First things first. I bought these with my own money. I was not asked to provide a review. I get no money from you picking up anything in this post.
Back at the end of October, I decided, "why not?" and I logged into eBay and placed an order for a couple of sets of the Tehnolog miniatures. I thought it would be interesting to see what the turn around time for these figures was, and how they scaled to other figures in my collection.
The first part of my question was pretty easy to answer. My order was confirmed on October 24, 2019, and I received my parcel notification on Dec 3, 2019. So we are looking at just over a month to place an order and have it received from Moscow. It's no Amazon, but realistically it's not that bad either.
First Impression
So what did I order?
- Barbarians set 20 Tehnolog 28mm plastic soldiers Castlecraft 9th Age Warhammer - $8.00 usd.
- Brigands set of 20 Tehnolog 28 mm plastic soldiers Castlecraft 9th Age Warhammer - $8.00 usd.
- Shipping was $12 usd
- Total Bill was $28 usd or about .70 per figure.
My first impression taking the bags out of the box, but before looking at them, was that this plastic sounds like boardgame pieces, that hard plastic clink.
Once opening the Barbarians bag I thought they looked a little on the small side, but overall decent for the price. Then I opened up the Brigands, again the sculpts were generally ok, but size-wise? These guys would make pretty excellent D&D halflings. They come just past half-way on a pre-painted D&D mini.
Going back through the listings for the brigands I will note that there is a picture of them next to some other figures, one of which is a dwarf. It pretty clearly shows the scale.
Likewise the barbarians also include an image to determine the actual scale of the figure.
It is pretty clear to me that the Brigands are not 28mm, at least not 28mm humans. It is also clear to me that if I had been more careful I would have noted that these figures were not an appropriate size and would have ordered something else.
Finally a shot of the two figures, barbarians and bandits, next to a pre-painted D&D mini and a Reaper Bones figure.
Painting
I picked a single barbarian to paint to see how they would take paint. Quick caveat, I am not the world's greatest painter, but I am passable in most lights. The goal here is to prime these, apply a base coat, give those some inks or a wash to get some quick shades and then go back in and drop some highlights on the raised sections.
Priming
After a quick clean with soap and a toothbrush, I set about giving them a brush priming with some Vallejo dark grey. The figure took the paint fine, and in a single coat I had 99% of the green completely covered.
Base Colors
Base colors used.
- Vallejo Model Color: Medium Fleshtone - Flesh.
- Reaper Dark Shadow - Boots, pants & Glove.
- P3 Bootstrap Leather - Belt & sheath.
- Vallejo Model Color: Burnt Umber - Bow.
- Vallejo Model Color: Brass - Belt fittings.
- Vallejo Model Color: Flat Red - Skirt.
- Vallejo Model Color: Sky Grey - Boot Fur.
- P3 Thamar Black - Hair
Shades
Shades used.
- Vallejo Game Ink: Skin Wash - Skin
- Army Painter - Dark Tone - initial wash on lower half of body
- Army Painter - Soft Tone - Final wash on skin
Highlights
Highlights used.
- Vallejo Game Color: Bronze Fleshtone - Flesh.
- Vallejo Model Color: Flat Red - Skirt & mouth
- Vallejo Model Color: Sky Grey - Boot Fur.
- Vallejo Model Color: Brown Sand - Leather and bow highlights
- P3 Thamar Black - Eyes
Final Notes
This figure took paint well and was pretty easy to paint with good, simple detail. I don't know if that will be true for the entire line, but for the price it is worth checking them out. Line painting these would give you a lot of painted humans for use in your games in a short amount of time.
Final Thoughts
There are certainly pros and cons to these figures, but overall they are a pretty good value.
One of the biggest downsides is the narrow range of figures. We do get a fair number of humans that are useful, but because we need to be careful of the scale, some figures that would be useful, are not. However if you need a large number of human barbarians, men at arms, knights, vikings, Russians or maybe even some dwarfs these figures would most likely fit the bill.
Scale wise the ones that work fit in well with many popular lines you may already be using.
The long and short of it? Would I recommend?
Yes. I am going to give these a thumbs up. These figures are a great value, and there is not that much more to say on it, just make sure you pay attention to the images and pic miniatures of an appropriate scale.
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