I’ve been aware of Brickarms for a while now. They’re a US company that manufacture third party weapons for Lego Minifigs. I hadn’t ordered from them until recently as they don’t ship outside the US. However a Makeblog post rekinkled my interest and it seems they have an Australian reseller which I missed before.

I couldn’t resist picking up the World at War pack to add to my Lego Indiana Jones figures. At $20aud for a small pack of plastic pieces they’re not cheap, but after spending a couple of hours playing with them last night with my five year old son I figure it’s probably money well spent. Here’s a quick review of the Brickarms pack.

The pieces arrived in a small baggie and include the set of weapons you see above. I’ve photographed them next to several bonafide Lego pieces for scale. The Lego pieces are the standard shovel, the grey plastic revolver and the Star Wars blaster rifle to the far left. Overall the quality of the Brickarms pieces is excellent. They’re cast in the same hard ABS plastic that Lego is made from. This means they have the same weight and general feel to them as Lego pieces, down to the finish too. It also means they should have the same excellent long life as normal Lego pieces.

The sculpting on the weapons is superb and despite the fact some liberties have been taken to make them work with Minifigs, most of them should be instantly recognisable to any WWII buff. It was the M1 Garand and Panzerfaust in particular that compelled me to buy this pack. In fact many of the weapons are more finely detailed than their Lego equivalents which is obvious from the above photo when you compare the grey Lego revolver to the various German and American automatic pistols. A particular high point for me was the fact the Lewis gun has been sculpted with a clip at the bottom which will fit a standard Lego lever holder. That means you can easily mount the weapon on a Lego vehicle for AA protection.

In terms of casting they’re also very good, although unlike Lego pieces you may have to do a little clean up with an Xacto blade to remove rough scraps of plastic where the pieces have been detatched from their sprues. The weapons can be used without clean up, but the anally retentive modeller in me had to spend five minutes just tidying them up so they’re perfect. That’s really the only comment I have about the casting. Like Lego pieces they do have fine, almost unnoticable mold lines and pin ejection marks, but you can mix them with Lego pieces without any visible difference, which is a sign of quality casting.

Here’s another scale shot of Lego Indy and Henry Jones Snr ready for action. You can see the weapons look great on the figures and as I mentioned my young son has already had fun with them, conducting terrible warfare across our kitchen table as all manner of hell was unleashed. The more politically correct amoungst you (I doubt many of my visitors are but who knows) may mutter something about glorifying war etc, however as many Lego ranges already come with weapons (Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, Lego Agents etc) I’m going to happily ignore you.

To close, Brickarms weapons are excellent and although a little pricey compared to normal Lego are well worth it, particularly if you’re already a Lego fan and want a little more variety in your Minifig armory.

Related posts:

1. Review: Pig Iron Kolony Rebel Heads
2. Review: Hasslefree Sci-Fi Weapons
3. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans

As I’ve often admired Black Scorpion’s range of Tombstone range figures, I thought this would be an ideal time to pick some up. However I didn’t just want cowboys, but rather some figures that might mix into my Pulp collection as well. Black Scorpion have two groups of female figures that seemed like a good compromise, Tombstone 5 and Tombstone 6, most of which would work in a Pulp setting too. I ordered them from the Black Scorpion site a couple of weeks ago and they’ve just arrived, so here’s a quick review and comparison against a couple of other independent figure manufacturers.

Casting

On unpacking it’s clear the figures are well cast. There’s almost no flash (one figure of ten had some flash under an arm), and only visible mold lines on a couple of figures that had to be filed down. The mold lines are also well placed, with no lines crossing faces or other important details. One minor annoyance is the fact that I had to straighten the barrels on every figure holding a gun out of the box. I suspect this is because rough handling by international post, as the figures have travelled from the UK to New Zealand. As you can see from the photo the figures use a slotta base system and have molded on tabs. I’ll probably be cutting a few of these off so I can base some figures on wooden planks.

Sculpting

The figures are well sculpted with a nice variety of clothing and hair styles. For female 28mm figures they have fairly realistic proportions with only a single figure displaying an enormous chest and cleavage – I guess there had to be one! They’re generally statically posed, with only four of the ten figures actively aiming or drawing their weapons, but it’s a nice mix of poses I think. The static figures are presenting their arms in a gun-safe but threatening manner.

They also have a nice mix of firearms, with two shotguns (either of which could be filed down to make them sawn-off), two recognisable Winchester repeaters, four armed with a variety of single and dual revolvers and two unarmed ’showgirl’ figures (maybe they have derringers). This mix of weapons makes them ideal for putting together a couple of Legends of the Old West posses.

In terms of detail the figures are passable. Period costume of the Old West was pretty simple and this is reflected on the miniatures, with decoration consisting of tassled fringes and the odd bow. In terms of detail I’d say the Black Scorpion figures are comparable to the Copplestone Casting ranges, but not as detailed or crisp as the Artizan Designs collection.

The wide mix of clothing, hats and hairstyles will keep the figures interesting to paint though. I particularly like the figure that looks like a gentle homemaker, in a full dress and leg’o'mutton jacket, clutching a sun umbrella in one hand and a Winchester repeating rifle in the other…!

Scale

Black Scorpion state their figures are ‘32mm’ scale, which equates to the so called ‘Heroic 28mm’ that Games Workshop use. Here’s a photo comparing several of the Black Scorpion figures to an WWII Artizan Designs 28mm German and a Copplestone Castings female archaeologist. I’ve chosen the tallest of the Black Scorpion ladies for comparison and as you can see there is a noticeable scale difference. However as it’s not often you see figures lined up like this on the tabletop I can’t see any problem mixing and matching these slightly larger figures with the rest of my Pulp collection.

Cost

At GBP7.50 for each group of five figures, plus 15% for shipping internationally they’re a pretty good deal and I’m perfectly happy to recommend them to anybody after some 28-32mm Western miniatures. I ordered directly off their site and had no problem getting the items shipped international air to a New Zealand PO Box.

Black Scorpion also have several other interesting looking ranges, in particular their Pirates, Fantasy Pirates and Iraqii Militia all look good to me.

Related posts:

1. Review: Heresy Scorpion
2. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans
3. Review: Musketeer Miniatures Naffatun

Way back around 1989 Games Workshop and Milton Bradley got together and produced HeroQuest. Set in GW’s Warhammer Fantasy world it recreates the adventures of four Heroes who battle the minions of the evil wizard Morcar (Zargon in America). I decided to paint up this set as something to play with my son who is turning six soon. This is the fourth set I’ve painted, for some reason they always seemed expendable when it came clearing out the cupboards, now it’s out of production I wont let this one escape me!

HeroQuest is a game for 2-5 players and comes with 35 miniatures, 15 pieces of furniture, 20 doors, a large game board and a host of cards, counters and dice. The rules are brief and simple and the quest book contains 14 Adventures. There is no system for creating dungeons as you go however a blank game map was supplied and later an adventure design kit was released.

The board consists of a grid of floor tiles with fixed walls, rubble tokens would block access to some areas to help change the shape of the map. In later expansions overlays were used to radically change the map by adding grassy caves, chasms and other special features.

The Heroes (Barbarian, Wizard, Elf and Dwarf) move around the board with 2d6 movement and are able to search for treasure, traps and secret doors. Combat is resolved using a special set of combat dice, the number of dice thrown in attack or defense was dependent on the combatant’s stat lines.

Searching for treasure allows the players to draw a random treasure card which could be anything from potions, gems, gold, items and even traps or wandering monsters. Each quest has an objective for the Heroes to complete, if they failed either by leaving the dungeon or being killed the Evil Wizard claims victory.

The game is not without its flaws. These issues were addressed by the later GW release of Advanced HeroQuest, which sadly is a little to complicated for casual play. HeroQuest’s flaws are:

• It’s designed more as a board game rather than an RPG it seems to suggest the Heroes  are competing against each other for treasure, this is of course dependant on your players.
• The random movement distances can really slow down this game, particularly if you are a low roller.
• Due to the use of equipment and treasure playing cards expanding the game relied on MB releasing expansions.

Despite this HeroQuest is a good gateway game and I hope it will encourage my son and later my daughter into the hobbies that have permeated my life.

There are many resources out there with new quests, printable tiles and house rules. I have included a few of my favourites to get you started.

• Ye Old Inn – Build your own set with complete scans of all the card components and rules
• HeroScribe – Mapping tool for quest building.
• Old Scratch’s HeroQuest Forum – Dedicated forums, some of the 3d dungeons are neat.

In the next post I’ll show you my work on painting the Heroes and furniture.

Related posts:

1. Review: Song of Blades and Heroes
2. Office Gaming Lunches
3. Dice Wars

In Wings of War you dogfight various WWI single and double seater aircraft. The game supports any number of players (although 5-6 players is a practical limit) who all act simultaneously. Each aircraft is represented by a card which you move around the playing surface – which can be any flat, clear tabletop. Each aircraft only has three basic statistics: the amount of damage they can receive before being shot down, the deck of cards they use for movement, and the deck of cards they use when firing their machine guns.

The real beauty of the system is the way the decks of cards work. The various planes use different movement decks which reflect the historical flight abilities of that plane. So for example tri-planes like the Fokker DR-1 which were very maneuverable have a set of cards that give you quick side slips and sharp turns, while planes like the Albatross D-III tend to have a smaller set of more graceful movement cards. The various movement decks work well to give each plane a distinctive feel while gaming. Famous Aces comes with four distinct movement decks which enough to give you a fair range of planes to fly.

Firing is controlled by simple fire arcs marked on the plane cards, a couple of range rulers that give you short and long firing ranges. If your range ruler touches an opponent, they draw cards from the appropriate damage deck – Famous Aces only has a single damage deck so every plane fires the same way. The damage cards have values from no effect to fairly devastating amounts of damage, including an ‘explosion’ card which as you can imagine results in an instant loss of your aircraft. I think you get a better game if you remove that particular card, because it’s simply too powerful. Many cards also have other special effects in addition to the damage, your guns can jam temporarily, your maneuverability can be effected both temporarily and permanently and your planes can also catch fire and trail smoke.

You can get a Wings of War game played in twenty minutes and while there’s luck involved while drawing damage cards, the bulk of the game consists of trying to read your opponents and how they fly their fighters in order to maneuver your own fighters into better firing positions. The dogfights can get surprisingly psychological and the game supports the ability for some bluffing in how you play your maneuver cards. I have to say it’s also very satisfying when you manage to tail your opponents or fool them into banking gently in front of your open sights!

CJ and I played a few games of Wings of War and I wasn’t surprised when he got the basic mechanics straight away as they’re pretty simple and the full colour cards attractive to look at and handle. He struggled with the hidden tactical elements of the game though, which is no surprise as he’s only four(!) and I got the general impression that while he enjoyed flying his plane around and shooting Dad he struggled to grasp the point of it all. I’ll give him another two or three years before trying again I think.

Regardless I’ll be picking up a copy of Wings of War for the house because it’s a great little game to have around if you’ve got some gamers around looking for a quick pick up game. I’d probably say it’s a ‘beer and preztels’ style game, except that’s probably not doing Wings of War justice as there’s a little depth to the system than that, particularly if you can combine a couple of the three starting boxed sets: Famous Aces, Watch Your Back! and Burning Drachens.

Related posts:

1. Review: Song of Blades and Heroes
2. Dustan: HeroQuest Redux – Part 1
3. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans

I ordered two baggies of Squad Support Weapons and two baggies of Sci fi Human and Halfling guns from Hasslefree. They arrived promptly and well packed in a bubble wrap envelope. Nothing was damaged or required straightening which is good considering the distance they had traveled to reach me in New Zealand.

In the photo above you see a couple of the white metal sprues as I took them out of their baggies. There was a moderate amount of venting spikes on both of them, but they were all easily flicked off with an Xacto blade. There were no prominent mold lines, but I did spend around five minutes per spure taking the weapons off and tiding them up with a needle file.

The ’squad support’ sprue on the left contains a bunch of solid looking sci-fi weapons: a mix of automatic projectile weapons, a grenade launcher, a large plasma weapon and finally a gatling style weapon of some kind. The ‘Halfling and Human’ weapons sprue on the right contains a more interesting mix of weapons: an auto pistol, something that looks like an Aliens Pulse Carbine, a rather simple, large, flat plasma weapon and a couple of archaic firearms – a shotgun and a WWI Lewis gun!

Overall the weapons are fairly well sculpted and detailed, with one or two possible exceptions – personally I don’t really like the large flat boxy plasma style weapon on each sprue. Scale wise the weapons are certainly suitable for 25-28mm figures. To give many of you a better idea of scale I’ve placed them next to various Games Worskhop plastic parts.

Top row is a Warhammer Fantasy Empire Militia blunderbuss next to a Warhammer 40k Cadian Imperial Guard grenade launcher. In the middle right you have a 40k Cadian Imperial Guard laser rifle, while finally bottom left you have a Necromunda Goliath revolver. You can see that the Hasslefree weapons are generally smaller than the heroic scale 28mm Games Workshop plastic parts.

The difference in scale does make them a little less fearsome looking – compare the Goliath revolver to the Hasslefree auto-pistol bottom left for example. So I’m not entirely sure they’re a good match for Games Workshop plastics which is a little disappointing. However I’m still going to try and work a few into my scratch built Necro Scavvies and see how they go. In terms of price, sculpting and casting quality I can’t fault Hasslefree however, so if you’re looking for sci-fi weapons to work with ranges other than Games Workshop’s I’d say give them a try.

Related posts:

1. Review: Pig Iron Kolony Rebel Heads
2. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans
3. Review: Urban War Bio Toxin Plant

I ordered two packs, and each came in a small baggie containing two copies of the white metal sprue you see in the above photo. In each pack you get twelve of the basic gas mask wearing heads, plus two each of the four ‘command’ style heads for a total of 20 heads per pack. Possibly ordering two packs was a bit of overkill, but they’re so cheap – working out at less than $1NZ per head it seemed a shame not to!

The heads are well cast with a reasonable amount of detail on them and I expect them to paint up well. There’s some fine mold lines to clean up, but sensibly no mold line crosses any face. Scale wise the heads are a touch smaller than related plastic 40k heads from Games Workshop. This second photo shows two Pig Iron heads compared to plastic GW Cadian and Catachan heads.

Personally I find the Pig Iron heads to be an acceptable match to the GW plastics. In fact I intend to use these metal heads to convert up a Necromunda Scavvie warband from various GW WHFB and 40k plastics. I think it’s a nice touch that the heads are fairly bare around the back (most of them simply have a strap) as it gives you options for converting on helmets or hoods. For my Necro scavvies I do intend to add tattered green stuff hoods, which I should be able to do without having to cut anything down.

Here’s another shot just to show you the head scale on a GW Cadian and Catachan bodies. I’ve left the arms off so the head/torso ratio is obvious and, given that we’re dealing with slightly oddly scaled 28mm sculptures, the heads looks fine. If anything the slightly smaller heads actually make the over-sized GW figures look more realistically proportioned in my opinion.

So in summary I’d happily recommend Pig Irons sci-fi head ranges to any 28mm converter or sculptor out there. They’re excellent quality and the price is perfectly acceptable given the quantity of heads in each pack. On a related note I’d also happily order from Scrap Dragon again too, in fact my receipt came with a 5% discount coupon code of my next order, which is a excellent way to guarantee return custom!

Related posts:

1. Scrap Dragon sell Pig Iron Products
2. Review: Hasslefree Sci-Fi Weapons
3. Review: Lego Minifig Brickarms

I recently picked up their MOR2 and MOR4 packs of Moroccan Nationalists because the fez and turban wearing figures would be excellent for the Pulp Egyptian/North African setting I game in. So here’s a quick review of these packs.

They arrived in two baggies inside a bubble-wrap padded envelope, which is understandable given the small size of my order. One hopes that larger orders are boxed however as this isn’t the best method of shipping metal figures via air mail. Several of the figures required some careful bending to get their weapons straight after unpacking.

The figures themselves are excellent, with no flash at all and mold lines that are barely visible. They could be painted straight out of their bags, however I’ll probably file a few of their metal plates down a touch during basing. The figures themselves don’t come with bases from Anglian, in the photos you see the standard Games Workshop bases I use for all my Pulp figures.

Sculpting wise they’re very well done with plenty of detail like ammo pouches, bed rolls and slung rifles. Their poses are all quite naturalistic and believable as you can see in the photos. There’s also a nice mix of action and more static poses in the MOR2 set, with a couple of gentlemen reloading while the others fire.

The MOR4 pack includes two prone figures firing a light machine gun. I grabbed this pack really because of these gents, although the other two ‘tank hunters’ are fine figures too, one of which is armed with a crowbar!

Scale wise here’s a comparison shot of them against an Artizan Designs DAK German in a similar pose. The Moroccans are a little slighter generally than the Artizan figures. Their weapons are also a little more finely sculpted than Artizan’s. Overall though they’re an excellent match and the ranges will happily mix. Particularly since you’d except a Moroccan fellow to be a little more wiry than a Teutonic soldier.

In summary I’d happily order from Anglian again as their figures are very well done, so into the blog-roll they go!

Related posts:

1. Review: Obelisk Miniatures African Wildlife
2. Review: Black Scorpion Tombstone Miniatures
3. Review: Pig Iron Kolony Rebel Heads

On opening the 34 page PDF I was presented with a sensibly arranged set of rules scattered with fantasy black and white line art of mixed but acceptable quality. Even scanning the first few pages I was confident my $4us had been well spent. The game rules appear simple but fun and overall it seems to border on the ‘beer and pretzels’ genre of gaming. Mind you there is some subtlety involved, particularly in the way the individual figures are activated in a turn.

SBH seems reasonably well supported too, with upcoming additions (Songs of Gold and Darkness, ie. dungeons) planned and a Yahoo Group forum frequented by the author and play-testers. There’s also a freely available preview PDF which takes you through a couple of rounds of combat.

SBH is D6 based and targeted at single-based 15mm Fantasy miniatures, but adaptable to any scale. It’s designed to be played in 30-45 minute games and supports multiple players each with a war band of between five excellent to ten mediocre warriors.

Each figure has two statistics and a short list of special abilities and that’s it. There’s no book keeping required and all measurement for movement, ranged fire and spell casting is done using three measuring sticks of short, medium or long length. Play is on a 60cm x 60cm (roughly 2′ x 2′) table for 15mm figures and a 90cm x 90cm (roughly 3′ x 3′) for 28mm scale figures.

The 15mm scale is an interesting choice for fantasy given the number of 28mm fantasy figures in the market, but I can see the merit of being able to carry your entire war band around in a small box. Plus of course there’s several manufacturers with 15mm fantasy ranges designed for use with the HOTT DBA derived rules. However as most of my gaming friends have a large collection of partially painted GW WHFB figures we’ll be using a 28mm scale if we try SBH out.

Skirmishing

As SBH is a skirmish level game, the core of the system revolves around how individual figures are activated each turn. SBH uses a semi-random variation of the ‘I go, you go’ system. At the start of each turn each player rolls off for activation. The winning player then rolls 1-3 dice (at their discretion) to activate any warrior in their war band. The number of successful rolls depends on the quality of the warrior being activated, with each successful roll allowing that warrior to take an action in the turn (move, shoot, cast, fight). Two or more failures and your turn ends, moving to the next player.

It’s a simple yet effective system. Personally I favor a much more random activation scheme in a skirmish game – for example we play Mordheim with a shuffled deck of cards, one card for each warrior. However the advantage of SBH’s system it requires no book-keeping (except remembering the initial activation roll off if you have multiple players) plus the overwhelming temptation to roll two or three dice per warrior given the chance should ensure most players will end their turn without activating each of their warriors. There’s also a nice balance between playing a slower, more tactical game or trying your luck for the occasional heroic action to punish your opponent at a deciding moment.

The temptation to roll multiple dice per warrior is also heightened by the fact that each successful roll lets you move, so you could cover a lot of ground with some lucky rolling. Plus there’s other bonuses to having multiple successes per turn. For example a warrior can execute an ‘aimed blow’ for a bonus by expending one of their successful rolls. In fact some actions, like breaking from melee, or waking up from magical ‘transfix’ spells require multiple success rolls to complete in a turn.

Sticks, Stones and Spells

Both ranged and melee combat is performed with simple comparative roll offs, modified by a short table of bonuses and penalties that cover such predictable things as fighting from elevated ground, fighting while outnumbered, having a large size advantage over your opponent etc. However combat results in SBH are short and bloody! Beating your opponent (regardless of who initiated the round) on the dice roll means you’ve either knocked them to the ground or pushed them back a base length. Doubling or trebling your opponent’s score results in a kill or gruesome kill which can result in morale checks for any witnesses on the same side.

Ranged combat uses the same set of rules for knock down, kills and gruesome kills, although with a slightly more complex set of modifiers due to range, cover etc. and only warriors with the ‘Shooter’ special ability qualify for ranged combat.

Magic in the game works in with the normal activation system in the sense that warriors with the ‘Magic User’ ability can use any or all of their successful activation rolls to cast one or more magical spells. Although SBH at this point only has two magical spells. The first is when you use magic to perform a ranged attack (magic missile, fireball, lighting from your fingertips etc.) which isn’t terribly interesting. The second way to use magic is to ‘transfix’ your target, which could essentially render them harmless for quite some time as they need two success rolls to break the spell. Plus of course transfixed opponents are sitting ducks for any attacks.

While magic sounds like a bit of an afterthought (I suspect expansions will give SBH more ’spells’), the ability to transfix enemy warriors sounds very handy, making any magic users in your war band high priority targets I suspect. Mind you at least it does give them quite a unique magical ability.

Following the rules proper is a four and a half page listing of the various Special Abilities used to give warriors and races different rules. I’ve mentioned a couple above (’Shooter’ and ‘Magic User’) but there’s plenty of good stock Fantasy abilities in SBH like ‘Undead’, ‘Hero’, ‘Poison’, ‘Terror’ etc. This list is also ripe for future expansion.

Races, War bands and Campaigns

SBH closes with several pages of rules for creating and maintaining your war band using a points system. This section also includes a couple of interesting abilities leaders have: being able to order groups of base touching warriors around in a sort of squad formation and focusing the fire of a group of archers. This definitely makes it worth paying the price for the more expensive warriors with the ‘Leader’ skill.

There’s also six scenarios included in the rules, although each scenario is really a simple paragraph of text and all the standard options are covered with a stand up fight, a couple of ambush scenarios, a couple of ‘treasure hunts’ and a king of the hill type scenario. Handy I guess, but nothing any decent fantasy gamer couldn’t come up with themselves in an evening.

The scenarios are followed with a couple of very useful FAQ pages that includes some comments from the designer and the system used to price warrior types in the game so you can create your own. Mind you after the FAQ there’s twelve pages of statistics for pretty much any stock Fantasy race or creature you can think of, so chances are you probably won’t have to create your own!

Conclusion

I doubt SBH will keep the hardened gamer entertained in the long term due to the inherent simplicity of the system, but it is a great ‘pick up’ game for any fantasy fan. Something to play between longer, more complex games perhaps or to throw together a game in 10 minutes when some gaming buddies pop around. In that sense the design for simple, stream lined play with no book-keeping works both for and against SBH and I suspect in future we’ll see the complexity of the SBH system increase slightly.

It’s also a great bargain at $4us considering you’re getting an entire playable 34 page rule book that frankly sounds like fast and furious fun. I’d expect it to sell for up to two or three times that price for a PDF download and even if it was selling for $12us I’d still review it favorably.

It’ll be interesting to see where Andrea Sfiligoi and Ganesha Games take this system in the future.

Related posts:

1. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans
2. Office Gaming Lunches
3. Review: Advanced Squad Leader Starter #3

Earlier this year he expanded the range to include several taller buildings with domed roofs and I couldn’t resist any longer. I ordered a couple of these new buildings last week and they’ve just arrived so here’s a quick review.

As usual I ordered unpainted buildings because they’re cheaper and I enjoy painting them myself. All of Mark’s terrain comes pre-primed and is cast in a sturdy yet light resin product. He must use some kind of micro-bead filler to extend the resin because with handling the buildings are always noticeably lighter than they appear to be. However they’re still weighty enough to stay in place during gaming.

Parts and Prep

These particular buildings consist of two large parts: the slightly raised basic building and a removable tower room. Both roofs are also removable which is important during gaming, and you’re supplied with two drop in doors for the doorways.

Prior to painting I find it’s a good idea to check everything fits well as occasionally light filing is required for ease of use. It’s also not a bad idea to spend a little time examining the doorways and windows as you may have to file off a little extra resin left from the casting process.

After this basic clean up I’ve always painted my Crescent Root buildings without any further preparation or priming. I use Resene interior acrylic house paints which bond very well with the pre-primed resin as I’ve yet to chip a building and they’ve been extensively handled.

Building Design

I purchased these buildings primarily because of their towers and domed roofs. Both these features distinguish them from my earlier Crescent Root purchases and mixing them in with my painted buildings gives the table a very nice Middle Eastern feel as shown in the table layout.

These buildings are noticeably taller than my others, mainly because their base is quite built up, with three steps leading up off the street to the ground floor. Pulp gamers will also notice the small, three windowed tower rooms make excellent “sniper nests” for your Rifle or SMG armed villains. Unfortunately there’s no way to get up to that tower room without a ladder – which means I’ll have to scratch a few together from balsa wood, or simply reuse the crude ladders I made years ago for my Mordheim table. Possibly Mark from CRS might consider creating some ladder accessories for these fine buildings.

One thing that does concern me about that tower room is that it simply rests on the walls below it. There’s no system for locking the tower in place at all which means it could be at risk from clumsy hands on the gaming table. I’ll probably end up drilling some aligned holes in the base of each tower and then applying some short ‘pins’ made from bamboo skewers in the wall below so the two pieces do lock together.

As usual I’m perfectly happy with my latest purchase from Crescent Root Studios. That’ll probably do for buildings now, although once I’ve laid them all out I notice there’s an obvious lack of fenced in back alleys. I suspect I’ll end up purchasing some of CRS’s matching Middle Eastern Walls at some point…

Related posts:

1. Review: Crescent Root Studios 28mm Middle East
2. Crescent Root 28mm Towers Painted
3. Pulp Terrain

The civilian figures represent a nice mix of pedestrians and beggars you’d expect to find in a cliché pulp 1930’s Cairo city street. I’ve hastily arranged them in a busy alley for the above photo. Most of the figures were well cast, with just a little flash here and there. Unfortunately the register was clearly off on two of the figures and they have serious mold lines which will require a lot of filing and some re-sculpting. Possibly the molds have been retired which is they no longer appear on the West Wind site.

The figures themselves are passable, with a nice mix of sitting and standing men and a single, appropriately attired lady. I prefer the figures from the second ‘Civilians with Cart’ blister as the sculpts are a little cleaner and their faces are a touch more realistic than those in the first blister. I can take or leave the cart though as I could easily scratch build and cast something very similar myself. The scale of all the figures is good too and they mix well with my painted CoppleStone Castings and Artizan Designs figures.

These figures will receive some quick paint jobs just to get them on the table. As most of them are wearing simple turbans and robes they shouldn’t be too hard to paint. They’ll be used as innocent bystanders in a Cairo suburb that the heroes and villains are battling through. In fact my players are so cavalier with firearms I can imagine an amusing ‘Escape from the Angry Mob’ Pulp .45 Adventure Scenario being played out after somebody accidentally plugs Rashid the beggar.

In summary, they’re adequate but not great figures, which is really what I was expecting given the subject manner. After all it’s pretty hard to sculpt a particularly evocative Middle Eastern pedestrian or beggar.

Related posts:

1. Pulp Painting: Cairo Crowd
2. Pulp Cairo Crowd Inspiration
3. Pulp Painting: Cairo Crowd II

The first impression is good, they’re nicely sculpted figure with plenty of variety in the poses. There is a moderate amount of flash on several figures that will require some careful cleaning up. Many of the figures have small rods running between the bases and their raised limbs which will require clipping away. The Baboons also have some large metal venting tabs on the end of each of their tails which will be a little troublesome to clean off.

I’ve quickly poked a couple of raw figures into their slotta bases and shot them next to a couple of Copplestone Castings 28mm Pulp Heroes for scale comparison. They scale well against the human miniatures, for example compare them to this interesting set of photos from ShowStudio I stumbled across via a Google image search.

The figures themselves are well sculpted, particuarly when you consider how limiting animal sculpts can be. The Hyenas while all unique are all quite similar figures, really only differing in the positioning of the legs, although there is one in a nice head down growling pose. The Baboons show a lot more variety and are posed in a mixture of knuckle-walking and howling, with my favorite being the beast baring his fangs and angrily throwing his arms into the air.

I was quite surprised to find each animal is unique – clearly somebody likes sculpting Baboons and Hyenas! Having a mixture of figures like this means you can happily use all six to represent a pack without having to worry about painting duplicates differently to hide the repeated poses. It’s a small thing I guess, but very handy for the gamer.

In summary these are two great little packs of animals for any Pulp 28mm gamer using an African or Middle Eastern setting. I can imagine several .45 Adventure scenarios where a pack of wild Hyenas or angry Baboons could be the main challenge to the players.

Related posts:

1. Review: Anglian Miniatures Moroccans
2. Review: Obelisk Miniatures 28mm Baluchi Zombies
3. Review: Black Scorpion Tombstone Miniatures

First the BAM packaging was nice, with both vehicles in snappy white boxes sealed with a printed sticker showing their contents. Inside the parts are split into two baggies, one for the two resin pieces, and one for all the metal parts. This photo shows all the pieces involved.

The main body is split into two large resin parts, which is a cunning arrangement that means there’s less casting issues around the wheels or undercarriage of the armored car. Flames of War 15mm resin vehicles have bad flash and molding issues around the wheels because they’re cast as a single resin piece with attached base, and the large undercuts made by the wheel arches and undercarriage cause problems. Detailing on the 222 is provided by a number of white metal parts for the fenders, lights, front bumper and a freely rotating turret ring with cannon and a two part wire ‘mesh’ grenade guard.

The white metal parts are all nicely cast and there’s no issue with them, however the bodies and wheels of both Sdkfz’s show several very obvious air bubbles in the resin which I’ll have to patch with green stuff. One bubble was so large it almost cut the front axle in two. Bubbles in resin casts of this size are to be expected, but it is a minor annoyance that I’ll have to deal with before I paint anything.

Assembly

The moveable turrent ring drops into the resin body very nicely and rotates well so I’ll probably paint the turret and main vehicle separately as these vehicles will be used for Pulp gaming. The cannon, MG and sight fit into the turret, but the barrels don’t quite slot into the ring gaps correctly. The problem seems to lie with the MG which has a slight angle on it meaning the barrel won’t drop into the gap for it. I can’t bend the MG barrel so the issue will have to be fixed by sanding down the turrent ring gaps to make them larger. This issue occurred on both vehicles so I don’t think it’s a problem with the casting, but rather with the original masters.

The rest of the metal parts fit without a hitch though, the lights and bumper have cast holes they slot into and the fenders slide over generous lips on the main body. That’s good because they’ll have a fair amount of surface for the superglue to bond with. I suspect the fenders will get knocked around most during play as figures are moved around the car.

The main body doesn’t quite drop onto the wheels properly though and some sanding of the axle arches will be required for best fit. I notice the wheel axles aren’t modelled straight onto the base either. Look at the above photo and you can see the front axle is at a slight angle. I assume this is intentional to indicate the steering is slightly turned to the right. I does mean I’ll have to pay some attention to which way around I glue the body down though because the straight axle needs to go in the rear!

Scale Comparison

Once assembled the whole armored car certainly looks the part. The stowage boxes and spare wheel are nicely represented on the body. I also have a blister of Ebob Miniatures 1:56th German equipment that’ll I’ll use to add a little more stowage to the exterior.

Speaking of Ebob, this shot shows the Sdkfz 222 next to a primed white metal 1:56th Ebob Opel Blitz truck. They look pretty good together and once painted (whenever that may be) will most likely be used in convoy for some .45 Pulp Adventure scenarios. Carrying looted Nazi antiquities across the desert perhaps, or bringing a squad of Germans in to garrison a sleepy desert village.

Here’s another comparison shot with a couple of 28mm Artizan Designs DAK Germans. 1:56th is a little smaller than the 1:48th scale 28mm figures actually correspond to. However it’s a good compromise for gaming with because a 1:48th vehicle would take up considerably more of the gaming table.

Vehicles are typically just used to block line of sight or present a victory objective to reach, although we did have one mad .45 adventure where three different gangs insisted on climbing into and onto the Opel Blitz while is was being driven recklessly across the desert.

Conclusion

These vehicles from Bolt Action do have a few flaws, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a little patching or filing. The mixture of a resin body with metal parts works well and should represent a sturdy little vehicle once assembled and painted. Despite the fact I usually don’t like molded on bases I have to say once you put the kit together the groundwork underneath it is totally inoffensive and when painted will blend in well with my modular table.

Assembling one with blue tack for these quick photos did fill me with a desire to bust out the primer and paints which is always a good sign. Hopefully I’ll have a painted one up on the blog before 2007 ends!

Addendum: On patching and fully assembling both 222’s this afternoon I’ve discovered you also have to cut away a fair amount of the right rear fender to get it to fit around the spare tire.

Related posts:

1. Bolt Action Miniatures 1:56th Sdkfz222 Scout Car
2. Bolt Action Miniatures Sdkfz 222 Painted
3. Review: Flashpoint Miniatures Mid-East US Army

Ordering and Packaging

Obelisk released the Zombie Baluchi Desert Tribesmen earlier this year, and they featured in the end of year ‘Reader’s Choice’ awards over at Tabletop Gaming News. On first seeing them I knew I simply had to have some, so I ordered two of the mounted Zombie riders (DAFLC 001 and DAFLC 003) and a single blister of six Baluchi Zombies on foot (DAFLC 004).

The figures arrived in blisters well packed into a box. Nothing was damaged during transit and only a single sword required minor straightening after unpacking. As I ordered single figures from a couple of Obelisk’s mounted ranges, the figures supplied were random picks. I did consider requesting specific figures but in the end decided to let the fates (or box packers) decide, and am perfectly happy with the two mounted riders I received.

I also exchanged several emails with Josef Ochmann, the owner of Obelisk, while ordering these figures and he was very nice to deal with. I was pleasantly surprised when he offered to send me a second batch of figures at no extra cost when I informed him the original order hadn’t arrived after almost a month. Given the small margins independent manufacturers operate on I thought it was a generous offer. Fortunately I didn’t have to take him up on it as the package arrived several days later.

Casting and Clean Up

All of the figures are single piece casts except the mounted Baluchi with Sabre (DAFL 003) whose sabre arm is separate, and supplied with two choices of arm. One suitable for a relaxed, ‘at ready’ pose and one more suited for waving over the rider’s head. Round plastic bases were also supplied for all figures, six normal slotta bases for the on foot Zombies and two large round bases for the mounted figures.

All of the figures are well cast and the mold lines are acceptable, with several of the zombies on foot requiring only seconds to clean up. The mold lines are also well placed, with none running across the faces of figures which is always a bonus. The camels did have some more obvious mold lines on their legs which required a moderate amount of fiddly filing to remove.

In terms of flash the camels also came off worst, with a thin sheet of flash between the front legs of both figures. A number of the figures also had quite large flash bars and spikes to clean up. Two of the Zombies on foot had thick bars running from the bottom of their round shields to the molded base which was difficult to remove without damaging the rolled edge of the shield. Most of the swords also had flash spikes hanging from the pommels.

Sculpting and Scale

Here’s a shot of one of the Obelisk mounted Zombies next to an Ebob Miniatures camel and I’m pleased with how well they match in scale. The Obelisk camel obviously comes with a molded base, and I wonder if Ebob would have been better off molding on a base too, considering I had a few issues pinning their camel through its small feet.

The sculpting on all the Obelisk figures is excellent and they certainly look like a villainous bunch of dessicated zombies, with dry bone exposed through holes in their tattered flesh. They’re dressed in a mix of ragged desert clothing with several sporting turbans and all of the figures wearing long beards, except for the poor chap who’s lost his jawbone.

In fact the first time I visited the Obelisk site I was immediately reminded of Richard Corben’s graphic novel, The Last Voyage of Sinbad. I don’t know if that comic inspired the sculptor at all, but now I have these figures in hand they definitely look like the doomed members of Sinbad’s party.

The zombies on foot come with a nice mix of generally dynamic poses which will make them ideal for .45 Pulp Adventure gaming. While most of the figures have their swords at the ready, I think the ratio of brandishing versus striking figures is agreeable.

Here’s another comparison shot, this time with a couple of Obelisk zombies and an Artizan Designs “Thrilling Tales” figure. The Obelisk zombies are a little slighter than my Artizan figures, but that’s not too surprising considering they’re wasted undead and many are dressed in only trousers or loin cloths.

Comparing height, faces and hand sizes they’re a fine match for my existing 28mm Pulp collection which is a mixture of figures from Artizan Designs, Copplestone Castings and Games Workshop. I suspect they’ll first see use in a twisted ‘Seven Samurai’ style Pulp .45 Adventure scenario, with the plucky adventurers defending a town of helpless villagers from terrifying raiders that ride in on a desert storm…

The Final Word

I’m very pleased with these Obelisk Miniatures figures and would happily recommend them to anybody looking for some more unusual zombies. They’ll certainly work well with my 1930’s-1940’s Pulp figures and would be excellent for any Arabian Nights/Middle Eastern inspired Fantasy setting. They’ve only been in my garage for a couple of days and I’ve already based them ready for priming and I’m looking forward to painting them which is the sure sign of a great figure purchase imho.

Obelisk themselves were a pleasure to deal with, promptly answering several of my email queries from the other side of the world. Incidently as an English speaker I’m always embarrassed to discover how well Europeans read and write my language, considering my appalling knowledge of their native tounges! I would happily deal with Obelisk again and have added them to the link bar to the left for future reference.

Addendum: The comic art that appears in this post is (c) Copyright Richard Corben and Jan Strnad. If you appreciate it, I recommend checking out Richard Corben’s official site or simply buying some of his excellent graphic novels.

Related posts:

1. Review: Obelisk Miniatures African Wildlife
2. Pulp Painting: Zombies and Baboon
3. Review: EBob Miniatures Camel

The Gloire rules are noticeably slicker (in terms of presentation) than the .45 Adventure rules I have too. Wonder if we’ll see a .45 Adventure ‘2nd Edition’ sometime?

Related posts:

1. Gloire Ruleset
2. Review: Crescent Root Middle Eastern Tower
3. Review: EBob Miniatures Camel

While I ordered two each of the 28mm Middle East line I’ve only used one of the largest buildings (the 28d1) in the photos for this review. This is because the other buildings are built to exactly the same scale, so the doorways and windows are comparable sizes, and they all have the same removeable roofs and doors. My order was also for unpainted buildings just to save a little cash, and because I don’t mind painting terrain.

First Impressions

As usual my order from CRS was well packed and even double boxed! Each building came in a separate sealed plastic bag, while the various roof and door pieces were packed into several ziplock bags. Nothing was damaged in transit thanks to the careful packing. As I live in New Zealand and usually order from the US/UK, it’s comforting to see a manufacturer pack their orders so well.

These larger 28mm buildings are cast from the same off-white resin as CRS’s smaller 15mm buildings. I don’t know what this material is but it’s tough while being quite light which is ideal for international shipping. Every part has been sprayed with a gray primer which means you can paint them straight out of the box. Checking the buildings and extra parts I noticed no miscasting nor any bubbles which is superb.

Assembly

This photo shows the largest 28d1 building broken into its parts. For scale indication I’ve placed a 28mm DAK German (holding the SMG) from Artizan Designs and a 28mm Archaeologist from Copplestone Castings in each shot as well.

Each building is cleverly designed so the removeable roofs are well supported at each corner. The roof pieces are all a good 2-3mm thick and the hard resin is unlikely to chip or break during gaming. All of the buildings are also cast onto a harder sheet of white plastic which is a thoughtful detail as it should stop the buildings from wearing around the edges.

The removeable doors drop into a slotted frame behind the doorway. They’d be a little fiddly to open and close during gameplay because you have to remove the roof first to get them out. However for pre-game set up they’re excellent, allowing you to close and lock certain rooms or buildings in a street.

The parts fit together surprisingly well. I received eight buildings and only had to file two of the roof sections for best fit. I suspect on these two buildings a couple of the walls around the roof sections had bowed in slightly (say ½mm to 1mm) which explains the tight fit. The bowing isn’t at all visible and may just be a side effect of the curing resin.

Apart from the two roof sections, the only other clean up I did was file around the interior frame of each window to clean away a bit of a resin lip left from the casting process. All up it took me maybe 10 minutes to clean everything up ready for painting.

The Buildings

Here’s the building put together with our German friends again. I’ve placed the Archeologist in the doorway for scale. He just fits underneath the door frame, but it’s worth pointing out this gent has a small metal footplate that has been glued down to a GW base. So he’s gained at least 3mm extra height from his basing.

This close-up nicely shows the rich texturing, with exposed bricks, rough patches of plaster, cracks and broken sections of wall. Several walls also have a light scattering of bullet holes across them. Depending on your tastes you may want to patch these holes prior to painting. The texturing means these buildings should be quick to paint with ink washes and several layers of drybrushing. You can also see the rough stairs with appropriate platforms for ascending figures which will be useful during games.

Here’s the SMG totin’ trooper peering through a window. I took this photo to give you some idea how the figures will look up against windows during gaming. Figures with extended rifles and pistols should easily be placeable so they’re firing through the windows.

Incidently look at the bottom of the building and you can see the way it’s been cast onto a thick slab of white plastic for extra strength.

In Conclusion

I was very interested when Crescent Root released these buildings back in July because they seemed ideal for 28mm skirmish and Pulp gaming. Plus I already own a set of CRS 15mm Middle Eastern buildings and anticipated the 28mm versions would be at least as well made as their smaller brothers.

Now I own a set of these buildings I can happily say they have exceeded all my expectations. I was particularly surprised at how well they went together out of the box! Believe me it takes skill and not a little patience to create modular terrain that fits together so easily. I’m really looking forward to getting them painted up and playing some fast and furious .45 Adventure scenarios over and through them!

In conclusion if you’re looking for 28mm scale Middle Eastern buildings for gaming I believe you need look no further than Crescent Root Studio’s excellent (and expanding) range of terrain.

Related posts:

1. Review: Crescent Root Middle Eastern Tower
2. Crescent Root 28mm Towers Painted
3. Review: Flashpoint Miniatures Mid-East US Army