Final Assemly: The Victrix Converged Lights

I've just begun painting these guys as I complete the Annapolis militia.  Just flesh and hair so far.

Yesterday I finished assembling a 24-figure unit of converged light infantry using the Victrix British flank companies.  The big question about the Victrix figures is-was spending less per figure worth the extra time and effort to assemble the figures?

Just to refresh your memory, I bought these figures three years ago at Enfilade.  My decision was based on the desire to get more figures cheaply for my War of 1812 project.  I bought three boxes of centre companies and one box of flank companies and believed that should be plenty.  Bladensburg has three line units and that should be enough. Anything left over could make some more units for the Baltimore campaign.

I posted last August about assembling the command figures while I was working at J-camp in Ellensburg.  Then I pretty much allowed them to languish until the spring when I dragged them out again and assembled a few more bits and put them away again. I made a deal with myself this summer that I would finish at least three War of 1812 units-the Marines, Annapolis militia, and the British unit of converged lights.  Well, the Marines are done, the militia is coming right along, and the summer is moving right along, so I thought it was important to get these guys ready to go.

Wednesday night I sat down in earnest and began assembly.  I'd already cleaned up all the bodies, but just hadn't worked out an effective way to assemble the miniatures.  I finally decided the thing to do was to assembly line it the best I could.

Is it just me or do these figures seem a little small.  The facial features are definitely miniscule; no eyes on these guys.

There are about eight sprues per box of figures, and they come in two types.  One has all the bodies and a some of the accessories, such as back packs and half-pikes for the sergeants.  The other has all the arms in their various poses with muskets and the heads.  I finally decided to cut off all the heads and the backpacks because they are on every figure except officers.  I glued the heads on first.  After that, I'd strip off all the alike arm/musket poses from each sprue and  glue those on.  When each sprue was done I'd glue on the backpacks.

There are some important lessons I learned along the way.  The lessons are important because I have three more boxes of center companies to assemble.  First, I assembled the lot with CA glue.  Probably not a good idea.  I know that is not recommended, but I also couldn't deal with not having an instant bond.  However, with many of the arm poses requiring two different pieces that meet in the middle, that requires some adjustment and coordination that CA glue just doesn't allow.  I'll be using my trusty Testor's model cement from now on. A second lesson I learned that may be useful regardless of what cement I use:  Glue on the rifle arm first.  It's easier to conform the support arm to the rifle arm than vice versa.

I've only primed these figures; I haven't begun painting them.  I'm hoping I might be able to get a start on them before I leave for J-camp on the 8th.