Lancer Miniatures review

Lancer Miniatures is a relatively new company and looks like it's driven by a fellow wargamer, judging from the posts they have made on a couple of gaming forums I'm on. They sell their own line of metal figures and resin scenery in 20mm or 1/72 scale. They do both WW1 and WW2 and they sell some other ranges besides their own, including some plastic models. They are also selling the BlitzKrieg Miniatures range of 1/72 and 1/48 scale resin vehicles and some other stuff. As a nice touch Lancer Miniatures supply one of their own crew figures with some of the vehicles to add to the incentive of buying from them instead of directly from Blitzkrieg Miniatures.

A section of british infantry and a piat team from Lancer Miniatures.

The miniatures cost 60 pence each, and you can either buy them in squad packs (ten miniatures for 6 pounds) or smaller packs like a team for £1.20 or five riflemen for £3.00, and so on. Some are even available singly, like a sniper or the figure walking with a bren gun. So what did I think about them?

A couple of riflemen. Oh dear, look at those arms.

The miniatures do convey the correct look and feel of british infantry in Normandy. Upon closer inspection however, a few problems creep up. Some of the details are not as well sculpted, leaving you guessing if it's the cut of the jacket or some strange item of webbing on the chest of the miniature. Also while the poses are quite nice the proportions are off. All the miniatures have short, stubby feet and Tyrannousaurus Rex arms. If you try to imagine the arms without the bulky uniform you realise that some figures have their wrists attached almost directly to the elbows!

I didn't know the british had bolt guns?

The two sten gunners I ordered suffer from another problem as well. Take a good look at the figures above. Try bending your left wrist 90 degrees sideways, as these figures do holding the magazine. It's not humanly possible. It's a direct effect of making the arms too short. Also I think the guns look too thick really. Yes, I know it's a limitation of the material not being able to sculpt weapons that are true to scale, and that the style demands somewhat exaggerated weapons and hands. But there's a limit to how big you can do guns until they look ridiculous. (Hey GW, I'm looking at you!) At the same time the Bren gun looks ok in thickness but too short.

The lovely Sophie Marceau firing a sten gun in "Female Agents". Sleek and deadly like the gun.

So what's the final verdict? I can't say that I'm thrilled about them. I will paint them up eventually and mix them in with the rest of my british figures, but I don't think they will get any attention while I have better figures left to paint, like the box of PSC figures I have. They are not bad, but they are not good either. I hope they keep up the work though and that the quality increases over time.

I give Lancer Miniatures british infantry 3 out of 5.

Note: I also ordered a Dingo scout car and a SdKfz 250 in resin from Lancer Miniatures. I was going to review them as well, but I realised they were from Blitzkrieg Miniatures and not Lancer's own sculpts. So in fairness I will review them separately in another post.