MiniArt GERMAN KNIGHTS XV Century Ref. 72011 Holy Roman Empire Saxony Bavaria Hussites Austria Swabia

My first MiniArt review! Are these crude,a more-of-the-same-thing set, or a set with  great value and very refreshing? Find out!

                                                                       The Box

I quite like the MiniArt boxes. I love the mega-detailed style, with all the chrome plated knights beautifully drawn. The blue surrounding perhaps looks a bit cheap, but the artwork, is just the best style possible, in my opinion, to make you buy a set of figures. The only bad thing? Maybe that it is too nice, and some figures are not exactly the same, specially the leader. On the back, the two knights shown are just not given at all, and they claim they give "48 figures", which is incorrect, as you get 36 figures and 16 horses.

SCULPTING - 8.3 out of 10

The detail isn't super sharp, or very well defined, but overall these figures look  very nice. They are big, but not too big, and very well proportioned. They are in active poses, yet not completely charging or attacking and still look good waiting or moving to attack. The horses are different and represent  heavy medieval horses very well.

The principal bad point here is that some of the mounted knights have very basic detail, and some faces and other details are utterly lost where the mould closes. The shields fit well and are perfectly sculptured.

One of the mounted knights has his arm separate, to achieve a full charging pose which is usually avoided by manufacturers due to its complexity. It is remarkable that MiniArt tries this without having very good moulding skill, and you get a very lifelike figure , but the arm is a bit small and fits leaving somewhat of a gap.

This MiniArt set is one of their best, and you can't find flash anywhere. I don't know if this is the case in all sets, I think yes. But I have other MiniArt sets with lots of flash and missing detail, yet there are some people that have got them with good detail, so be careful ,and if you can take a look at the figures before buying them all the better, or asking the seller if the purchase is online.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY - 10.0

The historical accuracy is perfect here. This set is labelled as XV century, you could argue that some of them look more XIII century, but all the same they can be ok. They are sold as Knights, even if three of the unmounted troops don't look very knightly to me, more like armoured sergeants or just heavy professional infantry of the time, but nevertheless this doesn't affect the set.

They have been made basically to confront the Hussites (well, although MiniArt has other XV century sets), but I don't think they are ideal to do the job, they seem a bit too early, but as there isn't anything better they'll have to do. They were made at the same time as the Hussites, although in my model shop the Hussites arrived much later. You would need to represent a good army regular infantry, but it is supposed that this is left to generic Medieval sets. 



ARMY REPRESENTATION - 9.5

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

Any Medieval european set is great to represent different armies, and this even more as they don't have any banner nor special german design. So the possibilities are vast; late Spanish kingdoms, French, Danish, English, Polish, Hungarian and obviously the myriad of different electorates of the Holy Roman Empire. Your paintbrush and your imagination is the only barrier .


FUNNESS - 8.0

Without giving any leader nor man doing a special thing, they are all in nice fighting poses, and weapons clearly defined, not blended to the body like others. 


WARGAMING VALUE - 7

As with many others, they don't have any unique figure, you are just given one figure resembling a noble or leader, and you will have to get rid of his three brothers, trimming the headgear and maybe changing the weapon or the head pose. You don't have a standard bearer either, although one  can be obtained very easily by modifying the man holding up the lance.

As they represent just a body of an army, the absence of certain types of soldiers is permissible.

The quantities of 16 mounted knights and 20 infantrymen will please the wargamers and everybody that likes be given a lot for their money.

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"

I was quite surprised when I opened the box and instead of 48 infantrymen horses kept coming from out of the box! instead of 48 figures, which the box claims, you get 16 mounted knights and 20 infantrymen, which is 52 "figures" (counting the horses). Knowing that HaT will sell you 12 cavalrymen alone for 8 € or 10 €, and you can get this set for 10 € shipped, the price/value is extremely good.
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PAINTING AND GLUEING - 6.5

They are made with a shiny and slippery plastic, a bit like Zvezda, just a bit harder and very light. Probably it is a cheaper plastic that allows MiniArt to offer lower prices, and maybe it doesn't capture so well the detail. You will need a very good primer to paint them.


OVERALL VALORATION - 8.5

A set that pleased me very much, some people will say that I don't need more Medieval sets, and that you can represent them buying other sets and painting them as what you want them to be, but I don't believe that all Medieval armies were exactly the same, and I don't like to be using the same figures for everything. And just buying French and Medieval English to make all factions is boring, so I like  manufacturers to make this  kind of set. The value is very good. 

This set will not please the collectors who demand perfect detailing, but I think it is very recommended for all other collectors and wargamers alike.

Thanks to Model Maniac, a great modeller and miniature painter, for giving permission to use pics of his painted figures.

You can see more of Model Maniac's work on his website; http://www.falconbbs.com/

Make any comment! We´ll love to read it! If you want to share your painted version of this set, send a email to tam_cob@hotmail.com with the subject "Painted Soldiers" and I will include them in this post.

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!