15mm Blue Moon Pirates & Treasure

I'm getting a bit burned out painting 19th century coats on my 28mm figures, so I decided to break out my 15mm Blue Moon pirates I bought at Cold Wars. Last night and this afternoon, I cleaned the mold lines and flash off two packs of 15BUC-101 Pirates and Treasure.

Each pack contains 28 unique figures armed with a variety of weapons: cutlasses, pistols, knives, rifles, blunderbusses, and a grappling gun. BUC-101 also has two figures carrying a treasure chest, a single fellow carrying a small box, and a small pile of treasure. You can see the cleaned and prepped figures in the photo to the left. It's almost 800k and 1700 pixels wide so you can see the detail of the figures in the rough.

Overall, I am very pleased with these figures, which come in at about 18mm. After the Old Glory Army discount, they come out to 32 cents a figure, a great price. As I and others have mentioned, these figures will not fit in with Peter Pig pirates, which are true 15mm. While this is a shame because I love Peter Pig figures, Old Glory / Blue Moon gives you enough pirates and civilians that I won't be missing the PP figures. Plus, the Blue Moon faces are sculpted more realistically than Peter Pig's more comical "screaming" faces.

The downside about this range is that what we see is what we are getting. At Cold Wars, I asked the wife of Old Glory's owner if the Western and Pirate 15mm ranges would be expanded in the future. I mentioned Barbary and Asian pirates as examples. She replied no more figures in those lines. Oh well.

(Slight) Criticisms
While I adore these figures for their great detail, mostly dramatic poses, weapon variety, and pose variety, I do have some slight criticisms. You will have to clean the usual mold lines and vents, which is expected for all figures. You also will have to clean some unavoidable flash in areas always prone to flash. However, after cleaning 56 figures, I noticed that many of them had crudely sculpted or cast legs where the top of the leg meets the pant cuff. I filed and scraped off the excess metal in those areas, so it won't be a problem. It just took a bit of extra work I wasn't expecting. Besides, I hate prepping figures.

The Ships
I really want to start painting the two ships I bought. Unfortunately, Old Glory does not supply instructions. Being a newbie to pirate gaming, I will be asking quite a few questions about how to assemble the rigging and make some sails. More on the ships when I get to them.

Out & About
Ok, that's about it for now. By the time you read this, I'll be getting ready to spend the day with my wife. We need to get out and have some fun. With my dad still in the hospital after six weeks, this has been a rough summer for us, especially me. My moods have been swinging minute by minute at times! Ive been holing myself up, not wanting to see or talk to anyone at times. Then getting online and being a grump. Sigh. It will get better.