Perry Miniatures Desert Rats review

Being a devout follower of the Cult of the Shiny I was excited to learn that the Perry Twins were going to do 28mm world war 2 figures. I fondly remember the WW2 miniaures they sculpted for Wargames Foundry and in my opinion the majority of GW's best figures are also sculpted by them. I don't really game WW2 in 28 mm but I already have a bunch of Foundry, Artisan and Crusader WW2 figures, so I figured what the heck. I got to have them. Who cares if they are desert rats and everything else I have is geared towards the invasion of Britain in 1940?

A Bren Gun team laying down supporting fire under the direction of an NCO.

These differ a bit from the Perrys' earlier WW2 sculpts, namely being in plastic. One box gives you a whole platoon for 18 pounds. That is 38 multipart figures including officer and support weapons, with bases. Sizewise they are not as "heroically scaled" as some other companies' figures. I haven't compared them but I suspect that these do match the size of the WW2 figures they sculpted for Wargames Foundry some ten years ago.

Four riflemen advance cautiosly. Note the individual stances and details.

The figures are cleverly arranged on three sprues with 12 figures each and one small sprue with the platoon commander and radio operator. You also get a sheet detailing the breakdown of the platoon and a schematic of the sprues to help you assemble the figures. A platoon consists of three sections of ten men including the section leader and a bren gun team, plus a command section of 7 men. This includes the officer, his radioman, platoon sergeant, a runner, an AT rifle and a 2 inch mortar team. 

More rifleman and the section leader with a Thompson SMG. Does anybody know what's on the last guy's rifle?

Each large sprue have 12 individual bodies (7 standing/walking, 3 kneeling and 2 lying prone) and enough arms and equipment to build a complete squad, and then use the two left over figures for the command section. Each big sprue also has an AT rifle and a 2 inch mortar as well as some extra heads wearing arab headgear or commando caps suitable for making LRDG figures. All helmets are loose allowing you to choose how to place them on the figures. Some knives, spades and picks are also included as well as a set of extra ammo pouches for the bren gun loader.

Lots of extra goodies on this sprue.

When assembling the fiugres you need to do some thinking. (This took me back to the 1/32 Airfix Multipose figures!) First, most arms come in pairs which will fit most bodies, but some arms do seem to fit certain figures better and some worse. When I assembled the first squad shown here I had to swap a couple of arms around between the figures as I noticed one set of arms didn't really fit the body I had first glued them to. Nevertheless it's very easy to get lifelike and dynamic poses.

The command sprue. Not many options, but you can choose between a tommy gun or a pistol for the officer.

Secondly, the prone figures can either be assembled as a mortar team, an AT rifle team or a Bren gun team. You do get a carried bren gun on the sprue to make an advancing team, but you are only able to make one lying down bren gun team from the box if you want to do both the AT rifle and the mortar team. Since I'm not too keen on the advancing bren gun team I'm going to try and make one kneeling gunner resting the gun on a stone wall.

The bases included. They are from Renedra, nothing special but nice to get in the box too.

I really, really, really like these figures. I can't really find any fault with them, except that the heads are already molded on. It would have been nice to choose which way the figures look, but then they couldn't have put on the small details like sand goggles and scarves around the neck on some of the figures. Did I mention the price? 18 pounds for 38 figures is quite unbeatable and the fact that you get a whole platoon in one box is very handy. No need to buy that 2 inch mortar in metal or expensive resin.

There are some WIP shots are on the Perrys' workbench page. They are currently doing a Bren Gun carrier and the Deutsche Afrika Korps (scroll down). I can't wait!

I give the Perry Miniatures Desert Rats 5 out of 5. An essential buy if you do WW2 in 28mm.