First Minifig 20mm catalogue which incorporated Alberken figures

To be continued.................

From my Sample Box (3) Alberken(Early Minifig) 20mm French Napoleonic Artillery

This is how you bought the Alberken(Early Minifig) Artillery. On the left is NFA 2 - 5.5" Howitzer, Top is NFA 1 - 9pdr Field Gun , On the right is NFA 3 - 24pdr Siege Howitzer. Not Showm is NFA 6 - French Limber which I am trying to find among my various storage places!.
They were typical 20mm artillery pieces and overscale in the barrels but definitely usable. It wasn't until much later that we saw better scale pieces such as the superb Hinchliffe products.
These were pirated by the hundreds - one mould made all the parts - and often could not be distinguished from the originals! They also bore a great similarity to the Hinton Hunt pieces!

From my sample box (2) Alberken(Early Minifig) 20mm French Napoleonic Cavalry

These were not all Alberken but up to FNC06 was supposed to have been - it is hard to be really positive after all these years - suffice to say that as per the other Alberken figures they were all incorporated into the Minifig 20mm range. For their time I believe they were some of the nicest Cavalry around. Once again I do not have many British samples but I do have all the French that were available - there were 13 in total - I am just having a little trouble locating 2 of them at the moment - The Dutch Lancer and the Mounted General

I can be positive about the identification - even though some are obvious - because I scratched the numbers on the bases when I bought them - once again over 40 years ago!

BeJeesass I feel old!!

From my sample box (1) Alberken and Early Minifig 20mm French Napoleonic Infantry Figures

This range of figures were among the very first I ever purchased some 40 plus years ago. At the time I was a committed 'Frenchie' and as such I purchased all the French samples and somewhat neglected the other nations such that I don't have many samples of them. This range of figures were heavily used (and often pirated!) by all the folks I played games against.

They must have been used by hundreds of wargamers and seen vast numbers of table top encounters over the years. After all there was not much competition from other wargame figure manufacturers around then and perhaps only Hinton, which had just started up, was in existence - or at least well known enough to be a factor. At least they maintained a constant scale and had enough different figures to provide the basis for all the major nations of the Napoleonic wars.
Many of the figures were obviously made from the same master with minimal changes made. Plumes and swords were cut off etc. to change the designated figure from one to another. The figures were some of the first produced and show up as really crude when compared against the later beuatifully detailed figures - however it is my opinion that a batallion made up of these chaps (with a couple of exceptions)looks every bit as good, or even better than, some of the really detailed but grossly out of proportion later series. They maintain for me a nostalgic reminder of my younger years!
I always remember the discussions among wargamers regarding the need for high detail when one was using figures on mass. Well I can say that as I get older and my eyesight gets poorer and poorer - then for sure detail is not as necessary - also I have always been of the opinion that less detail engraved on the figures makes them easier to paint.
These figures fit well with Hinton Hunt and in fact in at least one case one could postulate that some piracy between the two series existed! (Hinton FN5 and Minifig FN30) . Anyway at the time of their first introduction they were a constant scale - same as Hinton and were all that was available. I have 3 divisions of the little devils which are over 40 years old now and they are still among my favorites. I, for one, rue the day that the company moved away from 20mm! How the short fat dwarflike figures that followed were tolerated has always astonished me. What on earth was the designer thinking of? I refused to buy any of them! (gets of soap box!) .

The complete listing for these figures can be found here.

So lets start in detail with each sample: