Wild West Exodus, the first miniatures game from fledgling production company Outlaw Miniatures, is a 32mm Skirmish game set in an alternative reality where the west is just as wild as it historically was, only with a bit of technology mixed in. Think Will Smith’s Wild Wild West movie (only without all the horrible acting and monstrous plot holes). They recently ran a incredibly successful kickstarter campaign to fund the production of the first four factions and their respective miniatures. There are a ton of really cool things about the game itself, including the comic you see at the left, but I’ll discuss those in a full game and universe preview in a later post. One of the things that intrigued me most about the game at the outset was the miniatures.

The production models look great painted, but what was really surprising to me is that Outlaw has opted to forgo metal completely (a decision I’m completely on board with) and utilize both injection molded plastic and resin. The injection molded plastic will be reserved for what is the equivalent of troop models, units that you’ll see in plenty on the battlefield, and all of your characters will be in resin. I love resin, so this really intrigued and worried me. Outlaw has no history in miniature production and is a young company, so the undertaking of resin production was initially concerning. Doing resin ‘right’ is a laborous process and there are plenty of companies that struggle with it, even with experience (coughGWcough). Simply put, it takes some effort.

Suffice it to say, when I picked up a Lady of the West model from Adepticon and a Sheriff Mic Ironside model from CMoN Expo, any worries I had about the resin dissipated.

I received the Outlaw faction Lady of the west, and she’s simply stunning. The detail on the model is crisp and clean, like you’d expect from any well cast resin model. The contact points, while small, are well planned and assembly was incredibly simple. As a 32mm, she fits incredibly well next to other boutique miniatures like the Kingdom Death pin ups in both size and detail.

The Mic Ironside model was equally impressive. Coming in 5 pieces, the model was as cleanly cast as the the Lady of West. There were no bubbles and minimal flashing on the sprue, making clean up a breeze. I took a old toothbrush (kids, with soft bristles. Great for cleaning up flash!) to the kit and all of the flash came off with no issue. After a quick bath in warm soapy water, he was ready for assembly

Assembly of Mic was equally simple. The arms, though the contact points were relatively small, assembled easily. The parts all fit flush with no gaps, including the bottom of the duster, which I originally thought would pose some problems and would require some green stuff gap filling. Nope. None at all. After full assembly, the model looks great. As an aside, the resin does leave a bit of an organic odor in the bags, most likely a product of being placed in the bags quickly after casting. It isn’t a bad smell at all, but those with sensitive olfactory nerves should be prepared.

Needless to say, I’m excited about the future character models to be released by Outlaw. Their resins thusfar have been clean and well detailed, impressive for any resin caster, let alone a new one (and even more impressive when considering that Creative Director Chad Cooper is casting all of the resins in house). I wholly recommended checking out Wild West Exodus and Outlaw Miniatures, especially now as all pre-launch orders are receiving a 30% discount.