Atlantic Nexus ANCIENT LIFE GREEK LIFE IN THE ACROPOLIS 1/72 diorama set figure miniatures soldiers army athens sparta

Now comes a true classic, this time from Atlantic (reissued by Nexus), Greek Life in Acropolis.

This is how  the Atlantic box looked like;

And this is the reissued Nexus box;

Atlantic boxes didn't have box art, but instead a marvellous pic of a painted example of the figures. They are very nicely painted, with a great level for being so "vintage". And it is a great source of inspiration. Normally I prefer box arts, but when the painting is so well done, a photograph works very well.

This is what the figures look like;

(They are tan in Nexus reissue, and there is some other Atlantics set with a sort of orange colour)

SCULPTING - 9.5 out of 10

These Atlantic figures have some of the best sculptings that have been made. They are crisp, they have a good 1/72 height, good anatomical proportions, and the folds of the clothes have been nicely done. They don't score 10 because some of the plates and vases they are holding are a bit flat or without detail, more a problem of the mould than the sculptor's work.

In the case of Nexus, it seems there were some problems with the moulds, and in my set, 3 of the 4 guards had their shields half missing or completely missing. I don't know if this is a general issue or just a error of a few.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 8.0 out of 10

All the civilian figures are correct, as the spawn of Hellenic civilization is very big and covers many centuries. The only problem comes with the armed guard, which is a bit like the Greek Warriors set from Atlantic which is very ahistorical. Perhaps we could fit him in as a temple guard, or from the Succesor states of Alexander, or some polis far away from central Greece, but he doesn't work very well as a regular Greek because of his shield, lack of skirt and chest armour.

ARMY REPRESENTATION - 8.5

"The army representation score is the potential of the soldiers to be used for other purposes different to the one originally intended"

They could all fit, except the guard ,as Romans, or to represent all civilians in nearly all hellenic or hellenic influenced states. And some of the figures, like the seated woman, could work for nearly anybody in the ancient world.

FUNNESS - 7.6

"I feel that many reviews are oblivious to this point - there are fantastic figures, which you can´t say anything against, but they are just too "correct", maybe too static, and so just boring. So I feel that this is an important consideration on deciding if you buy this set"

You could say that a set with only one military pose is boring, but when you have a lot of soldiers, you need civilians to suffer the consequences of war! And the priests would have accompanied armies in war in some cases, or to represent sieges, etc... possibilities are only limited by your imagination. I would have liked some more poses, 7 figures are a bit too few.




WARGAMING VALUE - 1.0

Besides the guards, and maybe the priests, they have no wargaming value, as with all civilians, except for decoration and environment. 



PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 8.0 

"The price value ratio of these soldiers will vary between every shop you got o, and the best I can do is judge by their average price on eBay"

 Finding the original Atlantic set MIB (Mint in Box) could be really hard, and there is no point in doing it with the Nexus reissue. The reissue can be now a bit hard to find, as it is now discontinued, but with a bit of patience probably you will find them for 10 GBP (I paid like 8 GBP in a retail store). It is a set of a nearly unique nature, one of the few sources for ancient civilians, so the price it's not that bad.

Nexus gives you 6 sprues, that is 66 pieces, that is 36 figures.




PAINTING AND GLUEING - 5.5

Both the Atlantic and Nexus are not very good to paint or to glue, flexible and slippery. 



OVERALL VALORATION - 8.0

Even if they have few poses, it is a fun and very useful set for dioramas and the like. It is not a set for the collector who is only interested to the pure military figures, but I think it is a very good addition to any collection of a Greek culture fan.


PAINTED EXAMPLES
"Your figures could appear here if you want! just send me a email with the pictures to tam_cob@hotmail.com and I´ll gladly include them"

These figures have been painted by myself.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

HäT 1806 PRUSSIAN MUSKETEERS set 8083 Early Napoleonic figures miniatures 1/72 soldiers army

Here comes my first proper Napoleonic review, the Prussian Musketeers.

This is how the box looks ;

Typical Hät box where you are shown one man with very realistic finish. Not my favourite box, but in this case, one man depicts all the set except the commander, so it is fine. As with most modern HaT sets, it is not a set you'll buy for the exciting artwork.

This is what the sprues look like;

SCULPTING - 7.0 out of 10

The sculpting itself is good, everything is sharp, clearly defined, which helps a lot when it comes to painting. But, (there's always a but), the proportions of this soldiers are sort of grotesque, like a cartoon. They have big heads and big feet. In some more than others. The firing man is quite correct, whilst the man in formation is probably the worst. 

This makes  them look a bit strange when compared with other figures. One of the problems with HaT is  the many styles used. With variety of styles you can make  a lot of people happy, but when you have a big collection of soldiers you cannot but think "are these HaT figures the same species as those others?". 

Luckily, this could be worse (like in Strelets) and you can still blend them a bit with more normal figures.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 10 out of 10

I am not a expert on the subject, I  just have a passion for history, with more interest in ancient times and WW2. This represents the bulk of the Prussian Army in 1806, and by what I've researched it is completely 100 % accurate. 

In my humble opinion, all post-1700 sets should have 10 or 9 out of 10 historical accuracy. There are plenty of contemporaneous sources of information, and with a good research, error should be nearly impossible. HaT in this case have done  their homework well. The only thing you could say is that not all men would have carried all their original equipment in perfect condition, but this is fine for representing some regiments at the start of the battle.

ARMY REPRESENTATION - 4.5

"The army representation score is the potential of the soldiers to be used for other purposes different to the one originally intended"

With some small modifications, you could transform them into other armies of the same period, like Saxony infantry, but in general there weren't too many armies that wore this type of hat.

FUNNESS - 5.0

"I feel that many reviews are oblivious to this point - there are fantastic figures, which you can´t say anything against, but they are just too "correct", maybe too static, and so just boring. So I feel that this is an important consideration on deciding if you buy this set"

I must say it; this is a rather dull and boring set. Ok, they represent a much needed army that covers important events and battles, but they have few poses (only 8), and of these 8, 4 of them are marching or standing there with the rifle up! I had to look twice to see the difference between some of the marching poses. This is inadequate both for wargaming and diorama making.

Some men having lost their hats, half injured, or fighting for their lives in much more dramatic poses, are really required. 





WARGAMING VALUE - 5.5

As this sets covers an important era, they are needed for the wargamer, but you are missing a unique leader, and you must make your own standard bearer, musician, etc. You should have also been given  some more men actually fighting and firing.

If there was an alternative from any other manufacturer such as Italeri, Zvezda, etc, they would be much better.



PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 7.5 

"The price value ratio of this soldiers will vary between every shop you go to, and the best I can do is judge by their average price on eBay"

You can find them on eBay for a quite good price, and also in retail shops for more or less the same. 





PAINTING AND GLUEING - 6.0

They are made with a hard and shiny plastic, a bit slippery to paint but ok to glue. 



OVERALL VALORATION - 7.5

This is a regular set, quite dull, without much to say against or in favour. If Zvezda or Italeri decided to take this subject, they would with all probability beat the HaT product by far, but as this seems unlikely, if you like to cover this era and represent these battles you'll have to get them.


PAINTED EXAMPLES
"Your figures could appear here if you want! just send me a email with the pictures to tam_cob@hotmail.com and I´ll gladly include them"

These figures have been painted by myself.

Thanks to sociocoop's permission, I can show you these excellently painted figures;

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

Airfix ANCIENT BRITONS (Hat) 1/72 miniatures figures Celts gauls warriors

Now comes the time for a classic, the Airfix Ancient Britons set!

Here is the box art (from the latest Airfix release);

This is the original Airfix box;

And this is the HäT one (yes, it is the same set!)

The new Airfix box uses the same box art as the old one, with some "Photoshop" editing, the bronze weapons have become iron ones, and the sky is foggier in the new one. It quite nicely depicts the set, although the man in the chariot is like the leader but with a spear. The Hat one is interesting, maybe nicer, but it seems more like an alternate cover for the Revell Celts set, and seems made to make think it is a new set instead the old Airfix one.

This is what there is inside the box, which the back of the new box illustrates very nicely;

SCULPTING - 7.5 out of 10

The sculpting is quite good, maybe not super sharp but you clearly see what you must, and they can be painted easily.  As happens quite often, the man running with a sword seems that apparently he has no arm. The poses could be more dynamic, but considering this is a set from 1969 they stand quite well by modern standards. The height is correct, and maybe the worst thing are the horses, which are quite small and unnatural, as nearly always with Airfix horses.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 7.5 out of 10

The historical accuracy is good, something notorious in a very old set. You could argue there are too many engraved shields, but they are historically correct, and you can't judge just by the amount given. The problem comes with the chariot, which would most probably have had spokes, not solid wooden wheels, as this would be used for transport carriages, not for fast chariots or chariots for bringing the nobles to battle. 

The hairstyle of the archer seems rather more germanic than celtic, so this man would be more a Celt with germanic influence rather than a Briton.

ARMY REPRESENTATION - 8.0

"The army representation score is the potential of the soldiers to be used for other purposes different to the one originally intended"

 They are potentially useful for nearly all celtic tribes, so they score highly here. Celtiberians, Gauls, Helvetians, Belgae, only Ligurians and Boii would be hard to fit, although could still be used.

FUNNESS - 7.8

"I feel that many reviews are oblivious to this point - there are fantastic figures, which you can´t say anything against, but they are just too "correct", maybe too static, and so just boring. So I feel that this is an important slant on deciding if you buy this set"

This is a old school set, more focussed to be used as a toy than a collector's item, so it has a good deal of funness. The inclusion of two chariots is very welcome, and generally all men are doing something useful. The injured man (very common in old sets) and the man running with the sword attached to his body are the only dull ones. 

WARGAMING VALUE - 7.0

In this case, you would have to buy two sets to have a good quantity of them to be of good wargame use, but this is not a problem at all. They have been massproduced during decades, reissued also by Hat, and they are now very easy to find both second hand or new. Once you have bought two sets, you have a good representation of warriors. 

We miss a bit of spearmen, which would be more common than swords, but this can be solved easily with a bit of modification.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 10.0 

"The price value ratio of this soldiers will vary between any shops you go to, and the best I can do is judge by their average price on eBay"

You can get them dead cheap on  eBay, and more in big lots. You can also find them easily n any decent model shop, at a very reasonable price. Hence the 10 price value for quite nice figures, knowing that many manufacturers will sell you two chariots and charge you as a full set.


PAINTING AND GLUING - 2.0

This soldiers (both HaT and Airfix) suffer from a super-slippery plastic, that is awful both to paint and to glue (probably worse to glue). In theory you shouldnt need to glue anything, but if you want to modify you will have quite a job. For painting, you will require a very good primer and a sealant, and even with this, the paint on the spears will chip very easily.



OVERALL VALORATION - 8.8

A nice and great set, it represents how all sets should be, poses of all the types including slingers, archers, sworsdmem, axemen, etc, giving you two unique figures, giving you iconic accessories like the chariots, they could be better on giving you more quantity of men but that is easily solved by their price. Although somebody who's been with the hobby for long must be tired of seeing them, they are really a very fine set.


PAINTED EXAMPLES
"Your figures could appear here if you want! just send me a email with the pictures to tam_cob@hotmail.com and I´ll gladly include them"

These figures have been painted and modified by myself. I have given them different weapons and shields in some cases, and have added scythes to one of the chariots to make it more deadly, (called covinni) as a roman statement from 44 AD says. This is disputed historically, but  some blades too heavy for a man to use have been found , and they also appear in  ancient Irish traditions.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

HaT FRANKS Mini set Mini box 6007 Germanic Barbarian Warriors Army

Today we'll make the first HaT review, the mini box 6007 Franks.

Here is the mini box art;

 The first thing you notice is how tiny  the box is, which is quite nice, in this world of oversized boxes which try to make you think you are buying a lot and you find the box half-empty. Here all the space is used. The artwork itself is not outstanding, but it depicts more or less one of the figures you get. I always prefer box art with action and where all figures are shown instead of seeing just one, but it has the advantage that it is easily recognizable.

This is what there is inside the small box;

SCULPTING - 6.5 out of 10

These are typical HaT poses, a bit flat and unexpressive. It is not the worst example of them, but they don't give a lifelike impression. The man lifting his sword is hiding his arm behind his cloak in a so unnatural way it seems he has no arm at all, at least if compared to the other figures. The man with the spear can be converted to throw a francisca axe, which is a quite welcome option to get more diversity, although if you leave him with the spear it also has a quite unnatural pose.

This mini-box set is very limited in poses, you just get 4 poses and 24 figures. This  really is half a normal Hat set.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 10 out of 10

With only four poses, you can't get many  things wrong, and thanks to god they are absolutely right and correct here. The spike of the shield wouldn't be a very common feature, and not all Franks would use it, but it is not really wrong.

ARMY REPRESENTATION - 8.5

"The army representation score is the potential of the soldiers to be used for other purposes different to the one originally intended"

 The typical Frank hairstyle identifies them as such, but there were other germanic tribes that used the same or very similar hairstyles, such as the Alamanni or the Thuringians. 

With a very slight modification, that is cutting their hairstyles, and maybe trimming off the central spike of the shields, they could be used for nearly all germanic armies from the 3rd century to the 9th century, giving them huge possible uses.

FUNNESS - 3.0

"I feel that many reviews are oblivious to this point - there are fantastic figures, which you can´t say anything against, but they are just too "correct", maybe too static, and just boring. So I feel that this is an important point when deciding if you buy this set"

Too few poses, all of them very unlifelike, makes the funness of this set very limited. At the moment of their release it was quite impressive to see someone such as the Franks having a set, but in our days you don't see them as being so strange or unique, as we now have a quite big range of more obscure armies with much better representations.

They will need a good deal of modifying to make them interesting and fun.

WARGAMING VALUE - 5.5

24 figures isn't much good when wargaming (of course it would vary with the rules, but speaking generally not) and much less if you  have just four poses, three of them swordsmen, all with the same shields and armour. You don't have archers, nor a leader, nor berserkers, etc. Just a spearmen-axemen, two regular swordsmen and a swordsmen that could be transformed into a leader or captain.

You will have to buy two sets to first have enough quantity, and then you would have to combine them with other sets like the Esci Barbarian Warriors to have some other necessary poses.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 4.0 (eBay) 8.0 (originally retail)

"The price value ratio of this soldiers will vary between any shops you go to, and the best I can do is judge by their average price on eBay"

The main reason behind the mini-box sets was the price. Originally at retail they were around 3 € to 4 €, and even some years ago this was very cheap.  

Actually, it seems that now they are a bit scarce, and hard to find. Paying 6 GBP for them I would judge is outrageous, considering what you get. Add the shipping and it is quite intolerable, knowing you can get 42 Caesar figures shipped for 8 GBP normally. So it depends if you can still get them at retail stores or not.

All the same, there is a limited selection for germanic/barbarian armies, so if you want to represent just the most important factions, you will have to buy nearly everything that's on the market.





PAINTING AND GLUEING - 6.5

This ratio goes the same for all early HaT sets, very bad to glue, a bit better to paint.



OVERALL VALORATION - 7.0

Leaving aside in this case the controversial case of the price, I would give them a 7. They are not very impressive, but they are a nice addition, and you need someone to make the Roman Empire fall! They can also be used for later Frank armies, till the 8th-9th century. The price here is very important, I bought them basically because they were cheap at that moment.


PAINTED EXAMPLES
"Your figures could appear here if you want! just send me a email with the pictures to tam_cob@hotmail.com and I´ll gladly include them"

 These figures have been painted and modified by myself. I have given them some helmets and armour to differentiate them a bit between themselves.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

MEDIEVAL RUSSIAN (or UKRAINIAN) - LW (or Metch/EVO), Middle Ages 1/72 Figures Miniatures

We proceed onto the 5th review, this time, a weird and obscure set, the LW Medieval Russians (so obscure that is also sold with another name, Medieval Ukrainian Army, by Metch, and also sold by EVO)

Here is the original box;

And the Metch one;

If the quality of the box art is proportional to the figures' quality, then you know what to expect in the next lines of this review. The first image is not bad although it seems ancient and is not very appealing ,and the second one (the one I bought) you have to be 5 minutes guessing what you are really buying, only to find out that it is impossible if you don't open the box, adding to it that it was just a sloppy printed ordinary paper glued with paper glue, I don't know why I really bought them.  

This is what there is inside the small box;

SCULPTING - 4.0 out of 10

I am sorry that the image isn't good enough, hope the painted pics at the bottom can give you a better idea. These are a sort of Strelets wargaming figures, very stubby and quite fat. But these also have huge long noses (yes, it isn't a typo, I have said noses!). All the same you could say that they are better than the worst Strelets sets, because at least they retain the proportions (more or less).

Another curiosity, is that this set is directly (and without any doubt) copying two poses, concretely the horses, because the first is a Esci horse modified with a bit of armour, which makes the rider seem gigantic and is actually taller than the horse! and a Zvezda Mongol horse with two added sacks (and without the stand, and they don't stand on their own, so you either glue them to a diorama or you have to make the stand yourself ), which seem to carry either potatoes (historically inaccurate) or rocks. Well, I suppose they could be apples too.

You are given three separate weapons, which are not really adequate - here nearly everybody will throw them directly to the rubbish, I have reused some, but better be preparing some spare spears.
All the poses are not in  combat situations, just the 3 foot men without weapons- you could say they are "prepared" to fight, albeit if in defensive situation. The other ones are just marching, guarding or standing by, so this limits a lot what you can do with them.

You are also given a dead man, I never like dead men in a set, but in a 48 figure set this can be acceptable, and inclusively can be a nice addition. In a 8 or 16 figure set,it is outrageous (in the painted examples below I have modified them to be "alive", up and fighting!, although they have a rather flat side)

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 9.5

The historical accuracy here is at least very high, everything is right and you really cannot say much against. Maybe the design of the dead knight is a bit too western, but it is quite acceptable.


ARMY REPRESENTATION - 7.0

"The army representation score is the potential of the soldiers to be used for other purposes different to the one originally intended"

 This set can be really only be used to represent eastern medieval kingdoms, Poland, Ukraine (as Metch sells them), the various Russian kingdoms (Vladimir-Suzhdal, Novgorod, etc) and maybe late Lithuanian.  

FUNNESS - 7.0

"I feel that many reviews are oblivious to this point - there are fantastic figures, which you can´t say anything against, but they are just too "correct", maybe too static, and just boring. So I feel that this is an important consideration when deciding if you buy this set"

Even if they have few poses, all the poses are very rigid, and you get very few men. The funness of this set is its bizarreness (if this word exists ) ; the figures have quite a unique feeling to them, and the leaders have a lot of charisma, as of wealthy and important dukes or nobles. 

The Metch set includes some orthodox paper flags, and some typical Bum tents. The flags are useful, and you can give the tents to a more suitable army.

WARGAMING VALUE - 2.0

Depending on which set you buy, you are given either 8 men (totally unacceptable quantity) or 16, which is a bit better considering you are given 4 horses (in the case of Metch). But if you are a wargamer, keep away from this set. The only good thing is  it will give you leaders and different men, and if you have all the sets for slavic medieval armies, it can come in handy just for the sake of variety.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 2.0

"The price value ratio of this soldiers will vary between every shop you go to, and the best I can do is judge by their average price on eBay"

In this case, these are some of the rarest sets you can try to own. They aren't sold by eBay (at least at the moment, but as usual, you can always try to search), though god help you if you want to get hold of them. I paid in a retail shop 11,95 €, which was a bad purchase in all senses (I might have a super rarity now, but at that  moment I just had 16 very expensive fat miniatures).



PAINTING AND GLUING - 4.5

The plastic is a bit slippery, and it glues very badly ( but which you will probably need to d). The only good thing is the detail is sharp and you see what  you paint.

OVERALL VALORATION - 6.0

They might score very low in many, many aspects, and now they are not the only Ukrainian Medieval men, but their weirdness makes them special. If you can get them (the 16 figure Metch set) at a reasonable price by all means do it, but that wouldn't be more than 4 or 5 €. 


PAINTED EXAMPLES
"Your figures could appear here if you want! just send me a email with the pictures to tam_cob@hotmail.com and I´ll gladly include them"

 These figures have been painted and modified by myself. I have given spears to the soldiers. To make them more natural, I used some of the flags originally given by Metch , and I  have also made some shields and stands for the cargo horses.

EDIT;

Another interesting way of painting them by Miniaturas Aconcagua;

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

TAMIYA BRITISH SPECIAL AIR SERVICE (SAS) JEEP 1/35 REVIEW

Welcome to my first review of a model kit. I humbly strive to have all 1/35, 1/72 model kits and miniatures reviewed on this site. As obviously impossible as that is, I will try my best.

Let´s go on with the subject then;

BOX ART >> The box is the typical Tamiya one, with a nice illustration over white background. Always easy to recognize, artistically well done and describes perfectly what you get.

THE KIT - 9.0 >>

As usual with Tamiya, everything fits properly (even better than usual), the mould is as fresh now as it was back in the 80s when it was made for the first time, with perfect sharpness. It is indeed a very nice kit, unlike some cheap (or not so cheap) kits from lesser known manufacturers which you can be sanding and fighting to makea simple mudface fit .

The building is a piece of cake, and the resulting model is flawless. But in this world of near-perfection kits, I think we must focus onto other aspects, the aspects that make  one kit different from another.

EXTRAS - 8.5 >>

This model scores high on extras. You are given two very nice pilots, and all the equipment you could ask for and then some, boxes, petrol cans, machine guns, sand racks, flasks, etc.

POSSIBILITIES - 3.0 >>

The possibilities of this kit are somewhat limited, as if you have bought this kit instead of a regular Jeep, you can only make the Long Range desert group version, so there is not much to speak about here.

The basic possibilities I can think of are (besides the obvious);

Pink version, showing heavy discolour due to sunlight

A german captured version, which could be very interesting

Israeli army version for the 1950's

Egyptian army 1950's

PRICE/VALUE RATIO - 6.5 >>

It doesn't get a good score here. The average price on eBay is more or less 15 €/13 GBP/18 $, and let's face it, you can buy bigger and more interesting vehicles for not much more.

OVERALL - 8.3 >> 

Even if the price is usually high, it is a fine model nevertheless, and makes a good build of a Jeep that could be boring otherwise. There is a good balance between a nice detail and finish, without having to glue each miserable bit of unnecessary detail which you won't see anyway later. 

Sorry if my review can seem simple or inaccurate for the super-expert that researches the brand of tyre used during the summer of 1941, and each model takes him 6 months to complete, but it is oriented for the old-school fan that likes to build a model from time to time, and modelling is a  hobby and not an endless job. 

For those who think the plastic extras are not good enough, fine enough, etc, there are many resin-sets on eBay that will upgrade this model to the level they are searching for. However, in my humble opinion I don't think the kit needs any part replacement, as I show you in the images of the straight out of the box kit I built and painted myself;

IMAGES OF FINISHED JOBS