Perry twins announce WotR range

[Griefbringer]

On other news, I have at last managed to get around to cleaning the mounted men-at-arms, and it has been quiste fast and fun. I have so far assembled 18 riders and 3 horses. If I continue with this rate, I will end up with quite a pile of horses to assemble in the end.

In any case, there are quite a lot of combinations that you can assemble the components. Just the unarmoured horses on the horse sprue can be assembled in 36 different ways (3 right halves, 3 left halves, 4 heads). And the armoured horses can be assembled in around 54 different ways (3 right halves, 3 left halves, 3 armoured heads, 2 styles of barding). And that is straight out of the box.

But the riders provide even more variation. There are 4 different bodies, each with 3 different right arms, each with 6 weapon options (sword, axe, mace, hammer, heavy lance, light lance) and on top of that 12 head options. That already gives 864 combinations, add in the couched lances and there will be 24 poses more available, for a total of 888 possible combinations. Granted, a lot of those possible combinations would look less than exciting, but there are still enough variations to make all of your men-at-arms somewhat unique looking - especially if also using extra helmets from the infantry sets to provide some variety (eg. the barbuta from the mercenaries set looks great when combined with a rider in Italian armour).

[Gwyddyon]

Some new metals shown on the workbench: Italian handgunners, crossbowmen and swordsmen.

(The last ones are probably very welcome for those using these Perry figures for fantasy gaming.)

Screw Fantasy, I need those for my Aragonese pike blocks! Okay, and also Dogs of War I guess...

[Codsticker]

On other news, I have at last managed to get around to cleaning the mounted men-at-arms, and it has been quiste fast and fun. I have so far assembled 18 riders and 3 horses. If I continue with this rate, I will end up with quite a pile of horses to assemble in the end.

In any case, there are quite a lot of combinations that you can assemble the components. Just the unarmoured horses on the horse sprue can be assembled in 36 different ways (3 right halves, 3 left halves, 4 heads). And the armoured horses can be assembled in around 54 different ways (3 right halves, 3 left halves, 3 armoured heads, 2 styles of barding). And that is straight out of the box.

But the riders provide even more variation. There are 4 different bodies, each with 3 different right arms, each with 6 weapon options (sword, axe, mace, hammer, heavy lance, light lance) and on top of that 12 head options. That already gives 864 combinations, add in the couched lances and there will be 24 poses more available, for a total of 888 possible combinations. Granted, a lot of those possible combinations would look less than exciting, but there are still enough variations to make all of your men-at-arms somewhat unique looking - especially if also using extra helmets from the infantry sets to provide some variety (eg. the barbuta from the mercenaries set looks great when combined with a rider in Italian armour).

That is incredibly impressive. I may have to buy as box just for for the enjoyment of puting it together.

[Caiphas Cain]

I've been assembling my European Mercenaries this week. Wow these are some impressive models. The only thing I'm not happy about are the mold lines that split faces down the middle. Now I need a box for cavalry.

[Griefbringer]

The only thing I'm not happy about are the mold lines that split faces down the middle.

Yes, those are annoying. Luckily most heads do not have that problem, with the mould lines running along the sides of the head instead.

As for the horses, I at last remembered to compare them with the classic GW plastic horses (released in the early 90's and still in use). As regards height and lenght, these Perry horses seem to match very well with them. However, they are of a slimmer build, which is clearly noticeable when placed side by side. In any case, I think they look perfectly good when mounted on 25x50 mm bases like GW cavalry.

[Griefbringer]

Ended up assembling my first armoured horses: three with German armour. It took me a little time to figure out how the armour plates exactly were supposed to fit around, but actually they are brilliant - there are small holes in the underside of the armour that match with the straps on the side of the horse, helping them to align properly. However, care should be taken when cleaning those front armour plates - the attached pieces of strap are a bit too easy to accidentally snip off unless you are carefully.

Next I should try that Italian horse armour.

[Caiphas Cain]

Excellent. I've heard universal praise for their knights, which is just getting me more excited for them! I had heard about the horse armor too, Griefbringer. I'll have to be careful of that.

[Axel]

Imho the horses are way smaller then the GW ones, which is NOT the fault of the Perrys. GWs horses are giants and only Gamezone uses the same size.
The horses are also considerably larger then those used for the Eureka Gensdarmes, which is a pity. Again, I blame not the Perrys. They match up perfectly with Foundry, TAG, Conquest, Fireforge or the other Eureka horses (Spanish conquistatores).

I found that it does not hurt to flatten the straps before gluing on the horse armour, though they DO fit even when you don't. The straps can break off, but the armour also works without them. I plan to build roughly a quarter without armour and use them for other horses.

[Griefbringer]

I found that it does not hurt to flatten the straps before gluing on the horse armour, though they DO fit even when you don't.

I guess I will need to try this with my next batch of Italian horse armour - my first three test horses with that did not seem to work quite perfectly, there being something of a seam left between the two halves of the armour. Probably nothing that a bit putty might not fix.

However, with the German horse armour (at least the rear pieces) the studs on the straps seemed to help with the positioning, so I am not planning on trying to flatten out those.

So far I have managed to assemble 27 riders and 15 horses (9 unarmoured, 3 with German barding, 3 with Italian barding). Should try to do 12 more horses before getting back to the riders (which feel like more fun than the horses to me).

[MiyamatoMusashi]

Anyone tried magnetising the horse armour?

[Griefbringer]

I think that magnetizing the horse armour would end up getting quite fiddly, plus you would probably also want to make the horse heads changeable. Probably quite a lot of fuss.

In case somebody needs more horses, Perrys are supposedly releasing the horse sprues separately.

Speaking of separate sprues, I caved in and ordered one each of the command sprues. While they are a bit pricy (compared to the boxed sets), they still give a plenty of bits for the money. Since I only needed some more men-at-arms, arrows, scabbards and heads, but no more of the basic infantry, this was quite a practical choice.

[Griefbringer]

I tried removing the straps from the horses before glueing on the Italian style barding, and it helped a bit. Also bending the armour plates of the Italian barding very slightly before glueing it on also seem to help getting it to the proper position.

With the German style barding, I found it helpful to glue together the two front pieces before glueing them to the horse. This will get them aligned better than trying to glue them individually to the horse.

I have now assembled 27 riders and 27 horses (9 unarmoured, 9 with German barding and 9 with Italian barding). They look very impressive when placed together into a single unit. However, I might need to touch up a few of the riders - since I assembled them using the unarmoured horses as a basis, some of them do not seem to fit perfectly on the armoured ones (armour getting in the way of the scabbard or something). Still 21 more to go, until I get to order another box or two.

[Griefbringer]

After having assembled 18 horses with Italian barding, I realised that I should have also shaved a bit off the the saddle strap before adding the armour plates. Leaving the saddle strap on meant that there is a bulge on the armour on that area, making it too wide for the rider's legs to fit comfortably. Luckily shaving a little bit off the barding from this place compensates for the bulge.

In any case, I have now managed to assemble a total of 48 horses (12 unarmoured, 18 with Italian barding, 18 with German barding), all with unique combination of parts. As well as having 45 completed riders - some of these are identical looking, due to my preference for some of the more impressive helmets (with flags and feathers).

I think I will be ordering two more boxes of the mounted men-at-arms in the near future, though in the meanwhile I will try to assemble some other models that I have had pending on my table for a while.

[Crazy Harborc]

Thanks for the tip about the too thick harrness strap. Now, I will need to remember the tip, when I get a box or three or four of the knights.

[Griefbringer]

As for those metal Perry Italians, they are now available on their website - also featuring a set of metal mounted crossbowmen. Also the plastic medieval horses are now available separately.

[zirrian]

As for those metal Perry Italians, they are now available on their website - also featuring a set of metal mounted crossbowmen. Also the plastic medieval horses are now available separately.

And the crossbowmen are only the riders - you have to purchase the horses separately. An interesting choice if you ask me, but it can certainly work. Also it reduces the price from 16 pounds for six cavalry to 12,5.

[Crazy Harborc]

I will await the arrival of the minies to this side of the Pond. I'll get a couple of boxes of the PM, plastic, heavy cav.

I need to build up my inventory of "minies to paint up". AT my current rate of painting,I am down to about 8 months of stuff to paint up...I NEED MORE.

[Gwyddyon]

As for those metal Perry Italians, they are now available on their website - also featuring a set of metal mounted crossbowmen. Also the plastic medieval horses are now available separately.

At this point, I can only assume that the twins have made an unholy compact. It's the only explanation for the rate and quality of their output compared to the average studio of sculptors.

[Griefbringer]

Having around 30 years of experience (each) probably helps quite a bit.

Also, if you check the metal workbench on their site, you might spot that they do not seem to sculpt every model from the scratch, eg. those metal crossbowmen and handgunners seem to share the same legs, which probably speeds up the sculpting a little bit.

[Crazy Harborc]

I have always dreamed of a trip to Jolly Ol' England. A trip where I get to make war on the twins table(s). Using their collection(s) of historical minies.

Bye the bye, I got my copy of Warlord Games Pike and Shotte today.