Piles of Old Lead

Well, despite events at home I managed to squeeze in a few hours to work on the newly received Perry plastic British set.

As previously stated the quality of these casting are simply superb. They are very crisp, the detailing is excellent and not over exagerrated, and mould lines are very minimal.

There are 5 basic poses (see photo). You get 6 of each pose per box. All poses are fairly static, as one would expect in a firing line.

In addition there is a command sprue containing an officer, 2 ensigns, a drummer, a colour sergeant, and a single simple footman in another pose.

A further 2 sprues containing 4 riflemen are also enclosed. Each sprue has 2 poses, so you get 2 of each pose in a box.

To go with the bodies there are a number of differing arm positions:

Firing - 6 per box, left hand holding musket by barrel to allow loading or use of ramrod - 6 per box, left hand holding musket near trigger to allow priming or holding trigger - 20 per box, right hand holding musket just behind trigger in a vertical position - 8 per box. (see photos)

There are 2 head variations - either the stovepipe shako or the belgic shako, with 6? different faces, and enough to leave a few left over (6 or 7).

Packpacks come in 3 different options, but they are all the wider variety of the early war period, which I believe was in continued use up to Waterloo. (see photo's)

Assembly was very easy. It took me two evening to put everything together, so probably about 3 to 4 hours in total. It took a while to sort out all the various options so I would expect it to be quicker with a second box.

Everything went together really easily, with one exception: the firing position. The right arm is designed with part of the crossbelts protruding from the top of the arm. This allows you to glue the arm and crossbelts both to the arm joint and over the belts on the main body. It is a clever way of altering the position of the figure to correctly  lift the right shoulder into position. The join is not perfect however, and leaves a bit of a gap under the arm.

I worked out 2 methods for overcoming this minor problem. The first is to glue the left arm into its correct place first and then let it dry thoroughly (I left mine overnight). I then glued the right arm into place, running glue into the joint and holding it firmly in place. If this is done carefully you can get an almost perfect joint without gaps. It is a bit fiddly holding the arm in place though, and you need to be careful to not overload the glue.

The second method was to take a small slice off the top of the right shoulder, running at an angle from the neck towards the right arm joint. This allows the firing arm to sit a little better when glued, but does still leave a small gap.

In the end I opted for method 2 because it is easier. It will take very little time to fill the gap.

My only other criticism would relate to the heads. These are very nicely sculpted, but they do not always sit very well in the neck socket. If you want to adjust the position to make them look left or right, or up or down, you tend to get a gap between the back of the neck and the collar. Its not a major issue, and by twisting the head around in the glue for a while to create a bit of 'filler' I managed to hide most of the gaps!

The back packs are very easy to fit. The bodies all have little flat areas on the haversack to identify the location of the water bottle, and the giberne has a little locating indentation on the right side of the body, so the back will sit at the correct height. A splodge of glue on the bottle the giberne and the back of the pack will ensure a good joint.

As I did with the Victrix figures, I have not bothered cleaning up all the mould lines prior to assembly, apart from those around the arms to aid assembly. The rest can be done afterwards with a scrape of a scalpel blade. If you cannot see it after assembly there is no need to clean it up!

Not much more I can add really. Please have a look at the photo's to see how they shape up.

If you want to ask any questions about how I put these together drop a line on the forum and I'll be happy to answer.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and not much progress has been made - work and life conspiring to occupy my spare time!

My latest news is the receipt of my Perry plastic British, at long last!!

Over the next few days I will be having a good look at these and documenting the assembly process to compare with Victrix.

First impressions are excellent. The figures are moulded in grey plastic and look very clean and well proportioned. The castings are very crisp and clean too, the detail on the figures is excellent, and ,I would argue, are an improvement on the French set.

Having made the decision to get back into Napoleonics I have also been  trying to decide on which rules to use. I am very keen on DBA for ancients wargaming, particularly BBDBA, and would ideally like something similar.

The DBN version, however, simplifies the feel of the period far too much for my liking, losing much of the tactical feel of the period. In my wisdom I plan to now write my own adaptation to try and get the type of game I want!

As part of this decision I have spent the last few weeks trying to decide on unit sizes for both the main protaganists. I have finally settled on the following battalion sizes:

• French:    3 x 40mm bases, 4 figures per base in 2 ranks, 12 total
• British:     4 x  40mm bases, 4 figures per base in 2 ranks, 16 total
• Austrian:  5 x 40mm bases, 4 figures per base in 2 ranks, 20 total
• Prussian: 3 x 40mm bases, 4 figures per base in 2 ranks, 12 total
• Russian: 3 x 40mm bases, 4 figures per base in 2 ranks, 12 total

These unit sizes will allow me to fight battles with several divisions on an average size table whilst still manouevring in line or column. By applying DBA principles a simple, fast flowing, game is envisaged. Command and control along DBA lines will be a key aspect.

Another bonus is that these small unit sizes will allow me to get 3 French battalions per box of Perry plastics (topping up the command figures with metal figures), and

the same number of British battalions out of a Victrix box, again with additional command figures. A brigade per box!!

Thats the plan so far. More updates over the next couple of days.

Well, Easter came and went. The weather was better than expected which meant I got dragged into the garden :/, and we had family visiting which also meant I had less time to myself than I would have liked.

My target had been to get the base coating done by Good Friday, and this was achieved, even though I had to do it all with a brush (due to the bad weather) instead of spraying which was my original intention.

Over the Easter weekend I managed to find time to apply the base colours to all the trousers, using 2 combinations of white/grey and canvas for some variety. I have started the shading process on about 8 of the figures so far.

I also got the base coat of the jacket applied to about half the figures. I tried using the new Foundry Napoleonic British Red triad for this. The shade colour I found to be too light, not leaving enough contrast when midtone and highlights were applied. I think this set would work very well on a larger scale figure, but on 25mm the changes in tone get lost at any kind of distance.

To remedy this I resorted to my old favourite Cote d'Arms Red Brown. This is the colour I use as a base for my flesh and have found it works well for red too. I am using the Napoleonic Red over this in conjunction with Foundry Scarlet shades, and I am getting a nice result.

Plan for this weekend is to get the basecoating completed on the jackets and also complete all the trousers.

Once this stage is done I'll post a few photo's of my progress. 

I managed to find time to complete the final assemblies the other night.

Trimming the arms on the firing figures was tiresome. It is very fiddly and I am glad there are only 8 firing poses in the box!!

All arms, packs, drums, etc are now attached. I stil have some work to do with putty on the officers to tidy up the conversions.

I have ended up with 3 officers, 1 officer holding standard, 1 sergeant holding standard, 3 sergeants with spontoon, 12 marching, 24 firing/loading, 4 drummers, and 4 kneeling/running to use as skirmisher types at a later date.

48 figures in all - not at all bad considering I had doubts to start with!

I spent an hour tonight cleaning the flash and mould lines from the assembled figures. Originally I began cleaning these up before assembly, but once I had put a few together decided it was easier and quicker to do so after assembly, and not all the lines are visible then either!

A few scrapes of a sharpish scalpel blade are more effective than a file on plastic figures. I then brush on a bit of liquid cement over the areas scraped just to smooth it off. The glue tends to 'melt' the surface a little and removes a lot of the unsightly surface blemishes and flash. This is especially useful on more delicate items such as muskets or hands.

Next stage will be the undercoating. I plan to get this done before the Easter weekend, then I can spend Easter actually doing some painting.

I have pretty much completed the assembly of the figures now, although there are still back packs to attach, and a few arms still to do, but I am awaiting a new pot of glue before I can proceed!

On the whole I am pretty pleased with how these turned out.

I managed to get 12 marching poses, even though only 8 arms are provided with muskets shouldered. I used the 4 spare muskets and some empty handed left arms to constuct 4 extra! Combining these with a kind of 'on your toes' walking pose gave me acceptable marching figures (see photos in gallery).

I wanted to see how much of a firing line could be constructed. With only 8 actual firing arms available I thought this would be quite restrictive, but I managed to get 12 in each rank. It was quite fun messing around with the various combinations to get likely looking chaps for each rank. Most of the figures are acceptable, although I must claim 'artistic license' for some of the poses. Hopefully the worst will be hidden when I put them all together! (see photos in gallery)

I was frustrated most in the construction of these figures by the two arms that make up the firing position. If you attach the right arm in a position close to the body, the left arm does not fit properly. I ended up cutting through the left arm at the elbow to tighten the angle a litle to get a better fit. This is why I still have a few of the firing arms left to do - they are the most fiddly!

Another issue with those particular arms is that the right arm has the worsted tufts of the epaulette almost at the back of the shoulder if the arm is attached in a levelled firing position. When they are all glued I shall cut them off with a sharp knife and re-attach at the correct angle.

The most disapponting figures for me are the officers. You get 4 officers, all in the same pose. Their heads/faces are not paticularly good, and if you want them to carry the colours you will notice they are missing the strap which supported the base of the flag. I will make these up with 'grey stuff'.

The Colour Sergeants again come in only one pose, but you can at least choose from a variety of heads and arms. If you want them carry a flag then additional work will again be required. I also thought that the sash of infantry officers/non-comms should hang on the left side, not the right side as found on the Colour Sergeants. Maybe someone can confirm or otherwise this possible error?

The kneeling figures I found hardest to find a use for. I will probably mix them up with the Light Infantry as skirmishers when I get a box of the Flank Companies figures.

I calculate that with one more box of Centre Company and one of Flank Company figures I should have enough, and will probably have had enough too, to do what I want with them.

I will post a few more thoughts later as I continue to construct what is on the whole a good set of figures.

I bought a box of Victrix Centre Company British Peninsula infantry some time ago, but have not had time to put them together, let alone start to paint them.

Over the past few days I have been laid up with severe asthma and 'mild' pneumonia, so I took the opportunity to spend some time constructing this set of figures.

I remember, when I first purchased this box, being quite impressed overall. There are a lot of figures for you money, lots of arm variants, a nice selection of heads and back packs, and plenty of weapons. The one thing that did concern me slightly was the number of different leg positions and the odd shape of some of those poses. I was not at all certain you would be able to get a homogenous looking unit out of one box. For example, I could only see 8 marching leg poses, and only 8 sets of arms in a firing position! What I really wanted o be able to do was construct a marching unit or a firing line, but I was not optimistic.

As I has some te to spare I wanted to see exactly what this box offered me, and wheher I wanted to get more of the Victrix products (in particular I was thinking of their recent release of Peninsula French).

Over the next few entries I shall try and describe the process I going through, the issues I encounter, the ease of construction and painting, and anything else that seems relevant at the time of writing.

I shall try and add a few pictures of my progess as well.