Renegade Miniatures Review: WWI Germans

Evening all - hope you're all enjoying the weather and it's not distracting you too much from wargaming ... readers may remember my WWI Russians; I'm nearing completion on them (post to follow), but I also invested in some insolent Nemnetskis for them to get to grips with.

There'll probably be a couple of different nations represented - I know I want to do some A&S Highlanders after reading Ian Hay's First Hundred Thousand (half witty, black-humoured take on trench warfare and army life; half grim and hard-hitting WWI memoir).

But for now I've got as far as ze Chermans, cheerfully supplied by Renegade Miniatures.  As I haven't done one in a little while, I think it's time for a little review, don't you?



Price

Renegade Minis usually come in packs of 8, for £8.95.  This puts them just in the value category in my books; anything very much more than £1/model starts getting luxury but these are great value for bulk buying.  The packs suffer from the same slightly annoying issue of specialist and individual models coming in packs of 8 which I encountered with West Wind.  So, if you want a rifle squad led by an SMG-man, you need to buy the whole pack of 8 SMGs just to get the one man - in short, no squad deals or boxed sets.  (Having said that, to be fair most companies including West Wind have accommodated me if I've rung up and asked for models out of particular sets.  Never tried with Renegade, however).  7/10.  Very good value, but the lack of squad deals and individual models is a little inconvenient.  (UPDATE:  I didn't see the regiment deals, they're here.  They give you 24 for £24, which is a help if that's the scale you're doing.)

Delivery

Happy to say that everything arrived with absolutely no issues, in about three days and excellently packaged in a Jiffy bag.  No damage, no bent bayonets, very happy indeed.  Costs 10% of your order price, to a minimum of £2, which is pretty average.  8/10.  Arrived super-quick time!  That 10% can really add up for big orders though...

Both the photos are straight out the bag - no damage from transit at all.

Sculpt Quality and Detail

As you'd expect with Renegade's stuff, the sculpt quality is superb.  Very nice expressions, faces, details and so on - I have some concerns about the rifle stocks on a couple of models but it's a minor niggle, one that's easily fixed with a bit of Green Stuff.  I could spend time picking at one or two models which look a little ill-proportioned, but it's not a major issue.  Another good point about the rifles and bayonets is they are very resistant to bending and snapping - at the expense of a little detail, but we are wargamers first and anything that helps us survive the trials of the board is a plus point.  Overall, the sculpts seem to have been done with this in mind and there are no sticky-out bits that look like they're ready to snap off at the slightest provocation.  7/10.  The slight proportioning issues would perhaps make them a 6 or 5, but their hardiness boost the score to a decent 7.

Flash is all minor and peripheral.  Came off with zero effort and collateral damage.

Range and Historical Accuracy

The Renegade range is perhaps the most extensive for WWI I know of.  A huge range of Germans and British, covering both early and late war, as well as Austrians and French for the former period.  The ranges encompasses infantry in various poses, HMGs, mortars, command sets ... you name it, they sculpt it.  And historical accuracy seems bang on the money to me (as a casual observer), with things like cuffs and epaulettes sculpted on, to give the more skilled/adventurous gamers a chance to depict a specific unit.

Overall:  8/10.  A few kinks like proportioning, and the sets available, do little to detract from a superb range of well-made, detailed figures.  Well worth a look.

Thanks all for reading, if anyone disagrees with my thoughts do let me know, and hope that someone found it useful.  There'll be these Germans and the Russians to paint in the next few weeks, so plenty more WWI goodness to keep you going.

Ed