2011-01-30

Victrix British Foot Artillery

Got myself a pack of cannons for the British from Victrix and thought of at least showing a few pictures of what the pack contains.

The box contains 3 copies of the same sprue

Each sprue gives you 1 cannon that can be made as a 5.5 inch howitzer, a short or long 6 pounder or a 9 pounder gun, 5 crew and a limber

The quality of the plastic is really good, it's a little bit softer than the other set I've handled (British Peninsular Infantry Centre Companies) and all mold lines are really easy to scrape off, not that there are many to begin with.

I put one of the teams together to try out what's possible with them.
Of the 5 crew you got 4 gunners and 1 officer that can be made into a multitude of different poses. There are some instructions with the box on how Victrix thinks the minis should go together, and it could be a good idea to at least partially follow these as some combination can look really weird. Also, some of the arms are made to go in a set, but here it's quite easy to spot what goes where, something that was not really the case in the center company.

The crew can be made as Waterloo or Peninsular with Belgic or Stovepipe shako and short or long coattails for the officer.
The crew, one has been given a musket from Peninsular center company set
Gun with long 6 pounder
Limber
Overall I'm very satisfied with the guns, the guns and limber are a bit fiddly to put together with quite a lot of parts for each item. But the results are a great looking gun, and even though there are a lot of parts, there was no part that was really in itself a problem to get on. But i strongly suggest using plastic cement over super glue.

The plastic is really great to work with, so I hope they will use the same ones for all other sets made after this.

One thing I can't really gauge is it's historical accuracy as I don't have a clear idea how this kind of thing should look. But I like it and if I need more guns for my British troops, more sets will find it's way into my possession.

The only thing I miss in this set is some horses to pull the limber and gun. A 4 or 6 horse team with a rider or two would have made this set so much better, even if it meant adding a few pounds to the price and/or removed a gun. But hopefully this is something that Victrix will make in the future, perhaps after some guns for the French.

Overall I'd give this set 7/10, you get your moneys worth with this set.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous3/4/13 23:03

    Thanks for the review. I am thinking of buying this set and this has helped me a lot. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. One quick question. Did you have to drill out the muzzle, or was it like that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately you have to drill the barrel, there is just a small grove in the gun on the sprue. I think I used a 3mm drill to get a hole that looked good.

      Delete