the range up to nearly 100 different figures and pieces of artillery equipment with many more in the pipeline for 2013.

Best Regards,

Der Alte Fritz

Congratulations!

And Fife and Drum will be at Little Wars 2013 this April (IL) as one of our new dealers. Congrats!

1/56? Really? In don't understand Mikelands posting re: 20mm plastics. Where are these guys from? Who's the sculpter what's his background? Where's the cavalry? Why not sculpt casualties if it's a new line of miniatures voted best? If these guys are at LW I'll be dropping in for certain. TC

Fife & drum are confirmed and paid to Attend Little Wars.

1/56? Really?

As an engineer, I regard the 1/56 claims of many manufacturers to be highly amusing. Imagine a bridge that was 10% too short.

I'm glad to see the winner is something that you can actually buy.

I would say it was a well deserved win. Congratulations.

Congratulations, Jim – I know this has been a long-time dream of yours and I am glad that you not only realized it, but, it has received the recognition it deserves. Hal

I will definitely be at Little Wars this year as a dealer. I hope to also run an AWI game in the evening, after the dealer area closes.

The Fife & Drum Miniatures are sculpted by the talented Richard Ansell (who also sculpts the Minden SYW, Alba Napoleonic and Crann Tara Jacobite Rebellion figures). 1/56 is a scale rather than a size (28mm is a size, not a scale)but for those counting millimeters, they are close to 31mm high. The figures look like real people because of the fact that everything is scultped in scale.

The game plan has always been to start with providing all of the basic infantry, artillery and cavalry figure for both sides. Thus, if you buy in to Fife & Drum you are not going to have to worry about the future availability of certain basic figures that every army needs. You wil be able to collect and field complete armies for both sides.

The first two items (infantry and artillery) have been accomplished and the cavalry is next in the queue. After the basics are done, then we will go back and add things like personalities, vignettes, casualties, Highlanders, Hessians, French and fill in other needed poses that were passed in the first go through.

We have nearly 100 different pieces of soldiers and artillery equipment in the range as of now, with more to follow. I am committed to providing one of the most complete ranges of AWI figures. I think that so far, I have kept my pledge to do so.

Here is a summary of the figures that are currently available from Fife & Drum:

American militia
Continentals in uniform coats and cocked hats
Continentals in hunting shirts and cocked hats
Mounted American and British officers
American artillery crew (loading and firing sets)
British artillery crew(loading and firing sets)

British Brigade of Guards
British Light Bobs
British Grenadiers in bearskins
British center company infantry

French 4-pdr and Swedish 4-pdr cannon
British 6-pdr cannon
British limber and pair of horses with driver
3-pdr galloper gun
Amusette

And the French 8-pdr and 12-pdrs will be added shortly – the sculptor is working on those models as I type this.

a big well done Jim!

cheers
Matt

nice work