I recently received some samples of this line's 15 ACW figures from the manufacturer, Vulcan Forge in Birmingham, Alabama. Someone there has an Internet account, and posted to the newsgroup rec.games.miniatures. historical that the line was available and that he would ship free samples to anyone interested. Of course I can't pass up anything free, even if I already have 600+ Old Glory 15mm ACW waiting to be painted. I got my samples within a week of sending the e-mail, so their service seems to be good. I got about 12 different figures, all infantry and artillery (they never send free cavalry figures, do they?).

It is hard not to like these figures - they are very definately of the Old Glory/Battle Honors school of figure design, which is to say I think they would fit in well with those lines, stylewise. The figures look to be anatomically well-proportioned, and several come with a separate arm to create positions that cannot be cast in one piece. The details are crisp and fairly abundant, with more care having been given to the faces than to elaborate amounts of folds in the uniforms. The faces are nice, with a lot of character, animation and facial hair. Unlike many lines, the rifled muskets are long enough to look like a 3-banded Springfield or Enfield, and, in fact, have three barrel-bands. The historical accuracy of the uniforms seems OK, hard to tell with the ACW, which was a most non-uniform period.

On the down side, some of these figures seem very 2 dimensional. Not all, to be sure, but the artillerists in particular are rather flat looking. The main problem that I have with them is that they are so BIG, measuring on average about 18-19 mrn from the top of the stand to the eyes. The shortest is about 17.5mm, and one of them gets pretty close to 20mm. They are almost a head taller than Old Glory 15mm. One might be able to mix in one or two in a unit to represent the Abe Lincoln geneticanomaly types, but I have a feeling that they would look better in units (armies?) of like figures.

The line currently consists of ACW infantry and artillery (I'm not sure about cavalry yet) and the first of their Napoleonic range (British, Waterloo and Peninsula) will be available in time for Origins. American War of Independence and War of 1812 ranges are planned.

Battle Standards are available from

Vulcan Forge
P.O. Box 59608
Birmingham, AL 35259
(205) 595-2949
milsculpt@scott.net

HobbyTown USA in Lynnwood has some of these in stock (as of the last weekend in June). Fantastic Games & Toys will special-order them for you.