The rest of the Day of the Rangers Somali/Delta figures

Hi guys,

Some of you seemed interested in the poses of the other figures so I've posted them up for you to have a look at. They haven't been washed or and of the flash stuff taken off but you get the gist of it.

Someone mentioned that the RPG looked a little fat so here it is against an Empress Taliban

I only got one of the Delta packs so these are the other 3 in the pack. I reckon they are pretty good

The last 6 of the Somalis. The guy in the baseball cap and glasses down the bottom left looks pretty sweet

Hope this helps some of you out with deciding whether you like em or not!

Day of the Rangers Kickstarter Review!

So something a little different today and not something that I've really been able to see on the internet so far.

Mid last year I backed the Day of the Rangers kickstarter by the guys over at Radio Dishdash and they arrived for me in the post just a few days ago. So I thought I'd crack a few out of the packets and show you guys what to expect.

When I first saw the campaign I was pretty well sold as I had been buying a ton of the Empress modern figures and these fit the bill quite nicely. I was mostly interested in the Somali figures that they were making as an addition to the empress insurgent figures that I'd picked up.

I backed the $60USD option which gave you 6 sets of 4 figures and then there was a pack thrown in for free as well which was nice. I grabbed all 4 packs (16 figs) of the Somalis, the ranger command, a regular ranger set and a delta set. Postage to Aus from the states was 25 USD which I found out once the figures were ready to post.

I've put up a ton of photos so you get a good idea of what you are looking at including some size comparisons with the Empress figures

The figures themselves are very nicely sculpted, particularly the US figures. There are quite a few mold lines on the Somali figures that I cleaned up (about 5 figures so far) but nothing that is really painful. There certainly isn't as much flash as say a Perry figure which is my industry standard for lots of flash. It is a tad annoying that some of those mold lines run across the faces and heads of the Somalis as the hair loses detail if you have to file it. Sometimes there are 2 mold lines across the face.

Not all the figures have as many mold lines as the ones I cleaned up (I did go and have a look at some of the other ones). The US figures seem to have less flash/mold lines on the whole.

The Somali figures have some really nice looking clothing sculpted onto them, I really like the look of the singlets and rag tag effect that it gives them. One thing that I have noticed is that the Somalis in particular are a bit smaller proportions wise than the US ones. As you'll see in the photos the legs are noticeably thinner than the Empress figures. Some of it will be down to pose and the fact that they aren't wearing as much gear but it is noticeable when viewed from the front. Perhaps its a sculptors choice to represent the malnourished Somali's during the famine? Who knows...

 The hands are small in comparison . Faces have really good detail and are similar to the Empress stuff. Weapon detail is also great. 

A Somali machine gunner

Front on view showing the relatively thin legs

There is some really great character in the poses that adds a real sense of dynamism to the figures

I included this guy just because I thought he looked a tad odd- when i put him up against other standing Somali figures he had massively long legs and just looked a bit off.

Really nice sculpt with the radio

A delta operator

Comparison shot between an Empress US Infantryman and the RPG toting Somali. They have slightly different stances but the heights are pretty consistent. I find that the real difference is in the size of some of the legs and arms- the empress figures are chunkier particularly through the legs. Also if you look at the hands the Somali figures have tiny hands in comparison

The US soldiers tend to be closer in thickness to the Empress stuff, obviously they are wearing more kit but the do look just a bit thicker in proportions

You can really see the leg differences here

and here

I obviously haven't shown you guys all the poses and there are heaps there that look really awesome. To be honest I reckon some of the other poses come closer to the Empress figure sizes, most of these Somali guys are out of a single pack.

All in all I really like these figures and I think that they will make great additions to the collection. I would definitely recommend the figures and I think they will paint up really nicely with all that cloth detail that they have. The Empress figures have probably just a touch more detail when comparing the US troops but to be honest its very little.

Recommended!

A little Roman WIP

Ran out of light to get photos of these yesterday so I've taken a few shots this morning before I head off to work. Fairly early stages of these roman cav, I've really just put down basecoats on most of the figure and then a 1st highlight on the red cloth and saddlecloth. 

The skin has been basecoated with a 50/50 mix of Panzer Aces flesh base and Vallejo Medium fleshtone and then given a wash of GW Reikland Fleshade. I'll layer it up next with a mix of 50/50 Flesh base and Vallejo Dark flesh then add Vallejo Flat flesh into the mix to bring up the last highlights. This is a new mix I'm trying to get a more tanned/sunny skintone rather than my usual white

Tried doing some eyes for the first time, I've not really had the patience in the past nor thought that I could pull it off but these figs have some fairly nice eyes sculpted. I used off white to create a thin almond shape and then a dab of Army painter strong tone for the pupils. I don't reckon it looks too bad

Some average joes up next, I still need to highlight the helmets but I'll probably leave the chainmail in the darker colour. I've got 12 figs to do but I'm doing the 6 in chainmail first and I'll take the 6 in plate mail after.

The guy who's commissioning them is going to base them and add the weapons later which makes my life a little easier

I'll post up a couple more pictures once the guys are all painted and then I'll get to work on the horses, they'll most likely be a mix of browns, chesnuts and the odd black thrown in for good measure.

Happy painting!

Finally something to show

So I've been a little lazy in the blog updating department....what's new. That doesn't mean I haven't been full steam ahead in the painting department though! I finished the 16 Coldstream guard last week but didn't find the motivation to take photos until 20 minutes before the guy came to collect them...

Anyway I tried taking photos in more natural light near a door (the windowsill was too inconvenient) as a bit of a change from my usual daylight bulb style. I think they turned out ok-ish

I've finally decided that I hate Napoleonic drummers, they are such a bitch to paint up with all the lace. These turned out reasonably well but perhaps not quite as nice as the Grenadier guards ones, I thought that the arm lacing was a bit closer together than the other figures and it made it harder to make the lace not look too crowded

I am pretty happy with the rest of the command figures though, after getting over the annoyance of the white pants (so many layers!) the rest of the figures where quite nice to paint. The weapons and chest buckle are done in gold metallics but for all the lacing I ended up doing it in NMM not that you can really see in the photo. There is a fair difference when just looking at them in reality.

Another ensign and his sergeant mate

 A few of the regular Joes. Nothing too much to report on these guys, they're basically just a rehash of the Grenadier guards but with white pants instead

A shot of the flank companies

All in all I'm pretty happy with these figures. I'd recommend the Wargames Foundry figures for sure, although the flashing is a bit nasty at times. I guess you get the same with the Perry Miniatures too though...

Safe to say I've had enough of Napoleonics for a while, I'm already right into some EIR Roman equites from Wargames Foundry as well. I might try and get a WIP photo up tomorrow once I've made a little more progress.

Thanks for looking and comments/critiques are welcome as always!