Yesterday, I took delivery of the new set of British infantry from Wargames Factory. I have never bought figures made by this company so I wasn't too sure what to expect. The box the figures come in is made of very hard cardboard and the artwork on the front looks a lot like a scene from the Mel Gibson film'The Patriot', namely the scene that is meant to depict the Battle of Camden but, in usual Hollywood style, takes artistic license with the facts.
The back cover gives some generic information about what is in the set, mainly that there are thirty figures in all, and that the figures are in the 1768 regulation uniform. This is the standard uniform that many people associate with the redcoat of the American Revolution i.e. Tricorne, long tailed redcoat, short black gaiters etc. In reality, as the war progressed the British army adopted various changes to their uniform, varying from regiment to regiment. Many wore round hats with large plumes in them to swat away flies, cut the tails of their redcoats short (or even wore a simple redcoat with no lace) and adopted gaiter-trousers. However, the soldiers that fought in the early battles such as Bunker Hill would in all probability wore the regulation kit. As Perry Miniatures have already released a set of British infantry to cover the later war era, this set nicely fills the gap.
On the side of the box, one can see three further sets that are due to be released; American Continentals, Colonial Militia and Woodland Indians. Apparently a further two sets of troops are due to be released. My guess would be that these are either going to be two artillery sets or will cover the foreign troops involved in the war, most likely the Hessians and the French.
Inside the box there are four sprues, one for the command and three for the rank and file. The command sprue contains six figures, two officers (one of which comes in two pieces, allowing you to create an officer either with the regulation long tails or the shorter tails adopted on campaign), two colour bearers a drummer and a NCO.
The figures come with various accouterments. There are four arms with pistols for the officers and a few others with swords. One criticism I have is the lack of poses. The two officer figures have the same pose, with the figure leaning on his right leg whilst both of the ensigns are marching. I think some variation would have been nice, maybe one officer marching and one ensign standing so if you bought another box you could have two ensigns standing, which would make more sense if the regiment had halted and was firing on the enemy. The ensigns wouldn't be advancing at that point! Considering that most of the line infantry poses are either firing or reloading I'm not sure why they designed both ensigns to be advancing, as well as the drummer and the NCO.
That aside they do look rather nice. I won't be able to give a fair assessment until I have assembled them but the sculpting on these figures is crisp and the details can be seen rather well. The officers even have gorgets which look rather nice. I will delve into more detail about the command at a later date.
The next two sprues contain twenty four line infantry, twelve on each. Again, the sculpting is nice and clear. I think this is where the set really excels. The Perry's set (the only other plastic British set for this conflict) only has two options, charging or advancing at trial, this set allows you to create a proper firing line. I have already assembled about half a dozen of these and they look brilliant. They really do mirror the proper regulation commands of the era and look like a proper disciplined unit. As a reenactor, I can confirm the soldiers look accurate in their drill poses, it pretty much mirrors the illustrations seen in drill books of the time.
This box set also has an advantage over the Perry's set in that you have four head options; regulation tricornes, roundhats, bearskins (for Grenadiers) and Light Infantry caps (for the Light Bobs), whereas the Perry's set only allows you to build line infantry in tricornes although you do get the option to build them with the Saratoga caps as well as roundhats. I think this is where this set might do well in that you have the option to create the flank companies as well as the line infantry.
The detail on the faces is really good. I am afraid my camera work doesn't really do them much justice. The tricornes are a bit fiddly in that the front is attached to the head, but the middle and back parts of the tricorne have to be attached separately, and, as far as I can see, have to correspond with the correct figure. I wonder if it would have been easier if they had simply cast the tricorne with the head in one piece. This could have perhaps allowed more room for other head options (I haven't checked, but I don't think there are enough roundhats for all of the figures and only about a third can be made up as flank company figures). That aside, the detail is lovely and I think the tricornes on these plastics are much nicer than the Perry's ones, which feel to be a little flat to me. Then again, the Perry's ones are late war figures so will naturally look different.
The last sprue contains twenty six bases (the command sprue contains another four). They look quite good but as I use the 'British Grenadier!' rule-set, which recommends basing figures in fours or sixes, I will not be using these. Still, they may find a use for my other figures.
Also included is a handy colour coded guide. This shows you how to assemble the figures and how to create the various poses (firing, reloading, making ready etc.) although, as it states, this is only a guide and you can experiment with the poses. One side shows the guide for the command sprue and the other for the line sprue. I think having it colour coded is a good idea as it allows you to better see which parts go where. I remember buying the early Perry miniatures British Napoleonic set some years ago and getting a little confused as to what arms whet where at times as it wasn't as clearly displayed. However, looking a the recent Perry guides I would say they have an advantage over the Wargames Factory ones in that they also include rough painting guides and pictures of what the assembled figures should look like. True, there are some on the box, but it would be nice if in a future release they included a few more pictures and a few more painting guides (I noticed a few errors on the box in that they give the figures blue facings but the front cover has the regiments with the Colours of a White/Red faced regiment and the back picture with those of a Black faced Regiment!) Still, it is very useful for one such as myself.
Here is a comparison of an already assembled figure next to some of the competition. From left to right are; Perry's plastic British, Perry's Metal American, Wargames Factory British, Wargames Foundry British and Eureka Miniatures American. I'm afraid the picture isn't the best but the Wargames Factory figure is the biggest of the figures. He is not that much bigger than his Perry Miniatures Plastic counterpart, although the Factory ones seem a little thinner than the Perry's one. Strangely enough, the Perry's metal figure is slightly smaller than the Perry's Plastic! I think these figures will mix alright with the Perry Miniatures Plastic range but they do look a little bigger than the Perry, Foundry and Eureka metals. I probably wouldn't mix them with the metals but with the Perry's plastics you should be alright. It might be a good idea to use these figures as Grenadiers as they will look larger than the metals. However, the muskets are a lot longer than those of the other manufacturers so they may look even more incompatible standing next to each other.
In terms of value, I bought these for about £15, although they have now gone up to £18. The latter figure works out at about 60p per figure. The Perry's figures were until recently I believe about £18 but have gone up to £20 (I still remember the days when they were £12!) which works out at about 52p/53p per figure so you do get a little bit more value for you money from the Perry's, although I preorderd my Wargames Factory figures so that worked out at about 50p per figure for me. Nevertheless, these are still good value (and much better value my I add than, in my humble opinion, the extortionate amount Games Workshop charges for their Lord of the Rings Range. where their infantry alone is about £2.50 per figure!)
So far so good, I would solidly rate these as excellent.They are excellently detailed and are good value. My only real quibble is the command sprue but there are plenty of other options out there to mix and match with.
I will do a part two of this review when I have painted and based a few of them and see how well they look to the others I have already painted and will then give an overall summing up. In the meantime, I leave you with this present North Star gave me when I bought the figures.
