After completing my AWI project I was uncertain about what I wanted to do next, so I decided to take a break from painting. I saw an advert from Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) for their 15mm plastic Ancient figures, so as an experiment I bought a Sassanid starter army for £35. This basically provides enough figures for half a standard size army (Impetus; Sword & Spear etc.). If I were to buy the same number of metal figures (e.g. from Peter Pig), I calculate that the cost would be £50-£55; so the PSC army pack saves roughly 33%.
The plastic is ‘soft’, very similar to old Airfix figures, and light grey (which supposedly does not require priming). There is little assembly required, just adding a few lances, sides to howdahs etc. with superglue. The figures are ‘true’ 15mm and single figure castings (horse and riders not separate). There was some flash which, being ‘soft’ plastic, was fiddly to remove with a sharp scalpel, and the figure bases did not stand well. I think the sculpting and detailing on the figures was not great, and the variability between figures was limited.
I painted the figures using a black primer/undercoat which applied nicely with no pooling problems. Generally the figures painted up well, but the details of the sculpts was not as sharp as I would expect of a metal casting, so facial details etc. were hard to pick out. Overall I am OK with how the min-army looks, especially with the money saving, but I would have liked better quality figures. It is a balance issue, and I am leaning towards paying more money for better quality metals, but the PSC pack is not far behind. I am going to continue to explore the plastic PSC range by buying a Late Roman starter army to line-up against the Sassanids.
