REVIEW: Scibor Miniatures

Picture property of Scibor Miniatures

I thought I'd start a new segment on HOW, reviewing the products we use or experimental things we're trying out.  For this first post, I'm reviewing my recent purchase of a model, some bases, and conversion parts from Scibor Miniatures. Check out my thoughts after the jump.

Just because I feel like it, I'm going to go with a (perhaps overly harsh) PASS/FAIL policy. Maybe it'll at least spark conversation.

Initial thoughts- I grabbed these parts after seeing them on Slavetopainting.com. Knowing I was going to be starting a Grey Knights army, I wanted them to be unique. Who wants their army to look the same as everyone else's, especially with something so iconic and, let's face it, mono-colored as the Grey Knights.  I decided to go with the Templar theme, because it gave them a little more real-world twist and I like the iconography.

Right off the bat, these guys know how to sculpt some crazy miniatures. All their stuff is gorgeous, and the guys that paint their demo pieces (Karol Rudyk and Rodion Rubin- look them up) are gods among men. Let's see how the product fared.

Templar SF Knight #3

Sorry for the crappy cell pic

I purchased this guy to be my first catch-all HQ unit for my Grey Knights army. I figured I'd just grab one figure that could be used for any of the multitudes of HQ options until I had time to dig a little deeper and figure out who I wanted to use. The guy looks amazing.

As soon as I unboxed him though, I knew I was going to have some issues. The modeling guy at Scibor is clearly not as talented as the sculpting guy (I'm assuming they're different guys, but it's probably all the same person for all I know). There were several really unfortunate air bubbles, poorly placed gates (where the resin enters the mold), and some poorly misaligned molds (two halves not lined up). It's an awful shame to fork out good money on a highly detailed model, only to find some of the best details are ruined by poor molding. And when we're talking detail here, some of this intricate scrollwork is about the width of a human hair. Now I'm a decent sculptor, but not at this scale and not with green stuff (yet!).

Sadly, I didn't take many pictures prior to working with this model, so you'll have to take my word on some of this stuff. The edges of the shield had to be rebuilt due to a short cast. The sword was badly misaligned (you can still see it's not symmetrical, but I trimmed and filled as best i could).  That intricate shoulder pad had a gate right on the front edge next to the detail. Finally, the exhaust vents on the backpack had a big bubble completely filling two of the outer ring segments- I just ended up filling the whole outer ring in. Sad face.

VERDICT: FAIL   Had a tough time with this one (already doubting my binary rating system). Obviously the sculpt passes- it's amazing, but the product that shows up in your mailbox...grr! Love their minis, but I'll be very cautious about what I buy in the future. This is on par with the Finecast debacle- all problems that absolutely needn't occur if you know how to make a mold correctly, and such a waste of a great sculpt. Hopefully I'll be able to salvage this guy. In the end it will still look great, but I'm definitely frustrated. Oh, the base on this one is incredible- wish they sold that separately!


Templar Shoulder Pads, Templar Skeleton Shoulder Pads, Templar Small Shoulder Pads

Templar, Skeleton, Templar sm. (top to bottom)

Here's what was going to really make my army different. I planned on doing a squad of terminators with the plain Templars, and a squad of paladins with the skeletons.  Regular Grey Knights (eventually interceptor squad once I get enough units) would rock the small Templars.

Seriously?  WTF?

Sigh.  Again, horrible molding.  Gates on the details again (lost most of the points at the bottom of the shields). This isn't hard, kids.  Put it on the back. They also look like they were either sculpted or molded solid and then someone lazily hogged the backs out with a dremel to make them close-enough-to-hollow. If I had the talent to sculpt these, I'd start with a blank pad that fit perfectly over the shoulder (you know, like the ones that GW puts in the kit) and sculpt my new awesomeness on top. That way the customers paying good money would actually be able to...use them. Now I could probably just fill these in solid, hack the top off the arms and glue them in, but at this point I was so annoyed I just decided not to use them at all. We'll see what happens on future units.

VERDICT: FAIL, and I don't feel bad about it.

Ruins Bases- 60mm, 40mm, 20mm

Not pictured: 60mm base (it's already on a model)

If you're going to go through all that trouble to make your minis look great, why not get some killer bases to make them amazing?  One of the main reasons I chose to go with GK was that I wouldn't have to paint a ton of models in my increasingly limited hobby time.  The unintended side effect was that I could afford to pimp them out a bit more, because there's way less models.

To keep it short, I'm as in love with these bases as I am frustrated with their other merchandise. The only real complaint is that they are a little pricey, and they are a little misleading with how many you're getting (in the pictures, not the fine print). Odd that they're not sold in standard squad quantities.  They also only seem to have 4 designs on those 40mm bases, when most 40mm units tend to have 5 figures. No matter.  Easy enough to add a few extra rocks, leaves and vines to make them different.

VERDICT: PASS  These are awesome.  Detail is fantastic. Casts are clean. Even though they probably molded these open faced, they took the time to sand them flat for you. Why take the effort here and not on their other parts? Who knows?

Anyone else have any experience with Scibor?  Same?  Different?
~Deet