Perry Brothers Liberated

We are aware that there are rumours flying around that we have left Games Workshop! Thought we should set the record straight and let you all know that…we have! After 36 years, man and boy, working on Warhammer, 40K and of course, for the l...ast 15 years LotR and the Hobbit we are now able to focus our energy on our historical ranges.This means more time to dedicate to Perry Miniatures, and of course Mr Jackson who we continue to make 54mm WW1 figures for. We had an excellent evening on Friday at The Trip to Jerusalem with GW, and ex-GW, colleagues and friends who got us very, very drunk - cheers!

 

Above taken from the Perry Miniatures Facebook page.

 

With the move away from metal and now from individual figures, as well as the end of the LotR/Hobbit run... it only makes sense I suppose. 36 years at GW is more than enough for anyone, although with this departure, it means that there are even fewer "names" left at GW, as they leave for greener pastures. 

 

Celebrate by hurrying to the Perry Miniatures website and buying some figures!

Napoleonic Company Level

The Wargamer's mind is a fickle thing [and possibly not the most stable].  Far too often when browsing about the Internet, or reading books, or even walking down the street, a new idea springs to mind.

Fortunately [for me] I have a blog to get such ideas out "on paper" so that they can be developed without the expenditure of money. (as with Eldar corsairs for Inquisitor, or Song of Ice and Fire skirmish games)

Today I stumbled upon an interesting blog through links from other blogs, which I probably reached originally from links in blogs I follow.  You know, as one does. In this case it was Matt's Gaming Page, and scrolling down, I noticed a lovely, and well illustrated battle featuring the British and French slugging it out in a company level battle.  Wait... company level?  Now that is exciting. 

A French company had something on the order of 140 men officially; but in reality it would be somewhat smaller, and if the ordinary privates get left out, you have a more colorful little army of around 50-60 figures.  The British and other allies likewise had similar sized companies, and could be reduced in a similar fashion.

In the post, Matt mentions that he used the Ganesha Games rules 61 65, which are designed for fighting the American Civil War at a company level. GG also makes the Song of Drums and Shakos for smaller level Napoleonic skirmish, and that book says it includes profiles for 160+ troop types from all major nations [Online squad builder here].  I wonder how compatible the stat lines are, and if you could combine the books to make a 03 15 variation...

Lovely paint job on Perry box FN100

My first inclination would be to look to Perry for the figures, but their own range is aimed at the 1815 period, which can be limiting in some aspects, as the uniforms and equipment changed somewhat through out the wars.  The Perrys also sculpted a large and fairly comprehensive range for Wargames Foundry, and the Eureka French Revolutionary Wars range could also be useful for earlier battles (or for units that did not change uniforms).  Victrix too has a large plastic range, which is perhaps more suited to skirmish gaming as well.

Wargames Foundry b50

The Napoleonic period is so colorful, it would be very exciting to paint some larger scale figures [also more difficult], and get some games in.  Now I just need more time!

New Perry Releases

As you may be aware, the Perry brothers have their own miniature company which produces historical miniatures.  I have a few that I am using for D&D figures, (and I need to finish painting them and show them off!) but they have over 13 ranges of metal and plastic figures covering everything from Agincourt to Choson Korean forces.

One of their new plastic releases is British Infantry for the American War of Independence (Revolutionary War).


38 plastic figures for £18?  Buy three boxes and get a free mounted Colonel? Sure!

Each box makes a battalion pretty nicely

These appear to be suitable for the majority of battles in the New England campaigns, and are easily supplemented by their extensive metal lines.  Unlike the Napoleonic wars, the AWI seems more suitable for skirmish and small battalion combat, as even the largest battles had fewer than 50,000 combatants on both sides, and the decisive parts of the battles were very small.  After visiting Valley Forge a few years back, I have a not very secret interest in reproducing this war... so maybe some day.

The Perrys are also releasing British infantry for World War Two, with a box of "Desert Rats" (again for £18, and again with a three box deal).


This campaign does not interest me as much as some, but with a couple of these boxes and some forthcoming Germans (and Italians) it seems like you could have some pretty satisfying large skirmish battles.  The box may also be useful for providing bits for use with Games Workshop figures, if one were interested in converting Imperial Guard figures for instance.  I also expect that they will come out with metal ANZAC and Indian heads too, to further expand this box.

Anyway, I am also looking forward to what comes next from them, as they typically have 3ups for next year's releases at Salute, which is next weekend.  Who knows what it could be?  WWII Italians? AWI American Continentals?  Plastic artillery for the ACW?  Dare I wish for Landsknecht?

Ser Mormont

I wish this was my work, but check out this amazing Mormont army (for Impetus) at HVM.

HVM's Mormont

Fantastic brushwork and conversions on the Perry figures, and the bases are amazing.  (and very much like what I have been considering for my NeoSoviet near future figures)

More here.  Makes me really want to revisit my ideas for Song of Ice and Fire Skirmish, particularly as the Pound is relatively down lately ($1.544 as of this writing).

Game of Thrones

I have long been a fan of the Song of Ice and Fire universe, ever since I got all three of the first books, and read them in a week while my then girl friend (now wife) was out of town, and I was sick and bored. The gritty realism is of course part of the draw, but the characters are another.  I got through all three books, and then was eager for #4, which came out that fall. (a quick peek at amazon indicates that it was 2005, so nearly 7 years ago).  The long delay from Feast to Dance sort of cooled things off for me, and I have not thought as much about Westeros lately.

In any case, the wife and I have just started watching the Game of Thrones TV show, and it has rekindled some of that heady feeling I had when I crammed in 2400+ pages in a week. (Astonishing my wife's cousins who are devout fans of the series) Naturally, as these things go, I started to think about how to game the series, and what miniatures to use...

Obviously, there are the official miniatures from Dark Sword, and while they are generally lovely, they are quite large, expensive, and not suited for gaming in my opinion.  (although still retaining utility for characters and unusual types)

Fortunately, the Westeros way of war seems to be broadly similar to the War of the Roses/mid Hundred Years War here on earth, that is to say "high medieval" in arms and armament, minus, of course, guns and cannon (so 1420-1450).  So full harness for well-to-do types, mail and partial plate for those poorer, and cloth and helmets for the lower level retainers.  Fantasy elements are limited, particularly in the first three books, with valarian steel swords being the main thing needed.  Heraldry from here and from this amazing map.

The Perrys have a lovely series of figures that would fit in well here, in the shape of the War of the Roses line.  The plastic boxes for this yield archers, Men-At-Arms, billmen, pike men, and crossbows. Metals fill in a few of the other needed elements, and the Hundred Years War line would provide for the poorer lords' forces. 

Gaming wise, I would use the LotR skirmish game engine, which allows for low powered heroes and warbands.  Figures would be assembled into groups, representing minor lords and their retainers, which should allow for surmountable painting as well. (I would make mostly Northers, Riverlands, and Lannister allies) Larger games could be accommodated by the same engine, or by moving to the WotR mass battle game, although I do not foresee things getting that out of hand...

Obviously I am treading the same path that many have gone before, such as this recent thread on The Miniatures page. (or this older one) Or the several lovely threads on Lead Adventure (This one, Stark, Lannister, plus Captain Blood's WotR figures)

Now I just need to finish off about 25 other projects, and I can move on this one!

Perry Plastic Men At Arms

As some of you probably noticed over on The Miniatures Page, the Perry Brothers have announced that the Mounted Men at Arms will be available at Salute, and that if you buy three boxes, you get a "free" Charles the Bold figure also, which is pretty cool.  I should probably paint one of my existing knights regiments before buying a new one, but these are pretty good looking figures, and should work nicely with my Empire/DOW army, as well as being useful for various historical battles.  I have frothed over these figures before, but they look great, and you should buy some.  [12 Knights and horses for £18]

Also, I apparently missed Conquest Sac again, which probably says more about my attention to conventions than about their advertising.  Looks like a good time was had, and Black Cavalier reports that attendance seems to be up as well.  Maybe next time then.

We have been sick at our house, so not much hobby activity going on, which will hopefully change soon when the taxes are filed.

Perry Miniatures Review

This weekend I got my first order from Perry Miniatures.  While I certainly have more than a few figures sculpted by the Perry Brothers (more like 100s), I had never previously ordered from their own figure company.

I ordered a few figures to use as NPCs in the D&D game that I am running in January, drawing from their First Crusade line. Indeed these are figures that I am using as the benchmark for the project, because they fit the look I want so closely. In this case the figures are sculpted by Michael Perry, although most people would be hard pressed to identify between the work of one or the other of the brothers.

This first picture is our lovely comparison models "Franz" and "Jean", which you may recall are 6th and 5th edition GW figures.  As it happens they were also sculpted by the Perry Brothers (I may have missed a zero on my previous estimate of the number of figures I own that they have sculped.)  As you can see, the figure matches most closely with the 5th edition metal Bretonnian figure, which is to my mind, excellent.
 
One of the things you read about online occasionally, is that Perry figures are "terrible" in terms of flash and other clean up work.  As you can see from the figure below, there is some extraneous metal that needed to be cleaned up, but I think it was nothing out of the ordinary, and it only took a few minutes to work through the set that I got.

This last picture is of CU25, one of the only packs that does not have a picture on their site.  As you can see they are quite dynamic figures, and should look quite nice slaying orcs down in the dungeons.



Perry Miniatures CU25 Mailed Sword and Axemen, advancing/attacking



The figures are packed in little black boxes for each code, and this seems to be good enough for overseas shipment.  Shipping times were perfectly adequate, and the VAT rebate offset the price of postage. In conclusion, these are lovely figures that I am already planning on supplementing sometime in the future.