13 Sept 2012

Black cat bases unboxing

Hello,

so, my Black Cat Bases parcel has arrived and I was busy basing and cleaning them yesterday. All the packs came with lipped 30mm bases, but I've decided I'll continue my 25mm slotta bases trend and have used those. 

Everything came nicely packed in blisters. I got loads of them now and I would be completely satisfied with 2 or even 3 miniatures per blister...but well, I can always "throw them away" (by which i mean store them for "sometime later").

Below is a picture of a blister, they're mostly all the same. This one has a deep one typing in it :P.

I have also got a nice little cat free with my order. I am not a collector, but it made me a bit sad I won't be able to get the rest of them! The compan being BCatBases, cat makes the sense. And I am more of a cat person myself, so that was really a nice move. I got no use for it yet, but it can wait.


As for the miniatures themselves, I am pretty satisfied. They are around as good as TAGs, if not better. But I am just painting Hasslefree-Mantic Grant so my estimates my be under the influence of what I found to be THE MOST DETAILED miniature I own :P. So,. considering the price the sculpts are really decent for what you pay. I have noticed, however, that werewolf (comes with separate lower body, upper body and 2 different heads) can't be put together too smoothly and I will use greenstuff to make it a bit bulkier in its waist and to to fix it a bit as it looks okay from one side and totally missed from the other. This could be my problem gluing it, but just to let you know. I've also noticed many figures had traces of releasing gel (oil?).  I always wash my miniatures, but thats the first time I've actually saw the stuff!

As for mould lines, I could say there aren't too many, but still the figures demand quite some work. The metal is also very thick, so I found a bit hard to work with them (I had to chop secret mini's head and one hand off, but if you're not doing that, being a hard miniature is a bonus, i think). If you buy one of those new miniatures, with multiple options for weapons, note that a) so many choices make decisions hard to make! b) not all the choices have "pin" included and some are very hard to detach from the sprue. Again, I found metal very solid.  Then, some of the slotta tabs are too wide and need some filling. But, all in all, I am very satisfied with miniatures and a customer support. I've ordered a mad man, but I found a suitable miniature in my collection (TAG freebie!), so I've mailed if I could swap this one with some other mini and there was no problem.

Below, I've added some scale pics.
We got TAG, BCB, BCB, Mantic, BCB, BCB, WGF, BCB, BCB, Urban war, BCB, BCB and forementioned Hasslefree-mantic Grant.

A close up on first half. You can see the amazing pose of werewolf. Miniatures tend to be true 28mm, so they turned out a bit small compared to Mantic. I really like the deep ones, as I think they are pretty close to what Lovecraft described them as. The guy with lantern and a pistol had a choice for his right arm (lantern). I wanted to go with another pistol, but there is one on his belt, so I picked lantern....you know, he was searching the pyramids and he has heard a sound behind his back thing! The "doctor" is putting his gloves on, which is quite a nice idea for the pose. He will be my mad scientist.
Here is the other part. Sorry for the blurry pic. The first one is one of 3 hybrids. I am sure they will be fun to paint and I will try to blend green-grey of deepones with some skin tones. Second guy has a WW2 tommy gun, which is a shame, as I'd prefer the 1920's edition. But, well, its a minor thing. You can see another agent with sabre and Lovecraft himself. I gave him .45 colt, so he can defend himself!

There is one more writer that I got. I keep forgetting about his name, but the thing is, I gave him a hand with pen for his "weapon". I was going to paint it as a cigar and put a pile of dynamites on his base. I had some problems attaching the hand and it broke, so I'll just give him a shotgun instead!


Well, I think thats all I got to say about BCB. If I sounded too negative, its all accidental, as I think miniatures are great. Cthulhu line is somewhat hard to get and hybrids are just amazing. But some sculpts are not as good. Fisherman with rifle, that I got, for example, has no noticeable border between his boots and trousers, but I think he just needs some paint! The werewolf is also much better than expected. They sell many different variants, but I like the "leaping" one the most.

Again, I hope this helps if you were wondering how those miniatures look like!

Mathyoo

13 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm hungarian and also into 28mm horror, even tho I play Chaos in Carpathia. Great blog by the way :)

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    Replies
    1. Oh, hello!
      Thanks, and I'll check yours!

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    2. Mathyoo, could you give me a link where the Mantic werewolf (the 4th in the row, with the outstretched arms) can be purchased? I can't find the specific Mantic box that has that werewolf.

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    3. It is not a werewolf, just a zombie. In a Zombie box set. Only werewolf here is the 3rd, from Black cat bases :P

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  2. BCB do some nice stuff. I must dig some of it out and put it on the web. It's the depth of the range that amazes me. I painted some up as glowing ones and a few more as one of the zombie types in left for dead. Have fun with them.

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    Replies
    1. I agree!

      Glowing ones? That should look spectacular :)

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  3. Looking good Mathyoo. Would the fisherman be wearing waders perhaps? then there would be no border between boots and trousers ....

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    Replies
    1. Oh, you see, didnt think of that! That makes all the sense then!

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  4. They look very nice figures. much nicer than the pics on the site portray anyhow.

    I agree with Colin they would be all in one waders Mathyoo otherwise there feet would get wet all the time they are at sea

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  5. Good looking minis. The scale doesn't seem too off to me, though they may looks small next to Wargames Foundry (but then, what minis don't look small next to those brutes).
    You tipped me off to the Black Cat Bases sale, and I decided to pick up a couple minis I had my eye on from that site, so thanks for that!
    I'll post mine as soon as I get them, though I didn't place to order until the 10th.

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    Replies
    1. Im glad you found it useful! Can't wait to see what you found for yourself :)

      I think scale difference wont be too noticable once you play the games, as they wont stand next to each other :)

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  6. I really like a lot of the stuff that BLACKCAT produces.

    It is a good review and i look forward to seeing them painted!

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