Sunday, September 11, 2011

Perry Plastic British Hussars Update

Only Thursday I was saying to Fons at MMPS I was hoping for the Perry's to surprise us with the Plastic British Hussars being released before Christmas, a couple of days later and my wish comes true.

The Perry's have a new website, in their own words 'We have eventually entered the 21st century!', and have made a few announcements. To be honest the old site didn't bother me even if it was very basic, it got the job done and really that's all that matters.

Anyway - the news.

Russian Infantry 1809-15 plastic '3ups'
There will be two Russian boxed infantry sets, one for the Infantry (including elites) and one for the Grenadiers. The Infantry box will contain heads with the re-styled 1807 shako with cords which dates them to 1809. These were still worn during the 1812 campaign alongside the 1812 kiwers, albeit most likely in their own units. The kiwers have their full dress cords too which was typical of Russians in the field. There are also enough 1812 forage caps for all as this too was quite common practice for Russian infantry on campaign. The figures are all in summer one-piece overalls which were adopted in 1807.

The Grenadier box will contain the same pattern shakos with the grenadier distinctions and the famous Pavlov Grenadier mitre caps. The Pavlov Grenadiers were still wearing their normal grenadier uniforms throughout the 1812 campaign, receiving their Guard uniforms the next year. I've included the large 'busch' plume on the 1809 shako which was officially replaced by the thinner plume in 1811. However it's open to debate if they still lingered into 1812.







British Hussars 1808-1815
The box will contain 14 hussars, including an officer and a trumpeter. I've included five variants of head gear in the box (all figures have the
variants) which will allow you to make up British, KGL and Hanoverian Hussars from 1808 to 1815. Within the variants I've included the very tall early fur cap used by the British during the first years of the Peninsular and strange peakless castor cap which seems to have been an emergency replacement for it before the peaked shako came in. In the pictures most of hussars are shown without their haversacks and canteens, they will in fact have them on the finished models.

These will be available in November.







Austrian (German) Infantry 1808-15
All the figures in the box will have both helmets and shakos. During the 1809 campaign both were seen in the field. Although the 1808 jacket with it's swept-back turnbacks is quite distinctive from the fuller 1798 pattern, you could, if you wanted, use the figures earlier.

I have recently made some changes to the Austrians shown before. The main change is the pose the privates are in. The normal 'march attack' pose you see on most wargames figures, musket crooked in the left arm was never used by the Austrian army. Therefore I have changed the basic pose to 'Shoulder arms' or 'Schultert!' There are other changes including details in the way the equipment is worn as you can see in the photos. For example the small axe shown (even by the excellent Ottenfeld) attached to the outside of the knapsacks was actually carried inside, Austrian regulations forbidding anything (cooking utensils, pots and pans etc.) to hang from it. The photos of the groups were taken as I was in the middle of making the changes. Many thanks to Dr. Fiedrich Tuchler who's extensive research has thrown more light on the subject.

There will be 48 figures in the box. Sorry, no release date yet.






So big news is British Hussars in Novemeber, work on the Austrian and Russian greens seems to be well advanced, but remember with plastics it is the mold making that consumes a lot of time, so I would expect that we won't be seeing these until second quarter next year and a lot depends on how busy Renedra are and they do seem to be behind an awful lot of plastic sets these days not just the Perry's.


But what of metal's I hear you say...
Well some great Prussian equipment and a really oddity 1814 French National Guard Conscripts for those who want to refight the Battle of Paris.





Now all I have to do is get Fons to stock those Perry Hussars before Christmas and then I can work on 'santa' for my xmas present...

1 comment:

Fons @ MMPS said...

That will not be a problem as these hussars are way up on my list too. I will have them as soon as their are available. :-)