Saturday 22 January 2011

Free Cal-Tex troops review

And now for some slightly older GZG figures - a squad of Free Cal-Tex (SG15-T1).


These are very satisfying little figures. The amount of detail is good and you get a varied range of poses in the pack. I've only pictured 5 of the team here, I have 3 still being cleaned up. There was little or no flash on most of the figures, though as usual they all needed a quick file on the bottom of the base to get rid of the casting marks and make them stand flat. There were a few mould lines, but they cleaned up quickly with some scraping with a craft knife and sanding with fine grade wet & dry.



Here is the first rifleman. Most of the figures use the same torso & legs, but the range of poses through different arms, head positions and weapons means that it isn't too noticeable. All have heavy boots, knee pads, body armour with 1980s style shoulder pads, webbing and an enclosed helmet.


The next rifleman. You can see some of the detail here - all the figures have a knife on their belt and nice ribbed body armour which drybrushes very neatly. The ribbing is repeated on the boots.


The squad leader. You can see his webbing well, with little chest pouches which are slightly hidden on the other figures, plus more of the detail on the helmet.


I think this chap kneeling down is probably a sniper, as one of the figures that I haven't yet painted is holding what is obviously a squad automatic weapon, larger than this one.


Heavy weapon trooper with what is more of an RPG style launcher than many of the other LAW-style rocket tubes.


A final view from the rear (click to see a larger image). This shows more of the webbing detail and the quilted pattern on the back of the body armour. Painting was GW blood red uniforms with a watered down wash of Vallejo sepia ink. Body armour, helmets, boots & gloves are Humbrol 104 dark oxford blue base coat/shading with a Humbrol 25 blue drybrush and GW enchanted blue highlights. Vallejo black ink was used where deep shadow was needed, for instance around the edge of their fingers. Helmet visor is black, weapons are black with a Humbrol dark grey drybrush to show up the detailing. It was good fun to produce a brighter "sci-fi" scheme rather than my usual murky camouflage!



Overall grade for these figures: B+


A good range of poses, though repetition would become obvious with a larger force. Not much cleaning up required, good detail on webbing and equipment. Could do with an additional pack or two of rifleman being available. With their fully enclosed helmets, they'll make a good team of faceless enemy cannon-fodder during small-scale role-playing adventures!

4 comments:

  1. These look way better here than on the GZG site.. might pick some up next order.(I think they would look great as space S.W.A.T to chase my scoundrel crew around the place)

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  2. I like those too and might have to get some. I know GZG have a contest last year when they gave away stuff to be painted so they could post them on the web store. you should send him these photos because your paint job is a real selling point. They remind me of the old V sci series or Battletechs draconian infantry. How do they compare size wise to the new rages?

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  3. Thank you for the compliments!

    Size-wise, the Free Cal-Tex are in line with the more recent GZG releases such as the new NAC troops, civilians, colonial security, Ravagers etc. They're larger than the New Israelis and some of the other old packs such as the generic command team, Stargate SG1 style assault team etc.
    Now that you mention V, I realise that I must have had that image in my subconscious when I was painting them!

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  4. The colour scheme, combined with their overall style remind me of Cobra Vipers from GI Joe... So yes, they'd make good cannon fodder :-)

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