"New Gallic Infantry Preview " Topic

Victrix published new pictures of their Gallic infantry set

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Amicalement
Armand

Those are very nicely sculpted. Pity they're plastic.

Being plastic is of course a big bonus for wargamers. With six different torso poses per sprue and a choice of heads and shields with rotational possibilities wargamers have an enormous number of figure poses at their disposal. Just what you need for those large warband armies.

The other advantage is weight which comes in at ~10% of that of their metal comrades. This means if sprues were of a size that could stack 4 in a maximum sized large letter rigid postal box that would save wargamers a tidy sum in p&p costs in the UK.

I don't understand this aversion to plastic figures. They arte generally better sculpted than metal ones, paint just as well, are much cheaper and lighter. If handled sensibly they are just as robust as metal ones, and easier to repair.

In some ways MORE robust. If I drop a metal figure on my concrete floor, be prepared for a long and steady stream of sailor talk. If I do the same with a plastic figure…"oops!!" and I pick it up and drive on.

Damon.

Plastic figures do survive a fall that would mangle a metal figure, really well, and are far more portable. It's the spears I personally struggle with, especially when in the overarm attacking pose. In my experience, it is terribly easy to snap them off during play.

Plastic figures do survive a fall that would mangle a metal figure, really well, and are far more portable. It's the spears I personally struggle with, especially when in the overarm attacking pose. In my experience, it is terribly easy to snap them off during play.

And a real pain to repair. The spears being so thin glue doesn't always work well which means a very messy drilling out of the hand (with all the plastic shreds) and putting a metal replacement in place.

Glad you like them my friend.!

Amicalement
Armand

Spears with a single point of attachment have always been a weakness in the handling department but with plastics a hand/arm and spear replacement would be easier than any drilling whilst with the Roman boxes at least there's full options to get a second point of attachment to the base albeit with the occasional sliver cut to change the angle of the arm.

Actually I have started to replace plastic spears with North Star wire spears on Perry and Gripping Beast plastics. It's easier than metals, and with zap a gap the bond is very good. I was reluctant to do it, but I think it is worth it in the end.

In terms of spear loss, if a metal spear pings off it can usually be glued straight back in the same position. A plastic spear will usually snap and can be a trickier prospect to rejoin- perhaps involving drilling out the hand and replacing. Also, in my personal experience, plastic spears snap off with a greater regularity than metal spears ping off.

Like Delbruck, I used some North Star spears with plastics, that worked very well. I suppose the point of weakness then moves to the wrist but that's not a problem when one has two points of contact.

I'm using spare plastic GB spears with my Foundry metals in a Patricuan Roman army using both makes. Once I fully realised that plastic cement welds the two pieces together, shortening spears by cutting out a length of the shaft and re-gluing the head or repairing broken ones didn't seem quite so hard any more!

For those who like plastic spears, you can buy them in different lengths from Fireforge.

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A couple of things I didn't like about some of the Victrix Spanish is the hand was part of the javelin and the joint was at the wrist. I think this makes the joint much weaker. In addition, the javelins on the Spanish are thinner than the Greek light box, and the javelins seem very delicate.

I have become frustrated with the plastic spears (not to mention plastic guns of Warlord plastic WW2 figures!) breaking.

Now I just replace them with metal spears – Northstar and Warlord both make nice ones.

Are there other makers?

A regrettable part is the effort makers put into the unique shapes and details of the spears just to have them break and frustrate customers.

I agree about the spears and javelins. Victrix Greeks have thicker spears, but with the Spanish release they started to make their weapons thinner and more delicate. At this point, I would tend to replace most plastic spears with North Star wire spears. At least the plastic hand is easy to drill out.

Metal figures generally have more character in the appearance depending on the artist. Plastic are anatomically correct etc. because of being designed with a computer for the most part, but there is just something about them that's off… for me anyway. I also enjoy the heft of metal figures when moving them about the table…my two cents…

The big issue I have with plastic is that it is hard to cleanly remove the flash lines from them in a lot of the harder to reach spots.. the plastic tends to leave fuzzy residue bits that have to be precisely cut . metal will cut or break away and can be smoothed with a exacto blade, plastic leaves tiny burrs and in hard to reach spots has to be minutely and completely cut away. when metal flashing is removed these little burrs don't occur or just break away with a little touch or push of the tool. Plastic is too soft and mar-able and doesn't break away where you want to.