Dark Potential Miniatures Review

[Love_the_Lash]

Hey Guys,

so this morning the postie delivered me a box containing my indiegogo (kickstarter clone) Dark Potential miniatures which I've bene waiting on. Cracking them open I thought they might deserve a small review as they are a bit of a mixed bag...

You might be aware that these are the first models being produced by MiniWarGaming for their new Dark Potential game - a sci-fi minis game based on a post-apoc earth (although I've dropped it here as I feel the design is more Future wars than Post Apoc) where most of the planets where wiped out by an alien fleet (which was in turn wiped out by the remaining humans). Anyway at this point in time you can lay your hands on two starter sets, the huiman Corporation and the alien X'lanthos. It's the Corporation we'll look at first.


Corporation Starter Box Front by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

So the first thing I noticed was that the box is really slick in it's design - this looks like the type of product you'd see put out by a much larger established company - very impressive!


Corporation Starter Box Rear by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Turning the box over the quality continues onto the rear - very good so far!


Corporation Starter Inside by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Opening up the box we see that there are 3 compartments with little plastic bags containing the components - bag of bases, a bag containing the sniper, director and pyro models and a bag containing the soldier squad. Again I was fairly impressed at this point.


Corporation Director by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Starting off with the director we have what is easily my least favourite model in the set, honestly I didn't like the concept art for him and I feel the problems have translated into the final product. His left hand seems large, his features are fairly cartoon like and it's a bit of an old school citadel miniatures pose. I'm hoping we'll see an alternative director model in the future so I can retire this one asap! Detail wise he's not bad however and I'm sure he'll paint up well.


Corporation Sniper by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Next we have the corporation sniper - this model I like, and honestly am really looking forward to painting up - suitably sci-fi and obvious as to what he's meant to be I do like this mini. Detail is again fairly good.


Corporation Pyro by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Turning to the pyro model (apologies Heavy Weapon Specialist) I like him although it's hard to see what he'll look like from the model and in this respect the painted images on the box are a real boon in making sense of hi. Casting is again pretty good - you can see what the level of flash is like from tjis image. I think he'll be an interesting model to paint.


Corporation Soldier by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Next we have generic corporation soldiers - honestly I think these are really great. So often basic foot troops get the short end of the stick when it comes to design but I love these ones. My favourite thing about them is definitely the realistically scaled shotguns - really great models I will definitely be buying more of these and can see a whole heap of uses for them in a wide variety of games.


Corporation Soldier 2 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

This is the alternative corporation soldier and honestly this is my favourite mini in the set, I honestly cannot wait to paint this miniature and think it would lend itself really well to any sort of cyberpunk game. A really well done miniature.


Corporation Squad Leader by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Lastly we get to the squad leader - again this is a nice model with a decent degree of detail on it and fairly good casting. I also like the pose which is a nice change from 'Raaargh I am shooting stuff!' (I'm looking at you dodgy director model).

So thoughts on the corporattion set as a whole? I wasn't massively excited by them before I got them but I've been pleasantly suprised by them - a really good start for a new company.

Next we'll move on to the X'lanthos starter set, where my hopes get dashed and I weep uncontrollably. First though I need to get some photos showing the problems with them...


X'lanthos Starter Set by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

[Ajsalium]

I hadn't heard of this; but looks rather cool.

What size are the minis? The proportions look like typical french sculpts (realistic heads and hands), and those are usually close to 35mm.

Waiting for the second part of the review.

[Love_the_Lash]

Part 2 - The X'lanthos.

So as you know from the last post I'm dissapointed with the X'lanthos miniatures. Now in part I'm sure this is because in the concept art they look amazing and as a result I was really looking forward to them so my hopes were high but as yu'll hopefully see from the photos below it's more than just that.

In the last post you saw the box art for the front and just like the corporation box it's really nice - well done to MiniWarGaming on this one Let's see if the qality continues around the back...


X'lanthos Box Rear by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Yep - still looks pretty cool, and hey those models look awesome - aw yeah I'm in for a good time...


X'lanthos Starter Inside by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

..or not. As you can see unlike the corporation starter the models haven't been packaged well and don't have the little bags to keep it all nicely tucked in. The result - it looks like they've just been picked up and chucked in. Not a great start but maybe the miniatures can redeem this. Now unlike the other miniatures I haven't attempted to nicely label these because honestly it's going to take me a while to figure out which body goes with which set of arms. So we'll just group them all together in one long stream of photos.


X'lanthos 1 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 2 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 3 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 4 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 5 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 6 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

X'lanthos 7 by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

As you can hopefully make out (taking photos of these was a bitch) the detail isn't great on these miniatures, with a lot of it being very shallow and ill defined. The x'lanthos are definitely that horrible type of model where you'll need to paint them whilst having one eye on concept art or photographs so you don't lose the detail. I think washes are probably going to be my friend with these in trying to retain the detail, that and very thin paint.  The next couple of photos (which I confess aren't great) try to demonstrate some of these problems.


X'lanthos Head by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

With the head of this miniature you can just about make out the details of the eyes and trust me these have a very shallow recess to them so they aren't much more defined in real life. This seems to be a probelm with all of these models - facial features are very hard to pick out.


X'lanthos Rear by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Looking at the back of this one you can just make out the ridges on the top of his back but the casting is so poor that on some of the models these have been pretty much obliterated. Not very good at all I'm afraid and the type of thing I would expect to see from an old worn out mold rather than a brand new range. Honestly as much as I want to love the X'lanthos models if the company was based in the UK i'd be sending them back because quite frankly the quality is not good enough. I may well yet be complaining to the company about these miniatures tbh.

And finally a couple of scale shots to give you a feel for their relative sizes.

X'lanthos Scale by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Corporation Scale by chrisy_m_uk, on Flickr

Hopefully these posts will help you come to your own conclusions about whether you want to spend some money on this range of miniatures. personally if they can resolve the issues with the x'lanthos I'll be coming back from them and you already know that I'm very keen on some of the corporation models.

[Commander Vyper]

Never saw this. Like the aliens, very covenant elite looking, though appreciate the detail issue. Got a weblink?

[Ajsalium]

www.darkpotential.com

[Predatorpt]

Thanks for the review, I've been waiting for a honest opinion about them for some time.

It's a pity the X'lanthos are that "bad", because it's the only faction I was thinking about buying. But with all those little problems, I'll wait for a better casting or I'll buy these if I can get them cheap, from disillusioned Indiegogo backers  

[Commander Vyper]

$60 a pack 

[Dentatus]

I'm digging those aliens too. But that price not so much.

[Legion1963]

A project that themed futuristically or Post Apo is most likely to become my third 'large' project in the ...... well the future. So i am always on the look out for suitable miniatures. However, like so many others outthere these also do not make the grade for my intents and purposes. I can see with searching to hard 3 or 4 wellknown other miniatures ranges. I guess you could say, in the immortal words of a famous Dutch songwriter, "mediocrety is like a dead man swingin'".

[Major_Gilbear]

Hmm, interesting review - especially as I'd heard/read nothing about this before (so it was obviously well publicised!).

After reading your review, and digging around their website, I have come to the following conclusions:

1) The art and the background are top notch.

2) The models are dull and and their detail is both bland and soft.

3) The models have dull and/or awkward poses.

4) The weapons scale and detail level on the models is inconsistent and also differs quite a bit from the art in some cases.

5) The models all feature paintjobs that are quite different form the art, so it is quite hard to tell how close they are to the official art.

6) The price - wow. I mean wow! Waaay to expensive for the quality of sculpt.

Just to reiterate then... For $12.00 / £8.30 I would prefer this to this every time. And to be honest, there are many nicer sculpts at a comparable level of detail for a lot less.