Hi everyone,
first let me provide a bit of context:
I had an interest in Cold-War-Gone-Hot scenarios for a good couple years now. After an aborted attempt at playing Team Yankee in 6mm some years ago my interested was rekindled after hearing a lot of good things about the "Seven Days to River Rhine" rules and the prospect of the Battlegroup NORTHAG being released a while back.
As for miniatures and scale I was torn between doing 6mm or something I haven't done before, namely 10mm. I decided on the latter and after a bit of research identified a couple of manufacturers, among them of course PSC and their 10mm range released in support of Battlegroup NORTHAG.
So today on the way home from work I stopped by the FLGS and picked up two boxes:
1. Soviet Motorised Rifle Company
2. Soviet T-80 Tank Company
I knew in advance that the infantry is a scaled-down version of their 15mm infantry released in hard plastic a while ago, which judging from pictures look quiet good.
I also knew in advance that the material used for their 10mm miniatures is called "Ultracast" and that it is some kind of flexible resin/plastic type material.
So with that in mind I went home and opened the boxes.
Here is my first impression:
Soviet Motorised Infantry: Here's my first sample. 3 guys with AKs and an RPG.
You get 108 guys in the box, which is at first glance really good value I think. There is a good selection of poses, your basic AK-wielding guys, RPGs, Strelas, ATGMs and AGLs.
That being said this Ultracast-stuff reminds me a little of the material the plastic soldiers of my childhood were made of. It really is very flexible. The detail is good in some places, while in others it looks really soft and blurred. Furthermore the properties of the material make clean-up way more involved as with hard plastic or even metal alloys. There is flash in some places and basically every miniature has prominent mold lines. Scraping these off requires an extremly sharp blade. Filing these away isn't really an option, as it only serves to create a fuzzy kind of line where the mold line is, instead of removing it. I think factoring in the time needed for that kind of cleanup diminishes the good value a little, but I'll preserve the final judgement on that till I am actually done.
As for the claim that no priming is needed with this kind of material I'll be sure to try it.
That being said I think that even while clean-up will be a nightmare I think they will paint up nicely and I'll be sure to keep this thread up to date.
Now on the the second box!
Soviet T-80 Company:The second box I bought is the T-80 company. You get 10 tanks in the box, which again is way cheaper than going with miniatures made from metal in this scale. Then again what I wrote about ULTRACAST before holds true here. The tanks require some cleanup, but due to the size of the models that process is easier than with the infantry. Each tank consists of just a few parts: Hull, turret, tracks and the external fuel tanks (not yet attached in my pictures). What concerns me is the flexibility of the barrels: Most aren't straight out of the box and so far I had no luck changing that, not even by applying heat. I'll try some more.
As with the infantry detail is good in places while soft in others. What I am really missing is the smoke launchers, which their T-64 model apparently has. But that is a small niggle. Considering the price I think the detail is okay and I suspect the tanks will paint up well enough.
But there is something that really irks me with this box:
This is the box art:
Notice anything? Yeah, the tanks in the box don't look very much like the tanks on the box. After opening the box I thought it was packed wrong - with T-64s. Granted, the early T-80 models look rather like T-64s at first glance, but the box art shows what to me looks more like later model T-80s, maybe T-80BVs considering the ERA present on the box art. I am no expert here, but the models in the box look more like T-80Bs, which would make sense considering the timeframe of Battlegroup NORTHAG.
After a bit of research I found out that the T-80s on the box look like the T-80 model from Miniature Figurines?
Well, maybe I am missing something here or I am being a pain, but I was pretty bummed out that the models in the box didn't look like the model on the box. Considering the box art even is a photo of actual models I find this a little misleading.
So in conclusion:
My first impression with Ultracast is so-so. On the one hand the price of the miniatures is really good, but as far as value is concerned it remains to be seen in how far the cleanup process diminishes it. Detail is okay, while obviously not as detailed as hard plastic or even some lead miniatures. From a business point of view it might make sense to go this way, as I know hard plastic is a huge investment that might never pay off in this niche.
As far as my experience with the T-80 box art/model discrepancy - That is my biggest complaint, but hopefully I can get some clarification on that one.
I hope my first impression didn't come off too negative, I just think that there is some room for improvement as far as casting quality and box art (
) is concerned. That being said I am looking forward to finding out how these guys paint up!