Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: benglish on 13 October 2011, 04:21:08 AM
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Hey guys.
Any one have any opinions/experience with Black Tree WWII miniatures? Wondering if they're any good.
Appreciate the tips!
thanks
benglish
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Their original ranges, Germans and Americans are lovely figures but the initial releases have been added to by another sculptor and aren't anywhere near as nice. BTD have tended to mix these figures into the old packs too so they're hard to avoid.
Their later ranges, everything else, aren't as good but some like the Commandos are passable.
Their vehicle kits are horrible, avoid at all costs.
Lastly, their mail order is patchy, lots of threads all over the internet about people not getting their stuff. I've never had this but I have been sent some dire castings, some packs had more flash than figures.
On balance I'd avoid them these days, there are other manufacturers out there. Don't be lured in by the 'sales'.
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I think the same. I have some old germans, they are ok. But now, I would buy Artizan, Crusader or Warlord
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Thank you guys ... that's a big help. Appreciate it.
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J have a squad of each German, US and British Infantry whcih I use for skirmishes
Lovely figures
but does anyone know how the Warlord plastics look size wise when compared with them
I am sorely tempted but don't want yet another "scale"
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I have loads of the Germans, Russians, Italians and US and I think they are great. Especially the Russians
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Oh yes, Russians were the other early range so are mostly very good too.
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The best Russian range, but their reliability is questionable.
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If you remove the metal lump bases from the germans and americans they look fine alongside the warlord plastics. I should be able to snap a comparison shot for you tomorrow!
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Yup early Germans and Russians are superb, I had yank paras which were a bit dodgy and later minis are mixed. Nuff said about mail order problems in past but noticed a few threads recently where they seem better, but e-bay will be your friend
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Their static MG34 Machine Gun Team is the best depiction of this weapon I've seen so far :-*
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I should be able to snap a comparison shot for you tomorrow!
much appreciated, I have googled but not found any yet
I have the Warlord Romans, who are a bit tidgy (even against the Celts) I thought they would be big strapping lads having conquered the known world :)
As to ordering - never a problem for me
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I think Warlords WW2 are bigger than their Romans, which were on the smaller size.
The thing with Black Tree Design WW2 is the original figures, made when they called themselves Harlequin Miniatures, were brilliant. They were made by Nick Collier and he really went to town on them, I know because I worked with him. But the owners screwed him over so he left, they then became Icon Miniatures then Black Tree Design. What they did then was hand over Nick's mannikins and equipment to all manner of sculptors to knock out the rest of the WW2 range. I can see with a professional eye they didn't take anywhere near as much care and attention as Nick did, nor was there the same amount of research we did. Bet they got 'em done cheaper though.
That's my take on the history of that range, I accept that the accusation on bias can be thrown at me as I now work closely with Artizan and Crusader.
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poor delivery times: my flak 88 and 75mm IG gun took over 2 months to be delivered
poor customer communication: never got any response to enquiries and no replies to refund demands, thankfully models arrived before I took it further and gave up on them
poor quality: the 88, crew and IG were awful quality, the 88 required allot of work to even look like a gun again
avoid, I'll never make the mistake ever again
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Just ordered a small bunch of Ruskis. Here's hoping.......ordered some a while back and order came quite quickly. Agree with comments of the vehicles, only have a Horsch truck and it was a bit of a mare to put together. They showed some Pirate greens a couple of years that I am desperate for......................
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I only have a couple of russians from their WWII range and they look very nice imo.
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The '88 is the old plastic Bandai 1/48th scale model dropped in a low temp mould, and the crew are a brilliant example of what I was saying about a lack of any real research.
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Sorry I was so slow, but here's a comparison between the Black Tree Design americans and Bolt Action plastic brits:
(http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/307589_10150326504822787_680752786_8039156_1729148989_n.jpg)
Edit: I might as well add that they're standing in front of Sarissa Precision's MDF houses as well.
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Not to derail the thread, but how did you add texture to those houses?
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I use this stuff:
(http://www.artistbutiken.se/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/g/-/g-modelling-paste250ml.jpg)
and I stiple it on with a regular brush. Since it's effectively an acrylic medium, it's made for mixing with paint. I used to be a wall filler kind of guy until Galland introduced me to this stuff.
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Thanks for that!
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Here you can see my Germans from the BTD range inclusive the motorcycles:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=33700.0
The early/mid war range is very good, but for the later period I prefer some other seller like Crusader, Warlord Games, Artizan etc. ...
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FKSN
Thanks for the comparison shots - lovely building and painting
to my eyes the Warlord are a little slimmer and smaller
If I was starting afresh then they would be a good choice but I think I would always notice the difference, I can be a little anal like that.
Thanks again
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I like black tree designs german soldiers, but some of the faces is not so good.
And I found a comparision foto from some forum, here it is:
(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8843/912396a.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/912396a.jpg/)
I do hope the owner don't mind me posting it here ;D