Renaissance plastics and conversions
I recently received an email asking if I would do a comparison blog on the late medieval Perry plastics. Of course, you need something to have a comparison with, so I've chosen the plastic Warlord Landsknechts and the Atlantic Renaissance range. I've also included a few metal figures for comparison.
As I've mentioned in my previous blogs, gamers want to know if set 'A's miniatures are compatible with the figures in set 'B's. Check out my previous blog on the topic of the definition of 28mm, at least from my personal perspective.
As usual, I'll post samples of the different components and comparison pictures of the different ranges, and even try some hybrids. I love mixing the parts of different sets and seeing what I can come up with.
For this blog, I am only looking at infantry. In my next blog, I'll look at plastic and metal cavalry for the Renaissance period.
First up, we have the Perrys plastics. While these are dated 1450-1500, their utility extends beyond 1500. Styles do change throughout this period, but there are very many similarities. The Italian states don't seem to have adopted all the frills we see with the Swiss Cantons and the Landsknechts. Certainly, with a few arm and head swaps, we can get some unique miniatures.
The Perrys have five sets of plastics: the Wars of the Roses infantry, European mercenaries, foot knights, light cavalry, and mounted men-at-arms.
Next, we have the Warlord plastic Landsknechts, which were originally from Pro Gloria Miniatures. They have three plastic sets, Landsknecht pikeman, Landsknecht zweihandlers, and Landsknecht missile troops.
The pikemen and zweihanders both have armour, while the missile troops are unarmoured. By mixing torsos, it'd be possible to make unarmoured pikemen or more armoured missile troops.
Finally, in our plastic ranges, we have the Atlantic Renaissance range. This consists currently of Conquistadors, Conquistador cavalry, and Renaissance heavy cavalry.
I have touched on the Atlantic Renaissance cavalry in a previous blog. I will return to the subject of cavalry in my next blog.
Here's a selection of heads, with Perry on the left, Warlord in the centre, and Atlantic on the right. They are, for the most part, the same size, with the Atlantic being a fraction larger. The only issue with conversions will be the way the head joins to the torso. Atlantic uses a flat neck, while Perry and Warlord use ball sockets.
In addition, both Perry Miniatures and Steel Fist have a range of compatible metal heads for conversions.
'Weapon arm'-wise, they are mostly compatible. Again, the Atlantic are slightly larger, being more heroic-sized miniatures. This may cause issues with conversions. I was surprised to see that Perry has the longest pikes (72mm), with Warlord measuring 65mm long and Atlantic at 51mm.
In this final photo, we have handgunners from Perry (left), Warlord (centre left), Atlantic (centre right), and Artizan Designs (right). For the most part, they all look compatible. Warlord's Landsknechts are the smallest, then Perry, with Atlantic being the largest. Even so, it'd be hard to tell them apart on the tabletop.
