Warlord Games 'Aesthetic' Change?

[Kommando_J]

I have noticed as of late a change in the sculpting style and general look of some of warlords WW2 range, most prominently in the new Australians (https://store.warlordgames.com/products/australian-independent-commando-squad) side by side these chaos tower over the chindit/other bolt action ranges and now I can see we are getting more of the same(similar poses make me think that the same dollies are being used throughout).

I'm wondering if this is a permanent change for warlord? A move away fro the separate heads and comic book style faces(warlord specifically point out how the independent section are based off old photos).

What does everyone else think? Good? Bad? Ugly?

Also is anyone else sick of warlords special edition models all being of a guy carrying another guy? I was hoping for a special edition Japanese mini for the new book.

[3 fingers]

Like the militia .

[The Dozing Dragon]

Scale creep ensures you only use their miniatures I suppose. Dollies have always been used to some extent. I believe Minifigs were one of the originators of that kind of 'roll them off the line' style which was why they were so prolific.

[axabrax]

I personally think it's fine to have some variety in the sculpts.  Not every range needs to match exactly in terms of style and proportions ( so long as they are all roughly "28mm.") As long as the miniatures are sculpted by hand this is inevitable, and I don't think you can expect such a huge catalog with multiple sculptors to be entirely uniform.

On the other hand, I think the Paul Hicks Chindits and Ghurkas are much better than these   YMMV

[Cubs]

On the other hand, I think the Paul Hicks Chindits and Ghurkas are much better than these   YMMV

Yup.

I didn't like their gurning faces on the previous sculpts and I'm afraid I don't like the bizarre proportions and poses of these sculpts. They had a problem before with the weapons looking way too small (plastic weapons sprues sculpted true to scale, whereas the figures were sculpted with exaggerated extremities) and the SMG on these look too big to me (the Owen looks like a collection of plumbing pipes). What on earth are some of these guys doing with their rifles? They look like they're in a Mariachi band. The 'charging with gun in one hand, machete in another' doesn't work for me either. On reflection and a second viewing they're not awful, just slightly off and not likely to inspire my affection.

No, should've stuck with Hicks for the Bolt Action range. He gets it right every time.  

[westwaller]

My take on these is that they look fairly realistic but uninspiring. I thought the plastic Fallschirmjagers were an improvement particularly compared to the weird proportions of the Grenadiers box set but these are a bit 'meh' imho.

Some of them seem to have the giraffe look I associate with some ranges of 1/72 plastics.

[Kommando_J]

I agree that some variation is good, I use the older paul hicks stuff with the bigger newer stuff, the problem is these new fellows look way too big to mix(also from what i've seen are fixed head despite being labelled otherwise), id almost expect them to be a different scale.

As an aside 32mm scale is the devils work.

[Chico]

From what was mentioned on the BA FB group is that this sculptor is know to go larger to fit in all the details he wants.

I do prefer larger/chunkier sculpts over thinner ones though (Artizan over Perry any day) but these do seem a tad large even for me.

[Kommando_J]

I'm tonr, while I like a nice detailed sculpt...it comes with its drawbacks like flimsy barrels/bayonets etc. Chunky is good but I agree these might be too big(although ive only seen them next to Hicks smaller/earlier stuff).

[carlos marighela]

In some ways, they do seem an improvement on their own efforts. The Hicks sculpts were for the most part very good but they've been progressively replaced and the Beano phase of sculpting was pretty off putting.

Compared to the Eureka ones these are still shite. The Owens are awful and the sculpts a bit mehh.  The militia and the Papuans seem a bit better but I'll be waiting for the Eureka versions of the latter.

I w just thinking the other day that they are fast running out of subject matter. There are multiple plastic sets for all the major and commercially viable forces and metals that fill the gaps. I'm trying to think where they would go with the plastics. I can hardly see them making Hungarians, Bulgarians or Chinese. I doubt they'll do the desert as that seems to be the exclusive preserve of Perry. Bit of a dead end really and I doubt too many people will be running out to replace existing plastic sets with new ones, even if the tooling costs made it look viable.

[Kommando_J]

Italians need a plastic kit, Chinese have actually become very popular, I could see a plastic kit being a big hit, personally id love to see a vickers light tank in plastic, or a flexible plastic kit for making partisans/civilians/militia.

[Lowtardog]

Not overly fond of these, they are ok but nowt to shout about

I am surprised they haven`t dipped into world war 1 in plastics, all the theatres, early and late war and bobs your uncle

[Chico]

Chinese have actually become very popular

I'd love a couple of plastic kits for the Chinese, 1 for Nationalists geared with German equipment and a 2nd kit for Generic Chinese suitable for Commies, non-trained Nationalists (Also Big Sword Squads) and Warlord.

Won't happen but I can dream, still as I have my Chinese army more or less done it's a tad late for me anyway hehe

[Stu]

Italians need a plastic kit, Chinese have actually become very popular, I could see a plastic kit being a big hit, personally id love to see a vickers light tank in plastic, or a flexible plastic kit for making partisans/civilians/militia.

Oh Yes!

[Cubs]

I remember one person once asking for Romanians (or was it Norwegians?) and being directed towards Norwegians (or was it Romanians?) as decent proxies. I wonder how many of the other relatively minor Allied/Axis nations could be represented in plastic with sprue options to give national variety? I doubt that, for example, the Romanians on their own would justify a full set of plastics, but if you could represent half a dozen nationalities from a single box, surely that would be a good seller? I confess I don't know enough about the various uniforms to know if it was viable or not.