Plastic Soldier Review Covering 1:72 Fantasy

[Mr. White]

With the unfortunate war waging in Europe, 1:72 releases have slowed down, so it appears that Plastic Soldier Review has decided to finally do reviews on the Dark Alliance line. The reviews aren't as extensive as their historical ones, but with the Redbox/Alliance site gone, PSR might be the go to place to see the contents of these wonderful boxes.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=149

[Mammoth miniatures]

I quite like their balrog review - "There are very few real-world situations where such miniatures are appropriate or useful, which is a pity (sort of) as they are really pleasing models."

It's like someone is a bit fantasy curious but can't bring themselves to give it a try! 

[Kelly_]

Thanks for the heads up!  There were hardly any fantasy entries a little while ago, and I am looking forward to the PSR tone when reading through the whole set of these reviews.

PSR might be the go to place to see the contents of these wonderful boxes.

I have only purchased a few of Alliance's sets to use in conversions, but I agree that for the price they are wonderful.  Also, for any of the mentions of flash in the reviews, just assume you will get twice the amount you are expecting on any riders from the cavalry sets.  All the incidences of flash have been extremely thin and have not really affected any detail, but the extent of cleanup required before priming is the most of any 1/72 manufacturer I have seen.

[Robosmith]

How do these scale with a certain workshop's models? They look exactly the same style. My biggest concern would be the plastic looks cheap. But I suppose if you're paying 20p a mini you're getting a decent deal even in crappy plastic. Pick up 2 boxes of these and a commander and you've got yourself a decent oathmark, kings of war or even warhammer fantasy army. 84 models can go a long way.

[Hobgoblin]

How do these scale with a certain workshop's models? They look exactly the same style.

They're 1/72 rather than 28mm (or even 25mm), so they're not compatible. But they are a great size for games with 'old school' 25mm basing - DBA, HOTT, ADLG, etc, etc. These ones are on 60mm HOTT frontages (which should give you an idea of the scale):

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pCgficvgup4/Xz1dIm2ck1I/AAAAAAAABvU/txQYqyr-5IMIECcCJ42vYSrAODyiTeC4ACLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h384/Spears%2B1.JPG

And these are based on pennies - and they would work as small orcs, kobolds, etc., in RPGs and skirmish games:



The trolls are compatible with 28mm (the one here is with 1/72 Dark Alliance goblins), though I imagine they're quite a bit smaller than GW 28mm versions:



My biggest concern would be the plastic looks cheap. But I suppose if you're paying 20p a mini you're getting a decent deal even in crappy plastic. Pick up 2 boxes of these and a commander and you've got yourself a decent oathmark, kings of war or even warhammer fantasy army. 84 models can go a long way.
[/quote]

Exactly! I'm currently basing up swathes of them for Kings of War (and adding some individually and dual-based ones to allow my HOTT elements to be used in that game).

The Dark Alliance stuff is shinier and (slightly harder to paint than the Caesar stuff (Caesar being the Taiwanese company that's the other great source of fantasy 1/72 - Caesar orcs shown with DA half-orc pikemen below), but it is more rigid, so the weapons don't tend to bend unduly. The Caesar stuff is more rubbery - like the original Reaper Bones material, so it takes paint and superglue very well, but you do tend to get bendy weapons (and sometime ankles) unless you replace them with hard plastic or wire equivalents.



The quality of some of the recent Dark Alliance sets - minotaurs and Anubis types - has been superb - little or no flash and no mouldlines to speak of. Those would work as smallish beastmen in 28mm (e.g. GW Ungors), as they're both quite hefty in 1/72. Both sets are really nice, concept-wise. And the cyclopes are the size of largish 28mm ogres.

Great company - and for reasons quite apart from their products, I'm sure we all hope that they're soon able to return to doing business.

[Mr. White]

I feel the quality is great for the cost. I’ve painted up a few warbands for Dragon Rampant and they turned out great.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=134833.0

I thought I was going to go another direction with DR, but I actually might end up sticking with 1:72

[Mr. White]

I quite like their balrog review - "There are very few real-world situations where such miniatures are appropriate or useful, which is a pity (sort of) as they are really pleasing models."

It's like someone is a bit fantasy curious but can't bring themselves to give it a try! 

Ha! That's a great comment. Here are some of my favorites...

From Dwarves Set 2: "The piper is an interesting choice as bagpipes are found in many cultures, and the figure we have suggested may be a king seems to underline that assumption by standing still and pointing, which is what most 1/72 scale plastic officers do all of the time."

From Light Warg Orcs: "Lots of pointy bits helps to convey that this is armour worn by evil things, although the long talons on the vambrace worn on the left arm of the first figure in the top row begs the question of how he can grip reins or anything else with that hand, so it looks very impractical to us. Perhaps he liked the look of them in the shop and is now regretting his choice. "

hehehehe.

Who writes the PSR reviews? I don't see any credited author for these. Is it the same individual for all of them?

[boneio]

the last figure in the second row holds a sword with the hilt at a ninety degree angle to the blade, which we would have thought would make it impossible to use, but then again, we are not half-orcs so perhaps we underestimate them

 

[Pattus Magnus]

The descriptions of sets all through the Plastic Soldier Review site often include some pretty hilarious observations. If a manufacturer made an odd choice on a sculpt, the PSR commentator will probably notice and point it out.

[102-year-old-man]

i think including those fantasy sets was an important step for Plastic Soldier Review. After all they represent an significant proportion of the 1/72 releases nowadays