Men In Boxes

It's ironic that Hat Industrie's set 8078 "Sea Peoples" is so bad that it's good. I've read PSR's review on the set and, along with some suggestions from a thread at TMP , decided to order a single box of these figures. PSR's review basically dissed the set, citing poor sculpting and posing. With Caesar miniatures for comparison, this set was deemed as " more toys than anything that collectors and military history enthusiasts can get excited about. Now there are far better alternatives available this set really deserves to be quietly forgotten." The figures were, however, well produced with nary a single flash in the set I got. But that doesn't co0mpensate for the set's biggest flaw. PSR writes " Several of the figures have the appearance of monkeys, with bents legs and heads down and forward of their shoulders, often with no neck at all. In a word then, these are just plain ugly. " What's ironic is that the set...

I enjoy going to those big hardware stores with tons of stuff for wannabe DIY guys like me. And whenever I'm there, I make it a point to look around for products that I can use for my models and miniatures. That day, I found myself wandering the aisle where they sold different kinds of glue. And nope, I don't sniff glue...it's just that I, like every modeler I know, am on a constant lookout for materials and glues that can help us whip out our modeling projects faster, cleaner and with much less hassle. Case in point -- although I still make the occasional plastic scale model, I haven't touched my bottle of plastic model cement for some time. For most of the work, I find Pioneer Mighty Bond Instant Glue as sufficient enough. The instant glue doesn't melt the plastic unlike model cement of both tube and liquid types. This leaves room for modification and scratch-building using materials other than plastic. Plus, it bonds fast. For heavier stuff that needs bonding, I ...

My modeling & gaming activities are still on the backburner with the yearly monsoon rains putting my workbench and gaming table constructions on hold. With very little workspace in my garage and the high humidity, proceeding might cause wood warps and uneven painting. Nevertheless, I'm determined to have everything done by July. The first boxes of Caesar Miniatures have arrived. I ordered a box each of the Caesar Dwarves and Orcs as well as a box of Hat Industrie's Sea Peoples. I haven't had time to take pictures of the figures but I've added pictures taken from Caesar's site. I'm only moderately pleased with the dwarves because I found the model designs too disparate from each other. Some of the dwarves bear a resemblance to the LOTR designs from Peter Jackson's movie-- albeit without armor and with freaky oversized hammers-- while the others look to have been inspired by the look of the Dwarves from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Two even look very much li...

My modeling & painting activities will be on hold for a week or two. Aside from some home renovations, last-minute out-of-town trips and another broadcast campaign at work (aka more late nights at the office) most of my hobby stuff -- wargaming miniatures, scale models, toys, etc. -- have been temporarily boxed and put in storage. The good news is that along with the home renovations, I've contracted the foreman and head carpenter to make me a better modelling workbench and storage system in the garage as well as a new 5ft x 3 ft gaming table. I was tempted to try a bigger table but most of my existing terrain mats were configured for that size and a change would render them useless. As of this June, these are the projects I'm in the midst of and which would be on the priority list as soon as my stuff gets freed from their temporary confinement. Here's the list in order of priority: 28mm People of the Woods -- Made almost exclusively from Mageknight figures, the army f...

A few packs of the Gormiti foils yielded some interesting figures that fit the theme of my People of the Woods army. The monster shown above with the thorny humps is called Tormenter and he seems to be a plant-like giant with thorny tendrils for his limbs. The colors are garish "as-is" and could really do with some repainting. He's got some organic thorned armor on his back and shoulders and his head is sculpted to look like a the bulb of a closed flower with two small eyes peering thru the thick folds or stalks. Kinda reminds me of a venus flytrap plant. My recent toy haul produced two of these and I'm hoping to score more. The next figure is named Cannon Trunk and he looks like a hollowed-out tree trunk with a mean set of eyes and wickedly sharp teeth from tree shards. He's holding what seems to be rocks in both hands. Like the previous Gormiti, he can do with a repaint. As with most of the figures I've been amassing for this army, they'll be initially ...

Building the Republican Roman army is now in full swing! With the Velites painted already, I'm getting ready to start painting the rest of the army. The figures have been primed grey and based. I'll be trying out a speed painting technique someone suggested and see if I can knock off a hundred of these blokes a weekend. As you can see, I've finished just a box of these figures from Hat Industrie. The company also released another set of velites together with it's Roman catapults set (Set 8035) but the figures there are 25mm, far bigger than the 1/72 range they were supposed to go with. So I didn't use them in these formations and may save them for 28mm gaming instead. All of the figures I used were from set 8018, with each box containing 16 velites . According to historical sources, the velites did not form their own units but instead were attached to each maniple of hastati, principes and triarii in groups. They positioned themselves at the front of the legion b...

My Carthaginian army is nearing completion and I've already begun work on the Republican Roman army. Hat Industrie's Celtic cavalry and Ancient Spanish cavalry look very nice and I'm eager to start painting the figures. Research on the type of horses these men used have also begun and I've compiled a couple of references from the web already.  Here are the first few stands of the painted Roman Velites . They were painted with acrylics and inks and only lack the flock for the bases as well as shield designs. Hat Industrie modelled all their velites with animal skins, no armour apart from their helmet, and circular shields with  several javelins and short thrusting swords, or gladii for use in melee. Each boxed set would yield 16 velites and 32 hastati figures, giving a total of 48 figures per box. The figures are being based on 40mm x 20mm stands, with 2 figures per stand for Warmaster Ancients. Watch out for more velites and hastati soon.

The funny thing about doing some house chores is that I inadevertently unearth stuff that I've kept stashed for some time. In this case, I found a boxful of toys I bought a year ago. Among the odds and ends I found some vinyl toys, gashopon & Gormiti figures. I've been holding on to some of these figures that I found at the local toy department and I've been eyeing some as new recruits for various fantasy armies. The big four armed bruiser with the tree-like limbs and vines seems a likely candidate as a behemoth in my People of the Woods army as an ent. A resculpt of the head and a bit of a trim at the left hand may do the trick. As is, the monster looks like he's giving someone the dirty finger:) Aside from the Ad&D Battlesystem and Warmaster rulesets, I'm also swaying towards HOTT as another regular ruleset and found a seller in ebay. Pretty soon, I may purchase the rules and begin my foray in HOTT. Meanwhile, the fishy thingie shown below could stock up...

Here are a few more pictures of the Haradrim. I had meant to post them with the previous set but I was so sleepy and had dozed off on top of the keyboard. I'm not that happy with the backgrounds though. The black cardboard came out a bit spotted and caught most of the wash from the lights. It's also my fault because I used a small digital pocket camera. I plan to reshoot the spearmen, maybe in the middle of June along with some new 1/72 models. Until then, enjoy!

Here are the first few archers from the Games Workshop Warriors of Harad plastic box set. I only managed to buy a single box but I eventually plan to secure more of these. Sculpted by the Perry Twins and based on the costume designs used in Peter Jackson's films, these figures are nicely posed & paint up easily. A description of these men are given in The Two Towers, when the Rangers of Ithilien ambush a Haradrim company. A slain Haradrim falls near Frodo & Sam, giving them a brief glimpse of his features. He is described as youngish and having brown skin, with black plaits of hair braided with gold. He is garbed in scarlet, as do the other Haradrim, and a gold collar. He is armed with a scimitar and a corslet of brazen scales. Gollum describes them as tall, dark, and fierce-looking. They carried spiked shields and spears, and wore gold ornamentation. I followed the paint scheme suggested in the Games Workshop web page but decided to make some variations. For the faces and ...