"Wargames Atlantic/RGD Fauns" Topic

What do you get?
Eight sprues of fauns and one of centaurs. The centaur sprue has enough parts for two centaurs with several male and female body options. There are a number of weapon options but no bow. The faun sprues are four each male and female each with 3 models. Both contain a variety of spear, single and double handed weapons, two shields and a single bow and horn (instrument). There is a large number of options for both male and female heads.

Negatives
With 24 fauns and only 16 shields the kit is not as customisable as one would want. I had wanted to build 12 spear and shield and 12 and hand weapon and shield or bow to make 2 dragon rampant units but that is not possible. I have green stuffed a couple of pelta shield and used a few hoplite shield I had spare that fit the theme so it's not an insurmountable problem.
Only one bow per sprue means one can only make 8 bowmen which will be a problem for those playing many systems. I image most people have enough bows available in the bits box to deal with this but they possibly don't match the rather nice curved ones found in this set.
The male heads have a dimple that fits onto a neck peg on the body. This works ok but gives more limited side to side options than the system used by any other plastic models I have built.
The female body has the same peg, but the bottom of the head is a flat. This gives maximum all round positioning options but at the cost of a very narrow and probably not strong join. I found it so odd I am not convinced I did them correctly.
I found that the combination of horns and the positioning of the two-handed weapons by the head made it tricky to attach the two-handed weapons.
The body and legs are separate part which I suppose gives more variety with any body attached to any legs but given the similarity of the bodies I don't think this adds much. This is especially so as the shape means the body must be added in one specific orientation. I think making the body and legs one part would be the better option. This gives a much faster build time and avoids the join in the middle of the body.
The two sprues have been used to add variety with a different bow arm and shields on each sprue but the majority of the weapons are identical which feels like an opportunity missed.
No standard option available. Not a big issue for anyone with a bit of experience building plastic kits.
There is only a single arrow holding hand which occurs on only one of the sprues so only 4 hands holding an arrow. This arrow is thin and has two attachment points so clean up is difficult without breaking one of the very few bits available to build an archer.
The centaur sprue has no archer option so no cavalry archer units which I imagine lots of people would want to build. One could steal some of the few bows from the fauns but then no or very few faun archers are available.
The centaur sprue has a two-handed weapon option that ends in an empty spear shaft. There are
a number of weapon head options to glue on to this narrow attachment which I don't think will hold.
The centaur bodies are scaled to match the fauns and the horse bodies are scaled to match the bodies with the result that the competed model is pony size. They looked ok when I was making them and next to the fauns but when alongside some realistically proportioned Perry cavalry they look terrible and I wont want any more. I understand the intent was to not match the bodies to a full size horse to avoid giant sized bodies but I think a better compromise could have been reached.

Positives
Lots of head options
The details are particularly good.
Most of the attachment points are in very sensible locations.
There is a good variety of spear options including an overhand.
The mould lines that are present are so shallow as to be removed with the merest touch if the blade
The aesthetic is in my opinion amazing.
The models easily for the most part go together to make realistic looking poses in a variety of dynamic or shield wall poses. The poses are some of the ones I am happiest with of any models I have built.

Verdict
Despite what I consider to be the odd decisions made with this kit in terms of options and attachment methods and the requirement to find third party shields (for those that must) I love what the sculptor has achieved and will certainly be getting more. There are a number of issues with the kit but most are not considerable for those who are not beginners in putting kits together.

Late reply, but thank you for this.