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Personally I'm more excited about the prospect of Zulus but I know some people have a soft spot for murdering colonial types.

http://www.wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=16056



Finally, some news...and a surprise!
07-Aug-2008
First, I want to start off by apologizing for the lack of updates...we're about to change that starting today. I'm also committing to spending more time responding to feedback left on the website to stay in touch and keep everyone up to date on all releases going forward.

As you may have noticed, we've had some challenges that I'm happy to say are now far, far behind us and we're moving ahead at a rapid pace.

Given that, a picture says a thousand words so without further ado, introducing the world's first (?) hard plastic multi-part Colonial era miniatures! British Line Infantry from the Zulu War!

These are photos of several of the test sprues laid out with a close up of the the sprue showing the detail.










This single sprue features 5 multi-part British soldiers which can be modeled in a variety of poses: Standing-at-the-ready, standing firing, standing loading, advancing, advancing port arms, leaning into a shot, the list goes on and on.

There are 7 unique heads (2 in Glengarry caps and 5 that come with pith helmets -- or you can leave them off and model a bit of hair). And there are bayonets on the Martini-Henrys that can either be left on or easily snipped off.

The British Infantry sprue will come packaged four-to-a-box (20 total figures) for $14.95. They will be available for sale as soon as they are boxed -- in mid-September.

This is the first (of many) in a new range of Colonial era figures. Can anyone guess what the second box will be? ;-)

Which, of course, begs the question -- "Where did these come from?" Well, they've been in the works for a while in (secret) parallel with the Romans (along with a few other things). "Holger" noticed the Rorke's Drift Ospreys next to Tim Barry's elbow in the March 5th news item "Inside Wargames Factory" -- Holger, if you're reading this, contact us to receive a free box!

Which, of course, begs the next question, "Where are the Romans?!?! And where are the Celts??!

You'll have heard that injection mold tooling is 90% science and 10% pixie dust -- but after some initial growing pains, we've been taming the pixies to a point where we are now extremely confident in our ability to develop product in a digital workflow from sculpture to final plastic (as the British sprue attests).

It took a LOT longer than I had ever dreamed, but we are finally there.

So, the news everyone has been waiting for -- revised release dates.

Caesar's Legion (Late Republican Roman) box: mid September
Celt Warband (Gallic and British Celts) box: end of September
Celt Cavalry box: end of September
Celt Secret box (announcement to come next week): end of September

Suffice to say, we are absolutely mortified that it's taken this long to get these done -- and for the many, MANY of you who have pre-ordered we are focused on thanking you for your long wait in a way that should put some smiles on everyone's faces -- which I'll cover tomorrow.

For our pre-order customers and for our distributor and retailer partners, you'll be receiving an email in advance of tomorrow's news.

The best news though is that we are on the way and we will be making regular announcements showing off what is in the pipeline and what you can expect. Talk to you tomorrow!

All the best,

Tony

Tony Reidy
CEO
Wargames Factory

Ah! More Victorian Sci-fi fodder!

If only GW would bring back the Praetorians

Bob the Hobo wrote:If only GW would bring back the Praetorians

As like zombie guard hunting the orks across time and space, that would be awesome!

Zombie sci-fi colonialists! I don't think anyone's actually done that yet!

The historical wargaming companies are really jumping on the plastics bandwagon. We already have Romans, Celts and American Civil War infantry and cavalry, plus Napoleonics on the way. Aside from being cheaper than traditional metal figures in the scale, this gives great scope for the "cross-pollenation" of ideas to 40k, FB and other games.

Personally, I'm curious how the Perry Miniatures ACW cavalry horses would scale if I wanted to turn them into Rough Riders.

The issue or challenge (problem) is that no-one is doing anything like a complete range in plastic.

Line infantry is a great start. What about officers, cavalry, artillery and MGs, and some supply vehicles?

This is where the Perry's fell down with their ACW plastics, IMO.

And we need opponents.

20 figs for $14.95? Haha...awesomeness!

And Killkrazy, it's pretty easy to find those things you listed in metal elsewhere, and there's enough options that finding stuff that fits scale and style-wise with the plastics shouldn't be hard. No it's not a complete range in plastic, but just having plastic line infantry at these low prices mixed with metal officers, etc. cuts costs in a significant way.

And finding opponents probably isn't as hard as you might first think. Historicals are pretty popular, they just don't mix as much with the sci-fi/fantasy crowd in some areas. Check out the Miniatures Page, they ought to be able to point you in the right direction.

I think the big problem with any start up like this is its really hard to get people to jump on without a full extensive product offering, like killkrazy mentioned but at the same time no one can afford to create a full product line until people start purchasing it. So you kinda go around in circles and give up or start small and work your way up. So all we can do is cross our finger that it will be a start to something good.

Hmmm, wonder if IG plastic arms would work with these? Would allow you to make your own Pratorians.

One reason I want all the basics in plastic is because of the weight of metal cavalry and artillery, etc. makes plastic models particularly attractive.

I also like the consistency of using plastic for 90% of the army. I would prefer an army that only used metal for "character" figures such as named generals.

What I meant by opponents was Zulus, Fuzzy-Wuzzies and other native enemies.

The biggest use of these kind of historical models (Victorian) is in skirmish, so cheapness of individual figures is not a major concern.

However I do recognise that it's very hard for a company to do a full range in plastic, due to the high setup costs.

Right on - it sounds like plastic Zulus are on the way, though. The thing with historicals like this though, is that a huge part of the army will be in plastic. Things like artillery and officers tend to make up a small part of armies like this, although granted, cavalry is often a significant part.

Perry Brothers have plastic ACW cavalry, so plastic cavalry is definitely something that is being done in the historical scene. So for ACW at least, you can have an army that is close to 90% plastic. Hopefully other companies will follow suit with other periods.

Kilkrazy wrote:The issue or challenge (problem) is that no-one is doing anything like a complete range in plastic.

Line infantry is a great start. What about officers, cavalry, artillery and MGs, and some supply vehicles?

This is where the Perry's fell down with their ACW plastics, IMO.

The Perrys' ACW range has all of those in metal because of, I suspect, the volume of sales to each individual gamer. They can sell N boxes of plastic infantry to anyone desiring a force, but only four artillery pieces, say, or three officers. Hard plastic minis in this scale are still something of an experiment, so I can understand if they want to stick with something that aficionados would buy in great numbers.

An infantry regiment for ACW or Naps would normally have a command group with an officer, a flagbearer, a drummer and maybe a bugler. It shouldn't be a problem to include these figures on one of the sprues.

I agree that artillery and wagons are items people buy fewer of. OTOH, they are larger and more expensive items, so maybe the costs could be made to balance out? Some of the items, such as draught horses and wheels, are standardised.

GW manage to make vehicles to be sold in small numbers compared to the number of plastic infantry sold.

Well, Colonel Gravis should be pleased.

Anyone know of a good supplier of lasguns...?
Mick

@Kilkrazy: The Perry ACW range has both infantry and cavalry (including command elements--they have bugler, drummer officer and flagbearer, iirc), with metals to supplement (so you can have line infantry or basic cav, but not Iron Brigades, for example). I don't know if they're also going to do artillery, or if they're going to do the same for their nappies range (which is harder to do, just because of the sheer diversity of units) but there is precedent.

EDIT: Just to make things clearer...

That proves both of my points.

1. It's possible to include command elements in the standard line sprue.

2. They still haven't done a complete basic range, Inf, Cav + Arty. Artillery was more important than cavalry in most ACW battles.

In my opinion supply vehicles would be nice too, though obviously it's a more minority want than artillery.