===== Original Post Jan, 6, 08 =====
My old
FLGS in Toronto got the Anima card game in during the summer and we played it a few times. At that time, the first wave of Anima miniatures for the Anima Tactics game were also available. They
FLGS only had pictures of the figures in the dark starter. While the figure for Shinigami Ayl was passable, the figure for Dark Cheshire was pretty ugly. Overall, at the time, it didn't seem particularily impressive. I did see some of the later-wave figures on the net however, and figured that I'd buy a few and paint them as one-off projects, as I find squad level painting extremely tedious and unenjoyable.
My current
LGS in Sault Ste Marie Ontario finally got in their new order, and was able to get one of the four figures I was interested in. As there has been passing interest in the Anima figures, I thought it would post my first venture into the Anima product:
Part 1 - Packaging
The packaging is somewhat like the Warmachine in that Anima Tactics models come in resealable blisters. The blisters themselves are much fancier and curvier than the ones used by Privateer, Reaper or
GW... which is strange, considering that I don't know any miniature modeler who buys models based on the blisters. Here's pictures of the figure packaging.
Front
Back
The Anima folks really seem to be pushing hard on the popularity of anime. The artwork for the figures (and the accompanying standalone card game) is generally top notch, with kind of a Magna-Carta / Square-Enix kind of stylized vibe - with very intricate character models - like the kind that are currently in vogue in Japan / Korea. - Though with slightly less production value - I suspect that a lot of their artwork must come from freelancers - which is good, as there are lots of top notch freelancers out there. After going over their website, I have the following thoughts:
1. Don't use hybrid 3D/hand drawn images. They look wierd and out of place.
2. Their website is horribly broken and out of date.
Here's the contents of the package:
1 color stat card, 1 ??? event? card, 1 ??? token card, 5 chits to represent power I guess, and the figure itself. No missing pieces, thank goodness.
Here's a closer picture of the actual figure components.
The Anima design studio have pretty big balls to try and tackle such detailed subject matter, but they've seemed to do ok.
There are lots of small fiddly bits in this model. Alis' spear in particular is
very fragile, and was bent out of shape at both ends. The piece of flash on the spear tip needed very careful removal in order not to further bend the metal. The metal itself is of a very strange mix. It is
not hard but it is
not entirely ductile either. In fact, when I was bending the tab to get it to stay seated in the base, there were noticable creaks coming from the metal as I slowly bent the tab. There were however, no cracks developing as has been seen in recent Privateer Press castings.
While there was plentiful detail on her wings and on her spear, these details are shallow. I'm afraid to prime her with my standard Duplicolor prime coat as the slightly larger particulate might obscure these. I'll probably hit her with a dash of
GW Chaos Black Spray.
The wings themselves have tiny little tabs which go into two holes in her back. These holes are not entirely large enough, so, although I did not pin the wings, I had to enlarge the holes with my pin vice and then greenstuffed a stronger bond. The leg went on with minimal work - just a bit of joint filling by the thigh. Overall, quite a nice model, though transporting it
will be a pain.
Here's the completed assembly.
Final thoughts before painting:
I can not stress how impressed I am with the overall quality, considering that Anima has no market penetration and is probably working from a tiny budget. If I understand it correctly, this model is from the fourth or fifth wave of 3-4 model releases for this game. The quality of this model as compared to some of their earlier work is outstanding. These retail for around $10 usd / single figure of comparable quality to any
GW release I've worked on recently.
Hopefully, I can pick up some spray tomorrow and get some paint on this girl.
===== Update 1 - Jan 7, 08 =====
Here's a 3 man shot of the figure scale between
GW, Privateer and Cypher Studios. I didn't realize how small the Anima figure was until I stood it next to the other ones on my makeshift workbench (a.ka. the kitchen table). The Karskin Sgt, who is small-ish for a
GW figure positively dwarfs the Anima fig. Same goes for Privateer's Female Journeyman Warcaster - and she's tiny by Privateer's standards, compared to something like a Knight Exemplar.
Left to right: Karskin Sgt (
GW), Female Journeyman Warcaster (Privateer), Alis Testarossa, (Cypher Studios)
I started putting some paint on her too... but I'm a
very slow painter. Like... glacially slow.
Ahh. Who am I kidding, I think I was just mesmerized by painting her butt.
I noticed a problem with the figure after I primed her. While it didn't look like anything, if you look at the full-size version of this "dakkasized" thumbnail (in the photo-dump), you'll note that there's a bit of an annoying line across the bottom of her face parallel to her spear. I thought it was primer buildup and gave that spot a good scraping with a dental pick, but alas, I think it is part of the model. It doesn't look like hair or anything. I hope I can fix this with careful painting, but it is a pain in the arse.
Now that I'm looking at the model in the photo, the red could use a bit of smoothing out on the torso too - and there was a wierd bump on her leg that I took off with a file.