Expeditonary Force Napoleonic British Line Infantry our very good friend Peter Bergner from Germany sent the following information. Expeditionary Force is releasing this week their British Line Infantry. These figures will be welcome additions on the battlefield. We are printing the press releasse in its entirely.
Expeditonary Force Napoleonic British Line Infantry Press Release
54 BRT 01 Line Infantry
The box-set contains 9 models with 1 sergeant and 8 infantrymen (centre companies) with action postures for skirmishing, defending and advancing.
Note that there will be a few sister sets for the flank companies (arms with epaulette-wings), light infantry (with stovepipe shakos/scots bonnets); royal marines (top hats) and Canadian Militia (with top hats). Due to space limitation in the toolings, we have to put the extra arms and heads into a separate mould together with the highland infantry.
Like the French range, there will be officers and command sets as well. Cavalry and artillery will follow.
This British Line Infantry set was targeted for late-September but some necessary final toolings touch-ups and the Chinese October holidays frustrated that.
Three French cavalry sets (Chasseurs, Lancers, and Dragoons) are already in toolings since September 2017 and are targeted for late-October 2017. The artillery set will follow in November, in time for Christmas.
Expeditonary Force Napoleonic British Line Infantry Future Plans
For the Napoleonic British range, the following sets are in the works:-
Line Infantry (Centre Companies) – to be released this week.
Foot Guards/Line Flank Companies (winged-epaulettes)
Light Infantry (stove-pipe Shako)
Infantry Officers/Command
Royal Marines (Top Hats with tied-up brims)
Canadian Militia (Top Hats)
Highland Infantry (in kilts)
Also Highland Light Infantry (Scots bonnets )
Highland Officers/Command
These are already in progress.
Dragoons/Scots Greys/Life Guards
Hussars
Royal Horse Artillery
Canadian Light Dragoons (Tarleton Helmets);
These are already planned.
The first of the Americans of 1812:-
American Militia in civilian clothes is also already in progress.
These are the three major ranges for the Napoleonic Wars.
Special accessory items for Dutch-Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Bavarian, Polish, etc. regiments will be included once the main armies are done as their torso-uniforms are similar to the main armies .
Will keep you posted.
Looking forward to your kind support.
Cheers,
Scott
All I can say about this Expeditionary Force Napoleonic line is “WOW”.
Of course, the prices are so expensive that I’m still trying to catch up on the ExForce Greek and Persian sets, to add to my Conte Spartans and to my LOD Trojan War series.
Also, the ExForce Zulu War series was so great I’m still trying to complete it as well.
I’ve actually gotton of couple of discounted ExForce re-sell sets at shows, and I’m hoping to encounter a few more at next weekend’s Columbus, Ohio Toy Soldier Show.
Maybe if they make them out of platinum they can lower the price. 🙂
Do these qualify as ‘swoppets’ ?
I don’t think so, because every part on the ExForce pieces seems intended to be permanently glued, or cemented into place. In any event, they are much more stable than a typical ‘swoppet’.
When the ExForce medievals first came out, I initially complained that the mounted poses in particular had too much glueing required to suit me: horses had to be glued to the bases, horse reins had to be glued into the horses mouths, shields had to be glued onto the rider’s arms, etc. But the medieval mounted sets were probably the most complex in that respect, and I’ve since sort of gotton used to what’s going to be required when I open an ExForce box.
I now think (except for the about $4.00 per figure price) — $32 – 34 for a boxed set of 9 figures, all different — that these are among the best soft plastic figures around.
And the basic reason the cost of them becomes so formidable is that ExForce releases so many sets in each line, and releases it’s lines in such quick succession. None of this “one little set a year” business.
I agree with you there, Don. I’ve backed off from their figures after their scale issues (which I hope are resolved now) – I AM tempted to go for these though; Napoleonics are my soft spot. Maybe I can scrape enough extra money together if they offer an “Army package” as they have with other lines. If not, perhaps I can beg “Mama” for Christmas?
These figures look Great. I might have to start collecting Napoleonic figures again.
These figures are fantastic: I hope they go on to do Romans and more American Civil War. Many thanks to Scott for his amazing contribution to the hobby.
Great scale fit well with other figures. Impressive range.
Some shots of figures on blog more coming.
Thank you for showing an unassembled ExForce set. I have never seen one before and was curious about exactly how much work was involved getting one together.
Instead of selling entirely different sets with the different hats, ExForce ought to just include sprues of the different heads in each set. I still imagine their warehouse being full of oversized German Infantry in Wedge Caps.
Whenever there is a discussion about Expeditionary Force there seems to be a recurring theme of “nice figures, shame about the price”. With regular price increases and the poor performance of the pound since “Brexit”, the cost in the UK is now £27 ($35.60) for 9 figures. (Steve Weston states that he has absorbed some of the latest price increases, otherwise the price would be £30). £3 ($4) per figure for an unpainted casting that you have to assemble yourself, does not seem good value for money. I have paid full price for a few sets, but like Don Perkins I check out toy soldier shows for bargains. (Peter Bergner was a good source at the PW show). I would be tempted to buy more sets if there were more figures per box. I am not an expert on the economics of making toy soldiers, but I would have thought that the most expensive part would be the initial design, sculpting, tooling and mould making. To run out extra castings would be relatively inexpensive. If there were say 15 figures per box the cost would be less than £2 per figure ( more in line with TSSD, Paragon, Replicants, LOD etc.), which would be much more acceptable. Giving better value for money may even increase sales and lead to a better profit?
John this going to be an ongoing question in the hobby. How much are you willing pay for a figure. This question will be for old or new figures. I agree the price is high on the Expeditionary Force figures is one of the reasons I have not bought them for myself. I may change that when I see the 1812 American figures. Each person has to make their decision if they arewilling to pay or not.
I bought one set of Natal/Boer Volunteers because I liked the horses with separate saddles and converted the figures to Wild West cowboys; and one set of Naval Landing Party with Gatling guns that I converted to ACW gun crews. The Gatling guns were outstanding. The figures are OK and I would like more horses, but I personally won’t be buying a lot of the sets. Price is one object, although it’s a little cheaper to buy them direct from web site. The other object is they seem a little redundant after the first two sets. Maybe if something unusual in American Western or ACW or easily converted, I’ll consider it. The quality is nice but the sculpting is a little plain.
Nice figures.
Looking forward to properly scaled 1:32 WWII.
Then I will happily spend $300 on each set!
My own take on ExForce guys is their style of sculpting and posing lends itself more to Napoleonic formation style warfare – and even to the ACW somewhat than the more fluid tactics of 20th Century conflicts. At the same time, Christian has a point – if the scale of their WW2 figures was compatible with other companies’ output their figures would make great additions to any WW2 Army, for the command and special poses alone.
The Expeditionary Force soldier look beautiful, and appear to be very well-engineered for multipart figures. The irony is that their price-point makes them somewhat problematic for mass-formation armies like those of the Napoleonic period if you are a gamer or going for a large display. Even if not as impressive, the AIP and Hat figures are much more economical for building up units. On the other hand, the Expeditionary Force figures make much more sense for skirmish scenarios, making them perfect for conflicts like WWII. It is too bad that their WWII figures are a bit too big to mix with most of the other WWII figures out there.
The scale of the WW2 German figures has been discussed and ExForce has stated that the North African/Italian campaign and Pacific campaign figures will be 54mm but the European campaign will be kept at 60mm as they have already a large investment in the moulds despite the error in size.
The way that Exforce produces its’ figure sets, I would think that any new WW2 figures may come after the Napoleonics. He can only do so much at one time and has a pretty good range of sets and periods for the short time they have been in business.
I don’t know about that 54 mm specific range .As far i see and have there will be in the 56/58 mm and 60 mm germans and american 12 sets were not a mistake as far i red.
Regarding next coming sets the order is as follow by his own words.
The letter send by Scott read as this and can be see full in entire post link bellow.
From Scott.
The plans for the WW2 era are as follows:-
European Theatre – 1939 to 1945, Battles in France, Germany, Russia and the Balkans will be in 60mm.
We have already released Germans (1939-1944), Americans (1944-1945) and Free French (in American supplied uniforms). The next items planned are late War Germans (in camo-jackets and ankle boots, 1943-1945), and then the Battle of the Bulge (in winter great coats). Further expansion to the range will be for the Eastern front with Russians and actions in the Balkans (Chetniks and Serbs).
We have already invested in this size (tooling and inventory) and have a
sizable customer base for it and, will continue to support the range: 60 WW2 range.
Pacific War – 1937 to 1945, Battles in China, Burma and the Pacific Islands will be in 54mm. This is due to popular requests from a couple of retailers in Europe and the US. As we have not yet invested in anything for this range, we will do this in 56-58mm for the 54 PW range. The range will include Japanese, US Marines, British Commonwealth (in Burma) and Chinese forces.
North African Desert Campaigns – 1940 to 1943, Battles between the Italians, German (DAK), and British Commonwealth (Desert Rats) will be 56-58mm:
This is also for the same reasons given above for the Pacific War.
http://www.stadsstuff.com/?p=6256
Correct.
Although the figures are 56/58mm they still list them as 54mm. The 60mm listed ranges are bigger than 60mm too.
I’m happy to hear the Pacific and North Africa ranges will be a usable scale, but extremely sad that the Eastern Front figures will be in the useless (to me) larger scale.
Oh well, hopefully I can adapt some of the Afrika Korps to service on the Russian Front. A little dark grey paint did wonders for some of the Matchbox D.A.K.
Totally agree.
I wish them well, though; hopefully, they can make their model work as I think they are making a great contribution to the hobby.
Hi Scott
I am fast coming up to 70 years of age , I started toy soldiers at about 10 years
old .In the UK Britains Herald and Tempo were the main ones I played with.
Then in good old Woolworths Airfix changed everything.
Great figures for the time, but even then the difference in figure size was
the main problem.[French imperial guard as an example]
I have the same problem today . I have the same issues with the 54mm
plastic very good sculpting in most cases but poses in some cases need a lot to
be desired.
I have collected a Napoleonic army in 54mm plastic [mainly hat] and with
good bases a little head swooping and converting I have a very pleasing
Napoleonic army [not a red coat in sight.]
I look forward to your cavalry .If you could produce separate heads and
packs etc that would be of the greatest interest to me.
Best Regards
Dave Noyce
I wonder if the arms line up correctly and you can swap them with other torso’s. For example would the firing arms poses line up correctly with the marching guys?
In the couple sets I’ve bought, the arms are swappable to some extent. It’s not automatic on every figure. Of course, you can always cut them to fit.
I can’t speak for every ExForce set, only the Napoleonic set – not only did I use the different arm poses on the different torsos, but the arm positions are adjustable, creating multiple poses with the same arm/head/torso pieces. I thought that the bodies were redundant, but I was surprised how varied they looked with a little imagination in the positioning. Ed, I know that you like to glue and pin your conversions, but FYI to others, the only pieces I had to glue were the single marching arms.
Just heard from Scott at Exforce that the size of the Napoleonics is the same as the Zulu War range and that arms and heads are interchangeable between ranges.
He will be putting a comparison pic of a Napoleonic figure next to a ruler on the site for those that need the info before ordering.
thanks guys.
Sure! You’d have no problem with them. Try to find a set that includes a couple mounted figures; the horses are some of the best I own. Order direct from Xforce for better total cost.
http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/
54 BRT 01 is now available.
http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/54mm-Napoleonic-British/54-BRT-01-Line-Infantry-Centre-Coy.–1812-1815–p-269.html
Expedition Force
Have just received my first box of French Line Lancers
and first imprisons very pleased, ,I paid over 32 English
pounds for them, but I do not think that to bad for 5 mounted
figures. The lancers will paint up well with their different
colour uniforms , and their poses are great.
All parts go together well and they will look great on the wargames
table.
The horses are good ,but I will put mine on different bases.
The great thing about these figures is what you can do with them.
all the infantry parts go very well on Victrix 54mm French infantry,
especially the heads.
The lancers look great on Italeri French Hussar horses ,and with
head swoops all kinds of cavalry can be made.
look forward to their artillery .
regards
Dave UK
The horses good and go together well ,I will put