Plastic...................Fantastic?

A while back, Doug Powell gave me a sprue from his box of Victrix Miniatures Later Greek Hoplites. I have finally got around to sticking one of them together, just to see how they would compare with my Aventine stuff.
To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out!!
Right. here's a quick review, and we start the ball rolling, with a few sprue pics! Now I have no idea how many different sprues there are in the box, nor how the figures go together, so this could be interesting!

You appear to get eight bodies on each sprue, a selection of different arms, eight heads and some seperate helmet crests, the spears and shields, a couple of shield aprons, plus some scabbarded swords. I think that certain arms will go with certain bodies, but without any instructions, I can't be certain.
They are nice clean looking models, and have some lovely detail. Some reviews are saying that the models are inaccurate, well they look like Hoplites to me, and to be frank, thats good enough.

I cut off a selection of bits, and made up a figure. There was a certain amount of clean up required, as always with plastics, you will get mould lines, and where the bits are cut from the sprue trees. A bit of work with a sharp knife, and some files, and we were ready for some glue action.
I used my good old Humbrol Liquid Poly, and the plastic responded well, with all the parts welding nicely together.

Here he is, the finished product, with an Aventine Italiote Hoplite, and to my amazement, they actually look just fine together!!
Would I use them in the same unit? Probably not, but I would certainly recommend the Victrix models.

So, the pros and cons of using the plastics: Well, they are relatively cheap, you get 48 figures in a box, and if you shop around, you can pick up a box for £20. The models are very well detailed, and they go together nicely too. They fit in Ok with the more popular metal ranges, but I would not use them together.
One box will get you 4 bases for Impetus, with 12 figures on each base.
Being plastic, there is more work involved, you have to have a level of modelling skill to put them together. Plastic, by its very nature, is fragile, and breakages will happen.
All in all though, I can't really find fault with the figures, and will invest in a box or two, when I get around to building my Syracusan army.

Oh My Word.......................He's Actually Painted a Whole Base!!

Somehow, I managed to get a small amount of enthsiasm together, and finished off one of the unit bases for my Impetus Pyrrhic army!!

An Italian allies base, they could be Samnites, or Bruttians, or any of the various tribes that went over to the side of Pyrrhus.

Bit of a labour of love, as the figures used were not great. They are mostly Crusader Miniatures, and they were a pain to paint. I had to replace all the shields, with A&A Miniatures ones, as the Crusader shields have no suitable transfer sheets from LBMS, and I did not fancy attempting freehand designs. The figures came with seperate heads, a novel idea, but more farting about to get them right. General detail is a bit sof tand very plain,  none of them have a side arm of any description too.

The command figure is from Aventine, he's really a Roman officer, but I quite like the figure, and he could have pinched the kit off a dead Roman.

I await the arrival of the new Aventine models for the Samnites, as they will hopefully be, bloody excellent, then i may feel a bit more inspired to add another couple of unit bases.

Next, I hope to finish off the elephants, and Greek Cavalry

Selling a Kidney

Salute 2013, has been and gone, with the usual selection of shiny toys to tempt us.
I don't go to the show, did it as a trader, mainly because you have to, but it has never appealed to me as a punter. Too big, too busy, too impersonal.
However, its fun to see what stuff gets put out by the companies, and you get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, when lots of lovely pics start appearing on the various forums.
This year, one release caught my eye, RedStar Miniatures had some very nice 28mm French for Vietnam in the 1950's. Sculptd by Paul Hicks, they looked the part........................and then, I saw the pack price, nine of your very fine Engish pounds sir, and I shall supply you with 5, yes thats 5 shiny metal soldiers!!!! A sharp intake of breath, and a maybe not.
Well ths got me looking elsewhere at prices, and its not a pretty sight

Empress Minis  £7 for 4 figures
Assault Group  £6.50 for 4 figures
Foundry are still looking for a tenner a pack, and number svary from 6 to 8 figures
Warlord Games, wildly varying prices, but £2 per fig seems to be their benchmark!!
Perry Miniatures £6.50 for 6 figures
Crusader Miniatures £9.60 for 8 figures
Artizan Designs £5.40 for 4

There are various offers for unit deals, but as my spending is limited, I rarely get a chance to partake of these.

Luckily for me, I am back on Ancients at the moment, and the lovely Aventine figures are £4.50 for 4, so still not too bad.

Looks like any new projects in 28mm are out of the window for certain, unless I can sell some bodyparts, or have a massive lottery win.

Will have to avoid the trips to the club as well, far too many temptations :-(