Samurai Minis comparison and review

There has been some discussion on the interwebs with regards to the various sizes "28mm" minis come in. Of course people come in all shapes and sizes but I think it is useful to know the general scales that the various manufactures tend to use. In addition to the height, the proportions and anatomical accuracy can be quite different with some minis having excessively large heads/hands etc..

Please keep in mind that Footsore and Bac Ninh have a mixture of sculptors, which leads to some scale differences in their range.

Below is a selection of some of the samurai minis I have. 

Left to right: Footsore , Footsore , Perry , Perry , Steel fist , Steel fist , Warlord plastic , Warlord metal , Kensei, Bac Ninh, Bac Ninh

Left to right: Footsore, Footsore, Footsore, Steel fist, Steel fist, Warlord plastic , Warlord metal , Kensei, Bac Ninh, Bac Ninh, Titan-Forge, Titan-Forge

My general impressions on the minis are as follows.

Footsore
 
Good overall proportions and some interesting poses along with a decent variety of minis in the range. The casting can sometimes be a little rough and there is usually some flash and mould lines to be removed. There is usually some assembly required with the hand/arm attachment. It can be a bit fiddly but gives you some flexibility for setting a pose. The range is nicely varied and goes across armoured and unarmoured.  The vast majority of the range is sculpted by Stavros Zouliati but there seems to be a few unknown sculpts in the range too. The small unpainted man is one of those (pictured above).

Perry

Nicely proportioned and has a large range and variety of troops. Perry have been around for a long time and have got quite the following. Bear in mind however that there are some  dated sculpts which are a little small or can have exaggerated features.  The newer minis are however quite excellent. Their unarmoured samurai range are fantastic in terms of sculpt and value for money. They are in my opinion some of the best unarmoured samurai minis you can currently get and I think should be in everybodys collection.

Steel fist 
 
Highly detailed figures with quite eccentric gear and nice dynamic poses.  They are however quite large so bear that in mind when mixing them in with others. This is no problem if you use them for heroes or stand alone figures. I love the variety of weapons that they can come with but be aware that the long metal weapons are quite bendy and may need to be re-mounted on steel rods, which is a massive pain. The steel fist samurai cavalry are my favourite as they are excellently sculpted and extremely dynamic when in a full gallop. (Still huge though).  

Warlord Plastic 
 
These plastics minis are Marmite, some love them and some hate them. Overall I would say that they are the most realistic out of all the minis in terms of bodily proportions (heads/hands etc.. are the correct scale). The plastics however are incredibly fiddly to assemble but with some effort you can create unique poses and so I love just how flexible they can be if you have time, skill and imagination!  The poses can be quite stiff and unnatural looking if you don't take the time with a knife and greenstuff to slightly change the various arm angles etc..  The Ashigaru faces are quite shallow in terms of their details with an almost melted appearance. The Samurai are much better in terms of detail but are the most awkward to construct with many of the arm options not quite lining up with weapons. The horses are OK due to being easier to construct due to the more restrictions on how you can build them but they are difficult to glue to the plastic bases due to the small surface area.

Warlord metal
 
The newer minis are fantastic but I think that the earlier ones are perhaps a bit too squat (Tadashi from the ronin set for example is very short). The minis generally have very good detail, proportions and a variety of poses, though some such as the bandits are a bit too static for my tastes. I found that there was a minimal amount of prep work to do. The ninja set for test of honour are in my opinion the best ninja minis out there.     At the moment Warlord are currently re-releasing their metal miniatures under the "Warlords of Erehwon" range and are working out as excellent value for money. I have recently bought a few of these new re-releases but I have not been impressed as the casting is extremely rough with faces just mere smudges. I wonder if the new casts are simply casts from casts and so have lost a lot of detail.

Kensei
 
These minis come with slotted figures for square bases and are multi-part metal, which can be very fiddly to construct with lots of pinning. After you have converted them to a standard 25mm round base the minis are very good with no flaws or flash apparent. The models are all quite unique in terms of their poses and so are perfect for smallish skirmish games. The style for some of their models is almost fantasy but there are plenty of perfectly historical characters to choose from depending on which army/race you choose. They are rapidly becoming my manufacturer of choice due to just how awesome the sculpts are. The individual models are I think quite expensive (£8 per one model) but the army and squad packs can be fairly good value, working out at around £3 to £4 per miniature. They ship from Spain.

Bac Ninh
 

Very small range that consists of exclusively Boshin war minis. Please note that Bac Ninh now have a mixture of sculpts from Paul Hicks and Stavros Zouliatis. The miniatures I have are the Paul Hicks Variety (which are my favourite). The proportions are overall good with the exception of having slightly large hands and stubby/chunky swords, which are similar to Perry. The base of the minis are not quite straight and may need some filing or greenstuff to get them flat. The overall cast quality is fantastic and I can see that there was some post-work done to remove flash and clean up the models before they were sent to me. Awesome!.   Be aware that they come with no bases, which must be sourced separately.  See my previous review here. 

Titan-Forge
 
A company based in Poland, their miniatures are all resin based. The detail is superb as you would expect with CAD designed models and resin. Keep in mind that as it is resin there are some casting flaws and the occasional bubble. Their "Dragon empire" range has a good amount of variety. The models are firmly in the "Fantasy" camp with a mixture of Japanese and Chinese elements. They do some excellent monsters, in particular I am very fond of their ONI.


I didn't include this chap in the lineup as I was not 100% sure on who is the manufacturer of the samurai on the left, but I have since been informed that he is perry. (steelfist on the right)

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