Ralphadeus

Review; Italeri 1/72 indian warriors (American Independence war)

I have always liked small plastic figures. I like them for a number of reasons, some of them nostalgic - the opening of a new box is a pleasure that goes right back to way back in my childhood, but I also like the sculpting, animation and availability of them too. Recently many new companies have increased the depth of subjects covered and the overall accuracy of the figures has improved incredibly. Leaders in the market include eastern European manufacturer Zvezda whose Samurai warriors have raised the boom in quality and accuracy and companies like Emhar and HaT industries have brought new ideas and useful poses into the frame.
A site that is so valuable in taking the guesswork out of buying these figures by reviewing the figures and categorising them by time period and manufacturer is the Plastic Soldier Review - visit this site and be amazed at the range of figures now available to the modeller or wargamer.
Indian Warriors
As someone interested in the frontier period in American history I was looking forward to these woodland indians from Italeri and whilst they aren't perfect they certainly do the job of recreating the allies of the British in the American Revolution. OK so the sculptor doesnt really know anything about ballheaded clubs - that much is eveident - and the gunstock clubs are a little too prevalent showing the influence of the 'Mohicans' movie on the choice of weapons. A lot of the poses are kind of strange - one holding a scalp aloft being one and some very odd waving stances being some that come to mind. None of the warriors look like they know how to fire a musket which would be erroneous in that most woodland indians were expert marksmen and none are using the bow or woodland spear. It is another case of the box art being so much better than the contents but they are worth a paintjob and coupled with the other Revolution or Seven Years war figures enable people to recreate battles of the French and Indian wars pretty cheaply. Imex are planning releases of Mohawks and Rogers Rangers to add to their already impressive range of settlers, wagons and stagecoaches in their American History series - one set includes wigwams and camp equipment for 'Eastern Friendly Natives'.
So there you have it - the future is plastic - check out the Plastic soldier Review for the all-important 'sprue shots' http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.html