A big box was waiting for me on Friday evening - the big box from Irregular.
This was full of bits and pieces - a Samurai castle, WW1 stuff for Ian, a variety of little features to add scenic value to the Samurai village (pig pen, willow pond, gatehouse etc.) - and a whole host of figures.
These consist of mounted samurai, foot samurai, ashigaru (of various types) and some generals.
The idea behind these was two-fold. To add bulk (in the form of 'peasants') for the PoW Renaissance Japanese armies and also to create two DBR samurai armies for a campaign I'm planning for next year.
However, I must say that I am less than impressed with the figures - especially compared to the Baccus ones. I've painted up two Baccus stands (to keep me sane while knocking out Prussian Mixed stands fro Grand Armee) and - although I'm still getting to grips with them - I must say they look the dog's doofers. The final armies are going to look fantastic (he says hopefully).
I also painted (or should I say attempted to paint) some Irregular ashigaru with naginata strips but found it virtually impossible. They just look like blobs with bits sticking out. Is that a naginata or an arm? Where is this guy's face? The legs blend into one chunky blob where no daylight can be seen between them - are they all wearing cloaks or very baggy trousers?
Then there is the issue of flash. Now some manufacturers will leave a bit of flash on - fair enough. But the majority of the Irregular stands come with large (and I mean large) blocks of flash underneath the base. Each one needs a good 5 minutes with file and modelling knife to remove. Indeed, I think I'm going to have to resort to the Dremel to get these off otherwise it could be another year before these are done.
With no discernable detail it does - I suppose - make painting very easy. It just becomes an exercise in blobbing (assuming that you can actually make out what is supposed to be a face, hand, arm etc.) - but the sculpting is so poor that its doesn't really matter. I seriously found it hard to discern a musket armed ashigaru with one with a bow!
Now in a way I suppose its not a bad thing. From a couple of feet away you have an army that (with decent basing) looks kind of like what you're going for - although I'm going to have to make up some flags for these (Baccus units come with a few flag carriers as standard). And they will paint up in no time. And for DBR they will do a job. Putting them alongside the Baccus figures, they are smaller and don't really fit - so I'll go back to Baccus for my 'peasants' to complete the PoW army.
But (and I'm sure Pete at Baccus will thank me for this) if you're planning a 6mm samurai army, then Baccus is well worth the additional cost.
The frustrating bit though is a lot of the scenery elements from Irregular are really good - and I've heard good things about other Irregular ranges. But I think they can take a leaf from Pendraken - review the range, get a decent sculptor in to re-do a lot of it and relaunch better products as they come on stream.
This was full of bits and pieces - a Samurai castle, WW1 stuff for Ian, a variety of little features to add scenic value to the Samurai village (pig pen, willow pond, gatehouse etc.) - and a whole host of figures.
These consist of mounted samurai, foot samurai, ashigaru (of various types) and some generals.
The idea behind these was two-fold. To add bulk (in the form of 'peasants') for the PoW Renaissance Japanese armies and also to create two DBR samurai armies for a campaign I'm planning for next year.
However, I must say that I am less than impressed with the figures - especially compared to the Baccus ones. I've painted up two Baccus stands (to keep me sane while knocking out Prussian Mixed stands fro Grand Armee) and - although I'm still getting to grips with them - I must say they look the dog's doofers. The final armies are going to look fantastic (he says hopefully).
I also painted (or should I say attempted to paint) some Irregular ashigaru with naginata strips but found it virtually impossible. They just look like blobs with bits sticking out. Is that a naginata or an arm? Where is this guy's face? The legs blend into one chunky blob where no daylight can be seen between them - are they all wearing cloaks or very baggy trousers?
Then there is the issue of flash. Now some manufacturers will leave a bit of flash on - fair enough. But the majority of the Irregular stands come with large (and I mean large) blocks of flash underneath the base. Each one needs a good 5 minutes with file and modelling knife to remove. Indeed, I think I'm going to have to resort to the Dremel to get these off otherwise it could be another year before these are done.
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| Irregular Samurai cavaly painted by someone else. |
With no discernable detail it does - I suppose - make painting very easy. It just becomes an exercise in blobbing (assuming that you can actually make out what is supposed to be a face, hand, arm etc.) - but the sculpting is so poor that its doesn't really matter. I seriously found it hard to discern a musket armed ashigaru with one with a bow!
Now in a way I suppose its not a bad thing. From a couple of feet away you have an army that (with decent basing) looks kind of like what you're going for - although I'm going to have to make up some flags for these (Baccus units come with a few flag carriers as standard). And they will paint up in no time. And for DBR they will do a job. Putting them alongside the Baccus figures, they are smaller and don't really fit - so I'll go back to Baccus for my 'peasants' to complete the PoW army.
But (and I'm sure Pete at Baccus will thank me for this) if you're planning a 6mm samurai army, then Baccus is well worth the additional cost.
The frustrating bit though is a lot of the scenery elements from Irregular are really good - and I've heard good things about other Irregular ranges. But I think they can take a leaf from Pendraken - review the range, get a decent sculptor in to re-do a lot of it and relaunch better products as they come on stream.