By Bob Barnetson

In May 2008, Warlord Games will release its new line of hard-plastic 28 mm Roman Imperial Legionnaires. Following shortly will be some 28 mm Celts to pit against them. Each boxed set of Legionnaires contains 30 multi-part figures and costs £17. Warlord Games expects the figures to be released during the week of May 12.

Initial Impressions
I was pleasantly surprised to receive the contents of an entire box (three sprues: one command and two legionnaire) ahead of their release. These figures did not come with their normal box or the water-slide shield transfers, but that does not diminish how impressive they are.

The figures are cast in a grey plastic on sprues measuring five by eight inches. As I unwrapped them, they reminded me of plastic 1:72-figures, not the bags of shiny 28 mm historical I normally buy. But the similarity to 1:72-plastic figures was short-lived. These plastics are crisply cast, not at all bendy, and there is very little flash.

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The Sprues
Warlord’s figures come on two different sprues. The first sprue (two to a box) contains 10 legionnaires in three different poses. You can customize each legionnaire by gluing the separate head and weapon arm (with molded weapon) on at different angles. The distinctive rectangular shields (scutum) must also be individually attached. For the 10 legionnaires, there are 12 arms to choose from: eight with pilum (spear) and four with gladius (short-swords). There are also 10 heads, two spare helmets, 2 spare pila, two round shields, and a head with what is perhaps a cavalry helmet.

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The command sprue (one to a box) contains seven legionnaire and three command figures. The command figures include a centurion, a standard bearer and a musician (signifer and cornicern). The armour of the command figures is distinctive, as is the head dress. Two heads have pelts attached and dangling down the figures’ backs and the centurion head has the distinctive helmet, with horse-hair crest running across the top of the helmet, from ear to ear. The centurion can be built holding either a gladius or a wooden rod.

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Sculpting and Posing
The sculpting is of high quality. The figures have a build somewhere between the very thin frames of most 1:72-scale sculpts and the beefy builds common in 28 mm metals. All told, they have a realistic look with enough musculature on the exposed arms and calves to warrant a bit of highlighting.

There appear to be three different heads (mouth open, mouth snarling, mouth grimacing). The variation is nice. The typical trooper helmet includes cheek protectors, which leave the ears exposed. There is only a hint of an ear visible on the models, making it look like the cheek plate joins the helmet, thereby covering the ears. I expect this reflects a limitation in casting technology, rather than an oversight. This is a very minor criticism but does create some painting challenges. Without a molded edge, I will have to eyeball the ear and try to create some definition there with paint.

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The detail on the figures is well rendered. The bottoms of the tunics have enough ripples to almost look pleated. This is quite different from many metal sculpts where the ripples are fewer and gentler. This type of detail ought to take highlighting well. Some of the tunics are a bit short in the back <ahem> but fortunately the sculptor has not treated us to any backsides.

The legionnaires wear the lorica segmentata (segmented armour) that is commonly seen in the movies. It is well rendered, with enough exaggeration of its depth that a wash or use of the magic dip ought to make it really stand out.

Casting
The figures come with very little flash. The bases have a faint mould line that will need to be filed off or puttied over. The figures also have a faint mould line down their sides that must be removed. This is fairly easy to address, but the mould line on the shoulders will require some work. It runs perpendicular to the grain of the lorica segmentata, meaning each shoulder has five separate surfaces to scrape (plus the flesh on the arm). A misstep with a knife here will be most noticeable, so clean up will be a bit time consuming.

Assembly
For this review, I assembled the centurion figure and one of the legionnaires. Each figure took approximately 5 minutes to cut out, de-flash, dry fit and glue. There were no assembly problems with these figures. Each piece fit precisely and, had I wanted to, I could have altered the arm and head positions to introduce additional diversity in the poses.

Upon assembly, each figure was 28 mm tall (top of base to top of head). When measuring the centurion, I excluded the horse-hair crest on the centurion’s helmet from the measurement. The overall look is quite lovely.

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Comments
Frankly, these are spectacular figures. They put most of the currently available plastics in 1:72- and 1:32-scale to shame in their detail (excepting some Italeri and Clash of Arms releases). And they should give even the most metal-loving grognard an alternative to lead. That said, I have some reservations.

I’m primarily a historical gamer. The amount of assembly these figures entail is a bit daunting. I know most GW gamers will be used to this work, but most historical 28 mm metals normally require only some flash removal and a shield (and sometimes weapon) be glued on. Warlord’s figures must be cut from the sprue, deflashed, fitted, and then require at least three pieces glued on.

To be fair, gluing hard plastic is much easier than gluing metal. And this arrangement does allow me to customize each figure. This advantage is not, however, all that appealing as (at least to me) part of the gestalt of many historical periods (including ancients and Napoleonics) is seeing large armies of identical figures ranked up together. I may be in the minority on that point, however, and perhaps not Warlord’s primary target with these figures. I expect that most gamers will like the easy customization.

Of course, an important question is how well do Warlord’s figures fit in with existing metal lines. These figures appear to be 28 mm from top of base to top of head. My impression is that they should fit in with the 28 mm Foundry figures quite well. The Warlord shields are a bit smaller than the Foundry ones (but this won’t be noticeable on the table) but otherwise they should be compatible. The Warlord figures will be too big to go well with more traditional 25mm figures such as RaFM and Irregular.

I wonder whether the additional granularity of the details on the Warlord figures won’t be jarring when set against the lesser detail typically found on metal figures? Generally, the Warlord figures have more and finer detail than metals. This may be less of a problem as Warlord’s line expands and it is possible to put together most of a Warhammer Ancient Battles army with only their figures.

Conclusion
The release of hard-plastic historical figures is a notable event and a significant investment on the part of Warlord Games. I expect the costs of making injection moulds involved will limit (at least initially) the periods that Warlord and other manufacturers will tackle. This has the advantage of focusing manufacturers’ attention on a single period long enough to provide fairly thorough coverage.

Warlord has already announced that Celtic warriors will be forthcoming. They have also announced plans for plastic Praetorian Guard and Veteran Legionnaire boxes are also promised. Other figures in metal will also be available, including eastern archers.

The price of these figures, their compatibility with widely played rule sets (e.g., Warhammer Ancient Battles) and the ease with which hard-plastic figures can be put together ought to make them attractive to many gamers.

Pros

• Highly detailed sculpts.
• Competitively priced versus metals.
• Plastic figures are easy to assemble.

Cons

• Assembly might turn off some gamers.