"HaT 28mm? Any good?" Topic

I was thinking of starting some El Cid and HaT makes them in extremely affordable plastics. Just wondering though whether they're any good or not

Make up your own mind :)

hat.com/current28.html

Having got the WAB El Cid supplement for Christmas I've been looking at the HaT stuff. So far I've struggled to find any pictures that make them look good.

The price is good but I'm not sure that I can make them look good enough for my liking.

The other thing is from what I've seen they don't mix with anything else out there so filling in the gaps in the range (like Spanish knights)could be a problem.

I have never seen them. The ability to mix them with other ranges would be my concern as well.

For the 'clicking on a link I provided to the pictures at the HaT site' averse, here's a sample

I wouldn't say they look bad… I'm not sure I would say they look particularly good either.

What I really want to see is how they look mixed with other figure makes for the period. Who they mix well with and who they mix not at all with.

If the range were more complete I would probably just do El CID with HaT because they are cheap and not worry about mixing.

Well the HaT site does list

28020 Almoravid Light Cavalry*
28021 Almoravid Heavy Cavalry*
280xx Spanish Heavy Cavalry*
280xx Spanish Light Cavalry*
28xxx Command packs*

in the production queue.

I'm not a fan of plastics, just putting the word out.

Here is a comparison shot of HaT foot with Gripping Beast foot from my El Cid army, GB on the left in both cases:

I find that with in their own units, and from 3 feet away on the table, everything looks good to me. But, YMMV

They look noticeably shorter. Putting them on thicker bases might help correct that. On the table I doubt I would pick them out as objectionably miss matched.

Thanks for the comparison pics.

I would scoop them up if they had a complete range. I have seen this range in the queue for a few years in 1/72 scale. I'd grab several boxes, but it is just not complete.

I bought a set and they didn't feel quite right to me. The plastic seems especially brittle and the weapons are thin and vulnerable.

In terms of price they are unbeatable and the newer sets have been somewhat improved.

Being a 20mm style set blown up to 28mm they will not be easily mixed with the chunkier 28mm metals and plastics.

GB probably aren't the best to mix with as they're bigger/chunkier than most 28mm metals never mind plastics. HaT's pics do make them look a bit rubbish but I think that's mainly the pretty dodgy paint jobs rather than the product.

I just got a few boxes of them; and here's my take at their value:

-they are, like have been said, blownd up versions of 1/72, so they are very well proportionned, with thin weapons and slim limbs.

-for the same reason, they have relatively shallow details, not unworkable at all, but they do stand out as flat-ish next to ordinary 28mm.

-some details are very weak, like the "hole-hands" in which you have to insert a weapon. Nice 3D final effect, but no real finger scuplted.

All said, tough, my humble opinion as a guy who loves well proportionned figures is that they are VERY V-E-R-Y nice miniatures, and well worth their meagre cost. about 0.30$ each, in canada.

I will post pictures of them in the next few days.

oh, yes, I forgot:

-they are hard plastic, not the soft stuff they use for 1/72. It remains to be seen if it is a normal polystyrene plastic or an ABS.