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- Aug 13, 2009
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Just thought I'd post up a quick report on and give a plug for this little-known Vietnamese company, having now received this 1/16 Vietnam War U.S. Tanker that I ordered off them:
They're a (quote) "small family company" that offers a range of Vietnam War subjects in various scales from 1/72 to 1/16, although they do other subjects too (mainly modern stuff). The 1/16 range is relatively small in number (about half a dozen Vietnam War pieces plus a modern "beardy" U.S. Special Forces type and a female photojournalist of indeterminate era).
I placed my order on 27th July and it arrived this morning, 7th August. So just 11 days from Vietnam to the UK, which is pretty impressive.
It's a printed figure with some nice detail, although perhaps not *quite* as sharp as that we see from stand-out producers like Alpine or Avanpost or Medieval Forge. Those outfits I'd subjectively rate as the current "gold standard" 10/10, so on that scale I'm giving Paracel an 8/10. I'd have liked slightly sharper facial features, and in this scale the M-16 looks very basic and I might replace it.
As their range seems to be available in a variety of scales, I'm assuming that most if not all of their figures are printed, and the downside is that there has been no post-print clean-up, with all the sprues or gates (or whatever they're called on printed figures) being left in place for the modeller to get rid of.
I anticipate that this will be an "interesting" task on some parts of my figure such as the hands, the head and the M-16 (which is printed as integral with his right hand), but in 1/35 and smaller I'd expect it to be an absolute nightmare!
Anyway, here are the parts to give you an idea of what they look like and how they are broken down:
Packaging is in a nice solid cardboard box with colour artwork and shredded paper inner padding, the parts being split between 2 clear ziploc bags:
I was impressed by the very prompt shipping and the product itself is rather nice, so with the aforementioned caveats (plus I can't yet comment on the fit of the parts) I'd certainly recommend these guys to anyone who (like me) is interested in the Vietnam War and who isn't put off by the prospect of a bit of clean-up!
The website address is http://www.paracelminiatures.com
- Steve
ADDENDUM: Since posting the above yesterday, I've removed the printing supports from the main parts (legs, torso, head and arms).
A dry run has established that the fit is not good (especially that of the legs to torso), and that a fair amount of fettling, whittling, filling & blending will be needed. There are locating plugs, but they don't fit the corresponding holes very well and I suspect it might be easier to just remove them and pin the parts instead.
Bizarrely, his left hand is printed integral with his left thigh (resting on it). So there's an extra join to contend with that there wouldn't have been if the hand had instead been printed as a single piece with his left arm. Why did the designer go down this route? Your guess is as good as mine!
Another complicating factor is that his helmet mic is integral with his helmet and across his face rather than being a separate piece. I suspect that this might be a necessity from a printing standpoint (I don't know), but it will make painting of the left side of his face more tricky.
Safe to say that this isn't going to be a shake-and-bake project by any means, but it has the potential to build up into a nice piece if the fit issues can be overcome.
They're a (quote) "small family company" that offers a range of Vietnam War subjects in various scales from 1/72 to 1/16, although they do other subjects too (mainly modern stuff). The 1/16 range is relatively small in number (about half a dozen Vietnam War pieces plus a modern "beardy" U.S. Special Forces type and a female photojournalist of indeterminate era).
I placed my order on 27th July and it arrived this morning, 7th August. So just 11 days from Vietnam to the UK, which is pretty impressive.
It's a printed figure with some nice detail, although perhaps not *quite* as sharp as that we see from stand-out producers like Alpine or Avanpost or Medieval Forge. Those outfits I'd subjectively rate as the current "gold standard" 10/10, so on that scale I'm giving Paracel an 8/10. I'd have liked slightly sharper facial features, and in this scale the M-16 looks very basic and I might replace it.
As their range seems to be available in a variety of scales, I'm assuming that most if not all of their figures are printed, and the downside is that there has been no post-print clean-up, with all the sprues or gates (or whatever they're called on printed figures) being left in place for the modeller to get rid of.
I anticipate that this will be an "interesting" task on some parts of my figure such as the hands, the head and the M-16 (which is printed as integral with his right hand), but in 1/35 and smaller I'd expect it to be an absolute nightmare!
Anyway, here are the parts to give you an idea of what they look like and how they are broken down:
Packaging is in a nice solid cardboard box with colour artwork and shredded paper inner padding, the parts being split between 2 clear ziploc bags:
I was impressed by the very prompt shipping and the product itself is rather nice, so with the aforementioned caveats (plus I can't yet comment on the fit of the parts) I'd certainly recommend these guys to anyone who (like me) is interested in the Vietnam War and who isn't put off by the prospect of a bit of clean-up!
The website address is http://www.paracelminiatures.com
- Steve
ADDENDUM: Since posting the above yesterday, I've removed the printing supports from the main parts (legs, torso, head and arms).
A dry run has established that the fit is not good (especially that of the legs to torso), and that a fair amount of fettling, whittling, filling & blending will be needed. There are locating plugs, but they don't fit the corresponding holes very well and I suspect it might be easier to just remove them and pin the parts instead.
Bizarrely, his left hand is printed integral with his left thigh (resting on it). So there's an extra join to contend with that there wouldn't have been if the hand had instead been printed as a single piece with his left arm. Why did the designer go down this route? Your guess is as good as mine!
Another complicating factor is that his helmet mic is integral with his helmet and across his face rather than being a separate piece. I suspect that this might be a necessity from a printing standpoint (I don't know), but it will make painting of the left side of his face more tricky.
Safe to say that this isn't going to be a shake-and-bake project by any means, but it has the potential to build up into a nice piece if the fit issues can be overcome.
