"British Infantry (Zulu War) 1877 – 1881 by Perry Miniatures" Topic

Cool!

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Amicalement
Armand

Once again I can feel the urge to spend more money!

Oh…. multi-part plastic, I see now. Sigh.

Could there be perry Zulu on the horizon?

I am slightly baffled by this release- when this is available we'll have access to 4 sets of plastic british infantry suitable for colonial gaming (WGF, WLG, 2xperry).

Now as you don't need many plastic British for any of those theatres (I got 4 of the warlord sets and that was really 2 too many, I won't be buying any perry ones as there aren't enough Zulus to go round!) it'd be nice instead to see more of the plastics for their opponents for whom massive plastic hordes are a must.

We have a sufficiency of Zulus I feel, but a plastic box for pathans/afghans, or egyptians, or Khosa, or Boers, or any of the thousands of others would be preferably to yet another box of British…

Glad you like them boys!.

Zulus are comming…

Amicalement
Armand

Mike,

I think the Home Service option is something new when it comes to plastics.

but a plastic box for pathans/afghans, or egyptians, or Khosa, or Boers, or any of the thousands of others would be preferably to yet another box of British

But which ones of these would have the critical amount of demand to make a plastic set worthwhile?

Perrys have already released a Mahdist infantry some years ago, and must be aware of how it has been selling (though the recent release of the British infantry for Sudan may have boosted things a bit).

They also have a seried of ten or so packs of Afghan tribesmen and regulars, and again the sales data on those might be something they may consider in deciding whether it would be worthwhile to do them also in plastic.

Wonder if those home service ones might be convertible to prusssians?

Prussian helmets are a significantly different shape, but it would be possible with a fair bit of work. US issue helmets of the era are quite similar, though you'd need to tweak the badge to have eagle wings (as you would for Prussia). Take the spike *off* and you have police helmets.

It's worth noting that Warlord have taken down their plastic Zulu box sets, though the individual sprues are still available for order. My guess is that these are intended as the replacement kit for those (though as usual Perry will retail them). The old Warlord frame didn't have any command options, aside from the sergeant arm and his yaghatan bayonet, another reason for a revised kit.

Also, I really don't think the old Wargames Factory Zulu Wars British need be taken into account much. Even when they were still in production, they were very low standard figures, aside from the separate pith helmets which were handy for putting on better sculpts. I have a set, and they are really my last resort unless I want figures that are meant to be overweight and short.

So moving forward, my guess is these will be the only Zulu era British in plastic in current production. I do agree that a Zulu release would probably have been better, but it may be Warlord setting the agenda here.

Edit: And speaking of Perry plastic British, I sent in a suggestion via their website about maybe getting some Lee-Metford/Magazine Lee-Enfield conversion arms made up in metal for the Sudan kit to extend it's use forward through to the 2nd Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. Got a short reply from Michael saying it was a good idea and they'd think about it!

@mrinku- I doubt these are replacing the Warlord line. What I suspect is happening, now that Warlord are the WGF distributors is exactly whats happened to the rest of the WGF lines- they are being integrated into the relevent warlord lines.

I suspect we will see a re-release of a combined range of Empress/Warlord/WGF stuff.

"I think the Home Service option is something new when it comes to plastics." Granted. Which conlict are they for?

They could probably be used for some units in the Riel Rebellion.

@Mike Target – respectfully, even though Warlord has the deal with WGF, they have a much longer standing and close relationship with Perry Miniatures. Ever notice that Warlord never did figures themselves for the WW2 North African theatre? That's because the Perrys were doing those for them under some arrangement.

Bluntly, the WGF British plastics were god-awful early efforts and I can't see any reason for Warlord to bother with them. The WGF Zulu figures were a lot better, but weren't exactly top-notch either. Warlord's own Zulu war plastic frames were always far superior.

I understand Warlord have stopped using metal Empress Miniatures as command figures in their plastic boxed sets – so presumably they've withdrawn them from sale temporarily while they repackage them accordingly, which would also explain why the individual sprues are still available.

Another thought on this kit… home service helmet proper aside, I've seen quite a few pictures of white helmets with the badge, but not the spike. Using these for that purpose would be a trivial conversion. Some of the volunteer units also did appear to wear a version of the home service helmet.

In any case, the kit is listed as covering 1877-81, and I REALLY doubt the Perrys would have included these helmets on the sprue if no-one wore them in combat during that period. It might end up only being the Royal Engineers at one particular battle, or the Royal Marines on shipboard, or some battalion fresh off the boat that was rushed into battle. They take their uniform research pretty seriously.

Technically the "overseas" helmet is the Tropical one (but then, all the action seems to have taken place in the tropics…). Were there any fights in Canada or New Zealand during this time, even small local skirmishes? I'd have expected units stationed there would be wearing home service kit.

Dear mrinku

With the deepest respect, some of your presumptions on this page are wrong.

'I REALLY doubt the Perrys would have included these helmets on the sprue if no-one wore them in combat during that period.'

Sorry Old Bean, they have. They put them on there for 'what ifs', whether it's Prussians, French or Martians.
Which was music the VSF buffs at North Star's ears when Mr P. dropped a sample box off at our office.

Regards
Nick

At the risk of repeating myself, mrinku: Riel Rebellion.

Some RCMP from the Riel Rebellion as aforementioned by Henry Martini:

@Henry Martini, that's 1885. I was looking at anything in the stated year range Perry have put up. RCMP would need a little converting from infantry kit, but not too extreme. Hopefully we'll see a cavalry kit at some point…

@NickNorthStar, fair enough then. They've explicitly mentioned that in the product blurb that's been put up on their website in the last few days, too. VSF and "what-if" European scenarios like a French Invasion.

You could also use them for gaming out military exercises at Aldershot as well, I guess.

Do you have any insights into the Warlord Zulu War range situation you can share?

No mrinku, I didn't 'aforemention' the RCMP, who were… mounted police – and equipped accordingly. I was actually alluding to Canadian militia infantry, who were equipped like… infantry.

The Plastic Zulu War British can now be pre-ordered from Perry Miniatures

"These are multipart hard plastic 28mm figures which can be used for the Ninth Cape Frontier War (1877-78), Zulu War (1879) and the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-81). They are also supplied with Home Service helmets so can be used for any potential invasion from France, Germany or even Mars! There are 38 miniatures in the box including 4 casualties, two Heliographs,4 pairs of standards, unit bases and uniform information. If you buy 3 boxes direct from us, you'll receive a free metal model of Lt Teignmouth Melvill saving the Queen's colour at the Battle of Isandlwana"

Main page
perry-miniatures.com

Amicalement
Armand

Okay, the Warlord situation has clarified – they have their kits back up, repackaged and repriced but now without the metal command figures. £16.00 GBP gets you 24 plastic infantry (i.e. 6 of the 4-man frames). These are still very good plastics, too; I've found the poses very handy for conversion work.

@Henry Martini: sorry, the RCMP comment was really directed at @Rhyngill's post just after yours. I should have separated the comments. Do you have some photo resources? I'd be very interested in that.

My suspicion that Warlord would mix the WGF stuff into their range seems correct- Their new Rorkes Drift set seems to include 2 sets of 24 infantry plus a sprue of 5 figures.

The Warlord sprues have 4 figs. a 5 fig sprue can only be the WGF sprue. looks like the only thats a mixed set though.

Dissapointed the Empress stuff has gone though. Does mean a paucity of officers etc for the redcoats, except that one that comes free with the zulu book…the one that only comes free with the zulu book!

It does look like Warlord have now mixed the inferior WGF plastic Zulus in with the original Warlord plastics, as well as dropping the Empress metal command figures.

Have they done the same with the British infantry? It's not so clear from the photos.

Definitely a backward step if that is the case. Will make it easier for Perrys and I'm pleased I've still got several boxes of the original Zulus.

"Have they done the same with the British infantry?" Dont think, so just the rorkes drift set as far as I can see.

Also not sure how they're accounting that Rourke's Drift deal… I make it £67.00 GBP without the 5-man sprue (as the Louis Napoleon figure is stated to be FREE!), meaning they've costed that sprue at £4.00 GBP???

At least it has a decent discount on it so that you can probably consider any WGF frame as an extra you didn't have to pay for…

Perry often sell their command sprue as a separate item after the kit has been out for a while, so there's some hope of using that to cover Warlord's lack of metal ones eventually.

I actually wouldn't mind too much if they mixed in a WGF Zulu warrior sprue with the Warlord ones. The bodies are fairly good and the Warlord frames provide enough spare heads so that you'd not need to use the mostly ghastly WGF ones (some of them are less ghastly than others). They'd probably work best as supplemental frames for the Natal native regiments, since that would give you some left arms not holding shields for the troops with guns.

Sorry mrinku – I mistakenly attributed Rhyngyll's post to you.

No drama, mate.

Little update from the Perry Facebook page (in the comments section for the announcement post of this kit) that they will be doing some metal figures for this era (but they didn't specifically state Zulu War – the kit also takes in the Ninth Cape Frontier and 1st Anglo-Boer wars).

Also that they will be announcing their next plastic kit at Salute.

Neither of these tidbits are earth shaking news or unexpected :)

umm, wonder what the next release will be, my money is on 100yw mounted maa.