1/72 Review: Hat #8116 Spanish Guerillas

Hello everyone!

Not much going on here at the moment except a series of pretty nasty thunderstorms. School is winding down and finals are next week, so I haven't been able to paint a lot. I am, however, working on a command stand for my French cavalry; I should have them done before the end of the week (fingers crossed).

Meanwhile, I thought I'd do a quick review of some new 1/72 plastics that I recieved the other day. As the title of this post reads, it is Hat's Spanish Guerillas. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

Initial Impressions

The set consists of four identical sprues as shown below, each with 24 figures. This gives a total of 96 figures, which is a substantial number of minis in one set. The plastic on these is pretty soft, and all of the muskets and bayonets are quite bendy, which is a downer. Casting quality is decent, and they shouldn't take long to clean up. The box art is, however... well, let's just say it doesn't really turn my crank.

The box art is just kind of... meh.

Scaleability

These guys are on the medium-large end of the 1/72 spectrum, being similar height-wise to Italeri figures. This makes them pretty big compared to standard 15mm minis, but put together in their own units they should look fine.

Sprue shot.

Quality

As I mentioned before, the plastic is pretty darn bendy... I'll have to be really careful about how I finish these guys to keep the paint from accidentally chipping. The quality of the sculpting is ok, but some figures are definately better than others. Uniforms I guess are pretty accurate. Most of the figures seem to be in one of three or so "regiments" while there are a few that seem to be sporting civilian attire... I'm not sure. But they certainly seem to be dressed the part of Spanish guerillas. It might be time to rewatch some Youtube clips of Sharpe...

Price

I bought these guys off of eBay for $17.28 shipped. Divided amongst 96 figures that comes out to $0.18 per figure, about half of what I've paid for 1/72 scale figures in the past. As far as price goes, these are a pretty good deal, even taking into account the meh sculpting and bendy plastic. There are plenty of figures for a couple of units as well as plenty for conversion fodder. I wish they were a bit better, but you work with what you have to hand.

I plan on painting up a full unit of the lads in round hats (aka top hats) as a regular Spanish infantry battalion wearing blue or brown coats faced red. I've found several plates in Osprey books and elsewhere that depict this uniform as well as a number of other wargamers online that have painted up similar units.

Not red facings, but you get the idea.

Coming soon: more command stands until my summer break starts. I've also got it in mind to base and paint up a few 1/72 figures individually for some small-scale skirmish gaming... it depends on how many figures I would need, how difficult the terrain I would need would be to make, and what rules I would use. Who knows, it may come to fruition or it may not, all I really know is that finals are next week and they are approaching quickly. Wish me luck!

Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck