Victrix Austrians on sale

The long awaited plastic Austrians are on sale at Victrix and should start shipping this coming week.

From their announcement:

Finally our Austrians are on release (Hurrah) Sorry for the delays as we know many of you have been waiting for these from the amount of emails we have received!

Orders will start shipping 6th September as stocks are built up at the factory.

We have added them to the shopping cart so you can buy them individually, or in one of our really great value 3, 5, 7, or 10 box deals. These are a great way to get masses of Austrians on the table without spending a fortune.

We have only just received all the final sprues so images will appear on the site over the next few days of the Grenadiers, Landwehr and infantry in shako’s.

See their shop here

Victrix send in the Heavies!

Of course if you have the light's you have to have the heavies!

Seems Christmas has come very early this year if you are a Peninsular fan.

We have just taken delivery of our eagerly awaited British heavy dragoons 1808-1812. These are to be used in the Spanish Peninsular War.They have been sculpted by the ubiquitous and talented Paul Hicks. The detail is great on these figures, up to Pauls usual crisp and clear standards.

There is a pack of command consisting of officer, bugler and Guidon bearer. The officer is wearing a shako with turned up peak, often worn by many Dragoon regiments prior to the late 1812 reforms. We will make a version off officer in Bicorne also.

The trooper pack contains three figures with a spine of 6 separate right sword arms to add a huge amount of variety and movement to your units.They should really cut a dash as they gallop recklessly at anything that moves on the battlefield!

We have also added a new British Heavy Dragoon regiment deal. This consists of 18 figures (5 packs of troopers and 1 pack of command) for ONLY £55. This saves you a whopping £11 from the normal retail price!

Also now that we have British heavy and light cavalry, artillery, line troops, colonels and Generals we have put togther a new British army deal

3 x VX0002 Centre Companies
1 x VX0004 Flank Companies
5 x VX0030 British Light Dragoon Troopers
1 x VX0031 British Light Dragoon Command
5 x VX0032 British Heavy Dragoon Troopers
1 x VX0033 British Heavy Dragoon Command
1 x VX0010 Artillery
2 x VX0001 Peninsular Colonels
1 x VX0003 Generals

price should be £269.75 - 25% = 202.32 which we will round down to £200 therefore saving you a fantastic £69.75. Well worth taking advantage of to get that Peninsular Britsh army on the battlefield.

Well what can we say that we didn't say about the lights! Not much really. Hicks is a good as ever, not that the Perry's do a Peninsular range, but with Victrix you know you have a perfect match size wise, but at the same time you have figures that are instantly recognisable as not being Perry, which is a good thing as they add to the variety rather than just being clones.

There are four horse poses, the lights had three, though it appears that they share one pose in common with the lights. I don't mean this in any negative sense at all but there seems something 'old school' about the horses which I just can't quite put my finger on, maybe they are reminiscent of Hinchliffe from the old days, maybe I have just seen too many Perry horses!

I like having the 'arm' sprue, as much as I have moaned about assembling Victrix figures I do actually like the variety of poses that they enable you to build, getting the right balance between quick to assemble and variety is difficult especially as different people have different requirements for example painting services probably wan't quick to assemble as time is money(!!), whilst someone painting a vignette wants variety and doesn't care about assembly time as he is only going to assemble a handful anyway. Victrix seem to be trying hard to get that balance right which has to be applauded.

From the pic's they seems to mix up quite well, gives a real impression of a typical out of control British cavalry charge, would love to see these painted.

Victrix have a couple of 'special deals' at the moment from a GBP55.00 for an 18 figure 'regiment' to GBP200 for an 'army' that gives you 208 infantry, 3 guns and 15 crew, 36 metal cavalry, 3 generals and 6 colonels.

Also if you are outside Europe then I believe you can buy them VAT free from Victrix, which means 20% off the list price and also you should note that Warlord Games stock the Victrix range (thought seemingly not any of the special 'deals') and they offer free shipping on top of the 'VAT free' 20% discount.

As with the lights these are unlikely to be on my shopping list any time soon simply because the Peninsular isn't in my crosshairs for the next few years, but if it was, I would pick these up without any hesitation, I really can't find anything bad to say about them at all other than why didn't Victrix do these a year ago before the Russians!

Victrix certainly seem to have picked up the pace recently, I hope they can maintain that and I hope we continue to see them bring more cohesiveness to the range, can't wait to see what the next few month's will bring.

More Info:
Victrix Site
Heavy Dragoon Deal GBP55.00
British Peninsular Army Deal GBP200.00
British Heay Dragoons 1808-1812 (3 figure pack) GBP11.00
British Heavy Dragoon command 1808-1812(3 figure pack) GBP11.00




Now you see I managed to get through the whole post without once mentioning how your British Army will have everything it needs except the horses to move its Artillery!

Victrix - British Light Dragoons 1808-1812!!

Well while we were all waiting for the Austrians Victrix stole a march and sprung the British Cavalry upon us!!!

From their announcement:

We are pleased to announce the release of our metal British Light Dragoons for the Peninsular War 1808-1812 uniform.



There is a command pack of officer, guidon bearer and trumpeter. (We will be making Guidon sheets for our cavalry)



The troopers pack has a spine of 6 right sword arms, combined with 3 body and horse positions, this will enable you to field cavalry squadrons with lots of variety and dynamism. We have also added a British Light Dragoon deal to the shopping cart. You can buy 18 figures for £55, saving you £11!

These figures have been sculpted by Paul Hicks. He has put some great character and movement into these models and they are packed with fine, crisp detail making them a joy to paint.

Hmm, I am a big fan of metal cavalry, and these are a really nice set of figures from Victrix, brilliant sculpting by Hicks as ever, nice choice of period as well, though unfortunately not really my focus for the next few years, neatly side steps the Perry juggernaut though.

As you expect from Victrix these figures are well animated, a lot more movement than the Perry's but not quite as beserk as Old Glory, just about what you want for a vignette without being too much for the rank and file wargamer. A nice balance! There is I think now a distinct 'Victrix style' emerging, hard to define but you can tell Victrix cavalry from anyone else's.

If the Peninsular was my current focus I would be in for these, still might be but not for this year unfortunately, but if this is your period I would say these are a must have!

They also point to more good things to come from Victrix in the four legged department. Now Austrians I will buy!

Painted Austrians from Victrix

Whilst we await the final test shots of the Victrix Austrians they have had some of the helmeted Austrians painted up, and they do look very nice don't they. I would love to have some of these!

From their announcement:

Whilst we are awaiting test shots of the rest of the plastic Austrian boxed sets we thought we would show you some of the beautifully painted Austrians we have just recieved from Darren at Gripping Beast and Andrew Taylor.




We are sure you will agree both have done a really fantastic job on these figures.




It is intersting to note the way both have handled the difference between the white uniform and the white crossbelts. Painting all of them the same would look dull, however by doing what Darren and Andrew have done here by painting the uniform an off white with creams, and then painting the straps brighter and shaded with greys really lifts the strapwork away from the body.




The Austrians used many and varied colours for their regimental facing colours, making for a very striking looking army. We asked Darren and Andrew to show a good mix of facing colours on these painted samples.



We should have more figures to show you soon.

Victrix Update - Austrians

An update from Victrix on the Austrians and interesting news it is!

First the box cover art, we haven't seen the Landwehr and the 1806-1815 Infantry boxes before, they look good, especially like the Landwehr!



From their announcement:

We now have some of the first plastic test shots of the infantry frame wearing helmets. The majority of positions are for marching figures but if you wish you can make some other poses such as firing and advancing etc... You can see a few of those poses illustrated below.Andrew Taylor and Darren from Gripping Beast are painting a few up for us at the moment so we will have some painted samples to show next week. Also we are eagerly expecting to get test sprues of the command frame later this week. We will show you those as soon as they come in.



Once we have tests of all the 4 sets we will be putting them on pre-order, so not long to wait now!

Each box contains 56 figures. 48 infantry, 2 officers, 2 drummers, 2 standard bearers and 2 lovely mounted colonels. The infantry can all be in marching poses but we do have some arms to enable you to make some figures, firing, loading and advancing with levelled musket or at porte. Most of the figures are easy to assemble so you can get your units built quickly, however we have added a few extras to add some individuality and character to your miniatures so they don’t look like production line robots!

Also, our metal British Light and Heavy Dragoon packs are with Nick at North Star at present as he does the casting. We should have some castings to show of these fabulous figures in the next couple of weeks. There are command packs, and the trooper packs have arm options to give you more variety. These have been sculpted by the ever-busy Paul Hicks. Paul is currently working on the Russian Dragoons, and firing line for the Russian line infantry and Grenadiers.

There is always some apprehension about how the beautifully sculpted and detailed '3Ups' will really look when the are scaled down in size and adapted for the mold but from these test shots at least there is nothing to worry about, they are superb!

Victrix had promised easier to assemble figures this time, i.e. fewer parts, which is a good thing but the downside to that is the placement of the figure within the mold is more of a compromise and there is a greater chance of loss of detail but you wouldn't know it from these shots, they seemed to have translated very well, notice the very nicely detailed hands, does anyone recall the boxing gloves of the WG Prussian Landwehr?

You can always argue about whether the Perry's produce more practical gaming figures than Victrix or that it takes them an awful long time for them to get a set out the door but you can't argue about the quality, figure for figure I think they are better than the Perry's. I thought the Victrix Grenadiers were the best set ever produced in 28mm but these look every bit as good.

From what I understand they are waiting on the command frame test later this week, followed by the Grenadier, Shako and Landwehr test frames. So it shouldn't be too much longer before these are ready to go and they look well worth the wait!

Interesting to hear news of the metals, actually I am very interested to see their Heavy Dragoons, I have been thinking for a while of trading in my current OG cavalry for some new 28mm, so the timing is just right to do a head to head with the Perry's.

Victrix British Peninsular Cavalry and more

I noticed Victrix have added this brief comment to their Austrian announcement:

On the subject of metals:
Paul Hicks is currently working on some metal British light and heavy dragoons for the Peninsular. He is also going to be making some Russian dragoons, and firing lines for the Russian Musketeers and Grenadiers. We should have some images of these in the next few weeks.

Also there were some older comments on Russians that are worth raising again.

Speaking of metals leads us nicely into our Early Russian Napoleonic range! This range has been growing steadily over the past few months. We have Musketeers, Grenadiers, Pavlovski Grenadiers, Chasseurs, Cuirassiers, Colonels and command packs and a large flag range.

We are working on Musketeers and Grenadier firing lines at present, plus Russian Dragoons and Cossacks. Artillery will also be added in time as the Russians need lots of Guns!

We are really happy with the way this range has been received and are seriously looking at some elements being done in plastic.

British Cavalry!
Very interesting indeed, always good to hear of more releases from Victrix whatever they are.

Doing British Peninsular cavalry makes an awful lot of sense, with this Victrix at least have one army/period with infantry, cavalry and artillery which means you can now actually get them on to the tabletop. It's also a period that isn't covered that heavily elsewhere and at least you know the Perry's won't be doing anything in this period for many years to come.

But even though they are welcome, when they should be trying to convince people to invest in building Austrian armies I do find myself once again scratching my head over Victrix's choice of what they work on, wouldn't Austrian cavalry have made much more sense at this point in time?

Doing the Brits, it seems to me, should have been a thing that was either done before the Russians or after the Austrians.

Don't get me wrong it's not that I don't appreciate what fine work the guys at Victrix do, like the Russians, which really is a stunning collection, superb work by Hicks, but I wonder what is the 'master plan'.

Anyway I look forward to seeing the Brits, I might even buy a few Light Dragoons when they are released, I recently had 24 Cacadores painted for skirmish games and some dragoons would fit in nicely.

I sometimes think Victrix maybe do make life a little bit difficult for themselves.

One other point from the above, Cossacks, assuming they are just your general run of the mill cossack they should do for any period during the Napoleonic era shouldn't they? If so these could be useful for Project 1813-1815, actually I have been sitting for quite a while on an 1813 Scenario for Capitan that requires Cossacks, for lack of any cossacks.

The Austrians are coming - Big Victrix Update

Big update from Victrix, seems the Austrians really are almost done.
Great news!

We have a bit more of an update and more detail about our upcoming plastic Austrian Napoleonics

Tooling is proceeding well and we are looking at release some time in July. Two of the box designs are finished for the Austrians 1798 –1809 wearing helmets and the Austrian Grenadiers 1798-1815. Currently working on the boxes for the Austrian infantry 1806-1815 and Austrian Landwehr. We have some fantastic cover art on the boxes which reflect poses in the box and are great guides for painting your miniatures. Regimental colour guides are on the back of the boxes.

Each box contains 56 figures. 48 infantry, 2 officers, 2 drummers, 2 standard bearers and 2 lovely mounted colonels. The infantry can all be in marching poses but we do have some arms to enable you to make some figures, firing, loading and advancing with levelled musket or at porte. Most of the figures are easy to assemble so you can get your units built quickly, however we have added a few extras to add some individuality and character to your miniatures so they don’t all look like production line robots!

Austrian infantry 1798-1809

These are the classic looking Austrians that most people think of when envisaging Austrians of the Napoleonic wars. Wearing the helmet with yellow and black crest.

The helmet was officially replaced in 1806 by the shako. However as in most armies of the Napoleonic wars equipment was replaced slowly. Many Austrian infantry, possibly more than half continued to wear the helmet in 1809 and some time after.

Austrian Grenadiers 1798-1815

Grenadiers were part of the Line regiments, however they were mostly brigaded to together in combined Grenadier battalions. These proudly wore their distinctive Fur mitres and moustaches.

Austrian infantry 1806-1815

This set depicts the Austrian infantry from the 1806 reforms wearing shako’s. These can happily fight alongside helmeted Austrians up to 1809 and a bit after.

Austrian Landwehr 1808-1815

The Austrian Landwehr came into being in 1808 and were present in large numbers during the Wagram campaign. They were the distinctive Corsican style hat. Looking a bit like a top hat crossed with an Australian bush hat! The Landwehr wore many varied colour schemes and will add a nice uniform change to your armies if you want to break up the white ranks a bit. The Hat decorations were many and varied from regiment to regiment. We could ot cater for all hat decoration styles. However we will include uniform guides to enable to you alter the hat decorations simply by cutting bits off or cutting off pompoms and gluing elsewhere on the hats.

We have included 2 types of backpack in the sets. The first type has a bayonet attached. The second type has a bayonet and sword. This is due to the fact Grenadiers and some Landwehr carried swords and bayonets, whilst the ordinary infantry simply carried a bayonet. The backpack has the water-bottle, bayonet and cartridge box attached. This enables a greater level of detail on these itmes and prevents undercut issues. They very easy to glue on with no tiny parts.

And finally in each se there will be 2 flags. The regimental flag and colonels flag. There will be the 1792, 1804 and 1806 patterns. The earlier 1792 pattern was used by some units up to 1815. We will also be producing some extra flag sheets sold separately.

We will also be producing a range of metals to support our plastic sets. More on those later

For the Victrix site click here

Well where to start, obviously with a 54 figure set there is more than what we can see here, but these do look great sculpts, poses are very good as well, predominately March Attack which is the favored wargamer pose, and with Grenadiers, Line and Landwehr all ready at the same time there is quite a chunk of your Austrian Army ready to go. As we already knew these will have fewer parts and be quicker to assemble than previous Victrix releases, more in the Perry mold, though hopefully still with enough of a Victrix twist that there will still be plenty of scope for conversion, which has always been a Victrix strong point.

I am sure these are going to prove to be hugely popular.

I have to mention the Perry's, I know the Perry's also have Austrians in the pipeline but they are I feel still a long way off, too long in fact to put off buying these Victrix, especially when these are so good.

I think that when the Perry's figures do come along we will just mix and match, in any case there is still an awful lot to be done to complete the entire range from 1798-1815, Hungarians, Grenzers, Jagers, cavalry and artillery, so that I am sure we will find room for figures from both companys, not sure whether I am being myopic or optimistic lol, though clearly this is an significant issue.

It will be interesting to see what comes in the metal range, command and cavalry for sure but I would love to see artillery done in plastic rather than metal. I wonder though if Victrix still feel plastic is the appropriate medium for artillery sets, it would however be a shame if they do turn there backs on plastic after the British Artillery set, I could understand why but I still think it would be a shame if it does happen.

This is an important release for Victrix, it is also the first from them for a long time that includes anything in the 1813-1815 sweet spot, I do hope they will seize the opportunity and give more emphasis on this later period and that it just isn't simply a byproduct of doing 1809. Clearly they have invested a lot in these sets and it looks at the moment like they will have a winner.

Victrix Hanoverians

Victrix just posted some nice pics of their Hanoverians:

Just received back from one of our painters a great new unit of Hanoverians for 1815. These are made by using our metal Hanoverian head and backpack packs in conjunction with our British Waterloo centre companies boxed set. The painter used a couple of arms from a different manufacturer as well to show the versatility of plastics and how easily parts can be intermixed to create truly unique looking figures!

I thought it was worth taking a fresh look at the Hanoverians as in the past I have been a little critical of this set.

There are two sets:
Hanoverian heads 1 [VXP0006] - 36 Landwehr heads in Shakos
Hanoverian heads 2 [VXP0007] - 36 Landwehr heads in Peaked Cap

Both sets also include replacement backpacks and are priced at GBP15.00 but require the British Waterloo center company box priced at GBP19.95 for 60 for the bodies.

Combined it does I feel, make for an expensive 'plastic' set and the mismatch in the numbers means you are either going to have too many heads or too many bodies, so there will be some wastage. At best it is going to cost you around GBP27.00 to make up a set of 36 Hanoverians, though that compares to about GBP40.00 for the same amount of Perry metal Hanoverians (the only real alternative) and the Perry set consists of just 6 metal March Attack poses whereas you have the full range of possible poses from the Victrix set from firing line to marching.

So yes, maybe relatively expensive but unfortunately there is little real alternative currently available, and certainly if you want something other than a basic MarchAttack pose there is no other choice. They do paint up into a very nice set as well, so at the end of the day I think it's worth spending the money. Still, don't you think Victrix could have made enough heads to better utilise the 60 figure Centre company box, especially when there were an awful lot of Hanoverians at Waterloo (11 Landwehr Battalions for a start)?

However here's a thought, one advantage of the heads being in a set just by itself is that you could actually combine the heads with the Perry British Infantry, no I haven't tried it so don't blame me if they don't fit perfectly but it's an interesting 'alternative' idea if you already have the odd spare Perry box at hand.

Ok, so want to know more about the Hanoverians?

The latter period Hanoverian Army was formed in early 1813 when the north german states threw their lot in with the Allies against Napoleon. Initially 3 Field Battalions, one line and two light, were raised but it was expanded to 5 battalions by August, with 3 more to be added at the start of 1814, along with 30 Landwehr battalions. The Field Battalions were to be of 8 companies but in 1814 this was reduced to 6 companies and later to 4 companies. Landwehr battalions consisted of 4 companies, there were no light or grenadier companies.

There were a number of transitions and uniforms seem often to have been just 'left overs' from other units and armies, basically British or KGL and there was a lot of variance between regiments so you need to check each unit to be sure.

There was also a unit of jägers, the Feldjägerkorps Von Kielmannsegge, formed in Spring 1813. At first it consisted of only two companies, but expanded to four companies in October 1813. The unit was dissolved in September 1814 but then reformed in 1815 and fought at Waterloo with a strength of two companies. They were equipped with rifles.

In February 1815 the army was reorganised into 10 regiments, with each regiment consisting of one Field Battalion and three Landwehr Battalions, however, despite this organisation, on the battlefield battalions appear to have fought independently rather than as regiments. Although there were variances in very simple terms for 1815 you have Light Field Battalions in KGL uniforms, Line Field Battalions and Landwehr in British.

On this blog we have previously covered the Battle of Göhrde, the 1813 battle in North Germany involving the Hanoverians, so importantly these units are not just for Waterloo and this opens up a lot of possible scenarios, some hypothetical, some not.

There is not really that much detailed information available online and the most easily accessed quality information is the Osprey MAA 206 - The Hanoverian Army of the Napoleonic Wars by Peter Hofschroer, this is a must have I think if you want to try and make any sense out of it but getting an answer to exactly who wore what and when is not that easy. One of our old favorites sites Les Uniformes pendant la campagne des cents jours is the best source online for uniform plates for 1815.

Landwehr Battalion 1815
(facings vary)

Bremen Line Battalion 1815

Verden Line Battalion 1815

Jager Detachment 1815

The Napoleoen Series also has an article on the Light Battalions here also John de Terre Neuve has done some work on the Hanoverians on his blog, definitely read this, plus his blog is always nice to look at anyway as he paints so well.

The Perry's are probably the only source for the Hanoverian 1815 KGL styled uniformed Light Field Battalions if we are sticking strictly to the 'Perry's sized 28mm (and we are!).

Victrix Army Deal

Little bit of Victrix news.

They have added a Russian Army deal to their catalogue, if your into Austerlitz etc. this is not a bad starting point, and I believe I am correct in saying that if you are an overseas customer you are exempt from UK VAT so the price will actually be 20% off the quoted amount.

They do paint up very nicely indeed don't they, almost tempted myself but I have enough on my plate at the moment with 1813-1815 (more on that very soon) though it does make me keen to add an 1813 Russian army next year.

They have also kicked of a new monthly draw, anyone buys direct from Victrix has a chance to win this painted Vignette.

Victrix Austrians Update

Victrix have a brief announcement on the upcoming Austrian sets, with more to follow:

For those who want to find out about updates and new releases please go to the News pages and shopping cart. We update the news pages and shopping cart on a regular basis, don’t assume that if the home page has not changed for a while other pages are not being updated and products being added. We also produce regular news letters covering product releases or just useful information about uniforms, regimental histories and painting or modelling tips. Let us know via email if you want to be added to the newsletter subscriber list.

A brief update about the plastic Austrians

They are in the tooling stage at present, and will be released very soon. We will have some of the first box art to show you in the next few days, and some plastics to show off in a few weeks. Four sets are being released in close succession: Austrians in helmets, shakos, Grenadiers and Landwehr. The sets will consist of 56 figures, 48 infantry, two officers on foot, two standard bearers, two drummers, and two mounted colonels. This gives flexibility to the sets, for those who use 24-man units rather than 48-man units.

All the figures can be assembled in march attack if you wish, but there are some arm options for firing, loading, at porte, and at charge. There are also some various right arms to add a little dynamism to the march attack poses, if you wish. Backpacks, canteens and bayonets are one-piece castings, and heads are separate. One third of the figure bodies have both arms attached, one third have the left arm attached, and one third have no arms attached to enable some variation and conversion possibilities.

We will be starting to produce metals to compliment our plastic Austrian range.

Not sure what Victrix mean by 'very soon' but the last date they gave was June I think, though if they are to be released in just a matter of weeks I am really surprised there are no test shots already available by this stage.

So lets see whats happens over the next few weeks though to be honest Victrix tend to be way off on any dates they promise for anything and quite a few things just never happen, like the non-regular regular newsletter.

Which brings up the newsletter, up until now to get the newsletter required you to register in their on line store, something I have ranted about previously, in this internet age we have to be very careful about giving out our detail to anyone (think Sony and PS3 for a recent example of what can go wrong) so I won't give up my details unless I really NEED to and I don't need to for a newsletter, well at long last you can now subscribe just by sending them your email address!!!

That said are Victrix seriously expecting people to keep browsing their store as a way to find out what they have released. If you release something put it on your home page, that really is a no brainer.

Anyway back to the Austrians...
There some very interesting points in this announcement, first the size, 56 figures but designed also to fit 2 x 24man sets, that is going to be important to quite a lot of people and it is good to see that Victrix are starting to think with the gamer in mind. Even more significantly they are producing a third with both arms on, third with one arm and a third with no arms, again it seems they are starting to think with the gamer in mind, responding to the biggest complaint with Victrix sets, assembly time, but at the same time trying to achieve a compromise between the gamer who is willing to forgo some flexibility for the sake of speed of assembly and the modeler who wants complete flexibility and doesn't mind how long it takes to assemble the set. We will have to see if this compromise 'works' and resolves the issue. The also mention that you can make up the whole set as March Attack, another concession to the gamer, but with some variety which is what we really want.

This marks a significant change of approach by Victrix and it is good to see this at last but it is also good to see that the will retain some flexibility, more often than not I just want to throw together a bunch of March Attack battalions BUT occasionally it's good to be able to produce a one off unit, for example I have a Fusilier-Grenadier unit which is made up of the Grenadier set with line Shako's and has a mix of firing line and march attack, I think it looks really good (and that's all that counts).

Anyway it's good to hear we are almost there and eagerly wait to see what the metal range will include, cavalry for sure but really we do also need artillery. It would be nice to see Victrix for once staying focused on a range and flesh it out so we can realistically build wargaming armies. Don't you think Victrix would make a good fit at WG?






Until we see the pic's of the real thing here are some shots of the greens
Austrians in Helmets


Austrians in Shakos


Austrian Grenadiers


Austrian Landwehr


Sergeants and Drummers


Officers

Victrix Plastic Rifleman 3Up

Victrix have released some interesting pics of a Rifleman 3Up.

We are delighted to show you a glimpse of a set in the pipeline from one of our new sculptors. It is a Rifleman which we had him sculpt as a test piece with a view to becoming a set down the line. I think you will agree it is a fine looking figure with lovely attention paid to the uniform detailing and creasing in the clothing. No release date for these as yet as Cavalry are being worked on at present.

We are working out the design options for the Rifles set as we want to be able to do the 95th, 60th and the KGL light battalions. Plus some of the Hanoverian light battalions and some Prussian reservists wore the Rifles Uniform so we are looking at what head options can be put in the box and which could be done as some separate head packs for conversions. There are a lot of possibilities here! Any other option and conversion suggestions would be welcome.

Just added to the shopping cart are the Early Russian Chasseurs and command pack.

plus the Russian cuirassiers, command and Cuirassier deal.

Well they look nice don't they. Though Riflemen in plastic wouldn't feature on my priority list, how about RHA or the damn Limber team. Anyway good to here they are adding new sculptors, maybe it means they are planning to speed up development though I think that Hicks wasn't exactly the limiting factor.

I really hope though they DON'T do heads in a separate pack, they just aren't worth it, do them all in the initial pack on the sprue, even if you need to do one more sprue with all the options, I would rather pay more up front than have these ridiculous metal head pack that cost a fortune and just make Perry metals look cheap.

Unless things change drastically at Victrix, given there current schedule don't expect to see the Riflemen released this year. Anyway there is plenty of choice for Riflemen in 28mm even in the 'Perry' sized ranges, Perry have a dozen, Offensive a similar number, and Alban are a bit thin but they have a number, so we are not exactly waiting on these, welcome as any new 28mm figure will be. You also have to wonder on the economics, exactly how many boxes of Riflemen do you really need? I would have thought the Cacacordes was a good model for these low volume type figures i.e do them in metal and put your big buck plastic molds to use on higher volume stuff like Russian/Prussian/Austrian or even Spanish Infantry.

More on Marine Conversions from Victrix

Turning out to be quite a Victrix week at the moment isn't it, blame it on Salute, no doubt we will be hearing from other companies in the days ahead.

Anyway the March Victrix newsletter is out which as mentioned previously covers the conversion work need to make a box of Center Company Brit's into Marines.

Modelling Victrix British Marines
When gluing plastics it is advised to use liquid plastic cement. However, when gluing metal to plastic it is best to use something like super glue. To get an even better result and bond parts quickly, try placing a small blob of modelling putty in the neck socket, add super glue and then position the head in the neck socket.

Marines on extended duty on shore would have used a backpack just like their line Regiment counterparts. However, for the figures illustrated in these photos we converted the plastic Centre Company figures by removing the backpack straps from the shoulders, back and the strap that goes across the chest.

Simply cut off the straps and anything you don’t want on the back of the figure (canteens, haversack etc) with a sharp modelling knife and file down the areas with a fine modelling file. Then you can make some straps to define the cross-belts on the back of the figure. We have used “Greenstuff” but another technique is to use thin strips of paper. Cut these to length and superglue to the figure (be careful not to stick your fingers to the paper!) Use a cocktail stick and apply some superglue to the paper and coat it. This causes the paper to stiffen and makes it easier to paint. This method is quite good if you are not confident with modelling putty.

I remembered the source for the nice resin boat, pictured below, it was Brittania Miniatures and was going for 50 Euro's however I believe the owner (creator/designer??) passed away very recently and I can't find any current source, so maybe keep your eyes out on EBay for a second hand model.

The pic is from a great review of this model by Roly Herman here.


Now a bit of a moan, I really would like to buy a boat and a few Marines for Sharp but I am not going to pay GBP32 and still have to mess around with green stuff just to get a dozen or so Marines, yet again you feel this a project from Victrix that wasn't exactly fully thought through, it should have been complete metal bodies and just maybe a resin boat, a bit more variety and better proportioned than Foundry would have been enough. Anyway further metals are promised or at least hinted at so lets see what turns up in the future.

If you want to know more about the Royal Marines in the Napoleonic wars there is a good article here at the Napoleon Series.

Another brief outline can be found here