Best Historical Range of 2011 - Fife & Drum!

Fife & Drum Continentals. click pix to enlarge view.

Some of our new Continentals in Hunting Shirts

Best Historical Miniatures Figure Range for 2011

I want to thank everyone for their support in the recent poll on The Miniatures Page ("TMP") to select the Best Historical Miniatures Range of 2011. Thanks to you, Fife & Drum Miniatures won the vote for the Best Historical Range, covering our American Militia, British Light Infantry and British Briagde of Guards figures. Presumably there will be another poll soon for the 2012 calendar year. We released a lot of figures in 2012 including Artillery Crews and Equipement, British Centre Company and Grenadier Company figures, Continentals in uniform coats and in hunting shirts. The range now has around 90 pieces so  I would expect that we will surpass the century mark this year and push on towards 200 different figures.

Free Stuff!

This evening,  I just packed and got ready for shipping, an order that is bound for the United Kingdom. The gentleman had ordered some artillery pieces and limbers, but no artillery crew. So I threw in two free packs of artillery crew to man his cannon - one British crew and one American crew. I like to do that, i.e. give away free stuff from the range. Often you will find that I have included some extra samples so that you can see first hand what else in the Fife & Drum range. For example, if you ordered only Americans, then I am likely to throw in some free British samples and vice versa if you order the British. I've been known to drill open the hands of flag bearers too, if you ask nicely. :)

The bottom line is that customer service is really important to me. I want you to be happy with your figures and your buying experience when you choose Fife & Drum Miniatures. I know that there are lots of good competitive products out there, not only in the AWI genre, but across all historical miniatures genres, so anything that I can do to make F&D stand out a little more, then I will do it.

Thank you again for your kind support of Fife & Drum Miniatures.

cheers,

Jim

Continentals in Hunting Shirts

4th Pennsylvania Regiment using the new Continentals in hunting shirts, firing line poses. GMB Designs flag.

I finished painting a regiment of Continentals in hunting shirts and in the firing line pose this evening. The first step in the base terraining has been done and I will have to set them aside overnight so that the goop can dry. Tomorrow, I will apply brown ink to the base, dry brush some light tan and then apply the static grass and tufts to finish off the stands.

The complete regiment. (click pix to enlarge the view)

Your Help Is Requested

There is currently a poll on The Miniatures Page for the Best Historical Figure Range of 2011 ( I know, it should be 2012, but they had to do a little catching up before they could run a poll for 2012). At any rate, if you like our Fife & Drum figures, then please click on the link below and cast your vote for Fife & Drum Miniatures. This is the final round of voting, with the poll closing on January 10, 2013.

TMP Poll

And Now for your amusement:

Royal Artillery Amusette and Crew (AE-6)

I also had time to start the basing for the Amusette (stock number AE-6) set for your review. Everyone needs to have at least one amusette in his British army.

Painted Samples: Continentals in Hunting Shirts

New Fife & Drum Continentals in Hunting Shirts

I have been working on getting samples painted of the 14 new figures that we have recently added to the range. I still have the Continental drummer and standard bearer to finish, as well as the amusette and crew. Those should be done within a couple more days.

Two different firing poses and one casualty knocked off his feet.

Loading and cocking firelock for a second rank of figures, plus firing figure.

Mounted officer and foot officer make for a nice vignette. Also shown, the three marching poses.

Free Christmas Shipping Deal

Fife & Drum Continentals get out of the way of the on-coming delivery wagons.

I thought that I would run a Christmas Special starting today and running through December 31, 2012:


FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE (up to a maximum of $20.00)


I hope that this will make it a little easier for our customers who live outside of North America to start collecting figures from the Fife & Drum range, as international shipping can easily run in the $10.00 to $20.00 range. For our North American customers, the free shipping can often amount to a discount of 10% or more on your purchases.

The shelves are stocked with inventory. We have plenty of the new Continentals in hunting shirts. They are awaiting your orders to muster.

NEW ARTILLERY EQUIPMENT PRICES!

I have made some changes in the prices for artillery pieces, some of which were priced at $6.50 to $7.00, while the limber sets were $12.50. Now that I have a better handle on my costs, I have decided to reduce the prices off all cannon models to $6.00 per cannon. The limber teams are now $9.00 per set.

Continentals in Hunting Shirts Are In Stock!

Firing line figures (left to right) A38, A40, A39, A42, A41 and A35

Command figures (L-R) A38, A37, A36, and A35

Continentals in hunting shirts (L-R) A34, A32, and A33

I just received a shipment of the newest Fife & Drum figures from the caster today. This batch includes 12 Continentals in Hunting Shirts, 1 new standing horse, and 2 British artillery crewmen firing the wall gun for the Amusette set.  I will try to take some photos of the unpainted metal, but actually, the pictures of the greens, previously posted here, give a much better impression. I will start posting pix over the next several days and hopefully have some painted samples by the end of the coming weekend.

So here are the new stock codes for the new figures:

AC3 - Continental Mounted Officer, Hunting Shirt, pointing, with horse -- $5.00

AC3 Mounted Officer on H2 standing horse, and A35 Officer in firing line.

Continentals in hunting shirts. All figures wear a cocked hat.  -- $1.80 each

A32  - Continental Marching/Hunting shirt/blanket roll
A33  - Continental Marching/Hunting shirt/tumpline/belt
A34  - Continental Marching/Hunting shirt/tumpline/no belt
A35  - Continental officer in firing line/Hunting shirt
A36  - Continental standard bearer standing/Hunting shirt
A37  - Continental drummer standing/Hunting shirt
A38  - Continental casualty falling backwards/Hunting shirt
A39  - Continental cocking musket/Hunting shirt
A40  - Continental biting cartridge/Hunting shirt
A41  - Continental standing firing/Hunting shirt, buttoned front
A42  - Continental standing firing/Hunting shirt, pullover

British Artillery Equipment -

AE6 Amusette with two Royal Artillery crewmen and wooden mantle. -- $7.00 per set

AE6 - Amusette and Royal Artillery Crewmen

There are some amazing figures in this batch of new goodies. The A35 Officer is shading his eyes with one hand and holds a sword in the other hand. Match him with the new AC3 Continental mounted officer in hunting shirt/pointing, and you have a wonderful ready-made command vignette. I predict that quite a few of these officers will end up on command stands.



The A38 Continental casualty is a true work of art. He is standing, but has been knocked backwards off his feet by a musket ball. One foot is afixed to the base and the other is in the air. This is an amazing figure.

I also really like the A40 Continental biting a cartridge in the right hand while grounding his musket with his left hand. This makes for a wonderful "second rank" figure to put in your firing line. You can create units of Continentals in firing line or marching with these figures, or you can even mix in some of the existing Continentals and Militia figures into the same unit to get a lot of variety in the unit's appearance. For example, half the figures could be wearing hunting shirts, a couple of militia firing poses could be mixed in and the rest of the figures could be wearing uniform coats.

Also, the militia and hunting shirt figures can be used for either Saratoga in the North, the Philadelphia Campaign in the Mid-Atlantic theatre, or even in the Southern Campaign in the Carolinas.

Continentals in Hunting Shirts

Continental Officer in hunting shirt and standing horse

I just received the pictures from Richard yesterday of the newest additions to the Fife & Drum AWI range of figures. Please click on the pictures to enlarge the view. We are adding 12 new Continentals in hunting shirts and tricorn hats, including a mounted officer, and a new standing horse. You can either have a complete battalion or regiment in hunting shirts, or you can sprinkle a few hunting shirts into units that wear primarily a uniform coat. Or visa versa, add a couple of Continentals in uniform coat to your regiment of guys in hunting shirts.

We also received the two Royal Artillery crewmen to man the Amusette. The Amusette set (AE-6) will include 2 crew and 1 wooden mantle for a price of $8.00 per set. You could typically post a pair of mantles on each side of your British artillery battery to provide added protection for the artillery crew.

We have 8 different figures that you can use to create a firing line of Continentals in hunting shirts. The standard bearer and drummer are standing, rather than walking, while the officer looks rather jaunty and heroic as he looks over the horizon. The casualty figure has a lot of character too. I think that he might be getting knocked off his feet by a blast from that 1-pound wall gun used by the Amusette crew.

The greens are on their way to Griffin Designs for mould production and casting, so I would imagine that we will have these figures into production towards the end of November 2012.

Continental officer in hunting shirt and standing horse.

Amusette crew with 1-pound wall gun.

AE-6: Amusette set (2 crew and mantle)

Continental Command - firing line in hunting shirts.

Firing line command - rear view.

Continental firing line in hunting shirts.

Continental firing line. Rear view.

Continentals in hunting shirts, marching.

Continentals marching, rear view.

New Catalog Listings

I have now added a catalog of all of the Fife & Drum AWI figures to this blog. Click on one of the page tabs shown below the picture on the home page. You will see a bar that lists:

Home
American Forces
Crown Forces
Artillery Equipment

Simply click on the page tab to view the contents of each page. You can also click on the individual pictures to make them larger.

We are working on creating a dedicated Fife & Drum web page and hope to have it up and running by the end of 2012.

Finally, I just received the pictures of the greens for the Continental troops in hunting shirts and they are on their way to Griffin Designs for casting. So I would imagine that these figures will be in production by the end of November 2012. I will post some pictures of the greens this week.