Old Glory
25mm Napoleonics

Figure Review

by Adam Stone

Being the complete wargamer, or silly bugger who gets carried away too often, I have dabbled in SYW, Napoleonics and ACW in 15mm in addition to all my 25mm stuff.

Old Glory figures: French Line Grenadier

Old Glory do extensive ranges in all these periods and for you well earned you get 100 infantry or 30 cavalry or 12 guns with 48 crew in each bag of 15mm. For the 25s you get 30 infantry or 10 cavalry or 2 guns or 20 gunners or 20 command figures per bag. All bag are $48 but you can still score the odd bag for the old price of $37.50. You can work out what you pay per figure but it is worth remembering that Old Glory put figures in the bag by weight and not by numbers so invariably you get 2-4 extra figures. For some nationalities who don't have elite companies you only need to buy 2 infantry bags and 1 command bag which will give you 5x16 figure battalions (25mm) with 2 figures left over.

If, however, you have to get elite companies ala the French, British etc then for your purchase of 1 bag of elites, 1 command bag and 2 bags of centre companies you will have at least 20 figures left over. This will mean getting another command bag and another centre company bag. Unlike Battalion who you are able to sell you single figures, Old Glory don't give you that option - so think before you buy!

Now to the figures themselves: apart from the price, the big plus is that they are nicely animated with a variety of poses and closer to the Front Rank version of 25mm than Minifig in size. My Wurttemburg command bag had 5 separate poses for the officers. The detail is pretty good and when painted they look good en masse. They are not Foundry in quality but then they are not Foundry in price either.

One disappointing aspect is that they are made from quite soft metal and if you are not careful the muskets will break quite easily. I cut off the bayonets and standards on mine replacing the standards with hard wire. Most of the range is available at Tin Soldier and the Wurttemburgers, Bavarians, Duchy of Warsaw, some of the Austrians and Russians are their best stuff. I think the French were done first and they're not as good as the rest of the range. The Old Guard Grenadiers are best not touched being ordinary in poses and looking like rather small, weedy boys. I don't care if that is more historically correct - they are supposed to be the best of the best and should bloody-well look it!

Unfortunately they haven't released a Cossack in 25mm yet which is a pity as I think the 'Old Glory' style of figure will be just right for that mob of Russian reprobates! The verdict: 'nice' - but check them out and work out what you need overall so you don't have too many unwanted figures. Watch out for the odd 'what-planet-is-this-guy-on' pose then again, if you have a good sense of humour......

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