Sunday 29 January 2012

Town and County Levy (RedBox)

It seems that RedBox have really upped their game in the area of sculpting. This is the second set in thier WotR´s series and another good one.
The set divides into more or less two groups...the men armed with bows and the others with various edged weapons.
One complete sprue of the 4 sprues in the set.
The archers. I´ve painted them up as english archers so they can be added to the burgundian army.
The edged weapons group. The bod with the axe and the one holding the buckler up are ok, but the three with the pole arms are very nice, even if thier weapons are a bit long. . A couple of them will find a place in the next pike block.
A couple of ideas that redbox have included. The bod on the left seems to have brought all his bagge with him. The bod in the middle. When I first saw the scans of these I couldn´t make out what was at his feet...the object   turned out to be a sack of arrows. The last bod.. he carries not only a quiver but his bow wrapped up in a carrying bag. Wether they did this or not, I cannot say, but it´s an original idea.
All in all a nice set. Unfortunately  there is on one or two mold lines running down the middle of thier faces but the overall flash is minimal and the set mixes well with the previous Men-At-Arms and Retinue.
Hopefully this will be the standard of future RedBox sets and I hope they continue the WotR´s line.....some armoured cavalry, scurriers, gun  teams, arquebusiers etc would be nice....please :-D

22 comments:

  1. Well done, love the arches as well.

    Remco
    sjemco.blogspot.com

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  2. Nice review, and good paint job. I might get this set now.

    Claus
    ancminis.blogspot.com

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  3. I'm not an expert but I didn't think RedBox had this quality.
    They look very good!

    Cheers

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  4. Beautiful work as always; you are quite the 1/72nd figure connoisseur. Best, Dean

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  5. Nice looking stuff Paul. Question for you, how much does one of these plastic sets cost on average and how many figs do you get for say Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery?

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    1. Thanks :-D
      This set cost..€8.70...a bit exspensive but there are 4 sprues of 10 bods, so about 20 cents a fig..not bad really. For the Zvezda english 100yrs war set...45 bods for €6.50!! More bods, and a command sprue. The french knights..all mounted and you get 19 of them..also €6.50
      The zvezda artillery set..(IMHO, one of the best middleages sets going in 1/72nd) €11.00. For that you get 3 guns, 10 bods and two horses.
      On average you get in a set 12 horses, 35 plus bods.
      If you want you can look up the ranges at PSR:
      http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=7#England
      I will leave the Valdemar and other specialist makers out..they are really the cream on the cake and this is reflected in a higher price for them. (but well worth it :-D)
      The prices for plastics are quite good and that you get lots of repeat bods is for me a good thing...I like having tons of spares for conversions..something that is more difficult and more expensive with metal bods.
      Cheers
      paul

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    2. Wow those prices are nice! I wish people did 1/72nd round here, I would give them a go. Are these made for wargaming or just for general modelling? Sorry for all the questions just very curious... Thanks for all this info very informative.

      Cheers

      Eric

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    3. No problem Eric. The archers...(the one in purple, a copy of the pose has had a headswop and will be painted up and added to the group, will be based as english archers in burgundian service.
      The one with the bow over his back..??? He´ll go into "waiting for a job". The ones with pole arms will join 7 others also armed with glaives, guisarmes, sparths and Halberds to form a generic halbardier group and join the burgundian army (some of them have already got team tricots)The other two will join thier mate in the jobque.
      They are all being based for Impetus..but I think I´ve now gone way over the top with the original idea of the size of army I wanted...nearly double the amount of stands and I´m working on adding another pikeblock and some more artillerie.
      Still..they look good enmasse. :-D
      Cheers
      paul

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    4. Cool! I was wondering about the people that make the boxed sets of plastic guys, are they for gaming or??? when they make them...

      Cheers

      Eric

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    5. Good question and To be honest..I´m not sure wether they were originally designed for gaming..ie; the first sets from the likes of Airfix / Atlantic seem to be more "toys" than any attempt at historically accurate gaming pieces but they quickly got taken up for gaming. I remember when I was at school virtually all the boys had some sort of "toy" soldier collection and wargaming with sets of rules was common place. These days I think there are a lot more sets made specifically aimed at the wargamer market..the one thing that is a bit annoying..as with most gaming scales is the height difference between manufacturers. Zvezda for example seems to have gone of towards the big end of the 1/72nd scale while others , Hat and strelets have remained near the middle. I name these three because they seem to be the biggest producers and most consistant in style, size and production of the plastic 1/72nd ranges. It makes mixing and matching a bit more difficult..but I suppose if they were all the same size and style it wouldn´t give any variety or choice.
      Cheers
      paul

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    6. hmmm good info, I just have never gotten them out of my mind from when I was a kid in that when I tried to paint them um the paint just peeled right back off. I hope they are much better then they were back then. Is the plastic as hard as say Perry plastics or GW plastics of today? Sorry that's it on the questions...good discussion btw... thank you.

      Cheers

      Eric

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    7. Hi Eric,

      I used to do Games Workshop figures. If the plastics haven´t changed too much from back then, the plastic that games GW uses i would describe as hard-plastic. 1/72 figures mostly come in soft plastic. The peeling problem is much less a problem these days. Some manufacturers even produce posable and gluable plastics, so the situation is much improved. Some times though you pick up the odd set, like the Italeri Barbarian re-issues that the paint peels right off. This is rare however, and should be solvable by a few tricks of the trade. White glue mixed with water used as undercoat, or washing the figures in hot water and soap does miracles, i am told.

      Claus
      ancminis.blogspot.com

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  6. They look great. I'm not a medieval wargamer but I have taken notice of the Strelets levy, it looks like a pretty good kit.

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  7. Nicely done Paul, it's the attention to detail, for example the bow strings, that really set your work apart.

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  8. Excellent painted figures and a great review! Thanks for the info!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thanks Peter....and I got in with the review quicker than PSR !!! :-D Not as indepth though.
      Cheers
      paul

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  9. Good job with this bunch. If you are going to wind up with more figures than you planned, at least they look very nice.

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  10. Great looking figures Paul!

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  11. Hi Paul! - be reassured! - 100yrs war and WOTR archers did indeed carry their bows and arrows in canvas bags to protect them from the elements!

    Sorry to be a heretic though, I still think the Strelets and Zvezda bods are a full league ahead of these RedBox bods in casting and animation!

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    1. I agree..the strelets and especially the Zvezda bods are way ahead in terms of casting and animation, it´s nice too see redbox getting their act together with their sculpting though and I hope they increase the WotR´s range. I would really really like to see Strelets or zvezda do some late medieval troops..(Hat as well would be nice)particually the heavy infantry. With Zvezda though, that looks unlikely as they are concentrating on their miniranges..which seems to be mostly WWII and I can´t afford to pay nearly the same price for 4 bods as for 35+
      Cheers
      paul

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  12. Very nice figures and you've definately made the most of them with the bow-strings. Very nice indeed!

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  13. You can only dream, good work and bowstring madness......

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