Fife & Drum Miniatures is a range of 1/56 scale figures (approximately 30mm in height) sculpted by Richard Ansell, and is devoted to the American War of Independence. The figures may be purchased from Der Alte Fritz through this blog, using Paypal for payment. Click on the page tabs for Crown Forces, American forces and artillery equipment to see pictures of the individual figures.

Winner of the "Best Historical Miniatures Range of 2011" by The Miniatures Page.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Artillery Crew Greens Have Arrived!

British Artillery Crew - Loading Set (4 figures)

Reverse view of the Loading Set

Yesterday I received pictures of the artillery crew greens that Richard Ansell has been working on recently. There are 16 new artillery crew figures, 8 per side (British and Continental) and divided into crews of 4 figures. There will be one set of loading poses and one set of firing poses for each army. Figures will be sold in sets of 4 figures, rather than as single figures.  I expect that the artillery figures will get into production in June 2012. So it is not too far away...

The Crown Forces

British Firing Set (note the two men covering their ears).

Reverse view of the British firing set.

Continental Artillery Crew


Continental Loading Set (4 figures)

Reverse view of the Continental Loading Set

Continental Firing Set (4 figures)

Reverse view of the Continental Firing Set

Artillery tools sprues that are included with each set.

You will note that the figures come open handed so that you can choose from a selection of artillery tools (port fire, linstock, water bucket, rammer, scoop, worm and trail spike). At least one figure in each army is standing around kind of doing nothing but holding something. This was done so that I could increase my own artillery crews to 5 or 6 figures by borrowing this figure from one set and adding it to another set. Also, there are numerous conversion possibilities with the open hands. You could have the figure holding a musket instead of artillery tools or maybe pulling on a drag rope made of wire.

Finally,  the artillery equipment is on the work bench as we speak and I expect that it should be showing up on my doorstep fairly soon. My plan is to have crew and equipment in production by the end of June 2012.

We are also working on a web site so that you can order your figures on-line via a shopping cart widget. I will make an announcement on the site and its address once it is up and running.