[SOLDIERS]
Look at those arms! Look at that chest! Look at them!
[MILES]
Not to mention the rest. Even I am impressed!
Wargames
Factory 28mm Romans
(a snap review by Jeff Jonas)
Wargames Factory (WF) recently released their long awaited
Roman Caesarean Legions plastic figures in 28mm, here's my initial comments:
First off I must say that I have slight bias against plastic figures, so they have to
knock my socks off to get me really excited... so keep this view in mind that these will
never have the heft of a metal toy soldiers.... that's an intangible... but OTOH
these are so much better for dioramas and set pieces.. that's the trade off.... here's the
work and commentary as the unit progresses.
11/02/08 Centurion model
I decided to cut to the chase and finish the Centurion as pictured above. Often I
will use one model as a benchmark as to how the rest are going to aet back my painting
timeline..... the figure took me a while to paint because I still was having trouble
finding the detail with my old eyes and the Optivisor. Ultimately I think I acheived
the result I desired. Everything here is out of the box except for the shield design which
I have altered. I cut out the central boss out of the dry transfer and the film
attached ok. Luckily there are more transfers provided than I will need. On the down
side the Little Big Men Studios designs have abit too much battle damage for me, and the
four color process dots are something that make my stomach turn. I decided to paint
the shield black. It wasn't difficult to apply the transfer once I cut out the boss, and
they took paint well. I prefer regular screen printed LBMS transfers, thes look like
something for toys....
I have not yet decided how to base these figures, I reckon I will get the whole cohort done then actually figure out how they will line up. The end result so far is that these figures can line up with other 28mm figures, and with some level of effort will look as nice as any of them on the table top.
JJ
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10/31/08 *Addendum
I have primed the whole unit with Rustoleum flat black spray paint and the detail has not washed away. In fact as
stated by Tony Reidy and Howard Whitehouse, the detail on the sprue is a bit diminished by
the sheen of the plastic. Once that sheen is flattened the figures look quite nice. I am
ready to start painting them, and will do a full report to go with the Red State Ruckus
Roamin' Romans theme.
I am currently assembling a second cohort and clipping the helmet crests. These will
all have pilum and are going together easier than the first batch (it's always nice to
have beaten the learning curve :)
When all is done, I expect the Wargames Factory Romans to look as good as my Companion
Praetorians that cost twice as much... super zoom photos will reveal the difference
but none of that will show in the table top.
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Posted on TMP 10/25/08:
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| Belted lorica hamata armor often makes re-enactors look like they have a paunch. | The revised Centurion model is very nice as has a nice set of phalerae, similar to this dude. | The optio staff can be easily made out extra bits. | The cornu is a bit thick, but all models seem to be this way in scale. | The parma shield is easily swiped from extra Warlord Romans or metal bits. |
I have been assembling my WF Romans the last couple days. As far as scale, there is
nothing that will prevent me from combining these with my Foundry and Companion Republican
Romans. The figures have smaller heads than most oversized and cartoonish 28mm metal
figures (sucha ass the Foundry and Companion models just mentioned), but that is because
the 28mm metal figures appendages are enormously large, the WF figures have better
proportions.
The WF torsos are a bit thick, but a look at re-enactors wearing lorica armor will show
the torso is a bit thick with lorica hamata.
Currently the assembly process goes slowly as there are a lot of bits to clean and prep,
so that is certainly a drawback from metal figures. Each figure has at least five
bits, left and right arm, head, torso, and shield.
Two WF boxes allows me plenty of figures for three 24 figure cohorts with command
which works well for WAB.... something it would take 2 1/2 bags of Old Glory
(OG) regulars and one bag of command figures, so at retail OG would be about $92.00, if
you have their discount it would be about $66 bucks plus shipping, however the Old
Glory Caesareaan Romans don't hold a candle to these at all. Foundry and Companion
figures will set one back abotu twice that much (here in the USA).
Still the details are a bit soft, but my eyes are not that good either, so we'll call
that a draw. The optio head helmet is nice. It's easy enough to make the optio's staff, as
none is provided.
On the less than positive side, the figures do suffer from some soft detail, particularly
on the feet which are a bit too mushy on the top, this is troublesome as I reckon it
will be harder to paint the detail onto the caligulae, when I get to that stage.
Warlord's Romans have the feet detail much better, this is an area where WF needs
improvement. The bear skins and wolf skins are quite soft as well.
Because of the soft details, I'm afraid I may not be able to use my normal black* or white
Krylon spray prime coat- as I feel the details may get knokced back further so I am
struggling with a decision there.
Plus there needs to be some patient modeling skills applied to assembly, the heads have
ball joint necks, which the torsos do not accept securely, so each ball joint needs to be
trimmed to seat into the chest. This means some dicey cuts and pre-fitting. Nothing
complicated for an accomplished modeler, just extra work. The faces on one section of the
sprue are very mushy.
On the accuracy side, the figures seem to be close to our impression of what a Caesarian
Legionary (or Marius' mules) might appear like…. I like the fact that the plumes are
not outscaled like the Foundry and Companion figure excesses. The multi-pose ability is a
real boon for the diorama builder. The swords are the right heft as opposed to some metal
models that go whacky with sword sizes.
I'd say that the poses are equal to the Foundry and Companion figures I own, and far
superior to many of the Old Glory squatting dudes poses.
I intend to convert the extra bits to artillery crewmen for my Imperial scorpios.
The centurion and optio are nice figures.
However there are some oversights. There is no round parma shield for the standard bearer-
(no real problem there, I'll just swipe one from my largess of shields, or from the
Warlord Imperial set).
Also the big shields do not have reinforcing metal ridges on them, and are not well
engineered for attaching to the arms. There is no framework on the inside of the shield.
The rub down transfers by Little Big Men
seem nice, I'm not yet sold on rub ons and will reserve judgement until I get to that
stage.
Of course now that I'm ready to base and then prime these I'm happier now that the
assembly time is done and I can move to the more fun parts.
Review so far- you get what you pay for, plastics mean much more assembly effort, and
somewhat softer detail, some better proportions, and unlimited customization, and are
relatively inexpensive. Other pluses is the company uses Triangle to help with
packaging, they are in the USA so access is easy, and the boxes are made useful by
printing card tents on the sides, so less recycling!!
The thing I need to remind myself that this is an initial release, and that they will get
better, especially with good feedback.
But the bottom line is how they look when done, we will see how the end result
compare to my Companion Praetorians!
Jeff Jonas
