"SYW plastics?" Topic

I'm familiar with Victrix, Warlord Games, Perry, and Wargames Factory but I don't believe any of them make SYW plastic figs.

I noticed War of Spanish Succession (WSS) is made by Wargames Factory but I'm more interested in SYW period which is like 20 years later.

Any recommendations? Thanks

Phil

Nope. Not yet.

HaT have some 28mm Prussian infantry in plastic scheduled for some time in the future.

I thought the seven years war was like forty years after the war of Spanish succession?

no figures in plastic yet, but I think it would be a good seller, and you could probably do it with about five Perry style boxes.

actually around 50 years later.. and the idea of a generic uniform usefull most armies is a very big lead balloon

I have to agree.
Your serious Tricorne heads who buy about 80% of the SYW minis get very upset if the figures don't have the correct cuffs, lapels and button lace for each regiment in their army.

And even within a single army there can be a dizzying variety of cuff styles, lapels and button lace from one regiment to the next.

Makes the differences in headgear easy really.

One would have to do at least a set for each major combatant and hope you hit the most common cuff, lapel and button lace.

Sadly I'd say a good 60-80% of the worlds conflicts have no 28mm plastics. Its a fact that is hard to get used to if you're used to seeing plastic figures

I aim for the WAS. Only 20 year after the WSS ended and more colourful in my opinion. More nations play, too. Nederlands and italians states. Still no plastic.

And even within a single army there can be a dizzying variety of cuff styles, lapels and button lace from one regiment to the next.

Very true, Jamesonsafari, but then most metal ranges don't cover all those differences either, which hasn't scared off the "tricorne heads" or His Eminence. Also, sculpting too much of this detail, especially lace, onto the figure in a size necessarily out of scale is likely to make it look top-heavy.

In addition to price and weight, the main advantage of plastics would be their convertibility, allowing for troops like Franconian grenadiers (fur caps over Prussian-style coats) or Palatinate cuirassiers (German-style moustache and queue with French-style breastpale under coat) – plus all the variants that existing and future imagi-nations would turn up.

Fifity-odd years ago, SYW wargaming got a major boost from affordable, plastic Spencer Smith Miniatures. Perhaps it is time for a revival of that concept?

Your serious Tricorne heads who buy about 80% of the SYW minis get very upset if the figures don't have the correct cuffs, lapels and button lace for each regiment in their army.

I suspect these individuals are the sort who are apt to be sniffy about using plastic figures anyway 'so common, don't you know…'

I agree with Musketier, a 'General Purpose' box for each major combatant would likely sell as well as WSS, at least…

(Easy for me to say, I'm not bankrolling it!)

but then most metal ranges don't cover all those differences either,

True, which is why I thought that you'd need to do a box for the most common uniform pattern for each nation.

But many seem to think that you can do a generic set for all combatants like the WF WSS figures.

You'd need to do like the Perry's and round out your plastic sets with metal figures for the unique regiments.

Move into ImagiNations and then use the WSS plastics freely.

Musketier,scared me off Brunswickers for life. Actually I have been working out which Prussian Musketeer regiments can done from the new Black Hussar range..only 7 it seems and one of them is a little bit of a stretch, and it does worry me quite a bit , though I have mostly solved that by going Imagi-Nation. I genera;;y like plastics, except early Victrix and Bolt Action WWII but for SYW it could be very problematic , to say the least..the most common uniform pattern????.have you seen the French??

actually in one of those moments of paradox all the WSS plastics are being painted as historical

Wargames Factory was supposedly doing a Prussian Musketeer in their "sign up" promotion. But that is dead in the water AFAIK.

have you seen the French??

Indeed Your Eminence, a major change in uniform style mid-war would mean two boxes for His Catholic Majesty's foot troops, first with open coat skirts, then with turnbacks.

As for smaller details, buttonhole lace is one thing (and best left to the brushwork imho), but pockets now are quite another: A few years back already, the Perrys included the embossed chest roundel for the Carabinier officer's cuirass as a separate item. Today's or next year's hard plastic technology should be able to cater for separate pocket flaps for the pure of faith? Lapels too, with the late war set?

For the rest, Jamesonsafari has it right: Unique regiments like the Guards, Grenadiers de France, or Curassiers du Roy, would still have to be cast in metal – unless the imagi-nation market would make even those viable in plastic?

21e – yes I had signed up for the WGF Prussians too, but have moved on since. Given how their Marlburians came out it is perhaps just as well. Don't get me wrong, their WSS are nice enough figures of which I have bought quite a few (as per Porkman's advice above), but the extra attention to detail and customer feedback that would be required for a successful SYW range just doesn't appear to feature in their business model?

Sorry I meant War of Austrian Succession (not WSS)

Those darn succession wars have me all confused…can't we all live together? :-)

As for plastics…I think I'll just go with 15mm scale metal figs for now :-) Probably Eureka or Old Glory 15s.

If you want your cavalry looking convincing, I'd recommend Eureka over OG15s.

i was thinking it through..you need seveal boxes for Ptussians , though you could minimise the number with separate heads, you still need a number of differnt boxes to get it sort of right. I am always a bit amused when uniforms are described as being in "the Prussian style" which stye is that?
Prussian cuffs with lapels and collar, with lapels and no collar, with no lapels and collar , with lapels and no collar, Swedish cuffs, IR 15 coat, etc..musketeer hat,p;aon lace pr saclloped , grenadier or fusilier cap..ir is really more than unusually complicated with Prussian .I collected , as best I could all the "correct" figures for 18 regiments in metal,Foundry,Front Rank and Crusader but still couldn't get it completely right , so sold them all..and which Prussian regiment had officers in lapels and rank and file in plain coats..well it was the pretty in pink 40th, a rather bad regiment in Frederick's opinion, he once said that they were barely soldier. And then there is the almost complete lack of fusilier officers..Make do with any old officer seems to be the answer.Foundry made a stab at it but..

Again, Your Eminence, that's assuming detail like hat lace or IR 15's special lace needs to be sculpted, rather than painted on, despite being only what, 3 mm thick on the original uniform?

One could envisage collars sculpted onto head variants, but whatever happened to "paint conversions"? Shallow sculpting of lapels and collars would allow for these to be overpainted where appropriate.

All that assumes that a manufacturer would start with Prussians – granted they have the "pull" factor, but Frederick's army was usually smaller than his opponents' wasn't it? So for numbers and plastic economics, Austrians (or French) might actually be the way to go?

All this is mere theory of course – between Minden's two types of Prussians, I think I can mix'n match most units to meet my humble expectations – although carving off unwanted lace is much more difficult in metal than in plastic.

I think Black Hussar maybe the way to go..

SYW wargaming got a major boost from affordable, plastic Spencer Smith Miniatures. Perhaps it is time for a revival of that concept?

These are what make up the majority of my collection… but it does mean that the only difference between my Austrians and my Prussians is the paint job.

I like my massed ranks of SSMs (…and I always thought that Napoleonic gamers were the real obsessive 'button counters') but these days I'm not sure how many C18/SYW fans would settle for generic non-specific nationality figures in 25-30mm scale.

it does mean that the only difference between my Austrians and my Prussians is the paint job.

And do they march and fight, or play if you prefer, any less well for that?

I'm not sure how many C18/SYW fans would settle for generic non-specific nationality figures in 25-30mm scale

It all depends on how you look at it. We're lucky to have many of the most obscure details of national uniforms and regimental quirks researched by now, and often available for free on the 'net. Does that mean wargaming figures for massed use actually have to be sculpted down to those last details, many of which would scale down to less than the thickness of a coat of paint?

Back in the trenches of the 1970s, Airfix' Washington's Army set did duty as just about any tricorne-wearing unit in history, without appreciable loss of gaming enjoyment…

Other than the good Cardinal, SYW gamers tend to NOT be button counters. As a whole they are a gentlemanly and sociable group of gamers and hardly "sniffy" about anything, much less plastics over metals. I think that today there are so many SYW ranges available at decent prices that it would not make good business sense to jump into this era with a new range. Those that do tend to be hobbyists who are having bespoke ranges made for themselves and then offering the figures to the public to help offset some of the upfront development costs..Black Hussar and Minden are two examples..

If you are looking for good inexpensive figures then it is hard to beat RSM at $0.85 USD per foot figure. If you want plastics, then there are plenty of choices in the 20mm size.