Wargmes factory colonial brits. REVIEW

[The_Wisecrack]

so i bought (on impulse) some of the colonial brits (i don't even collect colonial but my local has everything produced in plastic)
first off. here are some thoughts of mine. then i will give a kind of running commentary with the pictures.
> the miniatures are a good price for what you get. at 20 mini's for £10 thats 50p a
mini.

> the box is neat and appealing, the artwork impressive yet humorous also.

> the mini's come packed in some plastic bags inside the box, these seem to me unnecessary, as it only makes them look worse and a bit blury.

> once you get them out of the box you can see the detail, its a bit fuzzy but for something not hand sculpted what do you expect.

> there are four sprues, with
- 5 bodies
- 7 heads
- an assortment of arms and a spare rifle
- 5 hats

> on cutting the mini's off the sprue there is no flash (a little tiny bit but nothing to worry about) and there is no i repeat NO mold lines, they are all cleverly hidden within the seams of bags etc.

> the mini's glue together a bit oddly and some of the arms are quite complicated but once you do 2 or 3 you should get the hang.

> the sprues are very well arranged and accessible.

ON WITH THE PICS



as you can see above the detail is quite blurry before it is primed and painted.
- i assembled 2 advancing 2 shooting 2 standing 1 reloading and 1 command base. (diorama)







on to priming. and painting.
i didn't take step by step pictures but here are the colors used.

1. drybrush everything except legs and boots scorched brown.
2. layer red gore on to coat/ bleached bone on straps and bags / and tanned flesh on flesh
3. finish of the coat with blood red (highlighting) / skull white for the straps and bags (drybrushing) / and dwarf flesh for the flesh.
4. pick out the water bottle + sleeve decoration with a neutral green.
5. finish of the skin with elf flesh and pick out the eyes.
5. paint the metal of the gun chainmail silver and the brown chocolate brown (Vallejo)
6. paint the trousers with a dark blue/gray and highlight adding more gray (only slightly)
7. just drybrush the boots and hat (if the kepi type) with the same gray as above
8. paint hair desired color
9. base to taste.
10. paint a red stripe down the outside of the legs and black line with a thin pen or paint brush.

here are my (badly photographed) results.




i am really pleased with this purchase and rate it  8/10 for quality. it was a real joy to paint up.

thanks for reading.
TW

[Chairface]

Excellent! I have a box on my desk waiting for me to get inspired, and I think you've done it. Love the desk conversion btw. Its brilliant!

[Emir of Askaristan]

I see now after a moments searching that northstar carry them in the UK

*****


Hi Folks,
Nice work on the review, thanks for showing the sprue and the assembled figs and not just painted examples.

Is there a UK retailer for these?

[meninobesta]

the main negative point for me was that the sprue didn't have some extra arms to make different positions that are not related to grabbing a rifle. with this box you get 20 soldiers but it gets some work to make an officer or something else.
but probably that's what the box is all about -> to get an easy and very inexpensive way of filling the ranks, the rest you can do it by getting some lead officers or NCO's

summing all up it's a very interesting box! and a great value per miniature deal!

[The_Wisecrack]

medinobesta
point taken but a little bit of sculpting putty goes a long way. BTW i didn't mention that some of the more complicated poses took a little bit of putty to fill the gaps in the arms.

Emir OF Askaristan
my local carries them. and it would be cheaper postage than the uk. i will find out there name and post it on here so you can visit the website.

TW

[Calimero]

...so i bought (on impulse) ...

Is there an other way to buy when you are a wargamer?

Nice review! Thanks a lot TW. 

[The_Wisecrack]

Added some pictures of the painted command. in my gallery
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1947

TW

[sepoy1857]

I would think NCO's and officers from this place will work (?)

http://www.empressminiatures.com/page2.htm

No connection, etc., etc.

[itchy]

My local shop Wargames Emporium in Sheffield stocks them and they do match pretty well with Empress but Im holding out for more Empress lead,but maybe when the zulus appear i might be tempted to fill out my impis with them.

[keeper]

Glad you mentioned that, itchy   I was only wondering this morning if WE were stocking these figs! Thank you, sir

[Plynkes]

Can't say I'm all that taken with these figures (the sculpts that is, not Wisecrack's treatment of them).

Something just feels 'off' about them. They look kind of odd. It has rather put me off signing up to any of their 100-club type endeavours, I must admit.

Still, we'll see how things turn out. Early days yet, a bit soon to be playing Cassandra.

[The_Wisecrack]

agreed, there is ....something odd about them. but they have a, plastic charm that grows on you. definitely good for conventions. 
TW

[redle58]

A very nice review! My Thanks !

[Argonor]

the main negative point for me was that the sprue didn't have some extra arms to make different positions that are not related to grabbing a rifle.

The set is labeled 'British Firing Line', and that's essentially what you get. I see your point, though. Would be nice if they brought out a supplementing set with other kinds of poses, with officers and the likes....

[Svennn]

Excellant job and a great result but I cannot help echoing the other comments.

They are more than adequate but definately inferior to say Empress figures. This I can counter with "they are cheap plastics" but to me they are cheaper but not cheap. Something I can say about all the new plastics, Perry/Victrix/Warlord/Whoever, so for now I will stick with lead.

Great work though Wisecrack, they will look even better when you have the whole box done.