Friday, May 20, 2011

Infantry Encamped

Whew...much done outside, today, including the lawns, a washed car, recyclables sorted, etc., etc,. And! I was able to take a short break to call roll on my 28mm WSS infantry. Here are a few pics of the one of the twelve sprues that are included in the boxes for a great price.




It is difficult to see in these quick pics, but there enough hangers for each of the infantry models included. Since there are twelve sprues, there are also twelve standard poles/pikes, and twelve spontoons/half-pikes. In order to create a pike, one just snips off the top of the banner pole and then reverse the piece. To keep the banner pole, just snip off the pointy bit on the bottom (or not!).

My only real regret for these is that there are no naked bayonet bits on the sprue, so that I can convert some of the troops to be in the process of "fix bayonet." 

I am sure that some would take issue that only 1/3 of the provided troops are multi-part, but honestly, one gets enough multi-part soldiers to equip the front rank or two and then the lads you don't really see all that well are bringing up the rear in a good and none-interfering pose.

I plan on assembling the troops next week, but it appears they are sculpted in such a way that close order basing won't be a problem. The head of the spontoon  could be used as a plug bayonet, but I don't know that I would want to do such a thing, without a kneeling model.

As far as the actual sculpting quality is concerned, they are not bad, actually. Have I seen better? Yes. In plastic? No. I believe that Wargames Factory is working on getting a better sculpting job done in the CAD program they are using, so it is only a matter of time for an even better quality figure to arrive.

Appearance wise, the troops are fairly accurate. Of course, some of the more varied uniform types are not depicted, but in general, these can be used for nearly all of the regiments from all of the combatants during the War of the Spanish Succession. Also, they can be used for Seven Years War, but the footwear is off because I cannot tell if these figures have hose, socks, or a short gaiter.

After looking more closely, in better light, I do believe they are wearing socks with a garter. At any rate, a little bit of filing means I can paint them up as gaiters were I really wanting to get the look right. None of the heads have queues, but a little green stuff will sort that. I mean it...the way the hair on the back of the head is sculpted, queues could easily be added to these figures for a full SYW look.

Well, more on these next week...

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