By Jim Purky
Wargaming Miniatures 14. Old Glory 25mm Austrian Grenadiers: OG has not been resting on its laurels as it continues to add new figures to its 25mm SYW line of miniatures. The addition of Grenz/Croats to the line is a welcome sight and I hope to have my bag of 30 figures painted in time to use in my Kolin wargame. The cost per bag is $21.00, and for that you get 30 figures which include ten different poses (three of each pose per bag) to give your unit considerable variety in its appearance. There are three different standing firing figures with and without capes, one set of kneeling firing with cape, one set of standing while loading musket, three different advancing poses, and two of what appear to be NCO's or officers pointing with one arm and carrying a musket in the other hand. My only complaint is that there is no officer figure in the bag, but this can be remedied by using the Front Rank Grenz Officer in Tricorne "SYA-29". Of course you will have to pay through the nose to buy this one figure from the US distributor, who promptly raised prices to $1.50 per figure alter taking over the line from EHQ, but it will be worth it for appearance sake. In contrast, the Old Glory Croats are a bargain at $0.70 each and I think that you will like these new figures, which are nicely animated and have considerable detail to assist in painting the lace on the coats, the barrel sashes around the waist, etc. The faces are well-rendered with good animation. Some of the felt hats appear to be a bit too tall, but you can always file them down if it bothers you too much. 15. Old Glory 15mm and 25mm Limber Sets: now you can add civilian limber teams to your artillery batteries thanks to these new offerings from Old Glory. It appears that you get six sets of one limber ber, one driver in tricorne and one horse in the 25mm package. There were too many to count in the 15mm bag, so it's a safe bet to assume that you probably get all the limbers you can possibly usc in the smaller scale. The order numbers are "TE-1" for the 25mm limber set and "TL-1" for the l5mm set. I did not see a price on the bag so I assume that it is the usual Old Glory price or $21 per bag. Available at EHQ and other military hobby stores. 16. Old Glory Jacobite Artillery & Cavalry- JABS: this is a useful little bag o stuff to fill out your Jacobite army in l5mm. The artillerists are all wearing kilts, although methinks that they would either being a wearin' the trews or would bear a strong resemblence to French artillerist. Nevertheless, these are nice figures and will help even things up the next time you run into "The Butcher of Culloden". The cavalry figures include an assortment of riders in bonnets, tricorns and the distinct fur cap of Baggot's Hussars. We should compliment Old Glory for adding these obscure figures to their product line (i.e there is probably a low demand level for them given that they are sort of out of the mainstream of wargaming). At any rate, I plan to add a bag to my collection. 17. Old Glory 25mm AWI Negro Troops (AWI-49): even though these are out of our period, they are unusual enough to merit some mention and could probably prove useful for free men in the militia during the F&I War, or for use in the West Indies or Florida for some obscure 18th century campaign. $21 gets you a bag of 30 figures that are up to the usual Old Glory standards. 18. 01d Glory 25mm Austrian Dragoon Troopers (SYWA) you get 10 riders and horses per bag tor $21. Upon initial inspection, I wasn't sure that I cared for these figures, but I quickly changed my mind after painting 20 of them as the De Ligne Dragoons for my Austrian army at Kolin. There are four poses, which include a wounded figure falling backwards from his saddle (if you crunch down the legs of one of the horses, then it looks like the horse just bit the dust and is about to stumble and throw the rider from the horse-it looks great), one figure with his sword held upright, another holding his sword at arms length (not a great pose due to distortion in the length of his arm, ie its too long),and one with raised sword looking to his right. Most of the swords are exposed in the air and there is a risk that they could break off; how ever this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the swords tend to be stout enough to withstand considerable wear and tear. All figures have nice facial animation and uniform details that make these rather easy to paint. I especially like the fact that their coats cover most of the shabraque, hence you don't have to paint the Austrian eagles onto said piece of equipment. Finally, there is a separate bundle of a musket and horse pole/peg that you will have to glue onto the figure. This is a nice touch but some of you may decide to simply forego adding this item to the figure. 19. Old Glory 25mm Austrian Dragoon Command Pack (SYWA9): The command pack is loaded with some good looking figures including the mounted drummer, the officer holding a pistol, the officer holding sword and pointing (replace sword with a pin sword or else he will spend his career holding a broken hilt in his hand) and the standard bearer. The flag pole on the latter item is very thick so that there is little risk of it breaking off in battle. Additionally, the flag pole is topped with a cravate or ribbon with two streamers and a rice bow at the top of the pole. This is one of the best figures in the pack. Animation and detail are consislant with the rest of the line. 20. Old Glory 25mm Austrian Cuirassier Command (SYWA-11). Ten riders and horse per bag for $21.00 gets you three each of standard bearers, trumpeters and officers, plus one casualty clutching his forehcad. The officer's sword is raised over his head in a heroic pose and his sword may be usable. The same can not be said for the blade of the standard bearer, so cut it off and have him shaking his fist at Old Fritz or replace with a pin sword. Trumpeters are well done, though they look a little bit too happy. 21. Old Glory 25mm Austrian Cuirassier Troopers (SYWA-12) Same deal as above: ten riders and horses for $21. Sadly, most of the swords in my bag were either broken or soon would be, so I had to spend an afternoon cutting them off and replacing them with pin swords. Your efforts will be well rewarded as they look even better with this change. I particularly like the trooper who is firing a levelled pistol at his opponent. The other nine troopers have the dreaded raised-over-their-heads swords. Nice detail on the breast plates and shabraques. Horse are huge and fun to paint. You will see some of these at the Battle of Kolin in my Austrian army. More News Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal Vol. IX No. 2 Table of Contents © Copyright 1996 by James E. Purky This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. |