Sunday, 10 February 2013

Perry Miniatures - 28mm AWI British Infantry


Box Art
This is the first in a series of American War of Independence boxed sets from Perry Miniatures.

Shown below is the infantry frame, containing 5 figures, all sculpted in cut-down coats and one piece overalls which places them in the later AWI period - post 1776.

As can be seen each figure will have a choice of three pieces of head gear, fully cocked 'tricorne', slouch/half cocked hats and the ‘Saratoga’ cut down hat which should cover most theatres of campaign in America. As such it is the hats, not the heads that are interchangeable - much like their previous ACW releases.

Figure Frame

Note, that there are no specific Grenadier or Light Infantry figures and these will likely be supplied by figures in the Perry's Metal range or future plastic releases. This is not really an issue as it was typical that a British regiment's flank companies were detached for combined light and grenadier battalions.

Each figure also carries the regulation kit including the 'tumplines' (rolled blankets), which would have been the typical look of British infantry in America.

Command Frame

Each figure gets the choice of two sets of arms, either 'at trail' or 'charging', to allow for additional variety of figure pose.

At right can be seen the Command frame, which includes the 2 additional casualty figures, plus six other figures to create officers, drummers, standard bearers and sergeants. There is the usual selection of hats and alternative arms and weapons to help customise the set.

Finally, the set also includes 2 casualty figures, not counted in the 36 pieces advertised for the box.

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Warlord Games - 28mm Celtic Warriors


Warlord Games released this boxed set with the aim using the two basic frames included with the set as the basis for a number of future releases.

This boxed set contains 40 multi-part, hard plastic 28mm Celtic Warriors, and the set consists of two each of the frames shown below, right and left.

Each figure can be built in a variety of ways, by combining seperate leg pieces with torsos and arms - to give an exciting variety of poses that you would expect to see in an irregular unit. With each figure comes a selection of weapon options such as spear, sword and javelins and with extras such as spare weapons, helmet icons and severed heads.











Uniquely the set also contains a set of self-adhesive shield stickers to add to the figures. These have come in foe some criticism , from some quarters - many preferring the use of transfers - as with the company's Roman infantry boxed set.

That said, with careful trimming, and application of varnish to ensure the 'stickers' don't peal, the end result is quite acceptable.

When constructing the figures, the initial thought is that there are almost limitless combinations of poses that can be made. This is not so - check the dress of the torso to the dress of the legs, the reality is that these are limited as you need to ensure armoured torsos are joined to armoured legs / waist s and similar to bare chested figures. This is not a problem - just a point to consider.
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RRP per Box
Figures per Box
Cost per Figure
£20.00
40
50.00p
           As of  Feb 2013.  (Multi Box Deals available to drive cost down further).  

More coming soon...

Warlord Games - 28mm Tribesmen of Germania

Warlord Games latest infantry set, based upon their original 'Celtic Warriors' boxed set, allowing 43 figures to be created (including 3 x metal command figures - included within the box).

All the comments made about the previous releases of these multi-pose foot frames apply. The Germanic characteristics are again achieved by the use of cast metal add-on parts supplied with the set, to give th expected selection of topknots, animal skins and other  tribal features.

The command figures include an impressive warlord plus a standard bearer and a carynx player, again as expected, perfectly proportioned for the plastic figures in the set.

See also: Warlord Games - 28mm Celtic Warriors for more details on the original set and it's frames

More to come ...

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Gripping Beast - 28mm Saxon Thegns

Box Art
The second release from Gripping Beast sees a box containing parts for 44 spear armed Thegns, plus additional sword and hand-axe arms to allow for added variety.

The set also includes command figures to allow the building of up to two Saxon Lords and two horn blowers and two 'Dracos' standards. Also included in the boxed set are two paper banners to allow the conversion of a additional two spearmen into standard bearers.

The figures are very easy to put together and have virtually no flash to deal with, Saxons would have formed a predominantly spear armed Shield Wall and the choice of arms available reflects this. That said there are not enough spear arms to enable the whole box to be so created


Figure Frame

All figures are armoured with chain mail, representing the 'middle' Anglo-Saxon period (8th-10th centuries), most bearing a crucifix pendant to live up to the boxed set's 'Defenders of the Faith' sub-title! As they are middle period Saxons - you will not find kite shields of axe wielding huscals in this set (not a problem but a heads-up!).

Now to the frames, each set comes with 4 identical frames, each containing 10 figures, each figures is a basic torso with legs, though some have an arm pre attatched, to which a range of arms and heads can be attached to give the required variety

Command Frame

There are also two command frames included, containing two figures each, with a range of weapons, horns and dracos etc

Hat Industrie

Hat Industrie are one of the giants of traditional soft plastic soldiers, they have responded to the rise of hard plastic by releasing their own range of 28mm hard plastic boxed sets.

Their approach is unique, in that they have taken their existing 20mm figure designs and remastered them to the 28mm scale and released these. However, after an initial flurry of activity and despite the announcement of an extensive list of future releases,  there have not been no further releases, to date.

Hat Industrie Website  <Here>

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Product List

28mm El Cid 

28001 Spanish Heavy Infantry
28002 Spanish Light Infantry
28005 Andalusian Heavy Infantry
28006 Andalusian Light Infantry
28007 Almoravid Heavy Infantry
28008 Almoravid Light Infantry
28018 Andalusian Light Cavalry
28019 Andalusian Heavy Cavalry
28020 Almoravid Light Cavalry
28021 Almoravid Heavy Cavalry

28mm Napoleonic

28003 French Light Infantry Voltigeurs
28004 French Chasseurs (Marching)
28009 French Carabiniers
28010 Bavarian Infantry (Marching)
28011 Bavarian Infantry (Action)
28012 Bavarian Infantry Command
28013 Prussian Infantry (Marching)
28014 Prussian Infantry (Action)
28015 Prussian Infantry (Command)
28016 French Light Infantry Action
28017 French Light Infantry Command

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Future Releases

28mm Ancients

Byzantines

28mm El Cid 

Spanish Heavy Cavalry
Spanish Light Cavalry
Spanish Command packs

28mm Seven Years War

Prussians

28mm Napoleonic

Spanish Infantry
Wurttembergers
Austrians
Russians
Prussian Landwehr

More to come ...

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Gordon and Hague

Current status of this company and the availability of their sets is in Question

Gordon and Hague are a new miniatures manufacturer from the USA. They are entering the still fresh 15mm plastics arena with ACW miniatures as their initial releases were released in March 2013, the figures are designed to go with their ACW wargames rules system - 'Severed Union', these rules can be downloaded for free from their website.

The companies main selling point is that they will be supplying the figures pre-painted, in sets designed to complement their in house ACW game system noted above. As such the figures will not be cheap, but you will be saved the effort of getting out the paintbrush!

The company has plans to branch out to other periods such as WW1, Napoleonics, the American War of Independence and the Anglo-Zulu Wars.

Gordon and Hague Website <Here> Website no longer functioning.
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Warlord Games

Warlord Games are currently the 'biggest' of hard plastics manufacturers, with a wide range of boxed set available, all backed-up with metal figures to provide specialist troops and highlights to your plastics armies.

Additionally, Warlord Games, make extensive use of metal 'add on' parts t their basic plastic sets to enable a much wider range of units to be represented.

Based in Nottingham, UK - the company was created in 2007 and is run by John Stallard (ex Games Workshop and author of Warhammer ECW Rules ) and Paul Sawyer (ex Games Workshop and best known as the former editor of White Dwarf).

Another Wargames notable linked to the company are Rick Priestley (again ex Games Workshop and author of Warhammer, Warmaster and many other games systems).

Warlord Games Website <Here> 
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Product List

Ancients
Early Imperial Romans: Praetorian Guard
Early Imperial Romans: Scorpion Battery
Early Imperial Romans: Auxilaries
Early Imperial Romans: Legionaries
Early Imperial Romans: Veterans
Early Imperial Romans: Legionaries and Scorpion Set
Greeks: Ancient Greek Hoplites
Macedonians: Phalangites 
Macedonians: Royal Guard 
Spartans: Spartans

ECW
Royalist Infantry
Parliamentary Infantry
Scots Covenanter Infantry
Royalist Cavalry
Parliamentary Cavalry
Firelock Storming Party

Thirty Years War
Imperialist Infantry
Swedish Infantry
Swedish Cavalry

Napoleonic War
Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment 1789-1815
Prussian Landwehr Regiment 1789-1815

Colonial
Anglo-Zulu War: British Infantry 1879
Anglo-Zulu War: Zulu Married Regiment 1879
Anglo-Zulu War: Zulu Unmarried Regiment 1879
Anglo-Zulu War: Natal Native Contingent 1879

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More coming soon ...