I was not impressed. As far as I was aware Mantic was founded on fantasy miniatures, I'm all for them diversifying etc and pulling in new customers with new ranges, but they need to remember the core customers who helped them get to this position in the first place.
Just last week I received the last part of my shipment of the KoW KS, Basilean men at arms. Just looking at the sprues I was not impressed, lacking in detail particularly on the faces and chain mail, also the shield designs are a bit odd.
I thought I would hold back a final verdict until I had painted them up. My opinion has not changed much. I'm obviously not as good a painter as the professionals that Mantic commissioned to do their minis, but I like to think I can get a few minis to tabletop standard.
I guess that from 2' away they will look ok, but up close the lack of detail shows through. The faces I did with a thin skin colour then flesh wash, but there was very little detail showing through after that.
The chainmail still doesn't 'look right'. The shield 'wings' look oversized and would probably just get in the way, although on some pics I have seen a spear can be poked through the semicircle at the top.
On the other hand, the swords and spears are quite nice, and I may use them on other fantasy minis. Also Mantic are to be commended for allowing a choice of weapons, unlike some of their scifi miniatures which come with rifles molded onto arms.
Final rating: 6/10
Eh you know... they don't look THAT awful. They won't win any awards, that's for sure, but I've seen worse figures from GW in the past. They should still look decent as a unit, which is ultimately the point as IMO the look of the cohesive regiment is better than the individual figures.
ReplyDeletehi Wayne, thanks for the comments!
Deleteagree I have seen worse minis from other companies in the past, I was just expecting more from mantic given their usual high standard
good point about them as a unit on the battlefield as a regiment, which is what they are intended for