Review - Black Pyramid Games Beorn Kin (28mm)

Today's review is of the Black Pyramid Games 'beorn kin' figures. Although they have been out for a few years,  they aren't terribly well known. Currently the range has 3 packs - warriors, a chieftain and a chieftain mounted on a bear. There are more in the pipeline,  including cavalry,  a command pack and a witch. The review will cover the warrior and chieftain packs.

The figures are inspired by the Wendol cannibal cavemen from the film 13th Warrior, and are pretty good matches - down to the bear claw studded clubs and the chief having the horns of power. 

Each pack contained the bits shown, and the correct number of scenic resin bases. The chieftains arms are repeats of those from the warriors pack, but give pretty good verasatility.

The sculpting on the figures is good - not stupendous, but definitely more than adequate for the job and probably comparable to the likes of warlord.

(Speaking of which, the figures in the scale comparisons above are a Warlord standard bearer and a musketeer miniatures spearman. The figures beorn kin warriors are a little larger than the others, with the chieftain larger still.)  

The castings were also pretty good - a few mould lines, but they were all easily removable.  The fit of the seperate arms seems good,  and all seem compatible with all the bodies. 

Time for a few more comparison pictures...

From the left: Eureka, bk, Musketeer, bk, Artizan.

From the left: Artizan, bk, Warlord, bk and Gripping Beast. 

Overall I'm very pleased with the figures, and the 4 warriors for £6 is a good enough price.  The chieftain for £4 is a little steep, but as a one off isn't out the way. I'll definitely be getting some more warriors, and probably the other bits when they come out.  These guys would make for a great,  unique, Saga army!

Eureka Tyrolean height comparison & review

Just a very quick update, using an old post I discovered lurking in draft form - a size comparison for the Eureka Tyrolean Rebel figures, against various other manufacturers of 'Empire of the Dead' type figures...

From the left: Old glory cowboy wars, Artizan, Westwind GH, Eureka, Westwind EOTD, Boot Hill & Design 28.

The Eureka figures are great - very characterful, next to no casting marks, and fit in almost perfectly with the likes of the Westwind Gothic Horror mobs. The only thing stopping my buying more is the fact that they aren't the cheapest (£2.25 a pop) and can only order 'types' (Musket and certain type of hat, as an example) of which it's possible to get 4 different varients....

Airfix IS-3 Review

I picked up a IS-3 on ebay the other day - I had an idea of using it as a heavy support for my Polish Partizans (I just like the profile of the IS-3. It is an iconic piece of early cold war hardware, and wanted to incorporate it somehow.) 

During the late 40's/early 50's, the USSR supplied Poland with a pair of IS-3 tanks,  but they never saw any service. Instead, they were put on display, presumably as signs of 'Communist Union'. (Here's a picture of one of them in a museum somewhere in Poland...)

Anyway, the thought is that if one of these beasts is sitting on display somewhere, it wouldn't have been too hard for some partizans to 're-purpose' it - I had visions of it being trucked off somewhere for 're-painting', and never coming back, much to the chagrin of the policeman who had stood by and watched it. (This is also partly inspired by one of the factions in Arma II, who have a T-34 from a similar disreputable source...). 

I'm planning to keep the paint scheme similar to the one in the photo, but adding the Polish flag across the front (as opposed to the diamond shaped checks  used on Polish army vehicles) and the 'Solidarity' slogan along the track guards...

Anyway, enough of my plans - on to the review. The kit was fairly simple (67 pieces) and went together quickly and generally fairly easily. Detail was acceptable - infact, perfectly suited for gaming. What was strange was the lack of care in the moulding - the part ID numbers on the track sections were moulded on the visible side, rather than the reverse. It wasn't hard to remove them, but it was just a bit of hassle. The vents on the muzzle of the barrel were completely absent from one side, and there were very visible mould marks. Again, it wasn't too hard to remedy the fact, but it just seemed a pity. 

I'll put pictures up once I've got the paint job sorted...

Elhiem Miniatures Figure Review & Scale comparison

Matt at Elhiem (http://www.elhiemfigures.com/) kindly sent me some sample figures from his cold war ranges so I could see how they match up with everything else - in this case a Soviet RPG operator in body armour, and a BAOR CG trooper. 

The figures look good - mould lines are minimal, there's no flash and casting is crisp. The sculpting standard is very high - the equipment is all distinct, but kept to realistic proportions, and the poses look very natural.

In terms of how they compare size wise, they are a little taller than Platoon 20, Liberation & Combat, but still a fair bit shorter than Under fire. The picture below shows the height of 'standing' figures (I foolishly forgot to include a Liberation model in this, but they will be the same size as P20...)

From the left: Combat/Hotspur, Platoon 20, Platoon 20, Combat/Hotspur, Elhiem, Under Fire

From the Left: Platoon 20, Combat/Hotspur, Elhiem

So there is a slight height variation between 'upright' figures, but if the figures are moving, hunched down (below) the variation is a lot less noticeable... 

From the left: Platoon 20, Elhiem, Liberation, Combat/Hotspur

The major 'give-away' therefore will be in terms of the size of the figures equipment (Ooo-eer!) - RPG-7's & CGs. Unfortunately I can only give comparisons with Platoon 20 in this respect, are the differences are varied. The warhead on the P20 RPG is significantly smaller, but the body of the launcher looks to be about the same size. The Carl Gustavs are about the same length, but the Elhiem version is a little finer...

So.... The verdict. Lovely figures, and they mix relatively well with the others - but not so well I could mix them in squads (and possibly not in platoons...). Definitely looking to get some more in the future, but maybe not masses...

Combat Miniatures (Ex-Hotspur) size comparison and review

Well, my order just arrived from Stonewall  Figures (http://www.stonewallfigures.co.uk/shop/index.php/page,shop.index2) - I picked up 3 packs from their Combat miniatures:'Urban operations' range - a Old Hotspur miniatures line. These were Anti-Terrorist Squad, Criminals-Terrorists & Plain Clothes Detectives As the pictures on the site aren't the worlds greatest, it was going to be a bit of pot luck, especially given  some of the horror stories I'd heard about the figures being poorly cast.

Well - they aren't up to the same level of casting as Platoon 20, and are a long way off Liberation Miniatures and Under Fire Miniatures. They aren't as bad as some people seem to feel they are either.

There is quite a lot of flash, and a couple of the figures  look like the moulds weren't quite aligned and so there is a slight ridge between halves. But none look too bad, and all the figures should be salvageable without much work.

Sculpting is ok - a little soft on some, quite crisp and detailed on others. In terms of style, it is quite similar to Liberation miniatures.Generally the poses are good, and look pretty natural. The AT squad are bulkier figures than the others, and are of similar build to the 'chunkier' of the Platoon 20 figures.

From the left: Under fire, Platoon 20, Combat/Hotspur, Liberation

From the left: Platoon 20, Liberation, Combat/Hotspur, Combat/Hotspur

The verdict is: Good enough. I'd definitely buy some more of the figures, but I wouldn't make Combat my primary  source. They have some interesting models (e.g. British Infantry in Internal Security gear, riot cops, etc) but if I could get the stuff from Liberation or Platoon 20, I'd probably go to them in preference.

Liberation Miniatures - Review and height comparison

I bought a 1/2 pack of Liberation miniatures armed civillians from Pumpkin models on eBay.

Initial impressions are good - the figures were very clean castings, with good detailing and proportions. My only (slightly ambivalent) comment is that the heads look very similar (in terms of hair-style, etc); but at this scale it shouldn't make any difference. 

The figures are equipment light - only 1 has any sort of webbing (a Chi-Com or soviet style magazine bag). Clothing wise, there is one guy in trousers and shirt, and 3 in 'suits'. I say suits as they are wearing trousers and jackets - although they aren't wearing shirt collars, so it should be possible to get away with painting them as separate 'everyday' jackets.

Height wise they match up really nicely with Platoon 20, especially the slightly smaller figures... the photo below shows 2 of the figures  (unpainted) with Under Fire (unpainted far left) and Platoon 20 (part-painted))

From the left: Under Fire, Platoon 20, Liberation, Platoon 20, Liberation. Platoon 20

Definitely planning to get more from this range in the future!

Under fire miniatures - a review

The second of my '20mm' samplers came today - 2 figures from 'Under Fire Miniatures' (http://www.underfireminiatures.com/). They are a Rhodesian RLI rifleman, and a ZANLA terrorist. The figures are shown below along with a selection of  Platoon 20 figures (including one of the shorter figures from P-B1, on his plasticard booster)

The first and most obvious difference is height, and sculpting style. Whilst the Platoon 20 figures are '1:76th'. with a 'wargames' chunky build, the Under fire figures are 1/72nd scale, with a realistic build. The details are very cleanly sculpted, and more 'inscale' /less pronounced than the Platoon 20 equivalents. The weapons in particular are very fine, and I have slight concern over how robust they will be. 

The quality of the castings is very good - they have minimal mould lines, and no flash/metal fluff anywhere. 

Overall, I'm very impressed - certainly if I was doing modern Africa in 20mm rather than 28mm,  these guys would be very strong contenders. As it is, they aren't going to be suitable for my planned use as Anti-Soviet partisans/NATO stay-behind forces.

John (he of cracking African scenery fame) was talking about this range the other day - I'll probably pass one onto him to see what he thinks of them 'in the flesh', and if he gets around to painting to it I'll post some pics up so folks can see how they look. The other I'll keep hold of for use in other size comparison pictures...

A trip to town = goodies!

On Saturday we went pottering around town, and I discovered further advantages of doing stuff in 20mm: model shops become useful for more than stocking up on paint and glue! Between Antix & Modelzone, we spent £36 and came away with 2x BTR-80 pre paints, an 'army' land rover, a mini & an electricity sub-station (reduced from £30something to £12) - here are some pics, along with some figures for scale. The BTR-80s are both 1:72nd, whilst the rest is 1:76th/OO scale. Technically the platoon 20 figures are 1/6th scale, but that is without their built in bases, or penny washer mounts.

As an aside, on of the scale figures in the Platoon 20 90's British Infantryman which I don't think I ever got around to putting up the other week...

So, the OO scale stuff is a little too small, but doesn't look out the way - especially not at a glance - and looks 'alright' alongside the 1/72nd military vehicles. As I don't really get on well with painting vehicles or scenery, the availability of pre-paints means that my forces are more likely to get finished sooner, and have something to fight around! The only downside is that most of the readily available buildings are very British - good for England invaded & Winter of 79 games, less good for trying to represent West Germany... still, there are some ranges of OO/HO continental railway buildings out there, so some of those might be of use...  

More Platoon 20 figures - a continuation of my review...

So, my next batch of Platoon 20 figures arrived - British packs (P-b)1, 6 & 6a; and Soviet packs (M-SM) 1, 2, 3, 5 & 8  - enough to make a section of British Marines/Paras with GPMG & CG, as well as having a guy with a blow-pipe, and officer, radio op & NCO in beret left over; who will form the nucleus of my infantry; and 2 sections of Soviet Motor rifles (either BTR-80 or BMP1/2 mounted) with between 7-9 men, 1x RPG-7, 1x RPK & 1x PKM, a platoon HQ and the beginnings of a 3rd section.

Actually, that's a bit of a lie. In the packs, the MG pack has 1x RPK, 1x PKM & 2x RPD. At the moment the RPDs are standing in for both an RPK and a PKM, but these will be balanced out when I put in an order to Liberation at some point. To meet the orbats in the various Cold War Gone Hot scenarios, I'll also need to get a couple of guys with SVDs, and  a few with AK/UGL combinations (I've got one so far).

Generally speaking, the castings are still fairly good to good - a few have more mould lines/more flash than others, and the occasional figure has slight 'metal fluff' around then end of their rifle (this mainly seenm to effects the Soviets)'. My main comment is that whilst the rest of the figures live up very well to comparison with my 'taster' figures, the British command  (P-B1) are noticeably poorer than other figures -the models are shorter, have less defined detail and are not as clean castings. The photo shows 2 of them (guys in sand base coat) alongside 2 figures from P-B6. The standing command figure is actually mounted on a slice of credit card to brig him up to height!

The figures take paint readily enough, here are some I finished today - the blowpipe operator is from P-b6a, whilst the other two are from P-B1

As I say, definitely not dreadful, just not as nice as some of their others. If it turns out the rest of the Platoon 20 squaddies are of this quality, then I might well focus on the like of Britannia & Liberation to fill out numbers; but it certainly won't put me off getting things from them which other manufacturers don't make (Wombats!). I'm going to finish with a gratuitous close-up of my soviet platoon commanders, just to show how nice the figures are!

More on 20mm - Platoon 20 mini review

Thanks to everyone for their imput, thoughts and comments - I hope I'm not boring folks (too much) with these musings!  Still making my mind up - I think any final decision is going to wait until my other 'sample' figures turn up and see how they all mesh together, and if I like the finished results, but I am currently leaning towards 20mm...

Well, the first of my 20mm samples turned up mid-week: 3 figures from East Riding Miniature's "Platoon 20" line.  They comprised a 1990's British Infantry man (will I be able to paint DPM in 20mm? I struggle in 28!), a 1970's Soviet Motor Rifleman in hooded camo suit and a masked 'bank-robber' type with a stocking over his head with a shotgun.

Initial impressions were good - the figures were bigger than I was expecting (a strange thing to say, but mentally I was picturing them as being closer to 15mm than, say, the old Grenadier 25mm 'Secret Agents' range), and there wasn't too much in the way of mould lines (what there was came of quickly and easily).

I based the 3 figures on penny washers (my default basing medium, as I'm not sure what else one could base them on...) got them primed this morning, and once the primer was dry I thought I'd quickly do the basecoat... You can imagine how surprised I was that I had finished 2 of the figures by the time I had to leave for work (25 mins later!).

The Motor-rifleman was based on an illustration from this book:

Far right-hand side in the picture below to be precise. The only problem is, I've never seen that camo being used anywhere else! Hey ho - he looks good, which is the main thing from my perspective!

Whilst the masked (stocking-ed?) gunman is vaguely based on the gunmen from the 'Squeaky clean cleaning company' in Max Payne 2, although he has a different logo on his back, and has turned out more blue than grey... so actually, I guess he's not really based on them at all!