The Plastics Revolution

In the last two to three years rigid plastic wargames figures in 25-30mm "scale" have gone from an experimental rarity to being a thriving and expanding part of the wargamer's buying options. There are now eight companies producing at least one box of historical figures* and probably more will enter the marketplace this year too. The first to get to market was Warlord Miniatures closely followed by Perry Miniature, who brought their trademark superb quality of sculpting with them. Quality across the different companies has been very variable, as has size/ scale.

I have bought quite a few of the available boxes out of curiosity and for periods I am not committed enough to to want the expense of metal figures. When I have paid £1.00+ for a figure I do the best I can with what painting skills I have, 50p or less, not so much. The opportunities for adding Napoleonic regiments to my collection in the slim, proportional style of miniature that I am trying to stick to looked promising at first but so far it has been quite limited.


Of the manufacturers who produce Napoleonics, only Perry and HaT figures are close to a proportional style. Perry are chunkier that Alban and HaT are shorter and not such nice and consistant sculpts. The Perry figures have until recently been mainly focussed on the Hundrd Days rather than the earlier periods. The French infantry produced by Victrix do include a box based on the earlier uniforms (pre-Bardin) but althought the bodies of these figures are similar in size to the Perry offerings, the heads are a bit too chunky for my needs. I have experimented with Victrix bodies with spare Perry heads and these will do until there is another choice to fill the ranks of the Premier Empire.

(*For the record: Perry, Warlord, Victrix, Gripping Beast, Immortal, HaT, Conquest Games and Wargames Factory. Sorry to any I have missed.)

A Project Stalled...

There is always a surfeit of projects available to occupy my butterfly brain, so when The Assault Group stopped releasing figures for their Napoleonic line of Austrians and eventually sold it to Alban Miniatures this project was stalled in favour of simpler fare.

In the meantime the revolution that is 28mm rigid plastic figures has occurred, which has given a new boost to interest in Napoleonics as a period. The availability of figures at a half to a third of the price in metal has tempted many people to have a go or return to what has always been a popular period. An added bonus from my point of view is that the Perry sculpted miniatures are quite close to the proportional style that I prefer from Alban Mioniatures, ex TAG (sculpted by Richard Ansell.)

Luckily for my wallet (and probably sanity) the Perry twins have concentrated on the Waterloo/ Hundred Days campaign and this means that only a portion of their range of plastic and metal figures are suitable for the years I have decided to concentrate on - 1805 to 1811.

I have chosen these dates for a number of reasons: firstly the French army under Napoleon is at its peak in 1805 and is dressed in the most elegant version of uniforms of the time. The French still have a tactical advantage in this period as its opponents were slow to learn from their mistakes. This means that on the tabletop there will be contrasting tactical systems, which makes for a more interesting game. As I am already commited to fielding Austrians these are interesting years where they go from their most crushing defeat at Austerlitz to acheiving the first victory of any opponent over Napoleon at Aspern-Essling in 1809.

So far none of my regular opponents has been drawn into the mire of this period so currently I will have to be paintiong and organising at least 2 armies (they'll catch on after a few games!)