I've seen a lot of nonsense written on the interweb (of all places!!) about compatibility between the old Perry sculpted miniatures released by Foundry, and their new range. As you can imagine, this issue probably affects me more than most!
Well. As you can see with the two Northern firing line figures, there are differences in the anatomical construction; the new sculpts, as mentioned before, are more 'lifelike'. I don't think these miniatures are incompatible on the battlefield, but maybe not in the same unit. They are certainly more compatible than with Old Glory, Sash and Sabre, Redoubt, Dixon, Renegade etc. Indeed, the differences are less marked than between their Foundry ECW and own range, and I don't remember that being such an issue. There is as much difference between the Foundry ACW artillery and infantry - the artillery being half a head larger - and that's the same range!
The mounted Generals pack I photographed in an earlier blog entry show that although the heads may be slightly different, the overall size of the metal miniatures is similar. After I have painted up one of the ACW3 pack I will let you see the differences.
As to the plastic figures themselves: the main feature is the cost; large armies could be built up for a fraction of the cost of their metal counterparts. They are sculpted in 'generic' sack coats and shell jackets, so for most units they will need to be split US/CS. With a couple of packs, there should be enough to put together three FnF brigades, with a few left over.
Preparation is much like for white metal - there are mould lines which need to be filed, and a rinse with washing-up liquid will get rid of any release agent present. This one was undercoated with enamels and painted with the usual mix of Vallejo, Foundry, Plaka & Citadel; there were no problems with application.
The only thing I found was the detail was harder to pick out on the plastics - especially areas like eye lids; and there are areas on the sculpt, like the hand in the cap pouch that are not as well defined as metal.
I enjoyed painting this figure, and I am looking forward to painting the rest of the range - the plastic horses display the best of the plastic medium; I'm surprised they don't replace their metal horses in their normal ranges. I am of course reassured that there is a continuing line of metals, as not only will we see the 'finishing off' of the Foundry range (Negro heads already sculpted!) but hopefully some new personality figures (Hill? Longstreet? Burnside?) and some unusual units like the Red Legged Devils!
1 comment:
Nice work, thanks for sharing.
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