Old West 28mm vs 40mm range

[silvana]

I'm seriously considering to start to build some old west figures (with a town perhaps).
I can't decide weither to go 28mm or 40mm as I'm not sure of the availability one size vs the other.

Can anyone offer me some advice!

Thanking you in advance

[d phipps]

I believe you will find a much wider selection of miniatures in 28mm, and it may be a bit easier to buy/build 28mm terrain. However, if you can pull it off in 40mm it would probably look awesome!   

[bandit86]

The 40mm range has alot of figures in it now not as much as 28mm(I do 28mm stuff) but still alot.  check out this site fo 40mm inspiration.
 http://carmensminiaturepainting.blogspot.com/2008/05/40mm-old-west-town.html

[silvana]

I found this blog after I had already decided to do a West scene. He's truly inspirational. A great site I agree.

I'm looking at the HLBS 40mm range but I'm having trouble finding alot in the 28mm range.
I found Artizan and Old Glory miniatures but that's about all.

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

Foundry has tons of 25mm and 28mm Old West stuff. And there are plenty more manufactureres.

The HLBS 40mm figures are awesome and look much better on the table than 28s. They resemble the characters from the Sergio Leone movies very well so if you plan a game along these lines they would be the way to go.

[silvana]

Thanks for the Foundry comany - yes they do have tons of 28mm stuff. I had a look.
Now I have to decide which way to go. It's a tuff decision.

[Quendil]

Don't forget Dixon Miniatures do some good old west stuff, including covered wagons

[oxiana]

Although going 40mm wouldn't be compatible with other ranges, if you're going for a relatively small set up (most Old West seems to be), then the larger size can be great fun. The HLBS figures are really great (wonderful to paint) and very well-priced for the scale, plus you can add in Sash & Saber stuff as well.

Most of my stuff is 28mm these days, but I do love my 40mm figures, they make for great one-off projects. Why not go for it?

[bandit86]

 Blue moon has a bunch and civilians too.  Black scorpion (bigger than some but I love them, check my blog) Reaper has some too.

[Aaron]

IMO, if you are going to do skirmish gaming with them you can't do better than the Old Glory Cowboy Wars line. You get two characters in both mounted and dismounted in the same pack and the sculpting is very good IMO. Crusader have a few miniatures including oddballs like a crazed highlander in kilt with sixguns.

If you want to shift back in time a couple of decades, Boot Hill miniatures has a great new range including someone who looks a lot like Zorro, but is definitely not  , vaqueros, Mexican cavalry, and some gringos.

[Evilcartoonist]

If you go 40mm, the HLBS figs are great, but there are also 40mm old west figures at Knuckleduster.com. Knuckleduster does something similar to Old GLory in that there are foot and mounted versions of many of the figures, but they are sold as separate packs; So you'd get three foot figs in one pack and three mounted figs in the other.
Between the two companies, you also have a great selection of townsfolk. I also like that Knuckleduster has casualty/wounded figures (men AND horses.) HLBS, Knuckleduster and Sash&Saber are compatible. Sash & Saber, by the way, has a beautiful 40mm scale stagecoach at a decent price.

The only drawback I found to 40mm was the lack (or at least shortage) of buildings, which is why I went ahead and built my own (that was my blog mentioned earlier.)

If you choose to go 28mm, nothing wrong with that!    You'll have hundreds of figures to choose from. And the Arnica buildings over at Hawgleg are about ready to go (if they haven't already started shipping)

[Hawkeye]

Evilcartoonist is right (as well as having a beautiful 40mm Wild West set-up) - if you go 28mm, the Arnica buildings are just about ready to ship. I'm expecting mine any day now! Oh, and Artizan have just released their first foot/mounted combo in their Wild West range - a Pony Express rider. It looks really nice (I'll be ordering it soon, I think!), and I hope it's the beginning of some mounted versions of the beautiful Wild West minis on foot that they have a really great range of.

[silvana]

I've ordered 3 figures from HLBS to see what they are like and I'II be ordering some 28mm soon to make the choice.
Thanks everyone for your advice.