Urmuth, Scars of War - Inbox

My first 'inbox' here, something a bit shorter than review, focused mostly on the content of the box.
I don't think there is any need to describe Andrea Miniatures, or their range Warlord Saga, so I'm simply gonna show you some pictures with very short description.
I guess I'll be still doing proper reviews for more 'exotic'  miniatures and companies.


The mini:

Name: Urmuth Scars of War
Manufacturer: Andrea Miniatures
Product code: WS-15
Category: Warlord Saga
Material: White metal
Scale: 1:32 (54mm)


The box:

In the box:

Quality of the cast:
As you can see the cast is really clean and crisp. There are some delicate mold lines (photo below), but as far as I can tell, nothing is damaged, and surface is rather smooth. Of course some amount of work will be required, but that's normal.

The only thing that makes me wonder is this deep hole on the left side (on the photo on the right) under his collarbone. It doesn't look too deep on the photo, but in real it looks almost unnatural. I'll probably fill it with some milliput or something, to make it look more natural and anatomically correct.


Assembly:
Seems to be really easy. Fur fits nicely to his back, just needs a bit of filler to mask the joining point.
The only tricky part might be attaching the axe because the shaft is very soft and bends easily.


Other Andrea Miniautes reviews:
Menhom Dark Shadow


cheers

'eM

The Grinder is ready

Finally I managed to take photos of finished Grinder. I hope you like him. It was a real pleasure to paint, and I learned quite a lot.

 

 

 

cmon

cheers

'eM

Templar Knight - 'final' photos

At this point my Templar is in Poland, Swidnik to be precise, in the box... in pieces (7 exactly).
I guess you could say, he didn't take the trip too good. Next time I'm home I'll do my best to glue him back together and fix the damages.
But there is no point of waiting with posting him on CMON, he won't look any better than a month ago;]
I don't think I'll have a chance to make any decent photos anymore, so I had to use last photos I made.

cmon

cheers

'eM

Talrashi - base WIP

Still not really in shape to paint, but at least I did some work on Talrashi's base.
I hope it will be fairy tale-ish enough when I'll finish with it;]

Not much to say here at this point, almost everything is glued in place, only few plants need to be added on the top, some touch-ups to fix some errors;]
I was going to prepare step-by-step tutorial about this base, but I'm missing few steps already, so I guess, it's gonna be normal tutorial;p

cheers

'eM

Talrashi - little mini, little update

I'm still not really fit for painting, but I managed to do some work on the mini and base.
Definitely less is done when it comes to painting, but the base requires less precision, and is more forgiving when it comes to fixing mistakes.

I'm trying to take a lot of pictures of the base, so I should be able to show you step-by-step article later (if the base will turn out as planned;p).

cheers

'eM

Viking Chief - review

I believe Pegaso Models needs no introduction to anyone in the hobby, at least if you're not die hard fan of GW and GW only. But even them should hear the name.
Pegaso is very well known for wide range of their desings and quality of casts. From what I've seen so far their quality control is impeccable. Of course all of it don't come for free and I must say, their models are quite pricey. But the price is the only downfall here.

Ok enough introduction, let's look at the miniature itself.

 (C) Pegaso Models

Name: Viking Chief
Manufacturer: Pegaso Models
Product Code: 90-049
Category: 05 Middle Ages VIII-XII Cen.
Sculptor: Andrea Jula (Looks like it's my favourite one here, 4 out of 5 of my Pegaso pieces were sculpted by him)
Scale: 1:20 (90mm)

The box:

As you can see on the picture below it was delivered by DHL in a plastic bag, but the box was secured by the layer of bubble wrap. The box itself is very thick and secured by Pegaso stickers to make sure noone was tempering with the pieces inside.

Inside the box:
And inside we can find two layers of very thick foam, some informational materials and pieces of the miniature (21 to be exact).

 On the last photo you can see the worst mold lines I could find:D Pretty impressive isn't it?

Assembly:
21 parts... sounds scary;] But surprisingly it's not. All parts fit together nicely and assembly is rather simple. All the additional pieces like a knife, sword and purse have little knobs that fit into the little recesses on the main body, to make sure they stay in the right place.

Very important information!

It has nothing to do with the quality of the cast or the way parts fit together, it's just about the sequence of joining them into one piece.
Glue first upper part of the torso with both parts of the cloak, and lower part of the torso with legs and then glue it together. I did a mistake and glued the body first and now I'll have to glue parts of the cloak separately, and I'm not really sure how it's gonna work out for me here. The only hope is that shield will cover all the nasty places;p

Overall opinion:
I can't find absolutely nothing wrong with the miniature. The cast is great, all parts fits nicely, painting is a pleasure (you can check previous post about Pegasus Project to find out how it goes), the subject is Viking! The only issue I have with assembly is clearly my mistake;]
Well, there is a price... that's true. I guess I wouldn't mind Pegaso lowering the prices a bit;p But on the other hand you can always wait till mini you want is in offer (it basically cuts the price to the netto value before promotion) or buy it during the show. That gives you a chance to check out the cast before buying, to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. Like I said QC in Pegaso is really great, but they're only humans:D


Other Pegaso Models reviews:
Templar Knight
Iroquois


cheers

'eM

Painting with my off-hand? Not the best idea;p

Recently I'm not feeling too well. My right arm and part of my back hurt really bad, and I do feel old and crippled:( It's bad enough that I'm unable to paint to my standard. I can splash my mini with paint but it's not exactly the same as proper painting. For a while I was considering using my left hand (I'm more or less bimanual) but then I realized I already tried that during one of the PB Cambridge meet ups...
And it didn't went too good. Proof beneath:

Yes, I know, it was speed painting, and we had only an hour, and it was my first time... But I don't think I can get good at it soon enough;p
And because painting is suspended for a while, until my arm gets better, so I will focus here on reviews and other articles:D I hope my condition will improve soon and you won't get bored with reviewing miniatures.

cheers

'eM

London PB painting meet up

October 21st, in Dark Sphere in London will be held another painting meet up.
We can expect painters (and not only) associated with Platoon Britannica and Dark Sphere.
Nothing too formal, just fun time with paints and brushes, nice people to share knowledge with, some miniatures to stare at. Of course everything followed by a pint or two:D

If you'll be somewhere around that day, feel free to step in, say hello and spend some fun time with us.
The shop is open 12-5pm

Once again full address of the store:

57 York Road
Waterloo
London
SE1 7NJ
0207 928 7220

And a map

See you all there:D

cheers
'eM

Brock the Wanderer - review

I was going to try new formula 'Inbox: more pictures - less words' here, but I'm affraid the miniature I'm going to describe this time, begs for proper review. So here it goes:

One of my newest purchases (full set here): Brock the Wanderer from Scale 75, Scale World Fantasy range.
Product code: SCF-005.
The company name is Scale 75, so I'm gonna assume for now that he's 75mm tall. I'll check it with the ruler after assembly.
The miniature is multipart and casted fully in white metal.

The box:

Miniature is secured by two boxes, one external, more delicate, with the boxart and some marketing informations, and second, hard and plain. Inside the second box we can find two layers of thick foam and lots of pieces.

What's inside the box: 

As you can see the mini is divided into quite a lot of parts. There are:
2 different heads, one with helmet the other one with a ponytail (separate)
Torso,
2 legs,
Arm with the axe,
Arm with the hammer,
Sword in a sheath to be attached on the back,
Some sort of shoulder strap (brassard maybe??),
Back side of the cloth covering his private parts,
Base (which is kinda dull and unatractive, so I rather won't be using it).

And that's how the pieces look in close up:

As you can see there is a lot of flesh(?) and few mold lines, but it should be rather easy to get rid of.
Some of the parts have less smooth surface than others (i.e. torso or legs) but the pieces are quite big so cleaning it also shouldn't be a big deal. Some time with steel wool and sanding clothes should do the trick. The only thing that worries me is the way some parts are attached to the sprues:

I don't really understand why it has to be in the middle of hair or fur.  Was there no other places for it?
It's gonna be pain for me to restore facture there. Of course for many of you it might not even be a problem, but for me it is, I hate preparing miniatures. I can see few stressful hours spent on getting this little badboy ready for primer. Mr Bombel may even learn few new swearwords in the process:)

Assembly:
Parts seem to fit together nicely, I can't find any trouble spots at the moment. But after my experiences with Pegaso's Templar I'll be able to say it for sure after gluing the whole thing together. For now it's just an assumpiton.

Overall opinion:
Hard to say, really.
I really like the concept.
I like the packaging.
I'm even happy with the overall quality of the cast...
But I'm strongly dissapointed with the way head  and few other elements are attached to the sprues. Like I said, for some of you it might not even be a problem, but for me it is, and it brings down my joy of having this miniature.
This is my first Scale 75 miniature, so I have no idea if that's common thing with them or not, but I'll probably think twice before buying next one online without checking some reviews first. Which is very unfortunate, because I like quite a few minis from their range.

cheers

'eM