Warlord Plastics Part 1

I finally got around to getting out the Warlord plastic ECW box set on Sunday, 9/27/2009. I'll blog a "blow by blow" on how they paint up, my opinions (based upon 30+ years of wargaming and painting experience), how they stack up to my other infantry regiments (a mix of Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry).

My regiments are 16 figures strong. I know others play larger regiments and some single based (Warhammer ECW?) figures. I play Might of Arms ECW. It is a variant of Bob Bryant's Might of Arms rules I put together because I liked the system and my gaming group understood the mechanics. I'm not going to waste a lot of time espousing/explaining why I use them. Just suffice it that I like them. Period. End of Story. Now to the figures!!!

The plastic that is used is the equivalent to most Games Workshop plastics I have built in the past. It's not gunky, soft nor does it feel or look cheap. Most of figures have a minimum of flash and mold lines. I was able to trim up some of the mold lines but; they just aren't a problem. The figures remind me a lot of GW plastics in the way they go together and the chunky "Imperial Guard-like" features such as the face and hands. I chalk that up to plastic figures.

It took me the better part of an afternoon to put these figures together. I figure that's because I'm a klutz or just a schmo that is used to working with metal figures. It was a little off putting however because I'd much rather be painting than
assembling. Will quit whining...I bought them to see how they worked so there! There were a few variants in hats, arms and the way weapons were carried. A couple of things that bothered me was the length of the arquebus in relation to the figure plus the modeling of the musketeer's hands. They look rather large in comparison to the rest of the figure. The pikemen are OK but the tassel thing on the end of the plastic pikes is a distraction. I wasn't there to know if it was historically accurate, so; I'll just paint it and shut up. I'm not hip to plastic pikes or flag poles so my jury's still out on how they will fare in a fat war gamer environment.

I've decided to clip off most of the bases as they are pretty large. I also will leave a couple in the original size to see if they'll take basing a little better.


Over all, I'm OK with these figures so far. They're a far sight less fiddly than Victrix. I almost swore off experimenting with ANY plastic figures because of THAT experience. For war gaming, these figures should do just fine. What are they? Inexpensive, and a fast way to build a regiment or two from a single box. In fact, I'm planning on painting two regiments and using the rest as a "Forlorn Hope" (fodder). I wish that Warlord would have packed 48-64 figures to a box set. That would fit my thinking...more figures on the table is better!

Above is the sniper from the "specialist" blister pack. I know Might of Arms doesn't have any way that this guy can fit in but; I'm going to build some "event cards" into the game to spice it up a bit. This guy WILL get his shot! There's another figure in the blister pack that looks like he's holding some type of instrument, firebox or something nasty with which to determine who "is or who is not a witch" Now, all I need for that one is a pond and some rope.

Keep checking back, I'll post up in progress pics and comments on how this mini-project is going. Now, what I REALLY REALLY want is some decent two winged Polish Hussars. I've got some TAG figures but they're only single winged and the distributor my vendor uses is hit or miss. Alright...I digress...I'm done for this episode.