Perry Plastic ACW Cavalry

These twelve figures are the contents of a box of Perry's Plastic ACW cavalry. I have painted them up as the 9th New York.

The horses are particularly impressive and come in halves. Twelve halves come with heads, 2 legs and tails (and half body of course), then other twelve come with two legs and half body. This allows any combination so no two horses need look the same.
The riders are slightly wooden with the heads attached (you choose what sort of hat to give them) and, while they are fine, I think the Perrys have moved on with their later British infantry (separate heads) and I expect the soon-to-be-released French cavalry to reflect these improvements. One other thing - the plastic horses are big and certainly a couple of millimetres bigger in height than the metal horses from the Perry's ACW list. Besides the small height difference, these horses are very muscular and are the closest I have seen to real horses. I don't hesitate to say that to me, these are the best miniature horses available but the box as a whole scores only 8 out of 10 for the weaknesses of the riders.

I've experimented with wider, deaper bases so I'd appreciate your comments if you like or hate them or even if you are agog with indifference!

My painting target is now set for October when I hope to arrange an ACW game here. It will be the first game I have had in six years! So, week by week, I will be building on the painted Union Division I have already and aim to have two Union Divisions done by then as well as a large Confederate Division. I'll keep posting pictures as these two armies grow and I will be breaking up the monotony by throwing in some surprises.

SAVORY Update: It is being printed at the moment. I expect to go live with the website towards the end of May.

Perry Plastic British Napoleonics

Painted up as the 45th Foot (Nottinghamshire), in Peninsular uniform, this is an entire box (36 figures) of Perry’s Plastic Napoleonic British.

I decided not to follow the recommendations within the box for companies of three figures and instead to do four figure companies. So these 36 figures represent the eight centre companies and the grenadier company. For the light company I’ll use metals or Victrix. Additionally, I have not used the plastic bases they supplied as they are the same as for the French (i.e. 45mm x 40mm) and while the French deployed in three ranks, the British used two ranks and so a British battalion in line should be about 50% longer than a French one. My British bases therefore are 35mm x 40mm (one base per company).
The French battalion in line (minus the light company) is 225mm long and this British one (again minus the light company) is 315mm long.

As for the figures, they are no less than MAGNIFICENT. A bit time consuming to assemble but worth it! Over the years I have painted this range from many manufacturers and not only are these the cheapest but they are by far the best. I have decided to start scoring figures out of ten on a none-too-subtle system that I’ll keep to myself. These get 10 out of ten.

Obviously there are no flags – I’m waiting until I can place my next order with GMB.
I’ll retake the pictures when the units is flagged and I’ve done the light company. I don’t think I’ll duplicate the light company in close and open order (as I did with the French) as I can’t really see much likelihood of them not being out skirmishing.

Foundry 25mm SYW French List

On TMP a number of people wanted a list of the Foundry SYW range, which does not yet feature on their website, so here it is:

Infantry
SYWF2 Fusiliers command
SYWF3 Fusiliers
SYWF4 Fusilier characters
SYWF5 Fusiliers in camp
SYWF6 Garde francais command
SYWF7 Garde francais characters
SYWF8 Garde francais
SYWF18 Grenadier command
SYWF19 Grenadier characters
SYWF20 Grenadiers
SYWF26 Piquet party

Generals
SYWF1 Generals
SYWF25 Mounted Officers

Cavalry
SYWF9 Chevaux-legers command
SYWF10 Chevaux-legers charging
SYWF11 Chevaux-legers
SYWF12 Chevaux-legers characters
SYWF13 Dragoon command
SYWF14 Dragoon characters
SYWF15 Dragoons shouldered sword
SYWF16 Dragoons charging
SYWF29 Cuirassier command
SYWF30 Cuirassier characters
SYWF31 Cuirassiers shouldered sword
SYWF32 Cuirassier charging

Artillery
SYWF27 Artillery crew
SYWF28 Cannon

COMMENTS:
Fusiliers: not too bad a range but a little bit of a disappointment as I said back in September 2008 of this blog when I painted up an Irish battalion using these figures.
Main problem is the horrible faces and the fact that the infantry are not totally upright (metal wise, not character wise!)Fusiliers in camp are shown in March 2008.
Garde francais: shown painted March 2008. Beautifully detailed coats but some individuals don't have necks!
Grenadiers (Grenadiers de France): shown painted June 2008. My least favourite.
Chevaux-legers: When I first saw these I wrote to Foundry to say I thought these must be Gendarmes because of a) lace on the seams of the coats and b) absence of turnbacks but I did not receive a satisfactory reply. I plan to use these for Gendarmes only.
Dragoons: I have not painted these yet but they don't look bad.
Cuirassiers (du Roi): illustrated in the last post.
Artillery I have not painted these yet so no comment but the gun, one in a blister, is an outrageous price so I'd skip this. To bring it in line with the cost of other manufacturers Foundry would need to put two guns in the blister!
Generals From the poses its quite clear they are stright from Mollo. Poor old Chevert gets that same pose again (looking over his shoulder) and this is the same pose as Front Rank's figure.

Last comment. SYWF26 Piquet party is a very useful pack of 6 figures in skirmish order, not a group having a fête.

PS I also have some dismounted dragoons but I don't have the code for these.

SYW French and Hanoverian Cavalry

The top three pictures are of Cuirassiers du Roi, a French cavalry regiment of the SYW. It’s always been one of my favourite regiments and in the past I have used Front Rank figures. These are Foundry from the new French SYW range and I’ve gone in with the macro lens to show the comic-book faces of these guys. On the plus side they have variety (all twelve figures are different) and on the down side – well, I leave that for you to judge.

The bottom two pictures are of a Hanoverian Horse Regiment (Leib regiment) this time going back to Front Rank figures. The Front Rank Seven Years War range is now showing its age (it must be 20 years old) and, although you don’t get variety of poses, you do get solid no-nonsense castings that paint up well.

The problem with anybody planning a WAS/SYW French army in 25mm is the small number of manufacturers doing half decent cavalry. I wonder if I can persuade Alec Brown (of FR) to rework some of his French cavalry. Later on this month, I’ll post more pictures of French cavalry to show you why Foundry’s latest range has become a bit of a laughing stock.

And to end on a positive note, I have received a box of Perry’s plastic British Napoleonic Infantry (absolutely fantastic and being painted now) as well as quite a few boxes of their plastic ACW infantry and cavalry. These are superb and the rest of the year will see me trying to finish off my ACW armies.

Savory Update:
Proof reading done.
Artwork finished.
Printers hyper-ventilating.
Web-site finished.
We will be launching soon. I am expecting receipt of all the books around 28th May and expect to be able to start posting out in early June

Quick Painting Perry Plastics

Regular readers will know that I am quite comfortable painting around 20 25mm infantry at a time but find more than that, like the 40 figure Minden unit, a slog. So when I decided to paint up a Perry box of Napoleonics (42 figures) I decided it was time to change my style of painting and look at some quick cuts.

Firstly, a word about the arrival of Plastics in this scale. Wargaming was becoming a rich man's hobby and then suddenly along came not one, not two, but four manufacturers of 25mm plastics making the hobby affordable again. And it was Napoleonics that brought me into the hobby 35 years ago – I can remember my first game with my friend Andrew J down in East Croydon back in the ‘70s. We used 25mm Minifigs and my army (the first I ever painted) was Bavarian – I’m sure I lost too as there is something of a ‘Spanish General’ to my skill as a wargamer. So it’s fitting that I return to 25mm Napoleonics and the plastics allow that.

So, with these plastics I decided to cut painting corners. I got rid of eyes, and two tone faces. I kept to two-tones in larges colour areas – trousers, shako covers, coats, greatcoats and backpacks but used one-tone everywhere else. Then I used a ‘new’ product called Quickshade (Strong tone – the middle in the range of three) by Army Painter. This gave a gloss covering but more importantly it dirtied the figures and gave them, I think, a worn and campaign look. Given my last posting about a ‘campaign look’ you can see that I’m inclined to move more towards a less pristine look. Then, because the Quickshade was gloss, I gave a final matt varnish coat. I’m pleased with the results and each figure took about half the time it would normally take me to paint a 25mm figure.

On the subject of Quickshade, it says on the side of the tin that you can either dip or paint on the product. I tried the dip method and hated the results – too much on the figure and too much product wasted. These have the shade painted on and I think it’s most effective, not surprisingly, over white. At £11 a pot it’s not cheap but when this one is finished I plan to make my own using some oil paint mixed with varnish. More on that in the future.

Actually, this is not a new product. I had a friend back in the ‘70’s/’80’s called Martin C who always mixed a drop of black enamel paint into his enamel varnish to create this same effect.

One reason why there is no flag on the battalion is because I have not decided what period to represent. It will either be 1815 (unlikely as I’m not a fan of the 100 days) or 1812 (will someone please do Plastic Russians!!) or Peninsular. I know the Bardin uniform was not in use during the latter campaign but I’m no longer a complete purist and this is planned to be a ‘generic’ French army. You can be sure that I’ll flag the unit as soon as possible.

So next week its back to the SYW and the start of a Hanoverian brigade of cavalry.

SYW - The campaign 'look'

I'm sure most of you have seen this illustration before but I think its worth re-showing because it portrays Prussian IR 27 (Asseburg) on the march to the Battle of Custrin. In 1758 a Russian army roved through Brandenburg sacking several cities. On August 15 they laid siege to the town of Custrin (modern Kostrzyn) in Poland. The siege lasted for ten days, being lifted only when a Prussian army led by Frederick the Great engaged the Russians and defeated them in a very costly battle.

There are a number of interesting observations in this illustration.
1) The campaign look of the troops. The officer looks 'regulation' but the rank and file marching behind him look very worn out. I have tended to think of SYW soldiers as pristine, with leather whitened and everything just right, whereas the campaign reality was probably quite different. Note that some of them are either not wearing gaiters or are wearing white ones.
2) The size of the musket is worth pointing out. Most manufacturers of SYW figures
don't make a large enough musket.
3) The Officer is carrying his spontoon point down.

I have no idea who the artist was or when it was painted. But I think he or she has
brilliantly caught the feeling for the period - a hot August day (from the shadows cast the sun is at or close to its strongest), crops uncut, and tired and thirsty troops, with the prospect, perhaps, of many miles of marching ahead.

I wish a manufacturer of miniatures made figures like these.

40 figures of Minden Miniatures in Prussian IR 34

I’ve been busy the last two weeks painting up this 40 figure battalion of Minden Miniatures 1/56 representing the 1st battalion of Prussian IR34. Flags by GMB and finials by Front Rank.

These figures pose a dilemma for me as I absolutely love their poses and their incredible detail but, size-wise, they do not fit in with my 25/28mm WAS/SYW armies, pictures of which you have seen on this blog over the last year or so. So the choice that presented itself was as follows; either sell everything I had already painted and start all over again with Minden or just curse the bad timing of the whole thing and continue with my Front Rank/Crusader/Foundry combinations, which are, in fact, about 50% finished. I was genuinely prepared to go for the first option because I’m a bit of a fanatic about using the ‘best’ available and I thought a good way to resolve this conundrum was to time my painting of this battalion and see how much work was involved.

Given that this battalion had many more figures than I customarily paint in a single unit, the issue for me was painting time per figure. The result was a surprise – each Minden figure took me almost twice as long to paint as a conventional 25/28mm figure. The answer as to why lies in the fact that these figures are very detailed and don’t allow short cuts. You have to focus and concentrate all the way through the painting process and
that’s why I have decided, somewhat sadly, to sell this battalion and plod on with my existing armies.

So if anybody is interested in buying this unit please contact me. I’m looking at £240 for the unit which is a nett painting cost of £5 per figure. I’d also be prepared to add a small number of figures at that individual price if someone wants to make a larger unit or two smaller battalions. If there is no interest via this blog I’ll put them on eBay next week.

RE Savory book.
To update all of you who are interested in the re-printing of this book, it is with the printers as I write this and I expect to be posting out the first orders in May 2009. I’m also working on the website at the moment too. More news in the next couple of weeks.