Unboxing instant armies for the '45: Plexiglass (not) paper soldiers by Peter Dennis for the Jacobite Rising

So if you need a few hundred mini soldiers hassle free with no painting and minimal assembly.  These wee fellas from Wofun Games may be just what you are looking for.  Available for a number of time periods including Ancient Greeks, Persians*, Romans*, American Revolution*, American Civil War*, Napoleonic* and of course the The Jacobite uprising*.  There is even a range of wild west cowboys* if that's your thing!

The Hanovarians

These plexiglass soldiers handsomely illustrated by Peter Dennis who is well known for his paper soldiers and Battle for Britain series of books.

The Jacobites

What attracted me to this product was that it allowed me to jump into a completely different period, acquire an army and get on the wargaming table without investing a whole amount of time preparing and painting miniatures.  In this case the Jacobite Uprising of the '45.  I had two brand new armies available to me within two weeks of ordering.  Painting equivalent armies would have taken me two years at least. ...I am a slow painter with many distractions!

One line review: Great product to dive straight in and play a new period if you don't have the time or inclination to paint up (two) new armies.

Bonnie Prince Charlie and his charging Highlanders

What I liked about this product:

1. Delivered in good time and beautifully presented in a smart presentation box.
2. Seven regiments of infantry, one regiment of dragoons can be assembled and battle ready in around an hour - The artillery takes a little longer.
3.  A fun set of "getting started" wargames rules for the period by Andy Callan.

How would I improve the product:

1. Improve the design of 18mm Artillery.
2. Make a cheaper post and packaging option for smaller orders.
3. Include a hard copy of rules booklet.

The delivery:

On the website the company states that each purchase is printed to order and promises delivery within 30 days.  My package arrived 12 days after ordering posted from Romania.  Great service  in these crazy times.

One point was that during the order process the payment screen defaulted to Romanian which was a little off-putting but I took a deep breath and ploughed on and I am glad I did.

The box:

First impressions are all important, and Wofun Games address this perfectly sending their product encased in a handsome gold embossed black box.  Acting as both a smart container for storing the armies once assembled and a practical sturdy box for shipping.  This packaging was tested to the max as the courier had flung the parcel over a 6ft gate when he delivered it.  I am pleased to report that the box and contents survived this treatment unscathed.

Sitting over the handsome box in anticipation of the contents inside left me with a nostalgic feeling of excitement which I last felt unwrapping presents as a boy on Christmas day.  Attention to detail was demonstrated by the fact that on opening one plate of miniature soldiers were left to be discovered at the top of the box as a tease of what lay beneath...

The contents:

I had bought the 18mm Jacobite '45 starter pack* and the box seemed well packed with plastic soldiers separated from the MDF bases and the MDF artillery by foam spacers.

There were 6 sprues of soldiers with two regiments of soldiers per sprue including a many casualty markers of ones and twos of injured soldiers.  In addition to the advertised regiments there were one or two extra sprues of soldiers which appear to be a mix of potential replacements in case any of the soldiers are damaged during assembly and a few tasters to some of the other regiments available in the range, which are not otherwise included in the starter pack.

In all the box included 368 ordered troops not including the Artillery and casualty markers:

• Seven regiments of plexiglass infantry:
•   Three regular government infantry with Blue, yellow and white facings. 
• Two Jacobite Highland regiments
• One Jacobite lowland regiment 
• and the Royal Eccosais Regiment which was a French regiment that fought on the side of the Jacobites.  
• Each regiment comprising four companies of eight soldiers arranged in two ranks of four soldiers. One of which including a flag to mark the command company.  Each company was set on a base of 30mm (or 40mm if you buy the 28mm models)
• One regiment of plexiglass government dragoons comprising four companies of eight dragoons in two ranks of four.  Strangely there was no command company for the Dragoons.
  
• One battery of MDF artillery comprising two guns and artillery men with models for both limbered and unlimbered guns.
• Two sets of commanders comprising four mounted figures with standards in a single rank.
  
• Some additional soldiers comprising:
• A couple of companies of the French Regular and other Highland and lowland regiments.
•  70+ casualty figures
•  Bases *base sets have to be bought separately meaning the price of the pack is more than the at first glance price on the website.
• Seven single rank 30x20mm bases for commanders or skirmishers
• 64 company 30x20mm wide bases of two ranks
• 48 15mm x 15mm bases for single characters and casualty figures.

The troops:

The infantry and cavalry for the regiments were excellent.  Well made, neatly cut out and easily punched out for the sprue.  They slid into the 30mm bases easily enough while ensuring a tight fit so not to slip out.  No glue or other fixant was required.  Of all the soldiers only two sets were unable to pop out but as I mentioned before the pack includes additional soldiers which replaced the ones that were defective.  

The single and double figure casualty markers can be fitted into the 15mm square bases.  The fit was not quite as snug for these and some gluing would be required for these.

The artillery was made of MDF.  Which I hadn't realised from the product description when ordering.  These were a little bit more fiddly to build and required some gluing.  For the 18mm models it became obvious as they were pushing the scale a little for this design as some of the guns were slightly damaged on removing them from the sprue.  Now I admit I was not the most careful but it did mean a little repairing was required.  It was also noticeable during building that some of the coloured lacquer on the guns came off very easily.  I get the feeling that these issues wouldn't be such a problem for the larger 28mm models.  However you can see from the photos that these were minor problems and are not overly noticeable once the guns are assembled.    This was definitely not a deal breaker for me.

Over all after around two hours of unpacking and assembling I was completely chuffed that I had two new fully built army ready to go.  I would definitely recommend this product and company and may well add to this collection in the future.

In the mean time look out for my first battle using my new army which I will post up a battle report shortly too.  You can also follow my upcoming Jacobite uprising campaign which will be based on the Black Powder Last Argument of Kings campaign "In my boots for the Prince - A Campaign of the 1745 Rebellion".  Though it will probably be played out using one of Keith Flints rulesets either Post of Honour or Honours of War which already has some modified rules for the period.

Instant Army in a box!

At some point, despite being 18mm being a bit on the small side.  I am also hoping to use them to play a small scale Sharp practice campaign as well of some smaller actions in the uprising.  Watch this space!

So follow me as my wee armies wargame the battles of Preston Pans, Falkirk Muir and of course Culloden.  As well as re-enacting some of the smaller skirmishes such as Clifton Moor and Keith.  Of course there may be some more fictional encounters along the way!

*Please note that all links marked with an asterix in this article are affiliate links where a small percentage of any purchase will go towards acquiring new toys for review on this site.  However this review is based on a true purchase and the product was not gifted to the reviewer.