Plastics For and Against

 

As a fully paid up member of the Old Farts Alliance, I have always had a bit of a thing against plastic figures. Whether this is age-driven snobbery I am not sure, but plastic figures were what I played with as a child and since then I have gone on to better things. Hmmm. In my earlier post about Partizan last year, I did confess to buying a few boxes of ACW Perry plastics in a moment of weakness following a beautiful display game that I saw there. And I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't however think that they would make their way into the holy of holies: Napoleonic. Wrong again. Having been working hard on my Napoleonic French army for a few months now (more to follow), I decided to try out the Perry French chasseurs a cheval box. Quite a revelation.

So, for and against. Negatives first - they are quite light and you feel that a mis-judged sneeze could send a whole regiment flying in an uncontrolled charge across the table! That said, a Really Useful Box with half a dozen regiments inside is a damn sight easier to move around than the metal equivalent. I also worry about the weapons, although they do seem a lot more robust than I would have expected. Even so, the first two regiments have the sword shouldered, apart from the officers, just in case! The case for the defence is pretty solid; they are relatively cheap, very nicely designed (as one might expect from the Perrys) and are easy to convert, quite apart from the incredible variety that you already get in each box.

Below are a few photos of my first two completed light cavalry regiments: the 4th Chasseurs and the 12th Hussars. Such is the detail and ingenuity of this particular box, that you can not only assemble units of chasseurs in a variety of dress, but you can also make them up as hussars in the Kinski coat - a simple and practical alternative to the dolman and pelisse that we normally associate with that arm. A really nice alternative. 

You get 14 figures in a box (my regiments are usually in 12s); so by getting five boxes and an additional 2 figure command sprue, you can get 6 full regiments (I am going to do 2 hussars and 4 chasseurs). Not only that, but by judicious use of all the spares in each box, you can easily make up another regiment's worth of riders and then buy spare horses and another command sprue and make up a 7th regiment (in my case a regiment of Neapolitan chasseurs a cheval, which fought in the 1813 campaign). No true born Yorkshireman can ignore economies like that! 

The three photos above give a good indication of the campaign variety that you can build in to your units, with the odd rolled manteau and forage cap to break thing up. A really nice and unusual unit.

The same with the chasseurs - I even did a bit of minor surgery on one of the horses and riders, to have a trooper tumbling out of the saddle due to enemy fire. This is much easier to do with plastics as you can imagine.

And here is the full brigade of 24 figures.

So, am I converted? Yes, I think I am. I will certainly complete all the regiments I mentioned above and am seriously considering a regiment of carabiniers and 4 or 5 of cuirassiers. I do particularly like the Perry metal dragoons in rolled manteau, so I may opt for them, rather than the plastics - not sure yet. I would also be a bit wary of doing lancers as I really wouldn't feel comfortable with plastic lances. That said, they are a really convincing alternative to metal figures and this old dog perhaps can learn a new trick or two.

Napoleonic French Army - A New Beginning

 

Having sold my previous French army to fill the wargaming coffers for future campaigns, I was determined to re-build it as quickly as possible. Question was how? My Russian and Prussian forces were composed of mainly Wargames Foundry infantry, due to my reluctance to "go plastic", whilst most of the cavalry was Perry. Having looked at what was available (and the Christmas 25% sale!!), I decided to go the same way with the French. Although the figures are a little "retro", they are full of character and there is a LOT of choice, with loads of in-pack variations. If you want that scruffy campaign look, it seemed a good way to go.

At the time of writing I have just finished a couple of  French line battalions, bringing the total to 8, with an additional 2 light and 4 Italian line, making 14 in total. This Christmas just gone, I took  advantage of the annual sale to add a further 4 French line and 2 Italian light battalions (still to be painted). I also bought enough French line  artillery to furnish all the batteries I will ever need.

I have also done a couple of regiments of light cavalry to round out phase 1 of the army. These will feature in a later post.

Here are a few photos of the infantry. They are organised in "battalions" of 24 this time - I just couldn't face painting a load of 36s again!! I am intending to cobble together a quick play set of Napoleonic rules which will allow us to play medium sized games (20 units a side) in an evening and larger games (35-40 units a side) in a day. A unit of infantry will represent around 1,200 men and a unit of (12) cavalry around 600. The idea is to be able to field up to a couple of infantry corps per side, supported perhaps by a cavalry corps and maybe the odd guard or grenadier division. I will keep the blog updated with my progress (and maybe even the odd after action report!).

                                        Above - one of the Italian line infantry units.

                                                          French light infantry.

And finally French line infantry.

They don't have the table "presence" of 36 figure units, but they are so much easier to do! Will hopefully get the total up to 20 this year. Also hoping to add a load of cavalry units, lights and heavies, using heresy of heresies - plastics! so stay tuned to see how I get on.