Perry British Ammunition Wagon

Just up on the Perry Miniatures Metal Workbench a 'coming soon' British 1814 Ammunition wagon.

Quite a nice addition, will be particularly useful in skirmish games I think. The team looks pretty much the same as that in the 'limber team standing' set.

Perry Update

News from the Perry's on the Austrian and Russian lines.


From Alan Perry's announcement in their new Newsletter:

Up on our site (on the Metal Workbench) are shots of the first Russian and Austrian metals which will be available prior to the plastic sets.

The ranges will be extensive and comprehensive (along the same lines as our ongoing British , French and Prussian ranges) covering all branches of the armies using the most recent research.

We will keep you updated on these as well as other ranges via this Newsletter and on the site.


Bye for now!
Alan Perry

and the pic's:

You can subscribe to the newsletter by registering on the Perry site here.

Perry Miniatures and VAT

I haven't checked this out for myself and so I am only passing on what someone else has reported on another website, though I have no reason to doubt the information.

It seems that Perry Miniatures now automatically deducts VAT (20%) from orders for non-EU Residents placed via their new website.

The comment mentioned in the past the person had forgotten to ask about VAT, though as far as I know Perry didn't deduct VAT and certainly with the orders I have placed with them they were well aware I was a non-resident and I paid the full price.

This is a very significant change as basically it means a 20% reduction in the price of all Perry figures for people outside of Europe.

With Perry International postage being coincidentally 20% the other way of looking at this is you are paying the full sticker price but it's now post free!

Good news for those in the US and Australia though not of much interest to UK or European readers I am afraid.

Perry Plastic British Hussars Update

Only Thursday I was saying to Fons at MMPS I was hoping for the Perry's to surprise us with the Plastic British Hussars being released before Christmas, a couple of days later and my wish comes true.

The Perry's have a new website, in their own words 'We have eventually entered the 21st century!', and have made a few announcements. To be honest the old site didn't bother me even if it was very basic, it got the job done and really that's all that matters.

Anyway - the news.

Russian Infantry 1809-15 plastic '3ups'
There will be two Russian boxed infantry sets, one for the Infantry (including elites) and one for the Grenadiers. The Infantry box will contain heads with the re-styled 1807 shako with cords which dates them to 1809. These were still worn during the 1812 campaign alongside the 1812 kiwers, albeit most likely in their own units. The kiwers have their full dress cords too which was typical of Russians in the field. There are also enough 1812 forage caps for all as this too was quite common practice for Russian infantry on campaign. The figures are all in summer one-piece overalls which were adopted in 1807.

The Grenadier box will contain the same pattern shakos with the grenadier distinctions and the famous Pavlov Grenadier mitre caps. The Pavlov Grenadiers were still wearing their normal grenadier uniforms throughout the 1812 campaign, receiving their Guard uniforms the next year. I've included the large 'busch' plume on the 1809 shako which was officially replaced by the thinner plume in 1811. However it's open to debate if they still lingered into 1812.

British Hussars 1808-1815
The box will contain 14 hussars, including an officer and a trumpeter. I've included five variants of head gear in the box (all figures have the
variants) which will allow you to make up British, KGL and Hanoverian Hussars from 1808 to 1815. Within the variants I've included the very tall early fur cap used by the British during the first years of the Peninsular and strange peakless castor cap which seems to have been an emergency replacement for it before the peaked shako came in. In the pictures most of hussars are shown without their haversacks and canteens, they will in fact have them on the finished models.

These will be available in November.

Austrian (German) Infantry 1808-15
All the figures in the box will have both helmets and shakos. During the 1809 campaign both were seen in the field. Although the 1808 jacket with it's swept-back turnbacks is quite distinctive from the fuller 1798 pattern, you could, if you wanted, use the figures earlier.

I have recently made some changes to the Austrians shown before. The main change is the pose the privates are in. The normal 'march attack' pose you see on most wargames figures, musket crooked in the left arm was never used by the Austrian army. Therefore I have changed the basic pose to 'Shoulder arms' or 'Schultert!' There are other changes including details in the way the equipment is worn as you can see in the photos. For example the small axe shown (even by the excellent Ottenfeld) attached to the outside of the knapsacks was actually carried inside, Austrian regulations forbidding anything (cooking utensils, pots and pans etc.) to hang from it. The photos of the groups were taken as I was in the middle of making the changes. Many thanks to Dr. Fiedrich Tuchler who's extensive research has thrown more light on the subject.

There will be 48 figures in the box. Sorry, no release date yet.

So big news is British Hussars in Novemeber, work on the Austrian and Russian greens seems to be well advanced, but remember with plastics it is the mold making that consumes a lot of time, so I would expect that we won't be seeing these until second quarter next year and a lot depends on how busy Renedra are and they do seem to be behind an awful lot of plastic sets these days not just the Perry's.


But what of metal's I hear you say...
Well some great Prussian equipment and a really oddity 1814 French National Guard Conscripts for those who want to refight the Battle of Paris.

Now all I have to do is get Fons to stock those Perry Hussars before Christmas and then I can work on 'santa' for my xmas present...

Perry Update

Perry have added some new figures to their collection recently:

Prussian Napoleonic Army 1813-1815
28mm figures designed by Alan Perry

PN 15 Cuirassier command in Litewka (officer in Leibrock) galloping B
PN 16 Cuirassiers in Litewka attacking B
PN 17 Cuirassiers in Litewka galloping, sword shouldered B
PN 18 Line Uhlan command in Kollett, galloping B
PN 19 Line Uhlans in Kollett, charging, levelled lance B
PN 20 Line Uhlans in Kollett, galloping, lance upright B
PN 21 Landwher cavalry command in Litewka galloping B
PN 22 Landwher cavalry in Litewka, charging, levelled lance B
PN 23 Landwher cavalry in Litewka, galloping, lance upright B

British Napoleonic Army 1815
28mm figures designed by Alan Perry

BH 60 K.G.L. 2nd Light Battalion command A
BH 61 K.G.L. 2nd Light Battalion skirmishing with rifles A
BH 62 K.G.L. 2nd Light Battalion firing line/skirmishing with muskets A

Pricing:
Code A - GBP6.50
Code B - GBP8.00

Prussian range is coming on quite nicely, there are now 22 codes besides the plastics, and we have cavalry, artillery and infantry, enough for any gamer to put together an army for the tabletop.

That's how a manufacturer should introduce a new army to the market, hope others can take note and follow suite!

I like the KGL, even though some of the skirmish poses are heavily recycled. I have a use for them as well, having recently bought a KGL brigade, unfortunately I probably need to find a new painter for these as MMPS don't do metal and A Brush Too Far has a 4 month backlog at the moment.

I have seen some complaints around the net recently about the quality of the Perry's casting, I will say this, in general I have not had an issue with them, there is a little more flash than you would expect with say a Foundry figure but not a big deal at all, particularly when you consider the price differential, I had one box of Brunswick Hussars that I am pretty sure the horses had been sat on before posting but it wasn't worth the hassle of returning and I straightened them out with a pair of pliers whilst muttering bad things under my breath. But that's it, and I think that's pretty good all things considered.

Perry Update for June

Time for the Perry monthly update.
We have seen the shots of the Prussians and Hanoverians last month on the workbench, now they are ready for release.

There's some Prussian Fusiliers, so full regiments can now be built, along with a conversion pack to convert the plastic Musketeers into Fusiliers. No stick-on mustaches, I'm afraid! They'll just have to be painted on.

The poor old Hanoverian Militia finally get a look in, too!

These are all available now, and very shortly we'll have them up on our site.

Prussian Napoleonic Army 1813-15
28mm figures designed by Alan Perry

PN 11 - Fusilier conversion pack (this is to convert the plastic Prussian set into Fusiliers. It includes 36 packs/equipment and 4 command, officer, bugler and two NCOs)
PN 12 - Fusilier command (2officers, two buglers, two NCOs)
PN 13 - Fusiliers attacking
PN 14 - Fusiliers skirmishing
All sets GBP6.50 except PN11 - GBP10.50


British Napoleonic Army 1815
28mm figures designed by Alan Perry

BH 55 - British infantry casualties (includes line, Rifleman, Highlander and a wounded officer)
BH 56 - Hanoverian militia command marching casualty
BH 57 - Hanoverian militia marching casualty
BH 58 - Hanoverian militia (Osterode battalion) command advancing
BH 59 - Hanoverian militia (Osterode battalion) advancing
All sets GBP6.50

I thought I'd show you some KGL which are coming up, too. These are skirmishers of the KGL 2nd Light battalion. On the face of it they look like 95th Rifles, but there are a few differences such as the cap, moustaches, round cuffs, and the very short, near non-existent, jacket-tails. These are armed with Bakers; the rest of the battalion (well, two-thirds of it) were armed with the Brown Bess which will be coming next month, too.

Great to hear of the KGL addition, nice timing as well, I have just ordered a KGL Line Brigade from MMPS, so as soon as these Lights are released I will have to get some painted up for me by ABrushTooFar. If you are ever going to criticise the Perry's it's going to be about their sometimes heavy recycling of some poses but in this case they have done a great job of resisting the temptation to simply replicate the 95th Rifle sets, nice work!

Also interesting to see the conversion pack for the Prussians, will we be seeing more of this type of thing from the Perry's in the future?

Perry Prussian Fusiliers

Perry have posted a couple of shots to their workbench of the forthcoming 28mm metal Prussian Fusiliers. No further details as yet.

More on Perry Russians and Prussians

As the Perry's promised there has been a post-Salute update on the forthcoming Russian and Prussian plastic sets.

From their announcement:

Russian Napoleonic Infantry 1809-15

As promised, here's more details about the 'three-up' greens for the Russian Infantry and Prussian Reservists.

There will be two Russian boxed infantry sets, one for the infantry (including elites) and one for the grenadiers. The infantry box will contain heads with the re-styled 1807 shako with cords, which dates them to 1809. These were still worn during the 1812 campaign alongside the 1812 kiwers, albeit most likely in their own units. The kiwers in the box have their full dress cords, too, which was typical of Russians in the field. There will also be enough 1812 forage caps for all, as this too was quite common practice for Russian infantry on campaign. The figures are all in summer one-piece overalls, which were adopted in 1807.

The grenadier box will contain the same pattern shakos with the grenadier distinctions and the famous Pavlov Grenadier mitre caps. The Pavlov Grenadiers were still wearing their normal grenadier uniforms throughout the 1812 campaign, receiving their Guard uniforms the next year. I've included the large 'busch' plume on the 1809 shako, which was officially replaced by the thinner plume in 1811. However, it's open to debate if they still lingered into 1812.

Prussian Napoleonic Reservists 1813-15

The Prussian Reserve Infantry are in their basic 1813 grey uniforms. Some Reserve battalions were still wearing them in 1815. The box will contain enough peaked caps and shakos for all the figures in the box. They are all equipped with the basic cloth knapsack, with the sword knot attached to the strap over the left hip as infantry swords were in short supply. They are carrying a mix of French, British and Prussian muskets. The simple uniform might inspire a conversion into something else. The command all wore the regulation Line uniform.

I'm afraid there are no release dates on these.

As ever great sculpts and from the details these sets are very flexible, the Russians will actually do for earlier than 1812 when we eventually get round to it, but for now its 1812-1814 that is the focus of interest and these are perfect.

Can't wait for these and the accompanying metals.

No release date, the Russians must surely be some way off but in time for the 1812 refights? I am not sure, I would certainly think that unless they decide to hold back on the Prussians and Austrians, we won't be seeing these Russians this year.

This is supremely ambitious for even the Perry's, as wargamers themselves they have repeatedly shown they truly get what we need and that means that there has to be a lot more than just a couple of boxes of plastic's doesn't there, cavalry, artillery, command and more in metal are expected, this would be a big task if it was just Prussians but now it has to included Austrians and Russians. Can they really do it, or equally important can they do it in time, as this must surely be aimed at providing us with new armies for the reenactments that will happen over the next couple of years.

If it was anyone else you would doubt whether it could be done but with the Perry's you just assume that it will, and this isn't even there day job, crazy!!!

More On Perry Austrians

Well whilst we wait for Paul Sawyer to get back off holiday to learn more about WG Russians, Perry are on the ball as usual with further details of the Austrians first shown last weekend at Salute.

First of all, we'd like to thank the South London Warlords for putting on Salute - we had a great day. It was fantastic to meet up with our customers again.

Plastic Napoleonic Austrian (German) Fusiliers 1808-15

I've always had a soft spot for the Napoleonic Austrian army, and in a way, these will be the last main army to complete the 1815 range. The Austrians were fighting against the French and Neapolitans in Italy up until August 1815, no less than 27 encounters and battles, not including sieges! The accompanying metal and additional plastic sets in the range will cover the 1808-15 period.

As mentioned before, these are in the 1808 jacket which was quite distinctive with its swept-back turn-backs, but if you're not concerned about that, they could be used from 1805 when the queue was abolished. The officer is in the Oberrock, a typical campaign look, usually worn without the sash as I've done. There will be a choice of bicorne, helmet and shako. Officially, fusiliers were meant to be clean-shaven, but contemporary pictures and Ottenfeld do show them appearing in the ranks, so I've made a few heads with mustaches. There'll be 48 figures in the box, including one officer, one drummer, one standard bearer, one pioneer, and two NCOs. There will be enough helmets and shakos for all the figures in the box.

Going back to 1815 Italy, many of the French 1815 range (including the plastic infantry) can be painted as white-uniformed Neapolitans, an army I've just started to put together myself in anticipation of the plastic Austrians. They should at least be aesthetically pleasing battles!

Look good and obviously the sculpting is quite advanced though it's the mold making that takes the time for plastic's. One thing to note on the '1809 Helmeted Fusiliers', I know there is some debate on this but my understanding is that even by 1809 only a very small number of units may have retained the Helmet.

Talking of debatable issues, I have thought a couple of times whether to write to the Perry's and ask when will the Brunswick Artillery be revised to have French and not British guns.

PS:
After years of looking at Foundry Austrians any Austrians troops over 4'8" just look odd :)

PPS:
I wish I could buy shares in Perry!