- Joined
- Aug 13, 2009
- Messages
- 6,093
Spanish company Semper Fidelis returned in September with a slew of new releases, three of which arrived in the post for me from El Greco this morning. And I have to say, all are superb.
The man behind the brand name (José Rios) announced them on here a while back, but I'm sure he won't mind me giving them another shout-out.
I'm not going to do a detailed review of each, just a mini-review of them all together because the points below apply equally to them all. So without further ado:
Positives:
1) Lovely sculpting
2) Nice clean casting – I envisage little to no clean-up on any of them
3) Perfect dry-fit of the parts
4) Logical parts breakdown that will greatly assist painting
5) Generous sizes: The 30 Years War mercenary is slated as a 54mm but measures 60mm, the "70mm" Gallowglass measures out at 75mm, and the "75mm" Monk is 82mm tall (all measurements from top of head to soles of feet).
Negatives:
None really (and I've never been one to sugar-coat anything if I think it's crap!)
Packaging:
Each figure comes in a transparent flip-lid blister pack, which in turn is enclosed inside a larger cardboard box showing a photo of the figure. These boxes are a tad oversized for the size of the contents and are fairly flimsy. But given the quality of what's inside, I can live with that.
Conclusions:
After having come in for some criticism last time around with regard to their casting quality & sometimes shambolic customer service, it looks like Semper Fidelis have upped their game now that the brand is back after a spell on hiaitus. And these figures certainly hit the mark in terms of quality. So hopefully service has improved as well (like I said, these came courtesy of the ever-reliable Matt & Celine at El Greco, not direct from source).
The Gallowglass is the pick of the crop for me. A beautiful figure with lots of painting options that deserves to become a "classic". There was a bit of (very civil) back-and-forth about "historical accuracy" in José's announcement thread for this particular piece a few weeks ago, but I'm not going to get into that because guys can refer back to it if they wish and decide for themselves to what extent it matters.
Also worth mentioning that the Outremer Monk has two Crusader companion figures which also look great and have been added to my "Wants" list.
- Steve
The man behind the brand name (José Rios) announced them on here a while back, but I'm sure he won't mind me giving them another shout-out.
I'm not going to do a detailed review of each, just a mini-review of them all together because the points below apply equally to them all. So without further ado:
Positives:
1) Lovely sculpting
2) Nice clean casting – I envisage little to no clean-up on any of them
3) Perfect dry-fit of the parts
4) Logical parts breakdown that will greatly assist painting
5) Generous sizes: The 30 Years War mercenary is slated as a 54mm but measures 60mm, the "70mm" Gallowglass measures out at 75mm, and the "75mm" Monk is 82mm tall (all measurements from top of head to soles of feet).
Negatives:
None really (and I've never been one to sugar-coat anything if I think it's crap!)
Packaging:
Each figure comes in a transparent flip-lid blister pack, which in turn is enclosed inside a larger cardboard box showing a photo of the figure. These boxes are a tad oversized for the size of the contents and are fairly flimsy. But given the quality of what's inside, I can live with that.
Conclusions:
After having come in for some criticism last time around with regard to their casting quality & sometimes shambolic customer service, it looks like Semper Fidelis have upped their game now that the brand is back after a spell on hiaitus. And these figures certainly hit the mark in terms of quality. So hopefully service has improved as well (like I said, these came courtesy of the ever-reliable Matt & Celine at El Greco, not direct from source).
The Gallowglass is the pick of the crop for me. A beautiful figure with lots of painting options that deserves to become a "classic". There was a bit of (very civil) back-and-forth about "historical accuracy" in José's announcement thread for this particular piece a few weeks ago, but I'm not going to get into that because guys can refer back to it if they wish and decide for themselves to what extent it matters.
Also worth mentioning that the Outremer Monk has two Crusader companion figures which also look great and have been added to my "Wants" list.
- Steve
