Warlord Games - Polish Winged Hussars, A Review!!

First of all, I must apportion blame for the following figure order, Lee Abbott made me do it, and that folks is the problem with going to a club, there is always something new to distract you from your current project(s)!!

The New Buckenham lads took a trip to SELWG, and my mate Stuart decided to purchase some 30YW stuff for an Imperialist army. When I say he decided, what  I meant was Lee probably tallked him into it, as he is a dab hand at whispering " buy it" into your ear at shows. Well I've always wanted to do a Polish/Lithuanian commonwealth renaissance army. I did have a mangy little 15mm one, using those good old blobby Mikes Models figs.

So the above will go some way to explaining what arrived via the Royal Mail this fine morning

Yes, here we go again, a nice simple, uncomplicated little army to paint, and to start with, how about a few of those awfully drab Hussars!

So what do you get in this lovely shiny cardboard box?

Well. you get this lot, eight figures ( more on this later) eight horses, assorted gubbins to stick on the figures, some plastic bases, and a leaflet explaining a bit about the Husaria, which includes a flag, and some lance pennants.

I sent the order yesterday morning, and the figures arrived today, which to me is a pretty fast turnaround.

Lets get down to business, and give these lads a bit of a review.

Here's all the bits laid out for your perusal, there is a fair bit of gear stuffed in that box, all of which is pretty damn good.

The Hussars themselves, you get a commander, a musician, a standard bearer and five troopers, the more eagle eyed amongst you will spot that there are only 7 figures in the above picture. well I appear to have a deserter, my box contained only 7 figures, but a quick e-mail to Warlord will soon resolve that little problem, and should not in any way detract from my review.

The figures are beautifully sculpted models, crammed with a wealth of little detail, they should be an absolute joy, or a horrible nightmare to paint. The quality of the castings is good, there are a lot of those orrible little metal worms, but apart from that, there is no other flash to be seen, and just minimal mould lines to clean up. I was a bit concerned, that they might have those odd gurning faces, that a lot of the new WW2 figures have, but am pleased to say, the faces are normal, and actually pretty good.

The horses, once again clean castings, a bit of tidying up needed in the usual places, where the legs are off the ground mostly. Detail wise, fantastic!! The horse blankets have incised details, the pistol holsters have raised detail, the harness is just fab.A nice careful paintjob will make these look pretty stunning. My one gripe, a couple of the horse bases are warped, and have a few holes, hardly the end of the world, but I had to say something bad, to balance ou all the gushing!!

Last, but not least, all the ancillary bits to finish off the figures. You get three different types of wings, be very careful to match up pairs of wings on the figures!! A selection of hands holding different weapons, for those of you who have no fear in converting models. Great addition to your bits box as well. You also get a sprue of odd looking little beads, these are the hand guards for the lances .The lances are supplied as nice wire ones, so you will need to put the two together. Here's a top tip, leave the handguards on the sprue, make sure the lances fit through the centre hole, if they require drilling out, it will be a lot easier to do them on the sprue. I would also assemble the lances with the guards on the sprue, then cut them away afterwards.

An element of modelling skill is going to be needed to put these models together. The lances will be fiddly buggers to do, and I have noticed that all the figures will need their hands drilled out to accept the lances. Some of the figures have a choice of places to locate the wings, so a bit of filling in will be required to hide the holes.

Painting wise, there are loads of reference pics hiding out there in t'internet land. I would say that they may not be easy to paint, the wealth of detail can be a help, or a hinderance. Take a bit of time, and you should be rewarded with a very good looking unit.

So, are they worth forking out £26 for? I would say yes they are. A nicely detailed set of figures, that will look particularily good once finished. If a Polish/Lithuanian army is your thing, then I would recommend investing in a box or two of these, I don't think you will be disappointed.