The growth of plastic 28mm figures continues with the release of this beautiful set of French Napoleonic Heavy Cavalry from the Perry Miniatures. If you are new to the hobby you may not be familiar with the Perry twins work. Well, to paraphrase another famous Nottingham celebrity, the Perry Twins may not be the best miniature sculptors in the hobby but in my opinion, they are probally in the top two! The Perry’s have a long history of sculpting for Games Workshop, Foundry Miniatures and are now producing their own range of figures.
Traditionally, 28mm wargaming figures have been produced in metal and anything in plastic was seen as a poor substitute. Well, the times are a changing, and with the improvements in moulding in plastic combined with improved production techniques, plastic now seems to be not only a cost effective way of building your army but also allows you to convert your figures to produce your own uniquely posed models. I have always had an affinity to plastic kits and these new 28mm figures are just superb. They assemble well, are easy to clean up and paint and the detail is as crisp as any metal model.
So what about this new set from Perry Miniatures? Well, you get 14 mounted cavalry figures in the box, with options to make either French Cuirassiers or Carabiniers. Included in these figures are 1 officer, 1 trumpeter and 1 standard bearer. There are enough spare arms for you to model the cavalry as charging or at ease and just to add some interest to the set, also included are some British and French infantry casualties.
The final inclusion in the box is the beautifully produced colour paint sheet that also includes four flags for your cavalry. It’s amazing how much information that is packed onto the sheet. Although I am not any sort of an expert on Napoleonics, by the time I had read through all of the notes I felt that I understood how to assemble and paint an authentic Regiment.
And that’s the clever thing about the Perry Miniatures sets, they give you a great entry into the hobby of Napoleonic wargaming. If you’ve never tried this era before because like me, you’ve been intimidated by the complexity of the different colour schemes and troop types then start with a set of Perry Miniatures and you wont go far wrong. In fact, I’m confident that you will have a super set of models to start your collection!