Clearco Miniatures 01

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently bought the 'Modern Female Survivors' set of 6 figures from Clearco Miniatures. I've not finished them yet, so this post is a review of dealing with Clearco and an initial review of the figures themselves..

Dealing with Clearco
After learning about the existence of Clearco on the Board of the Living Lead, I decided that I really liked the figures and emailed Clearco as directed on their blog. Personally, I don't really like ordering by email like this and would prefer to use a shopping cart system - it feels more professional and less ... 'transient'.  However, this is Clearco's first release, so expecting a fully-fledged webshop is unreasonable, so I enquired via an email. One very quick response later (within an hour!) and I'd learnt that the postage to the UK was very reasonable (just under 3 euros, but Clearco have moved location since then, so that will probably change) and I ordered a set.

I got an acknowledgement of my payment, which doesn't always happen with online purchases (but I am certainly reassured when it does!), that was a non-automated email saying that the mini's would be sent as soon as possible. This was followed 3 days later by a mail saying they had been sent, and then the mini's arrived 3 days after that.

To sum up then; ordering from Clearco has been one of my most trouble-free, speedy, and well-communicated experiences in the world of internet shopping - not just hobby related purchases. Obviously, with their recent move across the continent, this may change, but my impression is that I would be surprised if it did.

The Figures
The first thing to say about the figures, is that they are incredibly light. I didn't really twig before ordering them that they are made of resin - this means that they are much lighter than even hard plastic figures - so much so that my initial reaction on picking up the parcel when it arrived was that it must be empty! but (obviously!) it wasn't.

Having opened the parcel, I found the figures inside and then made my second discovery - of the six figures, two have both hands cast on them, three have one hand cast and one has no hands at all. Where there is a hand (or two) missing the arms end at the wrist and either have a sleeve or bracelet/watch to disguise it - a very nice touch IMO. To fill these 'stumps' there is a selection of hands and articles shown in the pic to the right. Missing from the photo though is the crowbar (my bad, I didn't realise it wasn't in the shot at the time). These bits are quite delicate though; circled in the pic are the two bits of the axe-hand that I managed to break when washing them - so be careful!

Size-wise, the figures are on the large-ish side. The pic to the left shows a quick comparison, featuring a Grekwood Miniatures Hospital Zombie, Clearco in the centre and Zombie-Me. I'll do some more comparison shots when I've finished painting them, but to me, although large, the mini's are not overly so, and IMO, completely compatible with my other 28's. (If you look REALLY closely at the pic, you can just about make out the stump at the end of the right arm in this pic.)

 To try and counter the lightness of the figures and as they are not slotta-base figures (which you can see in the pic above and to the right; they have small (and quite thin!) integral bases), I decided to add an extra steel disc to the normal coin I base my figures on - as shown to the right - which I then hid with wall filler (my current basing material of choice).

Well that's it for now other than these last two pics which show their current state of painting and how I filled the 'stumps'.

Just so you know, in this pic, the left figure came with no hands, the other two with no right hand.

And in this pic, the centre figure had no right hand, and the other two hand both hands present.  The rightmost figure has an open right hand which allows the crowbar or spade to placed there. Unfortunately you can also make out the top edge of the steel disc - corrective surgery needed! The leftmost figure has no need of weapons - attitude seems 'enuff' for her!

To sum up: I'm very pleased with the figures and glad I got them. The missing hands, and selection supplied, allows for a wide range of choice and I think it's a great idea.  I will buy more from Clearco in the future, I'm sure.

In other news:

• Very nearly finished my Steve Barber Models' 'GMB4 Talos "The Man of Bronze"' last night
• I've managed to get my main Lord of the Rings Online character into Moria - it is incredibly spectacular and well worth the wait