Guest Post

One of my friends from Canberra Games Society offered the following as a guest blogger.. over to Peter.

Up the Yangtze with 28mm Figures

I have never seen (or read) Sand Pebbles, but I have a bit of an obsession with gaming with sailor/marine forces, so when I saw the post of TMP about Tiger Miniatures new ‘Sand Pebbles’ range of figures I had to order some.

I was pleased with the figures when they arrived. There was a minimum of flash on them and they are well detailed with a nice variety of poses and weapons. They are on the heroic side of 28mm in terms of size, but that just brings them in line with ranges like Pulp Figures and Copplestone.

The faces of the figures are all nicely animated, although some border on cartoonish. The only concern I have with the figures is the hands – which on most of the figures are ridiculously large. It’s particularly striking when you are painting them, but fortunately it is not especially noticeable at a distance on the gaming table. From reading on-line reviews of Tiger Figures I get a sense that this new range is probably a cut-above their previous offerings and I would definitely recommend them. I understand there are plans to add more figures to the range, but Tiger advise that the timeframe is currently unknown.        

While I was impressed with the Tiger figures I was concerned that the range lacked fire-power, so I went searching for some suitable support weapons. To my surprise I found there is a second maker of 28mm Sand Pebbles figures (who would have guessed!). The Australian company Blaze Away Miniatures makes a US Shore Party Range that includes a two man navy Lewis gun team – so I ordered two.

When these figures arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of extra figures included to make up for the ‘delay’ in postage (I can’t say I had noticed – but full marks for customer service). It’s hard not to be impressed by these figures. They had with very little flash and are finely detailed with things like laces on the gators, buttons on pouches and wrinkles on faces all clearly visible. The figures are closer to true 28mm in height and thinner than the Tiger figures, but not so much that they look odd together on the same table (although you wouldn’t put them on the same base).  They are also nicely proportioned. My only concern is that they all seem to have been cast in an odd legs apart stance which gives them a slightly unnatural look. Despite this issue, these are still very nice figures and I would definitely recommend them. They are a quality alternative to the Tiger range, although be warned the website images don’t do justice to the figures.

PIC: Figures left to right; TM, TM,TM, BZ, BZ, Z

Peter West

Guest Contributor