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A meeting with the Perry twins
Alan and Michael Perry from Perry Miniatures recently spent an afternoon of drinks (that stretched into a whole evening!) with the Kapiti Fusiliers in Wellington, New Zealand. Here's Fusilier Roly's report of the event.
When recently the Perry twins gave the Kapiti Fusiliers a sneak preview of their forthcoming new plastic 25mm American Civil War figures in a bar in Wellington, it wasn't only the Fusiliers who were interested. The beautifully sculpted figures of Confederate/Union soldiers even attracted the attention of one of the bar-maids, who came over to the table and exclaimed at the detail. And who says you can't attract the girls with model soldiers?!
Alan and Michael Perry were in New Zealand on a combined family holiday and a business trip, doing a little more work on their 54mm WW1 project for Peter Jackson (see the Perry Miniatures website for photos of this work). Towards the end of their stay, they had a day spare and so joined a group of the Kapiti Fusiliers for a few drinks at the St John's Bar on a lovely balmy Sunday afternoon.
While the purpose of the meeting was purely social, it happened to coincide with the impending release of the new Perry Miniatures plastic ACW range, the news of which has caused so much excitement across the wargaming internet. So we felt very privileged when the twins unpacked a box on the table, and we saw the first grey sprue emerge.
Alan Perry brings out the sprue of the new 25mm ACW figures, as Fusiliers
Brian and Rhys look on in delight.
As the launch of these figures isn't till next month, we are unfortunately not permitted to show you close-up photographs of the sprue of figures. Suffice to say they are beautiful, and we are sure that existing and new ACW wargamers alike will be delighted with them.
Michael Perry lets us examine the sprue ... but unfortunately we can't
show it to you in close-up, so we've Photoshopped it with leaves!
Then, to add to our surprise and joy, Alan and Michael began producing greens out of the box. These turned out to be some of the first figures in an accompanying range of metal ACW figures that they plan to release a month after the plastics. And jaw-droppingly good they are, too!
Michael Perry and Fusiliers Peter and Greg watch intently as the greens
come out of the box.
These metal figures cover all the standard extra types you need to build up the cadre of plastic soldiers, such as mounted officers and characters. But a few of them have also been designed to match some normally hard-to-find poses for rules that require marker figures in certain poses. And they are all exquisite - everything you expect from the Perrys, and more!
We were very honoured when Michael and Alan said we could keep one of the new sprues. One of our number, Fusilier Brian, came up with the brilliant idea of framing the sprue and using it as a club trophy. This was made even more appropriate when it was found that one arm had been lost from the sprue in transit - you'll have to know the Perrys to understand the in-joke! So the framing is duly happening as we write.
They also generously left us a box of assembled test figures. We're planning to do a repeat of our Kapiti Fusiliers regiment project on these, where various Fusilier members will each paint up a company to make up a combined regiment. This will be the 1st Kapiti Volunteers Regiment. So watch this space!
Fusilier Rhys, Alan Perry, Fusilier Roly, Michael Perry, Fusiliers
Peter (obscured) and Greg chew the fat, while Michael carefully repacks
the greens he has shown us.
We had some very interesting discussions with the twins about future projects. While the Perrys didn't let any major plans slip, they did listen to the various suggestions we made. We'll be interested to see if in the future we see Perry Miniatures put out a new range, and can put our hands up and say "The Kapiti Fusiliers gave them that idea!"
The Fusiliers would like to thank the Perrys for taking the time out of a short and crammed holiday and business schedule to spend time with us. They are very affable blokes, and great representatives of the hobby.
Michael Perry, Fusiliers Peter and Greg focus on the figures.
