Kit Review: Fireforge Spanish Heavy Infantry

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Just in case people are curious about Fireforge's Spanish infantry, because I've yet to see a single person, anywhere, post pictures of them - a quick review.







For 24£ you get 12 models. This is a pretty hefty whack for what are essentially 'Forgotten World' scale versions of the Templar and Teutonic infantry, albeit with some armour and clothing variants you can't find in those kits.

Box - nothing special, just a white box with the Fireforge logo and a pic of the model renders. Doesn't really matter to me but it doesn't have the incredible production values of Fireforge's historical medieval line with the amazing box artwork.

Inside the box - you get a bunch of resin sprues identical to the style used in the Forgotten World release, and a handful of plastic spears and Renedra square bases. They're generous with the spears at least.

Quality - mostly good. The Forgotten World resin release were marred by some pretty poor quality casts with 'laddering' apparent on smooth flowing textures like cloaks, capes etc. That happily doesn't seem to be the case here, although unhappily, three of the heads have come out as pretty poor miscasts with the entire bottom half of the face missing (see third pic, heads #2, #8 and #9). Doesn't stop me, as I've got a huge bits box, but if you were buying the kit as a newcomer it'd be frustrating.

I can't speak for historicity and general period accuracy as I never studied medieval Spanish history. But these guys could cover a wide range of roles, especially in a low-fantasy army.

Other things: It'd be nice to see some more variation in the weapons - sword arms are pretty samey, and a bit bendy (inevitable with resin). The resin used is the same type as the Forgotten World minis, so it's very soft and bendy in general.

Would I recommend the kit? Not sure. If this was priced like Fireforge's other kits, it'd be an instant yes. For £2 per model, any flaws or miscasts feel really noticeable.
I'll post up some more pictures of these guys in due course - they're going to be fairly heavily kitbashed, but hopefully this helps anyone out who was on the fence about them.

[Tonhel]

Thank you for the review!

Looking forward to see them painted. I think these are more or less historical okay. Although I've seen the renders of their El Cid character and that's atleast 100 years wrong. ;-)

In the beginning I really liked what they were doing, but nowadays compared to Perry or Victrix. The difference is big.

[Captain Blood]

Thanks for the review.
Honestly, they look pretty awful to me. The faces are like skulls. The arms are all more or less the same. Hardly any variety. I just don’t get the point of doing it like this.
I also don’t understand FF’s strategy or design ethos. They seem to hop about between plastic kits and resin kits, between hand sculpted and digitally sculpted originals. There is no consistent look or quality standard across their different sets - they vary so much from one era or setting to another. These certainly don’t look a patch on their earlier sets from a few years ago. Even the resin sets. I have the resin ‘city militia’ and they are actually really good. Some of the earlier plastic sets like the Crusader infantry and foot sergeants sets are absolute bankers. Lots of components, lots of character. Some slightly fantasy style weapons, but overall, pretty good. But their more recent releases... really not so good. I recently bought both the Russian infantry and Byzantine infantry sets, and they are a/ totally different to each other in look, feel and quality, and b/ each have quality shortcomings of their own within each set.

It’s a real shame that while some plastic figure makers like Victrix and Perry have just got better and better, others like Fireforge and Gripping Beast have become more and more basic and unimaginative compared to their original plastic sets. And with many fewer components in each set, most of which which are a lot less nice. I think they’ll quickly be overtaken by new entrants like Wargames Atlantic, who seem to be on an upward curve in terms of the quality, design, and make-up of their kits.

As Tonhel says, the difference is big. And it seems to be growing. One end of the plastic ‘historical’ figure brands seem to be getting better and better. The other end, worse and worse

[JollyBob]

Think I'll be giving these a miss.

Is that meant to be chainmail or is everyone wearing really chunky cable knit sweaters?

[Charlie_]

They seem to be multi-part, but mono-pose? All the arms and legs are in the exact same position. If you're going to have them multi-part, why would you NOT have some variety in the arm and leg poses??? I don't get it....

[Coenus Scaldingus]

Many thanks for posting this. Recently found myself browsing the Fireforge website for the first time in ages and was quite excited by seeing many figures which I didn't know they released. That changed a bit when seeing most were resin and even more when seeing these pictures. 
Combined with Captain Blood's words I'll certainly check some reviews and pictures before purchasing anything from them. They sure seem weirdly designed and poor quality, not making use of any of the qualities of resin. Those extreme miscasts are just unacceptable, whatever the price.

[Tonhel]

They seem to be multi-part, but mono-pose? All the arms and legs are in the exact same position. If you're going to have them multi-part, why would you NOT have some variety in the arm and leg poses??? I don't get it....

Exactly, I also don't get it. If the end result is a monopose figure, you can better cast one or two piece figures. Just look at the Antediluvian War of Bruces range, Claymore Castings Early HYW and Footsore newest late Saxons. All sculpted by Matthew Bickley. You can get 12 unique characterful / dynamic mini's for a cheaper price.... . Although those are in metal, but in contrast with other resin figures this Fireforge resin is not so great.

Also these aren't really "historical' mini's, it's more a fantasy version of it. I.e there El Cid character, has a surcoat, these weren't a thing around 1090. Even at the time of third crusade surcoats weren't common. I know it's nitpicking, but it's still wrong. ;-)


I just don't get it.

[Captain Blood]

I’m afraid an awful lot of their figures are really more like children’s storybook ideas of knights and men at arms. They certainly have their uses, and I’ve made a nice little feudal skirmish army out of (mainly) Fireforge parts with some extra kitbashing here and there. But if you look at the meticulous and accurately rendered detail of armour and clothing on the Perry and Victrix medieval / dark ages sets, they are in a completely different league. The Fireforge figures are all very generically ‘medieval’ in a Hollywood kind of way...

I remember when they first launched and they produced all that incredible box art, for all sorts of medieval period sets they were going to produce. I thought ‘Wow! These are going to be incredible’. Unfortunately none of the actual sets of figures lived up to the promise of that artwork.

Still, they are very popular and widely used, so I’m sure the company will feel they’re giving people what they want, and doing something right.

[Vonkluge]

Have to agree with the “Captain’s” and others views about the not really “historically accurate” more of a storybook or Hollywood view and I think that is really what they have always gone for. It works for many people as we all have different views, likes, and dislikes, as well as very different approaches when painting and building our “little dolly” armies. I think the recent difference in quality is more due to laziness and profit. How much time and effort can we put into a product with a limited scope and sales projection. The early stuff was great as they wanted to impress and the types of figure would have a big sales base as there was as of yet few competitors especially style or in “plastics”. This laziness happens in a lot of hobby companies especially if led by folks more interested in profit than a true love of the hobby say like the “Perry’s” verse “Games Workshop” (that being said I kind of like the GW Age of Sigmar stuff!)
Heck I bought and painted a large Teutonic Warband for SAGA and used mostly their figures because I wanted a Teutonic army as I “imagined it”, more of a “Hollywood style” (I work in Hollywood in the film biz and I was happy with the figures. I doubt that any Teutons went into battle looking like mine…lol! But I am thankful that nowadays I have such a huge range of choices in figure selection and can sort of tailor my choices accordingly.
I’m also thankful for this and other forums and enthusiast websites where I can get some info from others before I buy something and lessen the shock when I open the box!

For my SAGA army of Vikings I deliberately chose Foundry vikings, they are not that historical but wonderful sculpts, full of caricature, and how can you not love a line of what 60 figures and everyone has it's own name? Their leaders below were even less "historical"