In defense of WGA, they have two WW2 sets seldom seen in hard plastic: German sentries (you can make sentries looking at papers, smoking, searching with a flashlight, walking with their rifle slung on their shoulder, etc) and British commandos/SAS in stealthy poses. I think WGA fills a needed niche, even when some of their kits are hit or miss.
Like I stated I really like WGA. If I didn't have a printer, I would probably buy this set in larger quantities too. And as I said I hope they will continue this period by releasing other more interesting “army types” from the 13th century. Thanks so much for all this commenting and watching! :)
This is true - to a certain extent. In addition to the statue of Saint Maurice I mentioned in the material, there is the Sleeping Guard of Wienhausen. You can also find quite a few iconographic evidences that the coat of plates was worn on top. My point is that since you can easily find the examples I mentioned and they found representation in art, they were not isolated cases. In this sense, WGA minis poorly represent knights from the turn of 13&14 centuries, because none of them show the armor in question. Anyway, I am very open to further discussion on this matter. Thanks a lot for your interest and comment!
I had the same view on 3d printing and especially resin printing. I started with FDM and terrain printing because I cared more about that. And it was a bit of a road through the ordeal :) - but I don't regret it because otherwise I would have spent a fortune on all those terrains I printed. Resin printing...was surprisingly “maintenance free”. I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times something went wrong, and the repair was limited to leveling and cleaning. On the other hand...it is indeed necessary to have a place, so I understand perfectly well your concern on this subject.
Good video, nice to see what's on the market. Hardly seems like a fair comparison minis sculpted for 28mm vs minis sculpted for 90 or 75mm (according to their page on myminifactory), where you would expect greater detail, shrunk down to a third the size. Also because the Styriwar minis are behind a paywall we can't see what you actually get for a subscription. Would love to see the WGA minis up against, Warlord or Perry or some other near peers in future videos perhaps
I don't know what miniatures you are talking about those 75- 90mm? Divide at impera, Kickstarter has/had 28mm figures on offer. I think you can see it in many of the pictures and in addition there were still free printable models available. So there was a physical opportunity to evaluate Styiwar figures. I don't think sculpting miniatures works the way you described but it doesn't really matter. I specifically mentioned that 3d printing has a technological advantage over traditional plastic castings when it comes to detail and ease of achieving any pose of miniatures. When it comes to comparing with other traditionall sets, this material was aimed to compare WGA ze Styriwar. As it is in the title and is something I promised when reviewing the Divide at Impera Kicstarter. My harsh assessment of the WGA set is mainely due to historical inaccuracies - not the quality of the miniatures themselves. Of course, you can disagree with me and that is ok. I am really very grateful that you watched my material and took the time to comment it. Thanks a lot!
Love the historical accuracy explanations. With plastic sets, you could also look at Conquest Games (not to be confused with Conquest Miniatures) Medieval Knights or Normans. Since you are comparing with 3d Prints, having some Medbury Miniatures, Reconquer Designs and Black Knight Miniatures would be useful.
Thank you much for this comment! True - some more minis to compare would be nice. Main reason why it did not happen is that it was a "break neck speed material" :)
I really like this honest review, thanks for stating your opinion out right! It's refreshing :) I will say that even though it can give awesome details, I do NOT like 3D printing because I've no need for yet another hobby (printers need room, plus resin printers are messy and some use pretty toxic materials; and where I live third-party printing services are VERY expensive and will steal the STL files from you and resell them). So for me WGA plastics fill a need: "decent" (though seldom awesome) miniatures at a very cheap price, and also both sturdy and easy to convert/kitbash (something hard plastic excels at). I think the reason they are not as historically accurate as Perry plastics is because nobody at WGA is a history nerd like the Perry brothers (I mean, just look at their booklets!). For this kit, what I find slightly disappointing is the body with the shield arm, which limits kitbashing/posing possibilities. That said, I will likely get it, since it's overall nice.
I was sure I had written quite a response here. Well... I started with FDM printing, and here I must say that I went through an ordeal in terms of failures and topics that I had to solve. However, I don't regret it because the amount of terrain I printed, if I had bought it normally it would have cost me a fortune. For resin printing I could not convince myself for a long time because it is messy and toxic. I bought a cheap printer and to my surprise it turned out that printing on it is pretty much maintenance-free. In 2 years of printing I had maybe 5 failures, which came down to cleaning and leveling. But indeed the toxicity is problematic and if you don't have the space for such a printer it's better to let it go. I don't know what the poor historicity of this kit is due to - maybe it is as you say, but there is another possibility that I didn't consider in my material. Maybe WGA rushed this kit to the market just in time for the long-announced release of Victrix medieval kits? Thanks a lot for watching and commenting!
@@EpicTabletop ah, yes, possibly. I don't know how much close attention WGA pays to Victrix (I follow their fb account and they never mention them). As for FDM: the thing I enjoy the most is crafting terrain out of cardbox and wooden coffee stirrers and crap (more than actually painting minis!), so this use of printers is also not worth it for me. I *never* buy terrain, either! Crafting it is time consuming, but then again, everything about this hobby is... and in the words of Marie Kondo, it "sparks joy" for me ;)
@@theandfI understand perfectly! There are many aspects to our hobby and it's good for someone to understand what actually makes them happy! I used to make terrains myself, too, and sometimes I continue to do so, but at some point I realized that, my "life span" in not long enough to make everything I would like to have on my tables :P. Muliple systems I play = different terrains :). I miss terrain creating and sometimes I do want to buy "proxxon foam cutter" and get more involved with my terrains instead of just printing and painting...we'll see :).
Great review! I am really looking forward in painting them. Also subscribed great channel comment. This minis can be used only for first Barons war maybe second..
Thanks a lot!I have watched your materials many times, getting inspiration quite a few times! If only life was long enough to read all those rules and make all those armies ;). If only I was smarter and picked one period/theme and stuck to it.... Again - thnks a lot for watching and commenting!😃
Plastic sets have other advantages - greater potential of kitbashing is one, and Wargames Atlantic are very helpful there. And then there’s the lovely fumes of the glue … which is matched by the carcinogens in resin. And isn’t Styriwar a Russian company? - “draw your own conclusions on that” …
No Styriwar is not a Russian company. It is German. You are free to pursue our hobby any way you see fit - just as I am. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I think these knights look okay and are good for a specific time period, they look better to me then some the fire forge ones and they don't have chicken wire chain mail like others I've seen. I wouldn't say you butchered them but I definitely agree that the dates listed on the box are ridiculous, and i''d love twice as many helmets.
In defense of WGA, they have two WW2 sets seldom seen in hard plastic: German sentries (you can make sentries looking at papers, smoking, searching with a flashlight, walking with their rifle slung on their shoulder, etc) and British commandos/SAS in stealthy poses. I think WGA fills a needed niche, even when some of their kits are hit or miss.
Like I stated I really like WGA. If I didn't have a printer, I would probably buy this set in larger quantities too. And as I said I hope they will continue this period by releasing other more interesting “army types” from the 13th century. Thanks so much for all this commenting and watching! :)
Coat of plates were almost always worn underneath the surcoat. This is why there are so few depictions of them in manuscript miniatures, etc.
This is true - to a certain extent. In addition to the statue of Saint Maurice I mentioned in the material, there is the Sleeping Guard of Wienhausen. You can also find quite a few iconographic evidences that the coat of plates was worn on top. My point is that since you can easily find the examples I mentioned and they found representation in art, they were not isolated cases. In this sense, WGA minis poorly represent knights from the turn of 13&14 centuries, because none of them show the armor in question. Anyway, I am very open to further discussion on this matter. Thanks a lot for your interest and comment!
I had the same view on 3d printing and especially resin printing. I started with FDM and terrain printing because I cared more about that. And it was a bit of a road through the ordeal :) - but I don't regret it because otherwise I would have spent a fortune on all those terrains I printed. Resin printing...was surprisingly “maintenance free”. I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times something went wrong, and the repair was limited to leveling and cleaning. On the other hand...it is indeed necessary to have a place, so I understand perfectly well your concern on this subject.
Good video, nice to see what's on the market.
Hardly seems like a fair comparison minis sculpted for 28mm vs minis sculpted for 90 or 75mm (according to their page on myminifactory), where you would expect greater detail, shrunk down to a third the size. Also because the Styriwar minis are behind a paywall we can't see what you actually get for a subscription.
Would love to see the WGA minis up against, Warlord or Perry or some other near peers in future videos perhaps
I don't know what miniatures you are talking about those 75- 90mm? Divide at impera, Kickstarter has/had 28mm figures on offer. I think you can see it in many of the pictures and in addition there were still free printable models available. So there was a physical opportunity to evaluate Styiwar figures. I don't think sculpting miniatures works the way you described but it doesn't really matter. I specifically mentioned that 3d printing has a technological advantage over traditional plastic castings when it comes to detail and ease of achieving any pose of miniatures.
When it comes to comparing with other traditionall sets, this material was aimed to compare WGA ze Styriwar. As it is in the title and is something I promised when reviewing the Divide at Impera Kicstarter.
My harsh assessment of the WGA set is mainely due to historical inaccuracies - not the quality of the miniatures themselves.
Of course, you can disagree with me and that is ok. I am really very grateful that you watched my material and took the time to comment it. Thanks a lot!
Nice review. Interesting historical context that I was ignorant of. Thx.
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and comment! Strongly appreciated!
Love the historical accuracy explanations.
With plastic sets, you could also look at Conquest Games (not to be confused with Conquest Miniatures) Medieval Knights or Normans.
Since you are comparing with 3d Prints, having some Medbury Miniatures, Reconquer Designs and Black Knight Miniatures would be useful.
Thank you much for this comment! True - some more minis to compare would be nice. Main reason why it did not happen is that it was a "break neck speed material" :)
@@EpicTabletop Oh yeah. I forgot Northern Crusades Miniatures as another 3d Printing one in that time period.
I really like this honest review, thanks for stating your opinion out right! It's refreshing :) I will say that even though it can give awesome details, I do NOT like 3D printing because I've no need for yet another hobby (printers need room, plus resin printers are messy and some use pretty toxic materials; and where I live third-party printing services are VERY expensive and will steal the STL files from you and resell them). So for me WGA plastics fill a need: "decent" (though seldom awesome) miniatures at a very cheap price, and also both sturdy and easy to convert/kitbash (something hard plastic excels at). I think the reason they are not as historically accurate as Perry plastics is because nobody at WGA is a history nerd like the Perry brothers (I mean, just look at their booklets!). For this kit, what I find slightly disappointing is the body with the shield arm, which limits kitbashing/posing possibilities. That said, I will likely get it, since it's overall nice.
I was sure I had written quite a response here. Well...
I started with FDM printing, and here I must say that I went through an ordeal in terms of failures and topics that I had to solve. However, I don't regret it because the amount of terrain I printed, if I had bought it normally it would have cost me a fortune.
For resin printing I could not convince myself for a long time because it is messy and toxic. I bought a cheap printer and to my surprise it turned out that printing on it is pretty much maintenance-free. In 2 years of printing I had maybe 5 failures, which came down to cleaning and leveling.
But indeed the toxicity is problematic and if you don't have the space for such a printer it's better to let it go.
I don't know what the poor historicity of this kit is due to - maybe it is as you say, but there is another possibility that I didn't consider in my material. Maybe WGA rushed this kit to the market just in time for the long-announced release of Victrix medieval kits?
Thanks a lot for watching and commenting!
@@EpicTabletop ah, yes, possibly. I don't know how much close attention WGA pays to Victrix (I follow their fb account and they never mention them). As for FDM: the thing I enjoy the most is crafting terrain out of cardbox and wooden coffee stirrers and crap (more than actually painting minis!), so this use of printers is also not worth it for me. I *never* buy terrain, either! Crafting it is time consuming, but then again, everything about this hobby is... and in the words of Marie Kondo, it "sparks joy" for me ;)
@@theandfI understand perfectly! There are many aspects to our hobby and it's good for someone to understand what actually makes them happy! I used to make terrains myself, too, and sometimes I continue to do so, but at some point I realized that, my "life span" in not long enough to make everything I would like to have on my tables :P. Muliple systems I play = different terrains :). I miss terrain creating and sometimes I do want to buy "proxxon foam cutter" and get more involved with my terrains instead of just printing and painting...we'll see :).
Great Video Pawel! Love the humor! I think the legs on the WGA Minis are not looking very good, the chainmail seems to be a Problem for WGA.
Thanks a lot for watching and commenting!
Great review! I am really looking forward in painting them. Also subscribed great channel comment. This minis can be used only for first Barons war maybe second..
Thanks a lot!I have watched your materials many times, getting inspiration quite a few times! If only life was long enough to read all those rules and make all those armies ;).
If only I was smarter and picked one period/theme and stuck to it....
Again - thnks a lot for watching and commenting!😃
Plastic sets have other advantages - greater potential of kitbashing is one, and Wargames Atlantic are very helpful there. And then there’s the lovely fumes of the glue … which is matched by the carcinogens in resin. And isn’t Styriwar a Russian company? - “draw your own conclusions on that” …
No Styriwar is not a Russian company. It is German.
You are free to pursue our hobby any way you see fit - just as I am.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Nice, I will buy single frame. Just to check if fits to fireforge and Perry :)
Thanks for watching and commenting!
They would be great for fantasy games because historical accuracy doesn't matter in fantasy 😁
True :). Thanks for watching and commenting!
It is good to see an honest review on TH-cam. Most lie about the product in order to get more free miniatures! ;-)
Thanks a lot for your interest and comment! I am "to small" for any large company to care.
I hope I won't succumb to corruption in the future :D
I think these knights look okay and are good for a specific time period, they look better to me then some the fire forge ones and they don't have chicken wire chain mail like others I've seen. I wouldn't say you butchered them but I definitely agree that the dates listed on the box are ridiculous, and i''d love twice as many helmets.
That being said I think some of the heads look too small.
So, I would say we are in an agreement :)! Thanks a lot for watching and commenting!
good post
Thanks for watching and commenting!