Kid in a candy store

I came back home from work last night to find 3 parcels waiting for me for various suppliers..., tearing open all the boxes I felt like a kid in a candy store!

First up was the replacement pack of strumpets from Reaper. I have to say although it took a while to finalise, Reapers customer service has been very good. I initially bought a couple of packs of Reaper products from an Ebay trader, but when they arrived, one of the figures was snapped off its base at the ankles. I contacted the trader, who also kept in touch through the the process. He refunded the cost of the figure and advised me to get in touch with Reaper directly.
I did so, and they offered to send me a replacement pack, free of charge. I waited and the pack arrived, but again the same figure had the same damage! Turns out it was a 'bad batch'. They sent a further pack as a replacement, so now I have three more strumpets, or should that be a Madame and two strumpets to add to my pirate setting :-)

Secondly, my small pack of goodies arrived from Eureka. Again Nic was very helpful, with getting a small 'fiddly' order together for me of a few bits and bobs I wanted to complete my C18th coach and horses set up I am planning, again to add a bit of flair to my pirate setting. More of that on a later blog post...

And finally my order from Wargames Factory - The WSS 'Brits', and a box each of Zulus, and Colonial British. All looked splendid.
One thing I found interesting is that they have given some thought to how the plastic sprues stack together, inside the box. Having pulled them out to have look, they very easily stacked up and went back in the box. This contrasts somewhat with the Perry plastics I bought a little while back! Don't get me wrong the Perrys are nice figures, but when I have opened a box and pulled out the sprues to have a look, its a real bugger to get them back in the box! Maybe that's a Perry ploy, to get you to paint them!?

Also I did note the faces of the WSS figures and can see why some of the painted examples (on the box and web) have very 'googly looking' eyes. The figures have been scultped with a rather protruding eyeball. They look rather like Marty Feldman:

I will have to experiment with trimming or sanding down the eyes, or just experiment with painting and see how they turn out.
Other than that the WSS are actually very nice looking figs, at least on their sprues. Time will tell as I assemble them!

So once again I am snowed under with painting jobs!

So many periods, so little time...