"Wargames Factory: Samurai Cavalry Review!" Topic

Hi, I've just finished a review of the beautiful Wargames Factory 16th Century Cavalry. And can just say they look great and are really easy to assemble. In the review you can also find a comparison pictures with most other plastic horse manufacturers and the cheapest source to buy them. If you have any futher questions do not hesitate to contact me.

link

I think that the "big sacks" on the horse sprues are the horo…

Interesting. They do look good!

Thanks Skeptic did some googling and indeed they are. I'm not quite an expert on asian weaponry and equipment. Post now changed with a link to a nice source of information about the Horo.

Thanks WNTB
Good info as I am just finishing a box of the foot.
Clif

Wow!, over 5 hours and nobody said anything negative about WF.

Thanks for posting this, I want some now.

Now if someone would only make undead samurai heads and arms to turn these into undead samurai, I would be interested!

Genuinely impressed, though I take your point about mounting the horse on a base.

Tbeyer: check this link for an awesome conversion with Wargames Factory skeletons:

Thanks for the nice comments as would be interested in purchasing these miniatures this is the cheapest source that I have found for european wargamers: link thought £14.85 GBP for twelve mounted figures compared with the metal perry miniatures that about half of the price.

Best regards

Half the price for a quarter of the quality at best.

The more I look at this one the more it looks like the sculptor used My Little Pony tm as their inspiration.

Looks like someone found pee in their breakfast cereal this morning.

They look great, and their easeness of conversion enhances their value by the hundreds. A must buy. I had considered Perry for the samurai too but did not even start because of the price of the whole thing (even considering Perry are great qualityu for their price); now I will be able to collect a great looking army for a fraction of the price with everything I'd wish into it, be it standard WF minis or converted ones. Thrilling!

My Little Pony must have improved greatly!

"My Little Pony must have improved greatly!" just thought the same!

I appreciate the attraction of cheap (well as cheap as other, better sculpted plastics) and easily converted figures. Glad to see that they give some people here pleasure. However, I'm off now to scrub my eyes with dettol ;-)

I got two sets of cavalry in the mail, and I put together the first one. It took almost an entire day to shave off mould lines and glue them! Phew. That said, I have some first hand impressions.

I also think that they are their best set this far, and I'm happy to see parts where it really look like they learned from their previous sets. The parts fits better than in their previous releases and the details are a bit better, even if the horses are not perfect and need some green stuff here and there. Their leg positions are not 100% accurate no matter what you do, and pretty much all possible setups leave you with only two hooves touching ground. This is an important issue, as they have no slots or pegs or anything for attaching to the base. This meant that I went the extra mile to pin almost all the horses to the bases. Even with just the handling I did while priming, it felt like some of the horses would have broken off the base if I didn't pin them. So if you don't have one, get a pin vice. You'll thank me later.

The horo (fluffy bag on the back, worn by messengers and hatamoto, "guard" units) are a bit off, as the set has them worn on the lower back, attached to the belt. However, it's very simple to just put them higher, attached at around shoulder height. They're a bit small too, but I think they are passable. I did some tinkering with the swords as well, and I turned most of them around and fixed some gaps with green stuff to have them worn as tachi.

Now that there are several sets, the advantage of plastic when it comes to conversions are starting to show. For example, I took some bits from the yari ashigaru sets to make a samurai blowing a conch horn from horseback, and the green stuffing that I had to do was easy to hide with the sode (shoulder armour plates). Likewise, it's simple to switch weaponry, heads and other details from one kit to another. All simple conversion, but I think mine turned out nicely and it will make your unit look unique.

Even with the small issues I had with it, it's a nice set. Just like with the samurai infantry, a lot of the flak Wargames Factory get are based on people (including themselves) putting them together in bad poses, or in hilariously unrealistic ways: It was not until I got the kits in my hand that I realised that all those silly helmet crests are separate and you don't have to have an entire army made out of generals! But if you know what you do, you can get some good value for money with them.

I have more than a dozen Perry cavalry already, and I think they look gorgeous, but they also suffer horrendously as I bring them to the clubs. All the spears bend, paint falls off, banners fall off etc. I hope that going plastic with my "gaming army" will save me a lot of headaches, and these are very affordable, while my metal miniatures are left to look nice on my shelf. I picked mine up at the Warstore at $16 USD for 12, which is just silly value for money. I'll write and post a proper review when they are painted, hopefully later this month.

How are you transporting them, setsuko? I managed to get mine from Denmark to Salute, via Stansted's notoriously careful baggage handling system, without to much trouble…

I'm off now to scrub my eyes with dettol ;-)

Janner, I know you attached a smiley but people will appreciate your opinions better if you would cut down on the hyperbole. I'd like to hear about your dissatisfaction of the horse sculpt in an informative way.

Had a look at the Wargame News blog and saw the Perry Heavy Cavalry size comparison photo. Just wondering how the horse sizes campare to those for the Perry mounted Samurai. Does anyone have a mix of both in their army?

I shot some quick picture of one of my old Perry next to one of the Wargames Factory cavalry that I'm painting right now:

The post-it stack was added since the WGF bases are thinner than my old ones. The WGF horses have noticable thicker necks, but slightly smaller and thinner heads. Overall the proportions of the WGF model is thinner and more realistic, since it's possible to get that effect in plastic. The samurai themselves are just about the same height, again, with the WGF one being thinner. The WGF samurai has a significantly smaller sashimono.

I use them in mixed units myself. Even though you can see that they are not from the same manufacturer, they look nice toghether and the variety of poses and sizes keeps the unit from looking too much like clones IMHO.

Thanks very much setsuko!! They look good together. I see lots more cavalry painting in my future.

" It took almost an entire day to shave off mould lines"

Enough to put me off right there!

Uesugi: Yup, plastic miniatures have their ups and downs. But I'm also a bit on the religious side when it comes to cleaning up miniatures.

Setsuko, it does vary greatly between platics. I find Perry's War of the Roses plastics a pleasure to work with.

WF plastics just arent up to snuff (for me) yet. I do hope they improve over time.

Excellent paintjob on those!