Tales of Shedwood: Fireforge Mounted Sergeants & Infantry

Being a bit of an insomniac I was up early over the weekend and decided to crack on with the figuires for the Tales of Shedwood. As mentioned earlier I had purchased plastic fireforge mounted sergeants and infantry. Its been some years since i tackled plastic figures so this going to be interesting. At the back of my mind were a number of factors...

1.       At £20 for a box of 12 cavalry (£1.60/figure) was this good value compared with the £3+ I could expect to pay for a metal figure? The Infantry 48 figures for £22 was great value.
2.       Could my clumsy fingers put together these figures in a satisfactory way?

3.       Would they stand the test of time compared with the standard lead miniature?

4.       Were they ‘heavy enough – with a steel washer base for the table?

Both sets of figures are really nice, the mouldings appear to be clean and the plastic at first glance looks durable. There are lots of options with regards to weapons, heads, shields and poses. There will be a number of spare bits at the end of the day. I think it is fair to say that these are much better value than the GW plastic ranges with more torsos, legs etc but I still don’t understand why these guys don’t sell torso packs separately – with so many spare parts I do feel that I am missing out?

A few more observations if you are going to buy into the mounted range.

1.       I glued the horses torsos together and then started on their tails. It would appear that the tail needs to be glued to one half of the body first before sticking the torsos together. Otherwise its a bit of a pain to fit cleanly.

2.       The shields and shield arms should be positioned once the rider is sitting on the horse otherwise the shield will get in the way of the saddle pommel/horse neck

3.       If you are looking to create a set of figures in a similar pose – don’t expect you can do from these guys. With bodies turning, horse heads twisting and in a variety of motions (trots, canters & gallops) this is not going to happen.

The infantry figures are far more straightforward and from a box of 48 you can either make up 48 spearmen, 24 xbows/24 spears or all maneer of axe, sword and mace armed troops. With six diffeent body styles, 12 different heads and 54 different shierld types there is loads of variety.

In the end I pushed on with six mounted men at arms , six crossbows and six spears all painted in the same green & white livery

Until next time....