"Product Review: Wargames Factory Roman Auxiliary Cavalry" Topic

Product Review: Wargames Factory Roman Auxiliary Cavalry

Good day to you all. Having just received 24-Roman Auxiliary Cavalry from Wargames Factory I thought I'd share a few observations of these plastic models.

Horse sprue: 3-different body types, 4 different heads, right and left halves, tail attached – 12-different combinations and no saddles attached (see below). Good fit, equal to or better than GW horses and far superior to any metal multi-part horse I've ever put together. Clean up was quick as mold lines were faint and there was no flash present.

Cavalrymen sprue: 3-bodies, single piece, all very similar but with some subtle variations, all in chain. Detail is much better than the LLR "Caesar's Legion" boxed set, comparable to Wargames Factory's recent Celt Warband release. There are 6-right arms (left are attached to body already) in various positions for holding weapons. 5-different heads (one Decurion, one standard bearer w/face mask, 3-cavalrymen). Can be armed with kontos, javelins or spathas and equipped with shields. The extras on this sprue include a standard and short horn as well as a quiver for javelins, plus enough javelins, kontos or spathas to arm the troopers as you wish. Also, while not extra, 3-saddles.

A word about the saddles. Separate saddles located on the Cavalrymen sprue (you place the saddle on the horse and the rider on the saddle – duh) which fit quite well leaving no gaps between saddle and horse or between saddle and rider. I'm assuming WF went this route to save money on tooling (for horses) and to get as much extra use out of their equines as possible. Good move on their part as it keeps their costs down and allows them to provide us with less expensive models.

In all, I'd give the set 4 & ½ stars out of 5. The detail is good to great but could be deeper etched, in my opinion, it's at least as good if not better than anything else I've see/own. With clean up and gluing, it took about 10-minutes/figure for assembly. There aren't any transfers for the shields but I'll make due. And at $19.95 USD for 12, I get a 28mm mounted horseman for $1.66 USD each; much better than the $5.83 USD each for comparable Foundry (if I bought 30) or $3.58 USD each for a 10-pack of Warlord's.

I also like the separate saddles for painting reasons as well. It is much easier to do the furniture and the rider separate from each other as well as the horse.

I hate painting riders on horses.

I'm interested to see the horses up close. I didn't really fancy the look of them in the pics, but then the pics are not the best. (Never mind how they might fit together – I am talking about the sculpt.)

The seperate saddles is a nifty idea, though!

I thought Roman Auxiliaries didn't use saddles but used a padded pillow.

This is the one:
link

I thought they used big lumps of raspberry ganache.

No, those were the Wabapi heavy cavalry.

Thanks for the helpful review Lucius. While not in the market for more Roman cavalry it is useful to see good 28mm plastic cavalry on the market – augurs well for future releases.

Be good if they get into transport and camp sites as well.

Cheers

Garry

We just posted up some painted versions of these as well:
link

Tony, looking great, they look alot better painted as all figures do! Keep up the good work, I can not wait for the Celtic cav! Mike Adams