Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 16, 2008 10:50:08 GMT -5
Quickly: cool minis for what looks like a cool game but horribly cast.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]I received a box of Chainmail minis during something called the Mini Exchange run by a guy Zapoteke at Cool Mini or Not. You send some minis of to the guy below you on a list and the guy above you sends to you. I mainly joined it to get rid of some of my vintage minis as well as to get something new that would hopefully inspire me to paint more often.
The box I received came with a mix of evil goblinoid types, character cards for each mini and two scenery tiles. The cards and scenery tiles are obviously for use in Chainmail, the D&D mini game that pre-dates their current pre-painted collectible version. Looking at the cards it does look like the rules would be similar to the current mini rules. The cards have really nice pictures of the minis painted up that reminds me of Rackham's style.
The box has the following minis in it:
A goblin scout with some type of firearm
An Orc Berserker with great axe
An Orc Shaman
A hobgoblin Fighter
A War Ape
A Female Ogre Trooper
Each comes with it's own base, which vary in size as per the creatures size in the game and in D&D (aka Large base for the Ogre, Small base for the goblin, medium bases for the rest).
Here's a shot of the Female Ogre(ss) before priming. Note she is mounted on a base from DesertDragon1969 (another Cool mini member) not the base that came with the set.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A cool mix of minis. Very useful for anyone running a fantasy RPG as these are all classic creatures, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and ogres are pretty much staples in any fantasy setting. I was impressed by the cards and the fact that two scenery tiles were included even though I don't play the game. The packaging was good, with very little chance of anything getting damaged. The models all had a ton of character, all in rather dynamic poses as well.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]No rules in the box, you have to buy a separate book to play the game. I realize that this is pretty much the case with any game, but if Rackam can include their rules set with every mini so could everyone else. It would have been interesting to see the game these were for without having to order in an Out of Print softcover book. These minis are Out of Print as well, so therefore hard to find. I just checked eBay an no one has the actual set I received, though they did have individual guys from this box for sale.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] The casting quality. Thankfully only two of these minis need to be assembled (besides needing to be based). The female ogre pictured above was a pain to assemble. Her right arm and head were unattached and did not fit well to the base model. Clipping filing and shaving was required. The head was the worst as it has hair running down the back and front. This required some filling and then sculpting to fill the gaps and make the hair look contiguous. Besides bad fits every model has pretty bad mold lines, again they are in hard to reach and bad places. Most companies seemed to have figured out to have the molds match at places other then heads, hands and hair, but obviously WotC hadn't learned that lesson when these were put out.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow] This is a rather nice set of minis. It's a great mix for a DM of a Fantasy RPG. This looks like a cool Faction for the Chainmail game which is unfortunately long out of print, so I can't tell you how good the game is. The character cards were interesting to see and included good samples of the minis painted up. The one drawback was the casting quality. Besides the usual clean up you will need some basic sculpting skills to get two of the models to fit together properly and look alright when done. This set is out of print and seem to go for about $20 on line, that's a great price compared to the cost for a similar number of Games Workshop minis.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]I received a box of Chainmail minis during something called the Mini Exchange run by a guy Zapoteke at Cool Mini or Not. You send some minis of to the guy below you on a list and the guy above you sends to you. I mainly joined it to get rid of some of my vintage minis as well as to get something new that would hopefully inspire me to paint more often.
The box I received came with a mix of evil goblinoid types, character cards for each mini and two scenery tiles. The cards and scenery tiles are obviously for use in Chainmail, the D&D mini game that pre-dates their current pre-painted collectible version. Looking at the cards it does look like the rules would be similar to the current mini rules. The cards have really nice pictures of the minis painted up that reminds me of Rackham's style.
The box has the following minis in it:
A goblin scout with some type of firearm
An Orc Berserker with great axe
An Orc Shaman
A hobgoblin Fighter
A War Ape
A Female Ogre Trooper
Each comes with it's own base, which vary in size as per the creatures size in the game and in D&D (aka Large base for the Ogre, Small base for the goblin, medium bases for the rest).
Here's a shot of the Female Ogre(ss) before priming. Note she is mounted on a base from DesertDragon1969 (another Cool mini member) not the base that came with the set.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A cool mix of minis. Very useful for anyone running a fantasy RPG as these are all classic creatures, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and ogres are pretty much staples in any fantasy setting. I was impressed by the cards and the fact that two scenery tiles were included even though I don't play the game. The packaging was good, with very little chance of anything getting damaged. The models all had a ton of character, all in rather dynamic poses as well.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]No rules in the box, you have to buy a separate book to play the game. I realize that this is pretty much the case with any game, but if Rackam can include their rules set with every mini so could everyone else. It would have been interesting to see the game these were for without having to order in an Out of Print softcover book. These minis are Out of Print as well, so therefore hard to find. I just checked eBay an no one has the actual set I received, though they did have individual guys from this box for sale.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] The casting quality. Thankfully only two of these minis need to be assembled (besides needing to be based). The female ogre pictured above was a pain to assemble. Her right arm and head were unattached and did not fit well to the base model. Clipping filing and shaving was required. The head was the worst as it has hair running down the back and front. This required some filling and then sculpting to fill the gaps and make the hair look contiguous. Besides bad fits every model has pretty bad mold lines, again they are in hard to reach and bad places. Most companies seemed to have figured out to have the molds match at places other then heads, hands and hair, but obviously WotC hadn't learned that lesson when these were put out.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow] This is a rather nice set of minis. It's a great mix for a DM of a Fantasy RPG. This looks like a cool Faction for the Chainmail game which is unfortunately long out of print, so I can't tell you how good the game is. The character cards were interesting to see and included good samples of the minis painted up. The one drawback was the casting quality. Besides the usual clean up you will need some basic sculpting skills to get two of the models to fit together properly and look alright when done. This set is out of print and seem to go for about $20 on line, that's a great price compared to the cost for a similar number of Games Workshop minis.