I would like to share with you my first impressions after rereiving miniatures from Euphoria: Ghost kickstarter. These are 32mm metal miniatures of modern mercenaries sculpted by Juan Díaz. They are multi part miniatures (body + head + arms) so you have quite a lot of possible combinations of the components, making each figure a unique one. I have to say that casts are really good and mold lines are easy to remove. Let’s show some pictures.
First 17 Ghost miniatures. Normally there are 8 Ghosts in the set, but all the KS freebies made this number rise more than twice 🙂 There are 8 different body variants and many different heads (bare, with hat, beret, scarf, sunglasses – whatever you wish). As for the weapons – there are knifes, pistols, various assault rifles (in most cases variants of M4), heavy weapons like Minimi or AA12 and sniper rifles. Different weapons and gear would really make each mini interesting and unique. Moreover these are mercenaries and unlike line soldiers they wear different clothes, like uniform parts, jeans, jackets, T-shirts, jumpers. You can paint them in various colors to even further diversify them. All the miniatures are supplied with 30mm round lipped bases.
Drone controller with 2 drones – proper reconnaissance is a must!
Dog handler with his dog. I am sure that it has a very good nose and sharp teeth. I mean the dog, not the handler 😉
Injured Ghost. Yes – even Ghosts are not immune of gunfire.
Little Colibri – Ghost helicopter. I could not resist to buy this resin vehicle. It was not expensive (15 EUR) and well scaled for 32 mm (it is 140mm long from nose to tail). As for the drawbacks – it is not very detailed and the cast is not perfect (there are few air bubbles). Well, I can consider it as a challenge for my modelling skills 🙂
As the last thing – here are some scenery elements from Euphoria – garbage bins, vending machines and barrels. They are great for diorama or as objectives in tabletop game.
I am going to paint a couple of these miniatures in the near future.
Bantam Alley Wargames Resin Bits & Terrain – review
I was given an opportunity to write a few words about products from NEW Bantam Alley I Wargames Resin Bits & Terrain Kickstarter. It is launched by StudioLevel – a Polish company which already have quite a lot of cool diorama elements (mostly fantasy ruins).
The products offered on Kickstarter are 28-32mm finest quality handmade resin casts in post-apocalyptic and industrial theme. They include such cool stuff like detailed technical plates, hatches, barrels, furniture or even whole ready for painting scenery!
(click to see bigger photo)
On the basis of items I received I can say that StudioLevel have done a wonderful job. Items are made of dark, high quality resin and I found no air bubbles or casting imperfections. I am really impressed with their casting quality. They need only a minimal amount of work before painting. This stuff should be great addition to any diorama or scenic base. Let’s have a closer look at individual items:
Wrecked Hummer – there is really tons of details to be painted:
Barricade – another detailed diorama element:
Barrels – even trashed barrels can look cool:
Large engine:
Large electric boxes:
Bottle crates (and small electric boxes):
Round hatches (40mm to 20mm diameter):
Small square panels (average 20x30mm in size):
Large panels measuring from 110x110mm to 60x60mm:
Items that I received for this review are only a small selection of all the available pieces that are offered on Kickstarter. If you want to acquire some really great items for wargaming or to diversify your diorama or figure bases, you can give your support for Bantam Alley KS. If you are more of a gamer than painter, you can even buy painted versions of these products.
I am going to use this stuff on diorama for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare which I hope to receive in a couple of months. Of course I am not going to wait that long with painting of these wonderfull items, so expect painted samples here in the following days.
3D Bases Modular Terrain – Review
Recenty I received my 3D Bases Modular Terrain from Manorhouse Workshop that I purchased through their Kickstarter campaign ended over 1 year ago. Time passes so quickly… Anyway, since I have those bases in my hands I decided to share my first impressions with you.
Each base is a square 30 x 30 cm (approximately 12 x 12 inches) and is designed to be used with miniatures in the 25-35mm scale range. They are made of rubbery material – after being bent or squeezed they regain their original shape. This means that they should not be damaged easily. I will not test them too violently in case they nevertheless happen to break 🙂
I ordered total 18 bases, which allows me to build 90 x 180 cm terrain. That occupies the whole table! I did not have place to present them all at once, but here are just 6 Abbey bases building 60 x 90 cm wargame terrain:
(click to see bigger photo)
Since the bases are square, even a few of them can be put in almost endless combinations. This allows to build many different sceneries.
There are some little miscasts caused by air bubbles durring casting process, but this is nothing that cannot be fixed with some Green Stuff. I noticed those imperfections only on the most elaborate bases. More flat ones are cast perfectly.
The material can be painted and I plan to paint and show you finished examples quite soon. Maybe I will even make step-by-step painting article 🙂
As you can see the design of those bases realy varies – from quite flat terrain like stone slabs, through more bulging bocage terrain. And top of the tops are broken column and ruined abbey bases – these are really great pieces that stand up to 5 cm above ground level. It is basically ready diorama. You just need to paint it. Stark texture of those bases should be a good help in wash and drybrush technique.
Below are photos of all the 3D bases I acquired:
Stone Slabs base
Straight and Curve Road bases
Straight and Intersection Bocage bases
Broken Column
Abbey bases
Here are bases with 30mm figures for scale. Now you can see the real size of the terrain. There is a lot of place for many figures even on single base.
I also received some resin freebies from KS campaign: wooden bridge, 4 skeleton remains, altair and a throne. They will make nice addition to my dioramas.
Retail price of those bases varies from 8.50 EUR for flat bases to 21.50 EUR for the most elaborate ones. Is it much? Considering the fact that I would not make such imaginative bases myself (and certainly not from such durable material) it is a fair price. I received product ready to paint and use in wargames or just for miniature display. That saved me a lot of precious time. If only the quality of some casts was better 🙂 Then it would be perfect product!
Orcs from Atlantis – Review
Here is my review of orcs and trolls from Atlantis Miniatures. The style of these miniatures resembles me Warcraft (video game as well as recent movie), so maybe this encouraged me to buy them and have a closer look at them.
Warcraft the Movie
The figures are made of light grey resin and are cast really well, with mostly very subtle mould lines and no visible miscasts. They were digitally sculpted and this is clearly seen. In this case it does not bother me – the figures look more “Warcraftish” this way 🙂 The pictures show minis straight out of their packaging. I did not clean remains of the casting process. Neither did I straighten some parts (mostly their weapons) in warm water. So this is how they look “raw”.
Orc Infantry – 11 miniatures including war chief, banner bearer and a drummer. I was surprised that even regular orc warriors are so big, much taller than 30mm. Most miniatures are cast as one piece models, which is good – instead on assembling I can spend more time on painting them. As you can see they vary in size (war chief and brutes are visibly larger) – this will make the whole group look more interesting.
(click to see bigger photo)
Orc Bull Hybrid – a real bully, larger than most regular ork warriors. He looks as he is encouraging opponent to face him in combat. Nice.
Stone Troll – this lad is quite big. Definitely too big for 40mm base that was supplied with him. I think I will use 50mm round base for him. He deserves it 🙂
Cave Troll – even bigger than his stone companion, he barely fits on 60mm round base. IMHO his club could be a little bigger. Now it looks as it would break when he hits someone’s head with it!
I could not resist to prepare first 3 orcs for painting (swordsman, musican and club wielder). I placed them on scenic bases, for which I used their original bases and resin rocky base inserts. As you can see they look even better after some minor cleaning and assembly. I cannot wait to paint them! I think this will happen quite soon, so please stay tuned 🙂
(click to see bigger photo)
Undying Dynasties miniatures review
I would like to share my impressions about Tabletop Miniatures Solutions (TMS) 28mm resin miniatures. This is quite new Polish manufacturer but they are already producing line of fine miniatures. For the review I received 4 hero miniatures from their Undying Dynasties line. The figures represent undead Egyptian seletons and mummies. Sounds familiar? Yes – those who remeber (and miss) withdrawed from production GW Tomb Kings line should be satisfied. This figures are designed to be used in the 9th Age Game – a fan-run successor to 8th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
The miniatures are hand cast in light grey resin. They are all hand sculpted by really talented sculptors. All those tiny details are astonishing. I cannot wait to cover those figures with paint! Apart from many details, the miniatures have much better body proportions than original Tomb Kings. This means that some of their bones are really thin and fragile, so be carefull when you assemble them! Especially when you pin the miniatures like I do.
Nomarch
Nomarchs were Egyptian high officials and administrators. This particular guy does not look like one sitting by the desk. He carries deadly sword in one hand and cobra in the other one. The miniature comes in couple of well cast parts. There are some tiny air bubbles, but not many. Maybe leaving some of them would make this undead miniature look more natural and aged 😉
Death Cult Acolyte
The miniatures with long scroll and ceremonial dagger also looks really nice. I did not notice any cast imperfections.
Tomb Architect
This figure carries large axe and long whip (probably to motivate pyramid builders for more intensive work). The miniatures is full of details and is cast really well. The only imperfections are air bubble in his chest and little miscast on his headgear, but nothing that cannot be fixed with a little of Green Stuff.
Tomb Harbinger
This one is really a multi kit miniature! He comes with many left and right arm options, including totem, spear, halberd, bow and shield. Hmm, what configuration should I choose…
Here is a set of TMS 20mm square scenic bases in ancient Egyptian theme. They look really interesting – there are some bones and skulls, broken vases, stone blocks. There is even snake and tiny scarabs!
The miniatures were funded with Indiegogo campaign. Speaking of crowdfunding – TMS are now running Kickstarter campaign to fund their new releases – Vampire Covenant Army. If you would like to increase your miniatures collection with high quality vampire, skeleton and zombie figures, you should check this Kickstarter campaign. On the basis of TMS miniatures I examined, you should not be worried about the miniatures quality.
As you can see I already assembled two of the miniatures: Nomarch and Death Cult Acolyte. As I prefer round bases to square one and I really liked the sculpt of TMS bases, I removed with razor saw tops of two square bases, glued them to plastic round 25mm ones and filled the gaps with Milliput. Assembled miniatures look even better. I will soon paint them so please stay tuned!
