Alban Miniatures recently went back to being a private collection again after being on the general market for some time, they made a whole range Napoleonic figures in 1/56th scale (28mm). So the only thing to do is look at the Alban Miniatures beside the Warlord Miniatures for the same unit.   So I choose the 95th Rifles as the miniatures that I will look at.

Both Warlord Games and Alban Miniatures make figures for the 95th rifles, and I do enjoy the 95th rifles, it had to be done.

Alban Miniatures made the range available from 2008 until this year, I saw they were going back to a private collection so I got some minis to fill out my Warlord Chosen Men 95th rifles unit for a 28mm Field of Glory, Black Powder or Sharpe’s Practice (which is now in 2nd Edition).

The Alban collection is very special it was sculpted by Mr Richard Ansell. I know Richard Ansell has done other things since but I can’t for the life of me find any links or pic’s right now.  The Collection has the usual stuff, line infantry etc and then it has the 95th Rifles, but it also has the personalities from Bernard Cromwell’s books Shape. As soon as I saw that I was sold.

I already had a box of Warlord’s Chosen Men the 95th rifles so I needed to add to that to make a full selection. While only one has set has the personalities I shall review the normal infantry.

The Infantry I choose for this are both in a firing position.

Both Miniatures are 28mm scale, the eye line on both is nearly identical, both of these miniatures have been stuck to the same base type I picked up from Olympian Games at Cancon, the bases are 20mm x 20mm with a Magnetic sheet bottom, all laser cut, they are good bases.

Alban Miniature

The Alban Miniature is Skinner than the Warlord, it also has some finer details,  The cuffs on the pants, and rifle details for instance. but they are a lot Skinner.

(after the first photo, I lost one of the lamps I use for lighting, so these are with one light only, they can’t be redone as I have paint on the minis already)

As you can see the detials are very fine and it is a really nice mini, the rifle is fantastic.  This is what I would call more true scale, as the Warlord I would call Heroic scale. This model has not been cleaned up at all, this is the way I received it, some had a little flash but for the most part there was not much cleaning of any of the mini’s.

Warlord Miniature

The big differences are the lack of Pack on this Warlord Figures, there are only two of the Alban minis that don’t have a pack, the uniform looks worn, and the shako has seen better days, it is full of character, my biggest problem with the model is the Baker Rifle. Yep the problem between the two models is the the rifle. Alban have done far better on that.

Verdict

At the end of the day, I can’t really pick one from the other, if I have to I have to look at the ranges, there is a lack of different sculpts in the Alban mini’s so you need to have the personalities in there, the rifles on the Warlord figures are just not as good as they could be.  They look fine beside each other in a large group, each range adds a little to the other, it is quite impressive seeing all 24 based and together.  I am really happy that I got in and purchased the Alban Miniatures when I saw they were reverting back to a private collection, I hope one day they come back to being a collection that people can buy from again, I know I will line up and get some more.

I would recommend either range to anybody that was interested. They both are really good. I also have some Perry Napoleonic’s as well, both of these ranges fit right in with the Perry’s, I couldn’t be happier, I think the Alban Miniature redcoats that I also got hold of are really going to add a lot to the Perry redcoats.  Napoleonic’s period being so colourful and having so many ranges to choose from, I think we are now in the best time to collect these miniatures. I would say if they were terrible, but I am yet to find any bad 28mm Napoleonic figures I am sure there are some, but I have not yet purchased any.

The best thing that I could have done when I purchased these minis was to get some Decals with with them, I have little 95 and 60’s to go in side the blue water container, and little decals to go on to the pack. It is really hard to get a photo of white writing on a white back ground, so you will have to wait to look at them.

So knowing that the Alban Miniatures are now not being made available to purchase if you see anybody selling any get them, you might never have the chance to get them again.

What’s on the Table

Muskets and Tomahawks….  Well I have some American Colonial troops on the table I will keep plugging away and see what comes up next.