Not Impressed

I opened up my packs of Saxon Miniatures last night in order to get them based for painting and up close I was disappointed, the photos on the website are terrific and the painting is impressive, but now that I had them out of the pack and getting ready to base I am not satisfied.

Considering these are fairly new figures there are a lot of mold lines on them, and the metal used is that crisp stuff which I haven't seen in ages, the stuff that you dare not bend too far as it will crack, you can hear a distinct clink as you pop them back into the bag. The King Alfred figure especially has large pieces of metal holding his leg and cloak to the base, and you can't just cut it off as it is so thick, thankfully this is a figure I do not require.

I do have a complaint about the hands, they are tiny and my usual 1mm diameter spears look like large logs in them, they are also not well disposed to take weapons and I have had to take a modelling knife to ensure some kind of fit.

There are some nice sculpts in the packs but there are also just as many which are pretty average and I bought the 'hero' packs, I also noticed that some are fairly chunky while others are much slimmer. I am putting my own shields on the Arthurian figures and I have no doubt they will paint up fine and fit in with my Gripping Beast and Musketeer units, perhaps my expectations were too high after seeing the photos.