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.