Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts => Topic started by: Baron von Wreckedoften on 11 August 2021, 06:26:31 PM
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OK, I have tried Googling this, but I seem to keep ending up on the TMP website in decade-old threads full of dead links, so some help would be appreciated.
I'm looking for the most prolific 28mm range - so Musketeers, Cardinal's Guard, principal characters (Richelieu, Rochefort, de Winter, Buckingham, etc), civilians, tavern staff, vehicles, horses and so on. And some idea as to which ranges "go" with each other, to produce a viable spread of figures that could populate a small mid-17th Century French village, or Parisian suburb.
I await your replies (and thank you for them, in advance!).....
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Hi, from what I know Brigade Games in the US produce a range, as do Warbases in UK. Redoubt Miniatures in UK also produce a range. I suspect the latter will not mix at all with the former two as they are very large figures. I have the Redoubt figures and they are nice, but quite old.
Regards.
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Think Warbases also has a more recent range
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I don't know if it's the same for all their ranges, but the Redoubt that I've had are full of character, but definitely a good 30mm foot to eye, or more. Good for Porthos though!
I found these guys, which look good: Hagen Miniatures, 1/72 specialists, but with a small 28mm (1:56) range. It's in German, but I'm sure the photos can do the talking.
https://www.hagen-miniatures.de/Testkategorie-17/figuren-20/historisch/15-16-jahrhundert/
I also remember Foundry did a nice range, backed up with plenty of background figures. You've got plenty of options in the Pike and Shot era ranges, but the Wars of Religion stuff has good civilians, carts and such.
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/late-16th-century-1560-1610
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The Redoubt figures are lovely, but they are purely Musketeers vs Cardinals Guard with a few key characters based on Dumas and they are big; close to 40mm tall. It was a privately commissioned range iirc so will not be expanded.
The Black Hat range (now with Bridge Miniatures; https://bridgeminiatures.com/product-category/25mm-historical/25mm-historical-three-musketeers/ ) are also lovely, but in a unique caricature style that not everyone likes. They are chubby 28mm, have a wider scope than Redoubt in that they include Ruffians, Gentlemen, and Mercenary types as well as the ubiquitous Musketeers and Cardinals Guard, again based on Dumas. The Outland Games Highwayman range is by the same sculptor in the same style so adds several more character options, especially useful Puritans and more female characters.
The Warbases range is heroic 28-30mm but lacks scope being based solely on the relatively recent BBC? reworking of the stories. Many zipped/buckled leather jackets and trousers rather than capes and frilled shirts. IMHO better emo teenage fantasy fare than literary/historic figures (very much true to the source in that).
Blue Moon (via Old Glory UK) have a range in 28mm with some great looking characters and the superb true proportion 28mm AD1666 boardgame figures are available for other options, but both lack much scope outside the core troops.
I have the now "ex" Black Hat figures.
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Here in the US, the Old Glory aka Blue Moon 28mm are a great deal with the Old Glory Army membership. I own them and can attest to them.
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When they first came out I bought the Redoubt figures, and very nice they are too. But (i) they are bigger than most other ranges, (ii) there was a problem with the casting of the heads, and the two halves of the heads were often mis-aligned and (iii) if I were buying them now I'd want to check that the moulds are still OK. Someone on this forum has said that they can be used together with the Redoubt ECW range (where there are men in cassocks, plus civilians etc) but I haven't seen the two ranges next to each other myself.
The Brigade Games figures look very nice and I suspect that they might well match with certain ECW / TYW ranges but I've only seen photos of the figures, so can't say for sure.
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Are you thinking of using the Toofatlardies/Warbases rules Baron?
Sidney mentioned on the Oddcast that he had posted a list of what miniatures were available in various scales on his Roundwood's World blog:
https://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/
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I have all the Redoubt and the Brigade Games Musketeers. The Redoubt range is full of character and have nice moving poses even if they are a bit dated. I combine these with the (also large) Redoubt ECW but if I have to choose and wanted to build a whole community of early 17th century miniatures I would go with Brigade. They are in the center of 28mm design and will fit with many other ranges, where TYW miniatures from TAG and Emil Horky would be my favourites
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I have all the Redoubt and the Brigade Games Musketeers. The Redoubt range is full of character and have nice moving poses even if they are a bit dated. I combine these with the (also large) Redoubt ECW but if I have to choose and wanted to build a whole community of early 17th century miniatures I would go with Brigade. They are in the center of 28mm design and will fit with many other ranges, where TYW miniatures from TAG and Emil Horky would be my favourites
Agreed. Brigade Games have a lot of great stuff. The problem is, from this side of the pond at least, I sent an email requesting how much it would cost with VAT etc and received an answer that just said " I don't know". This is not the fault of Brigade Games nit it does make ordering from the UK a pain sadly :(
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I have been having the same thoughts...
For what it's worth, Bridge miniatures have not been posting out orders since atleast the start of the year; and both myself and a friend have had to claim money back via Paypal. I grabbed some off eBay - the figures are nice, but very stylized. That said, you do get short chubby people, so one or two may mix in with other 28mm ranges but you probably couldn't mix some, say, Warlord ECW figures in with Bridge. The previous poster who suggested Outpost was onto a winner of an idea!
I keep hearing that redoubt are "large" with descriptions ranging from 30mm-35mm+(!). I have seen pictures of them mixed with the Redoubt ECW figures, and they mix ok: from memory (as I can't seem to find my saved picture) they were a bit larger but not too far off. If they fit with Redoubt ECW they will probably also fit with Bicorne, Renegade (now OOP) and Bloody Miniatures ECW with respect to size if not style. The AD1666 figures are tall and thin, broadly comparable height to Redoubt ECW and Bloody Miniatures but a bit less meaty. Should be fine mixed in. Looking a bit more widely, the HokaHey (ex-monolith) Border Reivers are also large, but as with the Bridge figures they have a very distinctive slightly cartoony style which may not work. The Black Cat Bases pirates range are 'big' (I had to cut the feet off their voodoo witch to make her fit with my Foundry stuff), and so are the Black Scorpion pirates - both might be able to work with some conversion effort (or a loose vision of what constitutes a 'swashbuckler' lol)
If the people saying 35mm+ are correct, then there re 40mm ranges of musketeers from Eureka and 42mm from Steve Barber. Think Sash and Sabre do 40mm ECW and Perry do 40mm Border Reivers too... Which all might be just a bit too big, depending on actual sizes
The Brigade Games figures will probably work best with most of the other ranges out there - Warlord, TAG, Bohemia, Foundry Swashbucklers, (even select Bridge Miniatures/Bloody Miniatures/ AD1666 figures)
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To all who have answered thus far, many, many thanks for your time and thoughts, they are all much appreciated. I now have an idea of which paths I do - and don't - want to go down. The principal problem seems to be that Brigade Games offers the best options, but the worst obtainability due to postal charges/issues between the US and the UK (where I am). I shall have to see what I can do to get around that.
Are you thinking of using the Toofatlardies/Warbases rules Baron?
Sidney mentioned on the Oddcast that he had posted a list of what miniatures were available in various scales on his Roundwood's World blog:
https://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/
Yes, I am! I shall look at his postings.
Once again, thank you (all for) one and (one for) all.
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Iron Mask miniatures do a great line of 28mm Historical/Fantasy musketeers. Orcs as Cardinal guards and dwarves as musketeers. :D :D
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Wargamer has some amazing figures that’d fit your needs perfectly - unfortunately not all the figures from the board game or Kickstarter seem to be available separately or at all in some cases.
https://sklep.wargamer.pl/category/en/anno-domini-1666-metal-miniatures
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1263001724/anno-domini-1666/description
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FinnN: how do these figures compare in size with other ranges?
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FinnN: how do these figures compare in size with other ranges?
From my post above "The AD1666 figures are tall and thin, broadly comparable height to Redoubt ECW and Bloody Miniatures but a bit less meaty." ;-)
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Yes, I am! I shall look at his postings.
Once again, thank you (all for) one and (one for) all.
Looks very interesting does it not? I have surprised myself as Sidney et al posts have me intrigued- all with a type of game outside of my primary interests :)
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Have a look at Warbases - they have a range https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/figurines/mousquetaires/ (https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/figurines/mousquetaires/)
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On a related note, I've found that hair grips ground to the right shape with a mini-drill provide great replacement blades for delicate swords that snap off. Or you could go with a quilter's pin for an even thinner fencing foil.
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To my mind the Redoubt range is still the best for representing the original films. They provide all the figures you need for various film scenes such as the Washerwoman scene and are lovely figures. You can add to the variety using the ECW range for civilians, etc
I have the full range of Redoubt (bought nearly 20 years ago)...
Mike
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I have to disagree about the comments that these are chunky figures. The 1666 figures by Wargame are amoung the best sculpted and the most realistic proportioned figures I have had the pleasure to paint.
First I bought the metal figures and the brilliant way they have made the "joints" to attach arms weapons etc is fantastic. The "pin" on the arms are often square and fit perfectly into the receiving hole. The detail is fantastic, if you are lucky enough to get the "art book" you will see that the designers have used actual weapons to base some of the figures with. An arguebus that breaks like a shot gun to load is based on a sample from he period in a museum. The casting is crisp and sharp. The faces are full of character, and look so individual.
As to the proportions they are fantastic, for example Portos is a big guy and stands out from the others, there are a couple of skinnier characters and this difference between the figures makes them so believable looking.
Here are links to the some of the figures. You can buy them indivually or you can buy sets. The sets have the cards for the figures so you can use them with thier game AD1666.
Athos
https://sklep.wargamer.pl/media/products/a20db968ceec230d314f74d0cf91a660/images/thumbnail/large_atos.png?lm=1589286722
Here is a link to the figures you get in the Game itself.
https://sklep.wargamer.pl/media/products/67b28a02ce46828e25b732fda64dec71/images/thumbnail/big_miniatury1.png?lm=1587412722
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That's not a bad haul for £70-odd, even just looking at the miniatures.
https://entoyment.co.uk/product/anno-domini-1666-core-game/
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Just remember that this price is for set with plastic miniatures, metal version is more expensive.
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That is the version of AD1666 that I have. The plastic figures are very good. Not up to resin or metal quality but nicely detailed and crisp/clean castings. Plastic is a hard PVC so has some flex but nothing like the 1/72 ranges. It can be straightened with a hair dryer for the few bent bits.
As an aside it is also a really great 2 player game.
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AD1666 does look good, and I see that there is a 3 / 4 player expansion, too