Impressions 1.5

 Good news;  second big box from Hat showed up today; leaving only 1 small box still not delivered by UPS.

Further impressions on the figures (now that I’ve fully assembled a few);

While the loading figure looks fine with the separate ramming right arm, I wish Hat had just gone with an attached arm like for all it’s other 1/32 Napoleonic reloading poses (i.e. Wurttembergers, Chasseurs, etc) because looking ahead to attaching at least 456 of these with Loctite 2 part plastic bonder makes my head (and finger tips) hurt.

The backpacks seems slightly oversized relative to the figures, particularly in their depth.  I am using hot glue to attach them, and also cutting down the back peg these were made to hang from, so they look fine on the figures. Cutting down the peg provides room for the hot glue to bind to the inside of the backpack hole to keep it attached to the figure.  This also allows the backpack to be pushed tighter against the figure than possible with the peg untrimmed; which frankly I think would look bad as the backpacks do not fit easily against the figures backs even when the peg is trimmed.

But enough of the negatives; I am both very happy to finally have these figures and more than a little overwhelmed by home much work I have to do to get the figures completed and ready to put into units.

Careful what you wish for…

Cheers

First box of Hat Austrian German Fusiliers has arrived!

 Because of gross incompetence by UPS I have only received 1 of the 3 boxes of these shipped to me (now 12 days after they were shipped).   Won’t tell you how frustrating and anger inducing it has been trying to track down these boxes via UPS “customer service”.  ANYWAY…

So far I have only started clearing figures from the spru; a daunting task to consider with an order of 174 sets (so 528 total spru of 6 figures each).  I’m doing this in waves; the first 15 spru have had all the smaller parts & extraneous mold pieces cleared off, but I’ve only completely freed 1 spru of figures (and not glued on any backpacks or reload figure arms yet).

But here are my first impressions;

The figures themselves are very good;

Detail is perfect for me, not overly done, but clear and well executed (particularly the helmets)

Scale appears good, perhaps a shade on the small side, but certainly well within acceptable and compatible with Hat and other producer’s 1/32 Napoleonic scales (i.e. not as small as Call to Arms French Infantry, nor as large as Timpo’s Imperial Guard).

The plastic used is a good balance of flexible and firm.

One thing that isn’t my favorite is the mold itself and how the figures are attached to it.  There are many mold pieces to cut from the figures, including several attached to the muskets, which require a lot of time and effort to remove.  And the base of the figures attachment to the mold is very thick and requires a lot of force to cut through.  

Will update more as I progress in the great spru removal!

Cheers