Review HiTech Miniatures SF Commander & Resin Bases

[WarGameGuru]

Today I posted an in-depth review of the 28mm SF Commander Model, 25mm Tech Bases and 25mm Rocky Bases from HiTech Miniatures...




http://wargameguru.weebly.com/review---hitech-miniatures-sf-commander--25mm-resin-bases.html

[Commander Vyper]

Sorry but not sure really what there is to review???

GW IP issues, stupidly sized melee weapon and poor anatomy to boot.

This review lark is easy...


Next!  

[Faber]

Sorry but not sure really what there is to review???

GW IP issues, stupidly sized melee weapon and poor anatomy to boot.

This review lark is easy...


Next!  

eheh, i have to agree. 

[WarGameGuru]

Sorry but not sure really what there is to review???

GW IP issues, stupidly sized melee weapon and poor anatomy to boot.

This review lark is easy...


Next!  

The head does ruin it, as for the weapon, I didn't harp on that because quite frankly GW is just as guilty of oversized weapons too, and anyone reading the review could see that, as you did. I felt that was more of style choice, than a negative.

As for GW IP issues, it certainly looks like it would fit in nicely in a Space Marines force, but there's also enough differences separating it from a Space Marine as well, if you look closely. The helmet that's in his hand for instance literally looks more like the Steamknight heads from MaxMini, than any GW model helmet. It's hard to do something sci-fi these days that's not similar to something else in some way either.

I'm not at all defending HiTech Miniatures either, but I've seen far worse example models of a company blatantly trying to copy a GW design than this.

There's a lot of things they did do right too, because for a new company that was an amazingly clean model, the sculpting is also very crisp and defined all over. So these guys definetly have some potential and as I said in the review. This one model is probably not the best example of a flagship model for them that's all, but they're learning. After it went live today via email they even admitted it's one of the first models, and they're taking in the things people are saying as they move ahead too. We've seen far worse first efforts from other companies in this industry, that's for certain.

[Commander Vyper]

Well as it's all derived, (Nurgle Greater Demon, demonic mounts/beasts of nurgle, space marines and skaven) I'm afraid it scores low for originality.

I'm all for a new company doing great things... just copying an ident isn't a good way to start.

Appreciate that their casting end results are clean...but you ever thought that might be down to the skill of the mould maker and caster as much down to the quality of the product?

A well sculpted and cleanly cast unoriginal piece is still an unoriginal piece. Also the marines (and I'll call em that as that is the market they are aiming for) look like scribor's tat. Let's hope not for their sakes.

The Commander

[WarGameGuru]

Well as it's all derived, (Nurgle Greater Demon, demonic mounts/beasts of nurgle, space marines and skaven) I'm afraid it scores low for originality.

Well I'd agree with you on that. Although many of these smaller companies are trying to appeal to the GW enthusiast, and I can't blame them. The only difference is, companies like MaxMini do a little better job of it, by offering really nice parts to modify them, as opposed to trying to make an entire model to appeal to them, which is as we all know a lot more risky when it comes to GW.

I'm all for a new company doing great things... just copying an ident isn't a good way to start.

Appreciate that their casting end results are clean...but you ever thought that might be down to the skill of the mould maker and caster as much down to the quality of the product?

Either way you look at it, they've then made the choice to utilize a quality mould maker and caster then, with that being the case they're likely to use the same one again, so it still does say a lot about what you can expect from them, wouldn't you agree?

A well sculpted and cleanly cast unoriginal piece is still an unoriginal piece. Also the marines (and I'll call em that as that is the market they are aiming for) look like scribor's tat. Let's hope not for their sakes.

The Commander

[WarGameGuru]

Well as it's all derived, (Nurgle Greater Demon, demonic mounts/beasts of nurgle, space marines and skaven) I'm afraid it scores low for originality.

I'm all for a new company doing great things... just copying an ident isn't a good way to start.

Appreciate that their casting end results are clean...but you ever thought that might be down to the skill of the mould maker and caster as much down to the quality of the product?

A well sculpted and cleanly cast unoriginal piece is still an unoriginal piece. Also the marines (and I'll call em that as that is the market they are aiming for) look like scribor's tat. Let's hope not for their sakes.

The Commander

Oh what was that you were saying about Scibor too? I just got a couple of their models in the other day, and at a glance it seems that their Celtic SF Warrior #2, and even the SF Templar Warrior models are way better examples of stand-in models for Warhammer 40k pieces than the HiTech one. Again, I think these are better examples of being inspired by 40k, but less of a copy of what GW has done. 

Because the armor, weapons and subject matter is similar, but evidently not so similar that they've gained the attention of GW legal department, because Scibor has been at this for a while now, with an entire line of sci-fi models, which continues to expand. All of which look like they'd make nice stand-ins for 40k troops.

[Commander Vyper]

Having a caster and mould making who knows what they're doing is not evidence nor assurance of a quality sculpt. So no I can't agree and as I've said it doesn't endorse anything.

And the works of scribor have been well lamented over many many years, B.WGG (Before WargameGuru). All I say on Scribor is:

i) press moulding
ii)anatomy
iii) build quality, (some of the 'conversions' he used to sell on Ebay were shocking with mould lines and sprue tags still attached!)
iii) iv) blatant GW parts use
v) lampreys.

You are quite right Scribor has been at this for a while....