Hegemony Miniatures KING ARTHUR'S ROMANO BRITISH 1/72 Miniatures Figures

Hello again after a long time without reviews, which work and various issues have made me impossible to continue the each-friday-a-review rhythm. Today, one of my childhoods dreams come true, as I will be speaking of a set where I have been part of it's creation (concretely, the sculpting process)! from the Dark Ages, in the midst of Legends, here there are King Arthur's Romano British!;

Box;This will be the first box that Hegemony Miniatures creates, as the previous was just sold bagged. It is a pic of the painted soldiers, so you see exactly what you get, you lose the poetic force of an artwork but in return you get a good idea of what you can do with them. The design is a bit crude, but has a certain archaic style which other manufacturers don't have.

THE FIGURES - 8.0 out of 10 - (28 figures, 18 poses)

Detail; 6.0
Pose Quality; 7.0
Anatomical proportions; 7.0
Funness; 10.0
Wargaming Value; 9.0
Historical Accuracy; 10.0



Here we have a rather chunky set of figures. They are made in the Strelets school of sculpting, which allows easy painting as all details are maximized. 

These figures are certainly unlike any others. They aren't made of the usual hard plastic, nor the Esci elastic slippery plastic, but a sort of rubbery semi-hard plastic. Not too good for painting but rather fun to handle them and take out the flash with no other tool than your own hands (better to give them a good coat of varnish after painting them, or better still, spray them with Uhu glue and then paint them, so the paints sticks forever to the figures, which is very useful for all kinds of figures, not just these ones). 

The pose quality is very high, as you get 18 different poses, representing nearly all possible aspects. Some very standard men have been omitted, as you can get a standard regular archer from any Late Roman or Barbarians sets that will work, and just the specific and different figures have been made. 

You get a whopping 8 unique figures, representing the famous characters related to the legend of King Arthur, but made in a historical accurate style which allows you to use them as conventional figures if you aren't fond of the Arthurian legends. Lancelot is depicted as an officer with a masked helmet

The spears given are made of hard plastic, but beware not to expose them to strong heat, or they will melt and you will end up with a spear burger :) . 

About the bad, you could say that Vortigern hardly looks like him. I wasn't very convinced by the artwork I was told to use to sculpt him, and I think it looks more like a Saxon chieftain.



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"

They could have other uses to represent other Dark Ages armies, like Gaels, or some to be used as Dark ages barbarian kingdoms.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 6.0

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

In comparison with other manufacturers, the official retail price of 15 GBP is quite high, but these figures are semi-artisanal, and not made in china by angry underpaid workers and in a non-contaminant process.

You can purchase them here;
http://hegemonyminiatures.blogspot.com/p/king-arthurs-romano-britons.html


OVERALL VALORATION - 7.5

Probably the only serious gap in British history not represented in 1/72 is now full with this set. Strange that nobody have tackled a so important part of history, probably due to the darkness of the subject. 

Conclusion; A very interesting subject covered with a touch of uniqueness. 

Scroll down to see the painted figures;


If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 

PAINTED EXAMPLES

If you have painted these figures I would love to include them in this blog. Send a email to tam_cob@hotmail.com.

Soldiers painted by myself;

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

Hasegawa Cruiser Tank Crusader Mk III 1:72 Revell Review Model Kit

This friday we will speak of a classic kit, the Cruiser Tank from Hasegawa;

Boxes; The first release box have all the flair of the 70s, the second one is just dull (I never liked the grey on Hasegawa's kits, maybe due to seeing them so many times). The artwork has more realistic colours in the second one, but in overall is not very exciting. The Revell box is typical Revell box, realistic and nice, more proper with desert colours, but it has been done like if it was a modern tank, and the driver looks like a Iraqi tank crew!

THE KIT - 9.0

One of the smoothest, easiest and nicest models to build I have had the honour of building (and that's quite a feat considering I've built around 200 model kits!). Everything fits perfectly, and if you are in a modelling spree, you could finish it in 2-3 hours! a perfect tank for a novice, and all the same with good accuracy. 

The only dark points you see after carefully comparing with the real thing, is that the turret is slightly squashed, and it lacks some angle on the roof of it. The real turret would be much higher. The front lights are big and they don't look like the real ones, so if you are one of those accuracy maniacs you will have a nice extra work replacing them. But knowing this was released in the 70s, you could say it's one of the best models of that decade!

Instructions are very clear, tracks are fantastic, soft and easy to assemble and adapt to the wheels (how nice it would be that all tanks had the same quality of tracks!) and decals are ok, but you will have to use some decal micro film or varnish or they will be flying off in a couple of months.

As always with hasegawa you get a nice little pilot, although he is in a very weird pose.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 8.5

Released since the 1970s, and if you ask me, at least in constant production from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s. This kit should be dead easy to find (although now you don't see much AFVs Hasegawa kits on shop, maybe Revell has bought all moulds, I don't know). But all the same Revell kits are easy to find, and quite cheap. And looking for it on eBay and finding it for less than 8 pounds can be easy, so a very good value here.


 Overall;

This is a important tank, besides having a interesting design (I had to check twice when I was kid to make sure it was a WW2 kit!), much different to the conventional tanks of WW2, it is a easy kit to do, cheap and easy to find, so stop reading and go and buy it! very appropiate for wargaming too. 

If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the Crusader I built, some 15 years ago so not much in way of weathering and similar, age provides that :);

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

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

Heller Airfix AMD Dassault MIRAGE 2000 1/72 Model Kit Review Jet Aircraft

Happy carnival to everybody! today we'll celebrate along the Mirage 2000 (an aircraft still in use with many air forces of the world) of Heller;

Boxes; The first box is good and looks modern, but the jet gives a rather chunky impression. The Heller Humbrol is very interesting, as it seems the drawing of a model kit! the last, the Airfix one, which is the one I bought, gives a nice sense of speed. 

THE KIT - 7.5

It's not a bad kit, being made in 1979 is quite good. And probably if you build the original Heller release, everything will fit quite nicely, instead, in the Airfix version you have to sand a bit here and there to make pieces fit, nothing too important but present.

The worst flaws comes with the machine guns under the pilot, which are, to put it simply, missing. You are forced to believe they exist inside the small holes, but in truth they stick out and should be seen. Besides this, the undercarriage lights are a joke of a part, being just two transparent squares together, when the real thing has no similarities.

Finally, the undercarriage is very fragile and quite unaccurate too. It is one of those models to build in flying position.

But everything is not bad. It has nice panelling engravings, the cockpits fits very nicely and is very detailed, and with a good sense of sanding you won't need to use putty to fill gaps.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 9.0

Having been substituted by kits of the other Mirage versions, this kit is now quite cheap on selling platforms like eBay. 


 Overall;

Nowadays this kit is just a cheap alternative to the Italeri one, much better detailed and made all around, just a bit more expensive. In my case, I bought it along other kits in a lot and I decided to keep it and build it, as I always wanted to have a Mirage, although my favourite period is WW2.

So if you really want a Mirage 2000, get the Italeri. If like me you are just slightly interested on the subject, the Heller one is good enough, or maybe, as the Mirage has quite a lot of interesting camo schemes, the way of making without spending so much or just for a change.


If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the example I built, I went for the most colourful and weird "camo", this tiger camo was used by the NATO. Note that I included an Atlantic figure as pilot, as the kit doesn't provide one.;

And yes, this camo does exist, here is the proof :) ;

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

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

Airfix KAMOV KA-25 "HORMONE" A/C 1:72 Review Model Kit Anti-Submarine Patrol Helicopter MPC

Welcome as each friday to my model kit and soldier reviews! we continue on the russian themes and today I'll speak about the Kamov of Airfix;

Boxes; There is many reasons to buy a specific model kit, but in this case I bought basically for the appeal of the first box. I didn't knew anything about this helicopter, not even that it existed, but the completed model in the first box convinced me. If you look carefully, it is not exceptionally well made, but you see clearly the strange shapes and design it has. The MPC (it is exactly as the airfix 1st release but with new decals) box is more detailed, but it just looks like another random modern helicopter (in my eyes of WW2 collector!). The third one you could say the same that the first (it includes new parts, as well as the last one). Finally, the last one is an attempt to make it look more modern, but it fails to do so and it gives a very dull appearance.

P.S: Apparently, SK Model has copied or used under license the moulds of Airfix (of the Hormone B version). About the box, it is nicely painted but looks weird and quite different to the real thing.

THE KIT - 7.0

It is an average Airfix kit of his age (that is, 1983, when this helicopter was still quite secret, so Airfix made a good job with accuracy). It isn't a kit too complicated, perhaps the most tricky thing is building the rotors, as the pieces don't fit well until you have sanded them.

The worst thing about the model was undoubtedly, the windows. They all had a small cavity, ruining all of them (except the front cockpit, thank god) so I had to substitute them all for clear plastic. Till what point this is just a lack of plastic in just some specific examples I don't know, but I suspect it is something generalized, as in the built model in the first box, the middle window and the one in the nose has a bit of cavity. 

Besides this, the other bad thing is the moulding mark on top of the air intakes, which looks very ugly (in my built model kit, I didn't sand it enough). Also, the plate with the air intakes don't fit smoothly with the rest of the cowling, it is too small (I don't know how in the box it looks so well, maybe it was the prototype or they put so much glossy paint that it blended it nicely).

You can build the version A (rescue) or B (navy). (in my case, I built the rescue version but with the missile launcher instead of the lights and the radar in the back).

You will have to sand many things in this kit, and the floats is the better example of it. You have to hugely sand them to get the wheels touching the floor. 

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 8.5

Most Airfix kits are cheap, and this is not a exception. You can get it very easily on eBay, as it is a strange looking aircraft, and is not from WW2 nor any major conflict, it doesn't attract much interest on the whole. 


 Overall;

It is apparently, the only kit released of this helicopter. Just the fact that it is a twin rotor counter-rotatory helicopter, makes it worth of having a place in any model kit collection, just for his uniqueness, and also by his "auxiliary" floats on each wheel. I collect very few modern air kits, but this one stole my heart for it's strange appearance and cold war style. 


If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the Kamov I built, I made the main door to open and close with a magnet inside, so the copter could carry Spetsnaz along, and I substituted the decals of the blades;

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

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