Which Napoleonic plastic box ?

[RC_Robert]

I've been reading a lot of Hornblower, Jack Aubrey, and Richard Sharpe novels lately and they have rekindled my interest in miniatures.  I'm new to historical gaming and I thought I'd start out by painting up a unit of peninsular war British infantry.  I've seen Perry Brothers, Victrix, and Warlord all have plastic box sets, but I know nothing about the different ranges.   I'd be grateful for some suggestions on which plastic set I should order.

[carlos13th]

This may help

http://gamingblog.lnh.id.au/?p=1157

[RC_Robert]

Thank you.   That's four links in one of great comparisons.

[Elk101]

Just as an aside, a few friends have tried the plastic sets and have been put off by the amount of assembly required. They have then returned to their metal Front Rank figures! I have assembled some Victrix British figures and haven't found it too much of a chore, but if you don't relish the thought of cutting stuff from sprues and gluing figures together there are a number of excellent metal ranges available.

Sorry if I have gone off topic, I just thought it might be worth mentioning based on the experience of friends. The plastic sets are an excellent way of getting big units on the table at a very (generally) reasonable cost.

[Brian Smaller]

I didn't mind the assembly side of plastics. Of the three, I would go with Perry. I prefer Victrix British heads as they have way more character, but the Victrix plastic seems to me to be more brittle and prone to breaking. That is just my opinion of course.

[Cubs]

When starting a new project my first port of call is always the Perry boys.

The British Line Infantry have some utterly superb bits of design and sculpting in there to give you very realistic poses. For instance, with the arms aiming the musket, the shoulder piece actually overlaps those already sculpted onto the torso, the effect being to give the finished model a realistic shape, with the shoulders lifted to hold the musket level. It's a small thing, but an indication of the amount of thought and planning put in to their stuff.

[warburton]

Personally I would go with Perry, for the reasons said.

that being said, I would go for the Foundry metals, which were also sculpted by the Perrys, as I hate assembling plastics. That being said you can't really beat the plastics on price.

[Rob_bresnen]

If you want to do marines- Brigade Games do heads- sculpted by Paul Hicks- that fit onto he Victrix bodies- that's what I am up too. They also do Hornblower-esque sailors by Mr Hicks too.

[Brian Smaller]

If you want to do marines- Brigade Games do heads- sculpted by Paul Hicks- that fit onto he Victrix bodies- that's what I am up too. They also do Hornblower-esque sailors by Mr Hicks too.

The Hick's landing party is awesome. I just ordered a set yesterday.

[RC_Robert]

If you want to do marines- Brigade Games do heads- sculpted by Paul Hicks- that fit onto he Victrix bodies- that's what I am up too. They also do Hornblower-esque sailors by Mr Hicks too.

I found this forum searching for models like those.   I saw Captain Blood's marvelous landing party in a google image search.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.   I'll get one of the Perry box sets to start out.  Though I am tempted to get a Victrix set as they seem to have more poses.

[wrgmr1]

Plastics seem to be the wave right now, however their longevity seems to be in doubt. There are so many nice metal ranges out there, it's hard to choose.

Personally I'm a Front Rank fan.

[CorvetteK225]

Below is a post from my blog http://www.chargebayonet.blogspot.com/2012/09/chalk-another-one-up-to-experience.html after trying out some Victrix British Centre Company figs:

Chalk Another One up to Experience

     Where did my joy in painting go? I don't know, but there is surely none right now because I am not...painting! :-(  I know, that today is only the 11th of the month, but I feel that it is turning into an emotional and production value loss. This is directly attributable to my recent foray into 28mm plastics. These plastics are rapidly becoming a ball and chain around my ankle, and I am running from the gang boss.

     To be fair, I decided on a plastics purchase out of the extreme pricing difference; $.68-.75 US per figure as opposed to $1.00-2.40 US per figure. The figures have excellent relief, and accurately patterned equipment. They sport very dynamic faces and a good variety to boot. The figures are also nicely proportioned and do not exhibit any one detracting anatomical characteristic. Unfortunately, the pose designs are not consistent. They are a mixture of believably spontaneous action and department store mannequin.

     I am a sporadic plastic scale model builder, first having done so approximately 30 years ago. I have built both straight from the box as well as having done a share of complicated scratch builds. I say this so as to qualify my opinions not as a newcomer to things plastic, but rather a guy who has been around the block a time or two.

     Issue #1: The pieces as molded on the sprues suffer from a mixture of light, medium and heavy parting lines. Thankfully, since these so-called hard plastics are actually only semi-hard, the lines clean up in short order with the use of a hobby knife #11 blade. I will give credit in that none of the halves are so far out of alignment that they look like worn out molds, and as we all know, mold lines are routine in figure preparation no matter what the medium is. Still, the legs are bad enough to cause an overly narrowed appearance once fully cleaned up.

     Issue #2: There are also some minor fill problems which mainly manifest themselves in the shakos. These have dimples and even obvious holes in their sides which must be filled and sanded.

     Issue #3: The components on the sprues are not all numbered as one would expect from a plastic model. You might say that this is not a big issue for the intent is allow for minor variations in figure pose, anyway. My plan was to build the first 13 based upon the manufacturers recommendations to acclimate myself to the plastics experience.

     Issue #4: The next bit of bother came from the recommended component matches having fit problems. I also chose to follow the manufacturers recommended component matches as they were likely patterned to be assembled in this way. Arms do not properly align with hands, and shoulders can often protrude in peculiar fashions, or worse unintentionally expose the flat mating torso surface.

     Collectively all of this sounds quite routine for a plastic modeler, and it is. My personal complaint is not that these are plastic models with plastic model problems, it is that they are figures with plastic model problems. I buy figures to spend time painting, and boy do I need the time for I am as slow as slow can be. The cost per figure savings simply do not justify the added plastics-specific time, or the anguish incurred. From here on out, unless I am in a premeditated mood to combine modeling with figure painting I will stick with metals.

David

[carlos13th]

I have never seen plastic wargaming models with numbered parts.

I am in agreement that sometimes plastics are more trouble than the savings are worth. I felt that way about the Wargames Factory foot Samurai models They are 25 models for about £15 the same amount of money nets you about 12 perry models and £25 nets you £30 old glory.

While the metals cost more the hassle of putting these together plus the lower quality of the finished product compared to perrys or old glory made me decide for future Samurai I would just buy metals.

I will still buy their Ashigaru as they were not so bad but the Samurai are a nightmare.

The thing about buying plastics is to consider how many you need and if the savings are worth the time it takes to put them together. Some people love the modelling aspect as much as the painting or gaming so for them its great, for people who want to get straight into painting sometimes multipart plastic is not the way to go.

[Hubbynz]

I have both Perry and Victrix. Perry are a slightly better set quality and detail wise as others have mentioned but Victrix have alot of variety, more dynamic poses and slightly more character. Victrix have improved greatly since the release of the British which was there first set. Unlike alot of people here I personally like the model building and converting side that these sets offer....if you like this as well you could buy both sets and mix and match parts for extra character. The Highlanders set is great with alot of character. The biggest issue I have with the Victrix British is having different sets for centre and flank companies when the only major difference is the tuffs on the shoulder.

Also the spare head sets for Victrix for the Marines, Hanoverian and Light Infrantry are useful for building more units. I have a box of Perry which I will build with the Hanoverian heads.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

I have tried Perry and Warlord plastics. Both had very minimal flash so I don't know what that guy was talking about unless he means Victrix which I have never tried.

Assembly is so simple just adding a backpack or gluing on a head, not a real drama really.

Stylistically I prefer Perry plastics. If you like front rank metals then Warlord plastics are more compatible with front rank than Perry.

Plastics actually wear quite well, because they don't have a lot of weight if you drop them they do not get damaged. Metal figures' bayonets, muskets etc. easily bend if dropped.

The main concern I have about plastics is the longevity. Will I still be playing with these plastics in 10 years time or will plastic rot set in and leave my figures crumbling. Time will tell.

Cheers
Fuzzy.