"Perry Plastics future releases???" Topic

Perry will be releasing the Agincourt French sometime in early 2016. But what comes next? Normally, we have some word on what they are working on, often a year in advance. What are their plans after the French? Is there a secret project in the works – ancients, SYW, something else?

They're doing plastic Colonial British and didn't they announce another ACW infantry set or am I imagining that? It may well be that they show further plans at Salute in mid April as has been the routine for the last few years.

They have said they will never do SYW, which I guess means they might do SYW. I'm hoping the Colonial British inspires them to add to the Sudan metals as there are some notable gaps in the range.

Yep british colonials. One set for either sudan/nfw and the other for sudan/zulu however theres no indication that they are expanding the colonial range to cover the other two conflicts. Which imho would be really great but who knows

Yes, your right – Colonial British and mounted Agincourt knights have been mentioned. I tend to think we will not see any plastic 28mm SYW (by anyone) in the near future. Like Napoleonics, each major power has a different uniform which would require a separate box. I don't think SYW is popular enough to justify the expense. I wish I was wrong. Plastics seem perfect for SYW.

Having read several novels and articles from old wargame magazines set during the 7yw I have more than a passing interest in this period. I for one would be interested in purchasing plastic sets for this period if they were available. So much potential with plastic than there is with metal and futhermore its more fun to assembly your force yourself

If I had one wish it would be for pre Bardin French dragoons, with the longer tailed coat and cut away lapels and front.

We could then add aigulettes for Garde Dragoons/Grenadiers/Carabiniers/Gendarmes d'El etc. Spanish cavalry, French HA etc etc…..

The post Bardin Dragoons are a Godsend for conversions. I have bought and chopped up a whole box to make just three figures for Ney's charge…now undercoated.

Remember plastic moulds are a huge investment. Once done they can churn stuff out for years but you need sales+++. Eventually they do lose their edge as well, castings become less sharp. I almost wonder if I can distinguish my latest Perry dragoons from the originals, the month they were released. Subtle……..very…….but……

The ACW stuff will be metal, Iron Brigade, USSS and infantry standing at ease. I would hope for a plastic Union set, I love their figures.

Colonial British and mounted Agincourt knights have been mentioned

The colonial British have been more than just mentioned – three-ups for them were shown in Salute 2015 and pictures of them can be found on the Perry plastics workbench.

link

There is an ACW Plastic set from Perrys…can be Union or Confederates;

link

Plus Zouaves and cavalry

Timmo UK they did say some time ago that would be a Union box like the last Confederate.They look to see what is Topical like the Napoleonic sets they have bought out.

A year or so back, the last time I ordered from them, I asked specifically about a plastic set of Union ACW troops, like the Confederates. They replied that it was in the works. Apparently very much on the back burner, though.

Need to buy a lot of their Sudan colonial figures, so I'm not too unhappy waiting.

Grelber

I am still puzzled. Perrys call the set ACW Infantry, provide flags for both sides and show them painted as either. I admit the box art shows the Confederates more prominently, but the contents are suitable for either army.

Agincourt French Mounted Men at Arms are also coming at some point.

@Deadhead
The ACW infantry set was their first ever plastic set. At that time nobody knew if it would be a success. Perry plastics are a huge success so they can now justify making separate Union and Confederate infantry.

Mick

@Deadhead
The original ACW box included figures that could reasonably suit both Union and Confederate.
Some figures have a shell jacket, as predominantly worn by the Confederates.
Some figures have a sack coat, as predominantly worn by the Union.

If you take the time to pick and choose and assemble battalions/regiments in similar outfit from multiple boxes you can replicate the style of dress of each side.

The problem occurs when you paint all 36 figures as Union or Confederate. The jackets will always be 'wrong' for some.

This goes big time for the Confederate box – it's a stretch to paint those as Union. Not enough Union troops wore the shell jacket.

This is why there has been such a demand for a Unuon plastic set, where, presumably, the figures would be predominantly in the sack coat.

Anyway, that's my understanding of the issue

Well you live and learn.

I know little of ACW, but have always been tempted to try some Zouaves or Berdan's Sharpshooters.

I imagined Union started out with shell jackets but progressively adopted the longer effort, the sack coat. I do recall that what we call a kepi was actually much more likely to be the taller but squashed forage cap……much to think about if remodelling then!

I can certainly see your point, now though, gents. Should be easy for Perrys to rise to that challenge with what they already have in production.

Without getting a uniform dialogue Kepis were an officers hat the enlisted troop received a forage cap, same for the both sides. Several zouave units wore a kepi as part of their uniform, one of the most modelled is the 14th Brooklyn.
All the best HH

Personally I'd like to see them do British Dragoons/Dragoon Guards in pre-1812 campaign dress. Bicornes and shakos, and overalls instead of top boots. Their British Light Dragoon set is first rate. Are there any plans to do the same for the Heavies?

Here is another vote for SYW. But I am not waiting. I have started my 28mm collection with Black Hussar Prussian figs.

It is worth keeping in mind with Perrys that they will sculpt whatever happens to inspire them during a particular month. Especially when it comes to metals, where the moulding expenses are relatively low and time to production is pretty quick – and the Perrys popularity and inspired sculpting tends to mean that even the less mainstream metal packs will not be total financial disasters.

(Though I am still wondering how many packs of the Carlist Wars range they have sold in total…)

With plastics, the moulding time and cost is a fair bit more, so they need to be more conservative. This means focusing on sets that they can expect to sell well. Thus, I would expect many of the future plastics be for topics in current ranges that are currently covered in metal, since the Perrys have sales data that they can use for estimating how well a certain set would sell. For example they should have sales data for both their old metal ACW artillery packs and the newer plastic ACW artillery kit.

(Paradoxically, this might mean that if you want Perrys to do certain topic in plastic, your best means of influencing them might be to buy a lot of metal packs for that topic from them to prove that there is real financial interest on it.)

Didn't they bring out plastic WW2 figures before they had even made any metal packs?

Yep, the WW2 range – as well as WotR – were launched initially with plastic sets and only then supplemented with metal packs. Both presumably subjects that the Perrys could expect to sell well in plastic.

But even with the WotR/European Armies range some topics were first done in metal and only then in plastic (mounted men-at-arms, light cavalry and foot knight sets).

Griefbringer, glad to see it again pointed out how commercially different is a plastic boxed set vs a few metal castings, in that iconic brown box.

Plastic moulds cost a fortune to produce and the equipment means a major investment, which you simply must recoup. But they are ideal for mass production, if you can sell them! Metals, expensive raw material, but ideal for small numbers (both for the maker and the purchaser)

The Carlist War range has some great figures for Napoleonic conversion, esp for the Peninsula. I think an even more adventurous idea was the British Intervention in ACW. How (wonderfully) self indulgent is that? As you say, they can now produce something on a whim, bless them, and we will all lap it up!

I don't know how long the metal tooling lasts for injection moulding but I always thought they had a great business model. Both were employed full-time by GW so the expensive tooling for Perry plastics was burning off profit to reduce the tax bill on Perry Miniatures whilst significantly adding to its potential value in the long term.

I doubt they will ever sell the company but building a range of plastics for mass production bodes well for the future of the company and our hobby. I'm not into the plastics myself but I do recognise value they bring into the hobby.

As Greifbringer notes the fact that they can produce the Carlist War range shows that they can be entirely lead by what they want to do rather than what makes the most commercial sense. I always await news of any new projects from them with trepidation – on the one hand it's exciting to see what new options are coming in the future but on the other hand that new project means less time to spend developing their current ranges.

the Perrys made an immense progress in producing their plastic figures with again innovative ideas – like multiple arms exchange possibility for different AWI or their Medieval sets, one only has to compare their recent AWI plastics with their early Napoleonics – like French infantry – what a big difference in quality.

it doesn't matter what they will produce next, they already did produce such a lot of inspirational miniatures for which one needs more than one life time to paint them ;-))

Regarding the coats/jackets for the ACW, the Union soldiers tended to wear the sack coats (sometimes called the frock coat) which extend down to the crotch and maybe even down to the knees) and the Confederates tended to wear the shorter shell jackets (which extend to just a few inches below the belt). Is this correct?

I don't know how long the metal tooling lasts for injection moulding

Stainless steel moulds are supposed to last for quite long. With the production levels in the miniatures industry, I don't think we will see the Perry twins retiring any of their steel moulds (the oldest of which have been use since early 2008 or so) due to wear anytime soon.

Plastics versus metal manufacturing is not only about the expense of tooling mould, and the cost of materials, but also about the cost of manpower. Modern injection moulding equipment can be automated to quite high degree – once everything is set up correctly, the machine will essentially run on its own, as long as somebody remembers to feed in more plastic every now and then. Of course such machinery is also expensive, but you can usually outsource machine time from somewhere else (I presume Renedra also runs production facilities in addition to tooling).

As for Perrys being able to pursue whatever sculpting project takes their fancy at a particular moment, I can understand that it can frustrate quite a few out there (who would like to see them adding to existing ranges instead of starting new ones), but I would also think that the freedom to concentrate on whatever they find most interesting at a particular moment helps to boost their motivation and productivity, thus resulting in higher number of new sculpts overall.

Alan and Michael really can put out quite a bunch of releases when they feel like it. Consider for example their WWII range: first products were released in April 2013, and now there are over 100 different products in this range (and that does not include the 1/56 Blitzkrieg vehicles that they also retail). And during that same period they have released also a whole lot of other products.

Frock coats, rarely worn outside of a few units, extended roughly to mid-thigh or just above the knees. Sack coats, with four (generally) buttons, ended just below the waist.

Well you do live and learn. I never knew a frock coat differed from a sack coat, but it now dawns on me that I have heard of both…now I know the difference. A Kepi and forage cap I recently did learn the difference. ACW is not my thing (yet…would love to paint Louisiana Tigers….Metal Perrys' though)

I am so glad the Perrys do go off at a tangent occasionally….into Carlist Wars and Intervention in ACW for example (never mind how well the former fit in with Peninsula War anyway)

If they stuck to expanding their Napoleonic Range, my lead mountain would be even worse. I have Ewart taking the eagle, The Royals ditto and the cuirassier vs KGL, all sitting in those iconic brown boxes they use…not to mention the ambulance…….plus every plastic set they have ever done and not one single one ever completed as they intended….

The Mahdi's men for bare arms and legs for a project I never started. The AWI just for one figure (Louis XVIII conversion)…..bless them

I am guessing that if their ACW boxed starter set is a success, they will want to follow up with similar sets and that mean having a fairly complete range. maybe Wars of the Roses is their nearest in that regard.

The plastic manufacturers need to 'own' periods. looks like the Perry's have AVW and medieval so far. looks like warlord are about to put out an AWI starter set. And Warlord seem pretty secure in the Roman periods

Be good to see one of the manufacturers get into chariots / biblicals.

looks like warlord are about to put out an AWI starter set

The AWI sets that Warlord is releasing are not their own design, they are re-boxed Wargames Factory plastic sets.

Wishlisting I would say a release of continental pike infantry for the late 15th/early 16th century is still a glaring gap. When they aim for late 15th century, they can cover Swiss of the Burgundian, Swabian and early Italian wars and Landsknechts from the Burgundian succession, Swabian and early Italian wars, which would also work for contingents in Denmark/Sweden, Friesland, Tirol etc… and probably offer decent conversion stuff for Spanish and Italians, especially when crossed with existing sets.

As someone mentioned, it makes sense to own a period. After the release of the Agincourt French box, (and eventually the Mounted men at arms), they will own 15th century Western European armies.

It would be interesting if they moved east in the 15th century. A box of plastic Ottoman or Persian spahi's could be a Perry work of art.