Review; Orion 1/72 Gladiators Roman Figures miniatures soldiers Colosseum

We review again a set of figures with these singular set from Orion, the mighty Gladiators.

The Box 

Indeed a curious artwork, as it is using a 18th century painting. It actually does quite well the trick, and it shows that manufacturers could use historical paintings more often. It leaves no doubt about what you are buying, and personally I was hooked the first time I saw it and bought it without hesitating. 

The Figures

As typically in Orion, you get a large selection of poses, all of them made twice. Is a system as valid as any other, and while it leaves you wanting more of some poses, for a subject like the Gladiators is quite perfect. It gives you the chance of painting each figures of two different ways, while you can make them appear all in a diorama without having to disregard some figures.

The first thing we notice about this set is that Orion has been influenced by the film Gladiator, even to the extent of showing captions of the film in the rear of the box (I wonder if they have paid any royalty to the film producers, a thing which I have my strong doubts). 

Some of the figures are clearly based on the film, like the starring Rusell Crowe, and some other of the Gladiator figures. All the same, the accuracy level is quite high, with only some inaccuracies and doubts with the trumpeters helmets, which should never be like that, the man with the bull's head and some of the other helmets. 

But we have to keep in mind that there is plenty of scope for strange ornaments and gear in a subject such as this, we can only say for sure that the trumpeters are wrong, and even they could be in a special garment only used during a very brief period, that has never been recorded in history :).

The poses are extremely lively and full of action, and you can recreate beautifully the action in the arena. It is worth mentioning the superb figures of the lions and tigers/panthers, that are one of the best 1/72 renditions of this animals. 

There is a couple of poses a bit strange, such as the civilian that apparently has fallen into the arena, which holds his hand in his head of a rather strange way, and the man that has lost his hand, which looks completely unnatural.

The sculpting is very well done and anatomically correct.

There is some very small level of flash surrounding many of the figures, which will give you a long afternoon to aconditionate them to painting, which is absolutely necessary if you are going to paint the figures, and you can skip it if you don't.

The emperor figure is one of the best Roman emperors in casual gear you can find.

The only real criticism I have on this set is that I would loved some more civilians to assist as public, but I suppose this could be fully done in a separate set.

Another of the great things of this set is that you could use many figures for special leaders or commanders of other factions, such as using some as Thracians, or using them as roman rebels or bagaudae, as not all of them carry the conventional gladiator gear, besides having some civilians always useful for dioramas.

Note that in this set there is sometimes a bonus figure, a joker, of a gladiator with a pistol. Sadly, I wasn't lucky to get it. I think that he must be present in all dark-blue plastic sets, and mine was in reddish plastic. I bought mine quite a long time ago, but I think the joker was on the first editions only.

                                        The Verdict

Possibly, and in my opinion the best Gladiator set out there. There might be the more accurate Pegasus one, but it doesn't have so much life as this one. I feel that this is really the best set that Orion has ever produced, and while it can be a bit expensive in comparison with other figure sets (at least it was back in the day, when it was 12 € against 8 € that was the normal price) it is still fully worth it, more considering the good quantity of men and poses you are getting.

Historical Accuracy; 8/10, Acceptable.

Mould quality; 7/10, Good.

Fun level; 10/10, Superb.

Price/Quality; 7/10 Good.

My version

I have tried to paint every figure in two very distinct ways, and I am quite proud of the result. It was quite tiring, as first I basically painted most of them, after 5 or 6 years left them nearly finished, and I applied the last touches only recently. I wanted to paint them in a very high standard, and you cannot use fast methods to paint these figures, as they are mostly flesh in colour. Note I modified one of the men without hand, as I found it a very unuseful figure, and I added a sword to the saluting gladiator, and a roman legionary shield to one of the sword gladiators.

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Review; Monty's Caravan + Dingo Revell Matchbox 1/76 model kit vehicle afv

Welcome to one of the most singular model kits ever made, the private vehicle of General Montgomery himself.

The Box 

The original box, which is lively, but that green looks a bit strange in what seems apparently a desert road. Maybe it is Italy, but all the same that green colour looks American to me.

The Revell new box is dull, you hardly realize what it is until you read the title, although the black gives a nice sensation of quality.

The Kit 

In the Revell reissue, the flash is quite noticeable, and nearly all parts will require some sanding to look good and fit ok. Some pieces are a bit tiny to handle, as it is again a 1/76 kit. 
The details are slightly thick everywhere, which wouldn't so bad in 1/72, but in 1/76 is more noticeable. What is best of this set are the extras, you get three generals, a big stand, barrels and top to make a table and traffic barriers. This is what I call a good set, and not all these modern kits where you only get exactly one vehicle and nothing else whatsoever. 

Parts fit generally well, the wheels cannot be made to turn without major modification as in most Matchbox kits. I will add that Revell instructions are quite badly done, and you are left wondering what some parts are and how they should be stuck, without help of internet.

The Verdict

For a start  I have to say that I am a Montgomery fan and I love everything related with him  and his campaigns so it is very hard to be impartial here .WW2 specific vehicles are rare to be seen in the modelling world specially in 1:72 (except those standard vehicles that include the militar codes for that general in particular; like Rommel's halftrack) so this italian captured lorry modified as staff lorry for the personal use of Montgomery is a really interesting subject and a must  to complete your 8th army collection.

We cannot also forget the small but very used in combat Dingo light armed vehicle, one of those vehicles that you can't find easily from any other manufacturer  although Britain won the war!!!(if it was german we will be flooded with kits of this vehicle).

For those that also like to make small dioramas or make improvements in interior kits this will be a nice addition for their collection as the interior of the lorry only includes a small bench table.

Accuracy; 6/10, Acceptable.
Mould quality; 6/10, Acceptable. (Revell release)
Difficulty level; 5/10, Moderately easy.
Price/Quality; 7/10 Good, today Revell's reissue should be easy to find and well priced.

My version

This is a particular vehicle, so if you don't modify the lorry to retransform into the regular Italian army version, there is only sandy for North Africa/Italy or green for the european theatre. As you can see in the pics, I went for the sandy version, depicting Italy (as the base is quite difficult to believe it is in North Africa), and I did some interioring work, creating a small bed and a bathroom. I did this many years ago, before knowing the uses of epoxy putty, so I used Patcolor (a self-drying plasticine sold by Jovi) as a putty to recreate the interior.

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Review; Airfix Scorpion / Scimitar Tank 1/76 Model Kit Modern British light tank

Welcome to another modern tank review, today a classic as the Scorpion from Airfix.

          The Box 

Back in the day I always that it was attacking backwards, with the turret turned back. Rather strange box, with very brownish colours all around. Not really very exciting, as I have seen it thousands times and only recently decided to buy this kit (and possibly because I had built everything else in the model shop!). The super reduced small box doesn't help either.

Even if built to regular standard without nothing fancy, I rather better the second box, looks more interesting and shows a nicer camo. 

  The Kit 

It's not the worst of Airfix AFV kits, but of course you can expect that most of the detail is quite basic. All the same it builds quite nicely, much better than others. As all other Airfix AFV kits, it is 1/76, so it builds into a very small kit, which is annoying for wargamers. There is alternative parts to build the Scimitar tank, with different cannon and some turret details. It is a kit that if you feel fast, you could build 4 in an afternoon. Sadly there is no driver nor crew. One of the worst aspects are the tracks, which are quite thick and low in detail, and the wheels, with very simplified details.


                                        The Verdict

A good kit to spend an afternoon, but nothing challenging, not for a superb display piece, maybe for a battle dioramas and good to build numbers in wargaming.

Accuracy; 6/10, Acceptable.
Mould quality; 7/10, Good. (1990s release)
Difficulty level; 2/10, Easy.
Price/Quality; 7/10 (dirt cheap and easy to find).

My version

There is plenty of mild interesting modern camouflages, but I found that the most interesting was the cubist urban camouflage for the Berlin deployed forces. To give it a different I cutted out the metal foil of a tea packaging to represent the glass in the light focus over the turret.



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As alternatives, you can take a look at this other interesting pictures;

Review; Revell Fokker Eindecker Dr. I 1/72 Model Kit WW1 Aircraft Fighter Luftflotte Ottoman Air Force

Welcome to a new kit review, today we'll review a WW1 classic, the Fokker Eindecker.

The Box 

A bit too vintage for my taste, it seems taken from a wartime magazine! the exterior design is quite different.

Quite typical action box, with the strange of addition of the pilot in 1st person which gets your attention.

Typical Revell WW1 box, very finely detailed, made most possibly by the same author. Usually I like Revell boxes, but this one is a bit dull, the Fokker doesn't look as different and unique as it should. This is the version I bought.

The Kit 

Another very old kit from Revell, but it looks as if the mould hasn't been used as much as others, as the flash is still within acceptable levels. Everything fits very well, and there is no problem building the undercarriage, which is something fiddly that could ruin a model. The propeller will turn nicely along the radial engine if carefully built, the same as the wheels. 

Also, and it is very appreciated, you get a pilot, a very charismatic one in my opinion.
Accuracy in this kit is pretty good , I would say that only the machine gun was a bit flat and perhaps you could say that the undercarriage is a bit thick but in my opinion that is good enough as otherwise it will be too fragile for handling.

                                       The Verdict

This is another model kit from Revell that can be bought very cheaply, second hand from ebay / street markets (is easy to see if the rack is complete as it a very small rack) or new from a any respectable model kit shop with Revell kits (as it is has been recently re-released) for roughly 5 € only, or whatever that amount is in your country's currency. 

My version

I really decided to buy this kit in part because it was a different design, easily recognizable from other WWI biplanes, but also and in big part because I had seen pics from another modeller which did a very nice Ottoman version. So, for once, I had already decided how to paint it before owning it! a brief researched proved me there was no better alternative, so I only had to choose what shade of brown I wanted to use (I went for a very reddish one). The pilot looks very Ottoman so it fits perfectly. 

The cabling was rather tricky but I am proud of how it looks, I didn't do all the real cabling, because then it will be very hard to handle, and I must admit I did it rather thick, but that helps in solidness.
I used the original decals painting carefully the black square, just as it was done back at the time by the Ottomans, except for the fuselage logo, which I printed out.

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