Archive for the ‘ 20mm soldiers ’ Category

Plastic gladiators review

When I was a child I was used to play with soft plastic soldiers. Now I am older and I play with lead soldiers. I’m not so interested in plastic soldiers and I haven’t got them. I have got the new rigid plastic 28mm soldiers, but they are a bulk version for the lead ones when you have to built masses of pieces, and they are compatible with the standard corpse structure of the lead ones. Because I want to offer an overview of miniatures available for use as gladiators, I have to speak about plastic gladiators, a world that I know little. To accomplish the task I utilise the experience of Plastic Soldier Review, where you can go to read more about these pieces. I’m utilising here photos taken from that website too. Here you can find my personal brief reviews based on my knowledge of gladiators.

Atlantic

These are the soldiers of my childhood. I loved them so much. Only today I realized that their classic range was based on a confused knowledge of the period. Not only these gladiator are based on personal fantasies of the sculptor, but all the range was a farce. When I saw them today I thought that you can use them as Red Martians in a John Carter set… Moreover I wonder on which use you can do of the Christians…




Orion

I’m sure, the sculptor had seen the “Gladiator” film. And that film is not a film about historical gladiators but on what Hollywood believe is Rome and gladiators. So, if you want to play with film character these pieces are good, otherwise you can put them in a bin. Well, you can save something, but only a little. The fun part is the joke in the box, where you can find a gladiator with a pistol and a Wehrmacht helmet and another one with the right arm raised. Hail Caesar!





Italeri

At last, something with a tentative of historical carefulness. You have to put away the axes, but the content of the box resembles gladiators. Add some shields, and with some work you can obtain some right pieces. But if we are honest, the only right pieces are the retiarii. The piece that stands out is the chariot, for a fantasy essedarius proposal. Beautiful, but nothing more.




Pegasus

If you want plastic gladiators you have to buy this set! Beautiful poses, right armours, various types of fighters, a scissor and two dwarfs! There are even some inaccuracies, gross ones, but the overall aspect is great. I suggest to add the right shields (you can made them with cardboard or green stuff) and change some head to obtain something better.




Nikolai

And now some spectators, but only in 20mm format, while as general use in plastic soldiers world you can find the same proposal in 20mm and 54mm sizes. If you have got the right arena, this maker provides two sets of people to populate it.

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Who is Phersu? He is this nice dancing man from the Etruscan times. But he is even the man who hold the rope in this funeral game where another man is bounded to a ferocious dog. From “phersu” (mask) we have the word “person”, so he is more important than you thought.

These little dioramas are inspired by real painted scenes from graves. Perugia is at the edge between Umbrian and Etruscan cultures, on the side of the latter. And there is a local miniature maker who call himself “Phersu Miniatures” because of this influence.

His production is based on resin pieces about rare subjects, as you can see here, almost entirely in 1:72 scale. But he has got Phersu in 1:72, 28mm and 54mm. In the next months he wants to expand his ranges with metal miniatures because resin casting is a slow process: faster in the casting means more time to sculpt. His work is targeted to modellers and not wargamers but I hope he is changing his mind because he could find a peculiar space in the miniature producer world.
In the following photos some delicacies in 1:72 scale. If you want to know more about it, you can visit:
https://sites.google.com/site/phersuminiatures

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