Studio Miniatures Sikh Wars Range Back From The Dead

[Arthur]

(Appropriately enough for a company that does mostly zombies)

Long story short, Studio Miniatures have hired Nick Collier to complete a range that has been sitting in limbo for the better part of two years now. Steve May did the original sculpts and dropped out to do his own thing elsewhere, to be replaced by Mark Evans who apparently sculpted a few packs (I wonder if those are the horrors released about 15 months ago).

The firing line figures below are Steve May dollies which I remember from the SM kickstarter, probably finished by Nick Collier

 




Nick's first sculpt for the range is the Bengal Light Cavalry trooper below.



Nice enough but the pose is still too stiff and toy soldier-like for my taste - a recurring problem with this range, the cavalry and gurkhas being the worst offenders in that regard besides being dire sculpts. Here's hoping Nick will produce more dynamic figures in the future.

[Atheling]

I painted some up for Stuart and they were quite nice to paint Arthur- I don't think they're that stiff- it's just a style thing.

Here's some pics:









The right paint job and they come to life 

Darrell.

[Arthur]

That is because the figures you painted were the initial Steve May sculpts offered through the Kickstarter thing. These were pretty good, though they could have done with a bit more animation for my taste.

The later releases, on the other hand...



The cavalry are awful, and even Simon Bradley's superior paint job (bottom pic) can't hide the fact that these simply aren't good sculpts :