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Author Topic: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF  (Read 4524 times)

Offline steders

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Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« on: June 14, 2019, 10:32:33 PM »
Having built many hundreds of Perry’s plastics I have to say this box set is unbelievably disappointing. All poses have the arms in two parts. Why can’t they be in one part. Like your madhists. Or your WOTR infantry.
Slow and painful with no benefit to the gamer.
 Over a hundred to go and I’m losing motivation.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2019, 09:25:52 AM by Plynkes »

Offline steders

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1855!!! WTF
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2019, 10:42:14 PM »
And of course my 50 year old eye sight makes it even easier.
24 figures in and thinking of chucking them in the recycling bin

Offline Firescale Whack

  • Scientist
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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1855!!! WTF
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2019, 01:22:26 AM »
I think with the added length of the bayonet they probably were not able to cast the arms together. It also allows more options when assembling the figures, whether you want the gun up, forward or firing etc. I can see why you find this more difficult than the Mahdists but it's the same as their Napoleonic British box which pre-dates both their Colonial Brits and Mahdists so I'm not surprised they have done it this way.

I always find it helps to assemble figures one at a time, while watching TV so it doesn't feel as time consuming.

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1855!!! WTF
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2019, 08:41:25 AM »
Must admit, speaking as a Perry number 1 fanboy, I didn’t love this set. I bought it, built and painted a couple of figures, and it’s sat on the shelf ever since. In addition to the ‘I can’t get the arm end to match up to the hand moulded onto the rifle’ problem, the figures themselves all look strangely tall and willowy. And somewhat static in poses. Nothing like any of the other (many, many) Perry plastic sets I’ve loved to build, kitbash and paint. I’m reluctantly forced to agree... a bit disappointing  :?

Offline Plynkes

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2019, 09:31:04 AM »
Title was a bit confusing, so I fixed it. Hope you don't mind.


Don't have this set, and probably wouldn't get it anyway. I'm one of those grumpy buggers who just cannot abide plastics anyway. All the complaints people might have about these are generally how I feel about all plastics. I've bought quite a few boxes over the years thinking "This time! This time I will finish them!" but I've still yet to complete a unit from a plastic set, be they Warlord Zulu War, Perry Zulu War Brits, Mahdists or ACW*. I just don't like plastics, too fiddly by half.


Oh well. Maybe one day.





*Edit: Add Northstar Frostgrave to that (though admittedly that one is just because I haven't got around to them yet).




« Last Edit: June 15, 2019, 09:38:06 AM by Plynkes »
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Offline Plynkes

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2019, 09:42:23 AM »
I've just realised my last post was a complete lie, because I did build a unit of the original plastic Space Marines back in the 80s. But I guess I'm talking about modern plastics and modern me. Those Marines didn't seem fiddly in the slightest, maybe they were different, or maybe it was because I was a teenager then.  :)



Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2019, 12:06:54 PM »
 lol

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2019, 01:42:43 PM »
I remain thoroughly mystified why this whole plastic multi-part assemble yourself phenomena exists when you can get nicely sculpted, fully assembled metal figures that just need minor prep work and priming before painting.  So much extra prep work that just seems a waste of time to me.  The figures have no heft to them (which may be a benefit in carrying a lighter load, I suppose) and I wonder if they have any resale value.

I did play in an AWI game at a convention last year with very nicely painted plastic figures but it just didn't feel the same moving 'weightless' figures around and I was always nervous I'd break the buggers.

Oh, well, I live in the world of 15 mm personally and, as far as I know, this is not an issue in my chosen scale.   

Offline Cubs

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2019, 02:18:18 PM »
Same reason people buy plastic kits instead of ready-made vehicles I guess - they enjoy the construction process, they can customise their stuff and it's cheaper. But I am very choosy about which sets I buy (a lot are very unattractive to my eye and look more like cheap action figures) and I probably wouldn't bother if I had to make a butt-load of models for gaming. I tend to only get a sprue at a time, just for the joy of it.
'Sir John ejaculated explosively, sitting up in his chair.' ... 'The Black Gang'.

Paul Cubbin Miniature Painter

Offline marco55

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2019, 02:33:52 AM »
You are an excellent painter sir!
Mark

Offline Deedles

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2019, 07:00:39 AM »
I find these ok to do. But indeed build time is always a downside on plastics

Cheers
Deedles

One day the lead mountain will be gone.... one day

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Offline Firescale Whack

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2019, 10:37:21 AM »
I find these ok to do. But indeed build time is always a downside on plastics



That's very impressive Deedles! That many figures would probably cost twice as much in metal, so if you have the patience you can also save some money (for more figures of course).

Offline Mike1879

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 282
Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2019, 01:27:52 PM »
Nice painting Deedles and nice figures. Well I like the Perry plastic AZW British and their Zulus!! Got three boxes of each and enjoyed putting them together creating your own poses !!
The Perry Zulus can be mixed with the Warlord Zulu sprues to create even more poses within a Regiment !!
Just takes a little patience and also do them when your creative juices are flowing!!!!

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2019, 03:10:53 PM »
Those are excellent Deedles. But your gorgeous shot rather reinforces the point with regard to the limitations of the figures.
They are (by design, obviously) a very static and orderly body of identically tall, thin men. Basically a standing firing line. You can make a limited range of poses - firing, loading, at ready - with some slight variations. That's about it.
Clearly this is intended to make these British infantry look regimented and disciplined when set against hordes of tribal foes on the tabletop.
Unfortunately, for me anyway, it just makes them rather boring and removes any possibilities for more interesting creations - which is the immense joy and the USP of the many other Perry sets I love - the Wars of The Roses, Hundred Years War, WW2, and the colonial (Zulu and Ansar) sets. There's enough variety of bodies and arms in these kits to allow almost endless creation of different poses. Now I'm no fan of the 'manic wavy arms and chimpanzee legs' style of certain other wargames manufacturers and figures - but these are at the opposite extreme. They're so limited in poses, apart from slight variations, that they may as well have been one-piece castings. That would have achieved pretty much the same effect from a distance, but without the admitted fiddle of attaching arms to separate hands moulded onto rifles etc. Because the 'multiposability' from the components in this kit is so relatively limited, they may as well not be multipart figures at all.

Just my view obvs.

Offline Cubs

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Re: Perry British infantry 1877-1885!!! WTF
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2019, 03:19:37 PM »
I'd say that's something you're just going to run into with professional soldiers with rigid drill positions. I do think row upon row of almost identically positioned men is sort of the point, but I also agree that a bit of variety with the odd fella scratching his head, or reloading his rifle, or swigging from a water bottle, would break it up nicely and add some life.