Warlord Games New (2021) British & Canadian Plastic Infantry: Review and Paint

One of the best things to come of miniature sculpting moving to the digital realm is the ease with which manufacturers can ensure accurate dimensions of parts to a plastic kit. This isn't a dig at metal miniatures, but rather that as companies continue adopting new methods of manufacture, we're given kits which are easier to assemble, have fewer gaps to fill, and - as in a lot of cases with sci-fi or fantasy miniatures - have parts which can be swapped across multiple kits to facilitate kitbashing and conversions. 

The best and easiest examples are some of Games Workshop's multi-part plastic kits. Space Marines, Orks, Imperial Guard and others are all designed so that arms, heads, weapons and the like are essentially cross-compatible across other kits in the same range. My favourite example of this is that the shiny new Primaris Marines still have pauldrons the same dimensions as the so-called Firstborn Marines. All the neat old shoulder pads in my bits box still fit! Other companies are moving in a similar direction, such as North Star's Oathmark and Frostgrave ranges (and if the upcoming Stargrave plastic kits can be judged by photos, the modularity there is going to be bonkers!). It's not totally unheard of in historical kits, though it does seem to be more rare, which is why it's such a neat thing to see adopted by Warlord Games for their latest few plastic infantry boxes.

THE NEW BRITISH/CANADIAN PLASTIC INFANTRY

I've been looking forward to these for years. Pretty much since I picked up the original box of plastic British infantry from Warlord, in fact. The old kit had weapons and hands separate to one another - which some people still prefer, admittedly - but I could never quite get weapons, arms and the like to line up properly and fit a pose that didn't look as though the soldier was trying to carefully balance a rifle in the crook of his elbow and pivot it against his index finger. Some modelers have the patience to soldier through these little difficulties (no pun intended) and have gotten some excellent results from the old kit, but it wasn't for me. After a couple of false starts with the old box, I finally gave up entirely with the kit, sent them on to somebody who'd get some use out of them, and swapped to metal miniatures.

It was when the new US infantry came along that the hopes of a nice, crisp, updated British infantry box started to take shape. The plastic US are fantastic, and although there's one or two minor things I'd have done differently with the contents, barring those little things it's an astoundingly good value box. The British and Commonwealth 8th Army boxes that followed were likewise excellent, and I was pleased to see the inclusion of a prone pose for mortar operators and Boys AT rifle gunners - more on that later - although some people seem to ardently detest prone figures. At long last, though, we finally have our new British infantry in late war kit, most suitable for the invasion of France and onward, though with a little bit of tweaking they fit well enough for other theaters, too.

The legs and upper body are one piece with the arms as either one or two piece sets carrying rifles, Sten guns, a PIAT and a 2" mortar. Included is a pistol hand with the Webley revolver, though you'll need to cut the hand from another arm to outfit an officer with his sidearm. Casting on all the kit is very nice, and there's a neat little manufacturing trick where most of the flash along the sides of torsos and equipment is at the extreme edge of an area of detail, making it much easier to clean off. A few little fiddly bits remain tucked behind knees and near gaiters - looking at you, running pose - but for the most part this isn't an issue. There's one kneeling pose and the other five are variously advancing, standing to fire and so on. In combination with the arms you can make a crazy variety of poses, and it's nice that there are actually rifles enough on each frame that you can arm every one of the six men on a frame with a rifle, although between your NCOs and support options, you'll probably not worry about that.

One thing which is conspicuously missing from the kit, in my opinion, is a Thompson SMG. Canadian forces would carry them until the end of the war, and so too would the New Zealand Division in Italy. It seems a strange omission to me when the boxes are labeled with British/Canadian when one of the more famous differences between British and Canadian kit isn't represented, but this is why the review opens on a comment about kitbashing. As you can see from the image above, it's a simple matter to take a spare Thompson from your US infantry (or ask a friend if you can nick theirs!) and the arms fit perfectly well on the British torsos. The buttons and cuff fixtures will be incorrect, but once you shave those away with your knife and paint the miniature, you'll never tell the difference. The other neat thing about the way these kits all fit together is that the 8th Army arms with rolled sleeves also fit on them, letting you make figures in khaki drill uniform suitable for most stages of the war, from skirmishing in the western desert, through Tunisia and into the hills of Sicily and Italy. 

The one downside here is the respirator case on the left hip, since the torsos have a shoulder strap for it moulded into the body. This square-bodied satchel was a later development, and though accurate for the late war period these miniatures are geared up for, it'd be nice if either there was also included the earlier respirator bag or the strap wasn't moulded into the torso so I could simply leave it off. As it is, either I have to paint the bag the wrong colour deliberately (which I can tell you from experience, people notice) or leave it off and have a strap running to nowhere. First world problems, I know, but it does date the miniatures in the kit quite specifically. This ordinarily isn't much of an issue since everybody's invading Normandy, anyhow... The 8th Army heads will also fit well on the new torsos, but have a slightly larger neck 'ball' than the standard heads for the British/Canadian infantry, so you'll need to file or trim them down just slightly so they sit properly.

SO WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE PAINTED?

Pretty good, I think! The combination of 8th Army arms and head works well, and despite knowing it's the wrong colour, the respirator case fills out the side of the rifleman's hip well and doesn't look terribly out of place. Just what I had in mind for my 2NZ Division troops marching through Italy on those sharp summer days! It's only after I'd taken photos that I realised I hadn't touched up the metal on the rifle with any gunmetal, but I'm sure you can imagine.

Then, of course, there's the standard kit straight from the box, and I think these new miniatures are a really fantastic boon to someone wanting to do a late war British force.

The finished figure would probably look even better with decals applied, but truth be told, I was looking to finish him a little more quickly so I could get some photos!

SO, IN CONCLUSION...

They're great. The new starter set is a pretty good deal, especially considering the range of variants you can make from the Churchill kit (and if you swap that Churchill into an earlier western desert force, it becomes a true terror of the tabletop). Personally, I'd plump for a second box of infantry to fill out the platoon with some reinforcements, but the kits themselves are fantastic. It's been a long wait for these ace new infantry figures, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of them on the table.