Who Makes the Best WSS/WAS/SYW Figures in 28mm?

[Lagartija Mike]

Newly arrived in the 18th Century, looking for recs for 25/28mm figures and rules for large scale battles.

[Youngster]

Have only recently got into the period myself so experience is limited, however Minden Miniatures (from Fife and Drum Miniatures) are widely acknowledged as some of the best 28mm SYW figures on the market today. Looking forward to receiving my first little shipment any day now.

Ebor Miniatures apparently has a good WSS range -  have only seen some of the infantry up close, but they were nicely detailed, clean castings.

Our little group is using Black Powder for rules, pretty happy with it so far.

Cheers
Paul

[Emir of Askaristan]

Building on the above
Minden cover the 7yw and Awi and are very well sculpted and cleanly cast minis. They are slender and 1/56th in scale so anatomically correct and proportionate with no oversized heads, hands etc. because of this they may not fit in with other companies figures - certainly not in the same unit but perhaps in the same army. The have a big range for both these periods including horse foot and guns as well as civilian and personalities. Well worth a look, especially since you are based stateside. Crann Tara do similar figures for the Jacobite Rebellion and SYW.

Ebor do make very nice WSS and are 28mm as are Front Rank who have a large range of WSS, SYW and AWI range. Perry miniatures have an extensive AWI range with boxes of plastic British and Continentals which are a great way to boost your armies. The Wargames factory sets are also worth a peek at if this is your period. Their WSS Sets are also worth taking a look at IMHO.

Wargames Foundry also cover WSS, SYW and AWI. They're slightly smaller at than the above. Old Glory also cover these periods in their own range and the Sash and Sabre figs.

Personally if I were starting from new I would go with Minden. As it is I have Perry for the AWI and Minden and Crann Tara for the Syw

[paintinglittlesoldiers]

I have the Wargames factory plastic infantry and they are OK to my untrained eye, their plastic  cavalry are dreadful though.

[Sarge Canard]

Front Rank, especially WSS. Very clean casts, and easy to paint.

Still using Sam Mustafa's 'Might & Reason' rules with Greg Savvinos' 'Sun King' module for the WSS. Tried other sets, have seen no reason to change.

Flags, any size you like, from Stu at Maverick.

[WillieB]

Warfare Miniatures has a huge range of (early) WSS more commonly called League of Augsburg. The typical uniform look of troops in tricorne for the WSS is probably not very correct and better represented by this slightly earlier range.

http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/shop/
The miniatures are very finely detailed and anatomically correct. This range will cover probably most your needs for WSS and earlier.
They are compatible with Minden but that's another period of course. For some reason the also fit in quite nicely with the plastic WGF ones.
The Ebor miniatures are a bit stockier but in separate units not too noticeable. Front Rank is (a lot) bigger but again very nice figures.


If you would be interested in the Great Northern War then again I highly recommend Warfare Miniatures. So far only the Swedish infantry is -partially- done but work on the first Russian figures and others is well under way.
Although from the same sculptor as the above mentioned range, they are even better. Truly magnificent figures and some of the finest I've seen in 40 years of gaming.
The Footsore(ex Musketeer) ones are huge compared to these.
Ebor is having a GNW range sculpted by Paul Hicks as well so these will definitely be very nice as well.

[Red Sveta]

http://www.cranntaraminiatures.co.uk/

http://www.blackhussarminiatures.de/shopware/miniatures/seven-years-war-1756-63

I am  using these two for my Imagination armies. There is also RSM 95  which are considered Old School but I think they are some of the best figures if you are doing largish units.

(You have reminded me i need to get some painting done on my 18thC stuff)

[Lagartija Mike]

Thanks for the recs! I may be forced into imagiNations because I feel a deep need for pandours but am otherwise infatuated with Austrian troops (Hapsburg Loyalists represent!).

How compatible are Minden with Ebor? I just checked put Minden and, as a sculptor myself, was impressed by the human scale and crispness. Also, it's hard for me to get a sense of the depth of their range.

[Emir of Askaristan]

As Ebor do WSS and Minden do SYW you're talking about two different periods. Minden don't list Pandours as such but do have Grenzers listed land the uniform should be fairly similar if I recall correctly. Drop Der Alte Fritz, (Jim), a line with any questions - he's a nice chap.

There are some comparison pics on the webpage too.

Nothing wrong with Imaginations - in fact I have a game with mine tomorrow night!

[Lagartija Mike]

Thanks! I'm wondering if there's a transitional period where a mix of figures would be acceptable (or merely tolerable).

[Emir of Askaristan]

I'm not sure when the turn backs and closer fitting uniforms started to appear in all armies. The War of Polish Succession perhaps? Uniform did change between wars, hence the different periods and ranges after all there are 20+ year gaps between them.

Prussian uniform remained unchanged throughout Frederick the Great's reign and Austrian uniform didn't change from the War of Austrian Succession until almost the Revolutionary Wars. They'd be your best bets in terms of army. Indeed the Prussians could also serve as Hessians for the AWI.

However we got round this in our imagination campaign by allowing any participant "in a tricorn" to take part. As two players had no armies they bought boxes of the Wargames Factory figs. One player built a whole back story on why his men appeared in uniforms of a bygone era, his Duke being a tightfisted ancient fellow who squandered his finances on wine, women and fast carriages, rather than the army!!!

[Lagartija Mike]

I tried to drop him a line with an eye toward getting a catalogue of his (excellent) figures but I haven't heard back. I'm leaning more and more to going the fictive route, so many charismatic figures to deploy...with the huge bonus of getting to design my own flags. Not going the "whimsy" way, though, subcreation doesn't have to rely on crappy puns to be fun. I do like your crafty dodge to get around the uniform chronology, there's lots of League of Augsburg elements I'd like to utilize.

[Emir of Askaristan]

Jim's been in the UK over the last few days at Partizan involved in a big SYW game based on the Ligny and Quatre Bras. I'm sure he'll get back to you when he's home.

Sounds like you're aiming at the earlier part of the period perhaps?

I haven't posted for a few weeks as I've been busy, but you might want to take a look at my blog (on my profile) as it has my Imagination campaign background and pics of some of the Bier War battles fought between the Archbishopric of Hoegaarden and neighbouring states following the sad demise of the Margrave of Staropramen. All of the tiny states involved are fictional, some with armies painted and flagged to match the colours of a their nominated bier, such as my own Hoegaarden troops. Their flags carry the Bishops crook and brewers paddle badge of Hoegaarden. Their arch enemy, the Duke of Campari's men and the Irish mercenaries of Sir Arthur Guinness are similarly uniformed and equipped to match their origins, but other players have either only swapped standards or used their SYW figs as they are.  Each commander has a distinct personality too and my as forces are now almost complete and I am adding the staff, hangers on, flunkies, wh*res, baggage, train, etc that I probably wouldn't do normally. Its a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, historically so to speak, I'm busy basing some Swiss battalions for a Neapolitan WAS army I'm working on. So there will be some piccies of them up soon, and a game before long too.

[Lagartija Mike]

Thanks, Emir. I'm a sucker for Neapolitan anything (eccentric, odd or unpredictable armies are my weapon of choice on the tables). Can you point me in the direction of a ruleset? I prefer larger battles and I'm not looking to wrap one up in an hour and a half, long play is fine.

[fastolfrus]

Personally I'm not fond of the Black Powder rule sets that I have seen - they seem a bit bland, not a lot of character. I'd rather use an old school set, Featherstone, Grant etc than BP.

Locally we don't play many big games, more skirmish based. For skirmishes I'd recommend you look at Donnybrook (15 - 48 figures for a reasonable skirmish force).
For larger games we use Beneath the Lily Banners or Minden Rose.
I think MR might be a free download now?
I prefer BLB to MR.