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Author Topic: VICTRIX napoleonics  (Read 15222 times)

Offline The Black Rider

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VICTRIX napoleonics
« on: November 22, 2008, 06:20:16 PM »
Anyone got any yet or seen them in the flesh? Anyone seen the perry french too?

Offline Svennn

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2008, 06:45:24 PM »
There are some nice painted examples of the Victrix that someone has done on the Steve Dean forum that look really good. Not seen anything personally since the 3 ups which also looked very good.

Seen the Perry French in the flesh and they too look brilliant. Better than the ACW I think.  Not very much in it between them and the metals for me - only the weight. I am not a plastic fan but as soon as the undercoat hits I have to ask just what is the difference really?

No one will ever make ancient, medieval or renaissance Chinese in plastic so its probably not a conundrum I am ever going to have the pleasure of personally.

The Perry British posted on TMP this week looked good as well with a clever coat tail trick up their sleeve to boot.

Buy them all (not the WG or WF Romans though) and then my dream of Chinese will be that little bit closer.

Svennn

"A jewelled sceptre plucked by order to serve their cause"

Offline Onebigriver

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2008, 06:55:09 PM »
A couple of Frothers have bought the Victrix plastics and been very disappointed about pronounced mould lines, level of detail and the lack of right ears!

http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17362

I've bought the Perry French and am very happy with them, and I'm going to wait for the Perry Brits instead of buying the Victrix Brits for Sharp Practice.

Waiter, my soup is giggling.

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2008, 11:13:31 PM »
I really like the look of the Victrix British. In fact I picked a box up at the Warfare show today in Reading, fully intending to buy them.
But when I looked at them on the sprue they just look soooo...  well... small.
Indeed, all the plastic figures seem to suffer from a degree of 'slightness' compared to metal figures. I appreciate this is rich coming from me, as I'm usually railing against the cartoony / squat / munchkin style of most metal wargames figures.
But the plastics just look so insubstantial and diminutive compared to what I'm used to...

Suffice to say, I put the box down again and saved my 20 quid.
I'd never have got round to painting 50 bloody Napoleonic infantry anyway.

Having said all that
1. They are extremely nicely packaged, come with a selection of LBM flags, rules, bases, painting guide etc, and
2. Looking at couple of painted units of the finished figures on the Victirx stand, they are beautifully sculpted.

Just not heroic enough in scale for my tastes.  :(

Offline archangel1

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2008, 01:13:28 AM »
...But when I looked at them on the sprue they just look soooo...  well... small.
Indeed, all the plastic figures seem to suffer from a degree of 'slightness' compared to metal figures. I appreciate this is rich coming from me, as I'm usually railing against the cartoony / squat / munchkin style of most metal wargames figures.
But the plastics just look so insubstantial and diminutive compared to what I'm used to...


I think the reason the plastics always look so slight is due to the fact that they are usually injection molded in steel molds while a lot of the metals are centrifugally or vacuum cast in a 'soft' mold.  Steel will obviously not deform during the injection process so the finished product is exactly the same size as the master.  The metal molds compress slightly as they spin or as they reach vacuum so they come out looking slightly 'squat'.  That is my understanding, anyway.

No slight intended to Captain Blood, because he has a logical reason for not using plastics, but, isn't it interesting how modellers clamour for certain items, yet, as soon as the genie grants their wish, the vultures start circling.  Suddenly, all the rivet counters and self-styled experts are out in force with their litany of complaints.  We should be on our knees thanking the manufacturers for at least listening to our desires.  So what if the mold line is slightly heavy (clean it!) or a detail is soft.  If you game with your figures, nobody's going to see the flaws at the distance at which most figures are viewed.  Go back 20 years and look at what was available then.  Did that stop people from enjoying the hobby? Of course not! I, for one, am heartily grateful for the huge variety of figures available today.  If they're not perfect this time, well, they're probably better than the previous effort so maybe next time.  Besides, if someone ever did produce the 'perfect' figure, what would the naysayers have to complain about? They'd probably implode with frustration!  :D
Why take Life seriously? You'll never get out of it alive!

Offline Onebigriver

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2008, 01:32:36 AM »
I'm grateful for the amazing variety of figures as well, it means we get to choose something that meets our own exacting standards. Inevitably plastics from one company are going to be compared to another, and if we see what one company is capable of, then is it wrong to expect similar standards from another? if you read my post on Frothers, I was all set to buy the Victrix plastics, they certainly looked good in the photos, but those people that have bought them have been disappointed, so I'd rather wait for the Perry Brits that I expect to be of similar quality to their French. Certainly there are those who won't touch plastic, but suggestions that the vultures are circling is a bit of an exaggeration.

Offline archangel1

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2008, 03:37:09 AM »
Maybe I shouldn't have used vultures as an analogy since I didn't mean to imply they were waiting for the death of a range.  I just have no use for those people whose sole purpose seems to be to pick holes in anything new.  You see them at contests all the time - those 'experts' who haven't built a model or painted a figure in 20 years yet somehow they feel they are qualified to question the accuracy or finish of an item that somebody has just taken a month to complete.  I remember an instance of someone who was adamant that 'the Germans never painted crosses on captured Russian tanks before reusing them', despite the evidence of hundreds of wartime photos.

I intend to get some Victrix Naps, as well as some of the Twins'.  I consider myself a good enough modeler that I can make a decent display of them, despite 'pronounced mould lines, level of detail and lack of right ears'! That's what modelling is about, isn't it?

Offline Johan

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2008, 08:09:03 AM »
I've bought all the plastic boxes available at the moment. And yes some are of a different finish than others, but at least they are all compatible within the boxes and of the same style. Soft plastic ones used to suffer from that (remember Airfix Napoleonics? British did'nt match French at all as far as height, sculpture and look were concerned and what about the French Guard, Scots, Prussians, all different sculpters and thus different looks. So if you can't say Victrix with Perry, who cares? In metal ranges you can't mix every one with another either. At least somebody is doing something about the metal prices and gets out cheap(er) plastic figures. It's exactly like in the movies: in the sixties we had mass spectacles like Cleopatra with enormeous amounts of extra's playing the vast armies. Nowadays this is far too expensive until somebody discovered what you could do with cgi. There too the first cgi images were of lower quality. If you see what e.g. Jackson did in LOTR with his mass armies we've come a long way. I'm sure the same will happen with plastics. Evolution doesn't stop and products will get better. When I started with wargaming I had to do with Lamming and Minifigs, I do think -without putting these down- we've come a long way as well in metal.
So whatever plastics the manufacturers will throw at me I'll look at and if the period interests me, i'll buy. (Where are those ECW that Warlords has on their website, I need them now.)

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2008, 09:02:06 AM »

No slight intended to Captain Blood, because he has a logical reason for not using plastics


None taken  ;)

I agree with much of what you have to say there. I think Victrix have done an excellent job from what I saw - it's just that the slightness of the actual figures is just not to my taste, and I was a little disappointed by this, because of course when they show you the 'three-ups' they look kinda chunky...  :?

I think the plastic manufacturer that cracks the conundrum of how to get the end 28mm plastic figure retaining the proportions and detail of the 'three-up' will be the one who makes the real breakthrough and will win over a serious volume share of wargamers and modellers.

Let's hope it's Warlord with their forthcoming ECW!

Offline Lowtardog

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2008, 01:06:33 PM »

No slight intended to Captain Blood, because he has a logical reason for not using plastics


None taken  ;)

I agree with much of what you have to say there. I think Victrix have done an excellent job from what I saw - it's just that the slightness of the actual figures is just not to my taste, and I was a little disappointed by this, because of course when they show you the 'three-ups' they look kinda chunky...  :?

I think the plastic manufacturer that cracks the conundrum of how to get the end 28mm plastic figure retaining the proportions and detail of the 'three-up' will be the one who makes the real breakthrough and will win over a serious volume share of wargamers and modellers.

Let's hope it's Warlord with their forthcoming ECW!


My thoughts are they will match Perry, Fodnry and the Eureka in scale when the ECW figures are produced mainly because John Stallard wrote the WECW and has some close ties with the Perrys.

So if you have Rnegade or Bicorne and Redoubt I suspect they will be too small.

The Heroic scale is certainly the norm and this is why I think a lot of gamers dont like the more anatomically correct figures. I have picked up all the Conquest figures for FIW and they on first impressions seem tiny but with a bit of an undercoat the detail comes out and they are sweet.

Offline Onebigriver

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2008, 01:33:49 PM »
Maybe I shouldn't have used vultures as an analogy since I didn't mean to imply they were waiting for the death of a range.  I just have no use for those people whose sole purpose seems to be to pick holes in anything new.  You see them at contests all the time - those 'experts' who haven't built a model or painted a figure in 20 years yet somehow they feel they are qualified to question the accuracy or finish of an item that somebody has just taken a month to complete.  I remember an instance of someone who was adamant that 'the Germans never painted crosses on captured Russian tanks before reusing them', despite the evidence of hundreds of wartime photos.

I intend to get some Victrix Naps, as well as some of the Twins'.  I consider myself a good enough modeler that I can make a decent display of them, despite 'pronounced mould lines, level of detail and lack of right ears'! That's what modelling is about, isn't it?


Well I'm no button brigader, and fair enough if you are willing to put in the work to clean them up to an acceptable standard, but I have that many projects on the go I'd rather wait until the plastic Brits by the Perrys come out. It's a shame because the Victrix are slightly bigger than the Perry, and I was hoping to mix in metal figures from other ranges for my Brits while sticking to Perry for the French. Apparently one of the motivations behind Victrix is to encourage young'uns into historical wargaming, and it will be interesting to see if the kids recognise a bargain or if they compare the figures unfavourably to the overpriced but detailed GW plastics.

Offline The Black Rider

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2008, 01:54:30 PM »
aww looks like im going to buy the perry ones anyways! Their acw stuff is great (I have it) so I am expecting similar stuff from them! Does anyone know where you can grab a copy of sharpes practice or something similar?

Offline Onebigriver

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2008, 02:20:08 PM »
aww looks like im going to buy the perry ones anyways! Their acw stuff is great (I have it) so I am expecting similar stuff from them! Does anyone know where you can grab a copy of sharpes practice or something similar?

You need to go to the Two Fat Lardies website. You can buy it as a PDF or order a printed copy. I think the PDF is £7.

Offline archangel1

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #13 on: November 23, 2008, 08:00:52 PM »

...fair enough if you are willing to put in the work to clean them up to an acceptable standard...

I guess I have a slight advantage, here, in that I am not a wargamer.  (I know.  Shocking, isn't it!  ;) ) I usually do vignettes and dioramas so I don't have to paint up an entire box of figures before I can use them on the table.  I have the luxury to pick and choose those I want and can take the time to bring them up to snuff.  There are times, though, when I wish I could blitz a regiment.  I know I'm a decent painter but I'm constantly astounded by the speed at which some of the LAFers can paint up 20 figs or so without a loss of quality.  I can be quite anal when painting official uniforms.  ACW is bad enough but Napoleonics can give me fits!

Offline Onebigriver

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Re: VICTRIX napoleonics
« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2008, 08:54:26 PM »
I know what you mean, I'm deeply envious of speed painters. A few months ago I painted 20 skaven at once and it seemed to take forever. Part of the reason why i'm sticking to skirmish level games.

 

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