Fife & Drum Miniatures

With all of the AWI posts loading up the blog, Jim Purkey of Fife & Drum Miniatures wrote to me a while back and asked if I'd like some samples of their new AWI militia models. The only models I have to compare them with my Perry minis. The photos below feature Fife & Drum on the left and Perrys on the right.

First of all, let me say that my photos do not either brand justice. There is an art to taking pictures of unpainted castings that I don't have down. These models were sculpted by Richard Ansell. All of the models I received are accurately proportioned and well posed. The castings are very clean with very little flash or mold lines. The details, particularly on the faces and hands*, are nicely sculpted and the models carry a nice variety of equipment for that campaign look.

The models are a bit smaller and much slimmer than the Perry and I'm not sure I'd mix the two in units, but I would have no problem fielding them in units along side my existing units. The range is expanding - the continental greens look even better than the militia and the new mounted officer looks fantastic.

Thanks to Jim for sending the models. I haven't had time to paint anything of late, but I intend to paint some of these when I get the chance (and I will of course post them here)!

*Not to take away thunder from F&D, but maybe this adds another thing in their favor. One of the problems I've had with the Perry AWI models has been the hands. Many of the 'open handed' officers have 'paws' with short stubby fingers. A pointing officer's extended finger is only moderately longer than the thumb next to it. Some of the hands holding weapons seem to only have three fingers! My Napoleonic Perry minis don't suffer from this so I'm not sure why my AWI models are so afflicted... maybe they were simply bad casts? Anyway - Bravo to F&D for the hands on their models.