Pet Hate #327

[Nigel Heather]

Another minor but niggling pet hate. This one is about multi-pose plastic figures. I’m talking about Napoleonics in particular but this probably applies to other eras. And this isn’t a dig at Warlord Games, I’ve seen it in all manufacturers.

So what is this pet hate – shoulder wings – or what ever you choose to call them, those frilly ornate adornments on the shoulders. Practically everyone I have seen is moulded on the top centre of the arm – great if the arm is point straight down but often it isn’t. Quite often the wing ends up rotating around the shoulder so that it is pointing backwards. That is not how clothing moves, when you rotate your arm it rotates inside the tunic, the fabric might want to rotate but it can’t because it is stitched together. So whatever the position of the arm the wing stays pretty much top centre – it might move a little but not through 90 degrees.

And before you suggest that I am using the wrong arms on the wrong torsos to make unplanned poses – not the case, even when I stick to the instructions I end up with rotating wings.

[invisible officer]

Well, the French flank company epaulettes normally had not been fixed to the coat by sewing. Like officer ones they  had been removable for cleaning.  Nice for parade but in action they take every position one might think of.   I have in my collecion many uniforms with epaulettes and most rotate. Only those sewn to the coat do not move to strange positions. The heavier, the worse.

[Nigel Heather]

I’d happy to accept some movement either side even if the wings are sewn on just as the tunic distorts as the arm moves. And if the wings are removeable I’d accept that they may not always be position perfectly.

But it still seems wrong that when a soldier is holding a rifle in firing position the wing rotates a full 90 degrees and end up on the back rather than the top of the shoulder.

I appreciate that this would probably be impossible for the moulding process but it would be better if the wings were moulded on the torso. Also I appreciate there is another reason why they put the wings on the arms – so they can use the same torsos for centre and flank. I wish that when designing they would look at where the arms will be positioned and model the wings in an appropriate position.

If you look at white metal moulds, they don’t have the wings rotated round so that they facing backwards.

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