Victrix 28mm Plastic Numidians

This morning my order from Victrix arrived. I must say before beginning this post that I am NOT really a fan of plastics. Kent and I both prefer metals miniatures whenever possible. It really annoys me when, for instance, Warlord Games replaces yet another one of their nice metal WWII ranges with some more frigging plastics, most of which are horrible- I've bought a couple of their WWII German offferings, never again! Too damn fiddly so I usually end up replacing them with models from another manufacturer's metal ranges and now avoid all Warlord WWII plastics. Probably the  range of plastics I have bought and used the most are the Warlord Celts, they aren't the greatest figures on the market- some REALLY strange poses, but do well to bulk out German/Celtic hordes. But having seen some of the images of the Victrix Gauls, I can see me adding more plastics to those armies once they are released- they do look good!

One of the short comings of some of the earlier ranges of plastics (especially the Perry's ACW and WWII ranges), has been the soft details of faces and equipment, making the figures a chore to paint.

However, technology keeps improving and so does the quality of plastics on the market. Over the past 2-3 weeks I've been eyeing up the Victrix Numidian infantry and Iberian infantry and cavalry  ranges with an eye to bulking out my armies with plastics. I've a few Foundry metal Numidians but not enough for the entire project so decided to give Victrix a crack. My order turned up today and  I must say that I am pleasantly surprised by the detail of the sculpts- they are as good as they look on the Victrix website. Plastics really have taken a leap forward and it looks like I may be a convert! I am especially pleased with the quality on the Iberian Cavalry, the details really do pop off the figures and will be joy to paint but all the range are well proportioned and will paint up well. In fact, the quality of them is outstanding!

I need four bases worth of Numidians for next weeks game vs Kent so have been working on those, have completed two bases worth today and will do the last two bases over the next few days.

The Victrix Numidians are a tad taller than the Foundry figures I have been using but mix in well on the same base (I'm doing 8x figures per base on my warband bases) and will be fine for this project. The figures are easy to put together and have really nice details and definition- including the faces.

Probably my only concern with these ranges are the spears and javelins. I much prefer the thinner spears and javelins (and use a lot of the metals ones for my armies) to the "armed with tree trucks" that the gripping Beast Saxon and Viking ranges have (not sure of their others), but it does mean that the spears/javelins on the Victrix models are quite fragile. To try to ensure that they don't break I've been coating them with PVA glue. This is an old trick to make paint bind to the old 1:72nd Airfix, Esci etc ranges of figures. As it dries the PVA shrinks and goes clear, creating a nice thin, flexible layer. With the old plastics this meant the paint would bind to the figures and not flake as it otherwise tended to do. I'm hoping the same approach with strengthen the javelins and make them less susceptible to breakages.

Anyway here we go.

Base #1: 3x Foundry and 5x Victrix figures. I wanted to give the look of some light infantry that has looted the bodies of their enemies and taken a few shields- and modified them. The two front shields have LBM Studio transfers on them.

And base #2. Again a couple of LBM Studio transfers added to the unit,

One of the all metal (Foundry & Crusader) bases.

And the four bases all together. Each of my Warband bases are now 12cm wide x 8cm deep "Impetus style" bases. I've only put 8 figures on each base as these guys represent light infantry warbands, for heavier types I'll put 9-12 figures on the same size base to make a more dense, heavier infantry, warband.

When massed together it gives a pleasing effect.

Craig