7YWA Newsletter

Miniatures, Scenery, and Rules

By Jim Purky

11. Johnson Hood of Wargames, Inc. Box 278 Route 40 East, Triadeiphia, WV 26059 (PH: 304-547-0000) sent me some samples of Dixon's new line of 25mm SYW Prussians. The line includes 14 musketeers and command poses plus 5 grenadier poses in mitre caps. These figures are noticably smaller than the companion line of French and British figures for North America, but I find this an improvement since the heads and hands are in better proportion to the torsos. The Prussians measure 25mm from soles of the shoes to the eyeballs and are of medium thickness. They would fit in well with RSM figures on the wargame table. The castings have a unique Prussian look to them, facially, as the musketeers have short, neat moustaches curled at the ends. The grenadiers look like they really mean business: they are predominantly in charging poses modelled after the picture of the Guards assaulting the churchyard at Leuthen. I definitely intend to add these figures to my Prussian army. Their cost is $1.29 per foot and $1.49 for drummers and officers.

12. Front Rank Figures, has recently released some additions to their 25mm French & Indian War line of British and French regulars. The latest releases include 29 British center company, grenadiers and command figures in full kit. The number of poses are too numerous to mention in this space, but a call to the USA distributor, the Emperor's Headquarters (1-800-59-EAGLE) will provide you with details. There are also 11 French regulars in summer dress that are new to the lineup.

13. Revell 20mm Austrians and Prussians, in plastic are now available at many hobby shops. You get approximately 50 figures in a box for $6.50. These are very nice figures, but alas, they are plastic and don't take well to paint. Personally, I hate to spend a lot of time painting plastic wargame figures, knowing that the slightest bit of rough handling will cause them to disrobe on the field (shed paint).

14. Old Glory Last of the Mohican Miniatures, Russ Dunnaway sent me a large box of 25mm Indians, Colonials, Coureurs de Bois, Militia, and French and British regulars that are truly on the leading edge of the figure sculptor's craft. The amount of variety within each subgroup is amazing; why there must have been fifty or more poses of Indians alone, or more Indians than any other three or four brands of figures combined! The animation for all figures is very appealing and you will find that you can't wait to paint them, they are that good. The entire range includes 5 different packs of Indians, 3 packs of French regulars, 3 packs of British regulars, 1 bag each of provincial types and civilians, frontiersmen, Highlanders, British Light Infantry, artillery crews, and personalities. Each pack costs $21.00 and includes 30 figures. These figures are some of the best castings that I have ever seen, and they are also the lowest in price -- a combination that is hard to beat. You may purchase Old Glory figures from their USA distributor, the Emperor's Headquarter. (see their advertisement on the back cover of this issue for the address). I might add that the British and French line figures are suitable for use in European battles and would look particularly glorious in 60 to 72 figure battalions using the 10 : 1 ratio in Bill Protz's Drums of War Along the Mohawk rules. Give them a try, you can't go wrong.

15. Old Glory Jacobite Rebellion 15mm Figures. One begins to run out of superlatives when it comes to describing the many new offerings from Old Glory. I recently purchased a bag of the Jacobites (# JAB - 1 Clansmen) to fill out the ranks of the Highlanders that I painted for my Sport of Kings campaign. You get 100 figures for $18.50, and as with other figures in this line, you get great value for your money. Each bag includes 5 subgroups of poses: command figures (officers, piper, standard bearers), firing muskets (3 different poses), Sword & Targe (4 poses), Charging with musket (6 poses) and Charging with Lochaber Axes (4 poses). Most of the figures are wearing kilts, but there are a few wearing trews, long shirts only and cloaks.

There's also a good variety of bearded and clean-shaven figures. You can mix and match these multiple poses on a figure base and acheive a nice motley, irregular and ferocious appearance in your Jacobite army. These figures are available from the Emperor's Headquarters in Chicago. Old Glory also plans to add a bag of British regulars in the future.

16. Old Glory 15mm Prussians, but wait, there are still more new product releases from Old Glory in the form of 100 figure bags of Prussian musketeers, fusiliers, and grenadiers. Each bag includes an assortment of mounted officers, standard bearers and musicians so that you can create 8 battalions of 12 figures for Age of Reason rules. These figures are attractive, somewhat chunkier than standard 15mm figures and average 17mm from foot to eyeballs. At first glance they look like 20mm figures.

I like their size. You can even pick out the detail on the mitre caps and the musicians' chevrons are visible, which makes them easy to paint. A representive bag of musketeers includes 5 different line poses, 2 drummers, 3 foot officers, 3 standard bearers, 2 sergeants with spontoon, 2 wounded and I mounted officer. Catalog numbers are SYPI (musketeers), SYP2 (fusiliers), and SYP3 (grenadiers). Additional bags of cavalry and command/personalities will be available in the future. Also, 11 bags of Austrians are in the planning stages for future release.

7YWA Newsletter

Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal Vol. VI No. 3 Table of Contents
Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1993 by James E. Purky

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com