The Lead Mountain – My two year stint in the Old Glory Army

Three plus years into the hobby of historical wargaming I feel confident in my lead mountain. I meant to build it and I actually have one that is!

Two years ago Spencer and I partnered up on an Old Glory Army membership. Mathing it out he figured it was a good deal – splitting the $50 annual fee, splitting the shipping, and ordering monthly. An average pack is 30 figures and with the discount it comes out to $21.40 per pack. Shipping is around $9 (split it’s $4.50) so just under $26 a pack. One pack a month plus the annual fee split ($25) comes out to $337 for 360 minis.

http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/

This was the “big plan” for year one:

1)      Split annual fee

2)      Make a monthly order

3)      Fill all the niches and voids for all the armies I wanted to play in different rule-sets

Before that I spent a lot of time wondering how to get the figures I wanted to play with and shopping around for prices and sales. I’m not adverse to spending money on things but that usually happens when I am dialed in on something (see past post on Winsor & Newton brushes).

Initially it was kind of hard as the pictures of figures on their site are average at best, they are not as popular as some of the “cooler” names like Gripping Beast or Warlord or (add name of your favorite company here), and the price did seem a little too good to be true. On average, a pack of thirty 25mm figures is $26 shipped. That’s almost ridiculous compared to other deals out there. To “advocate” I decided to, in this blog or when I post pictures on Facebook, add “Old Glory” and the name and, sometimes, catalog number of the figure pictured.

 

Bondi Archers DA-04 from Old Glory main site.

Bondi Archers DA-04 from alternate site Old Glory 25s.

We went forward with the big plan and the result was I fell in love with many of the minis. I ended up with a lead hill after a year, then we renewed for another year of the big plan as I was satisfied with what I had gotten but not satisfied with my lead hill. Most months I’d buy my one pack of historical minis but sometimes, when the budget allowed (and more often in the second year) I’d get more than the one pack. I’d get two packs or a pack and something else that interested me like bikers or SWAT snipers or something like that.

The first year ended and we opted to renew for a second year. By now I had some “tastes” develop and my gaming developed too. We started playing Lion Rampant so I started sourcing Hundred Year’s War figures. I got into English Civil War so I started sourcing those from Old Glory. I felt, as I am ID’ing myself as a “metal-head that plays historical wargames” that a badge of honor would be to have 2-3 units of Romans on the shelf … game or no game. I also started noticing that it was nice to have some dress-up options like a figure of a priest or a medieval woman with a basket of bread – OG had packs of those too so I bought some.

My second year of being in the Old Glory Army ended last month in June. My last order was a pack of Norman Crossbowmen and two resin Viking longships (waterline models… flat on the bottom so they sit on a table). Coming up on the 15th of the month this month and that is when I start getting ready to figure out what I’m ordering…. And I don’t have to do it. Being cognizant of that, I’m blogging about it.

Yes, I am going through with withdrawals here. I’d order sometime around the 15th, give Spencer cash for my order, and a week or 2 later we’d get a nice little package in the mail at work. It was a nice little surprise and I’d spend my lunch break the day my stuff got delivered opening up the package and playing around a bit with my new minis at my desk. Then I’d send Spencer an e-mail (he’s on a different floor… we work at the same place) and give a dumb little review on the minis.

Wooot!! My order is in!

 Old Glory would always fulfill the order in good time. Two years of monthly orders and we never got cheated. None of my orders were ever messed up, Spencer had one missing a part once I believe but that got fixed real fast by OG. A few times I had questions and I’d e-mail them and they’d get back to me the same day with an answer. Sometimes we’d get the order in a week, sometimes two weeks. No biggy. Always packaged well and no damage. On an Amazon 5 star scale I’d give them 4 stars and recommend them. I’ve only given 5 stars to a few things as, to me, that is perfection in the thing’s arena.*

*Some models of Mora knives, Glock 19, a couple movies, Winsor & Newton brushes … things I have given 5 stars to.

If I were to note any cons it’d be these:
You’ve got to do some pre-paint prep on these. Sure, you’ve got to file and snip flash and mold lines and wash all minis but OG minis really need that prep.

The Norman figures are a bit undersized when next to any other company’s Norman figures. True 25mm as opposed to the scale-creep of 28mm figures; you can see the size difference when lined up with other brands of minis, all of which are 28mm-32mm anyways. This kind of sucks for me because I have been gravitating towards Normans the past year for Saga and Lion Rampant.

Wire spears with separate spear heads – I love them and I hate them. They look great when mounted and painted and you are done crafting them. It is hours of frustration putting them together, what with drilling holes in spear heads the size of ants and gluing them to thin steel wire.

Some of my favorite figures from OG are the Rus line, all fur hats, neck beards, and poofy pants! I also really like the Biker pack and the modern lines of SWAT and “SpecOps” soldiers I got. Highly impressed with the Dark Age Scots I got.

All in all, and most of you old Grognards already know this or have your own opinions already, I HIGHLY recommend Old Glory Miniatures – especially if you are new to the hobby and want to be like an old survivalist in a bunker and stock pile things. Split an Old Glory Army membership with a friend and order frequently. In the end you’ll save a ton of money and have a Lead Mountain big enough to break the Rubbermaid storage box you store them in in half (that just happened to me on Father’s Day).

I was thinking to myself late last year:
“You know what would be cool? Some kind of monthly subscription service like Loot Crate or Razor Club but with minis instead. Oh wait, I kind of do that with the added benefit of knowing what I’m getting that month.”

Proud to be an Old Glory Army Veteran (not to take away from real vets … come on, do you think I’d do that?) and going to take a break from the OG Army life and be a civvy for a while before re-assessing and going back in.