Originally Published on the Spanner and the Yank Web Site. Used by permission.

10 August 2003

NOTE: If you want to see just how well these figures can paint up, and how nicely they look en masse, check out [Note May 1, 2005 Update: Site closed] Boris Megorsky's Great Northern War units. And the flags, before you ask, are more of Baccus' offerings. Dal.

Introduction

Pete Berry of Baccus 6 sent me some samples of his new Archemaenid Persians, some SYW French and a couple of new Napoleonic packs (Click Here for the review). I know very little about the army so have had to rely on the code descriptions to identify the troops. Some, however, I recognised- Saka horse archers for example. These are all quite nice and should prove to be a welcome addition to the 6mm ranges that are available.

What are they like, then?

I'm not overly familiar with 6mm figures. I've seen Heroics & Ros' figures and Irregular's offerings- and not been overly impressed. GHQ were very nice, but I've only seen their vehicles. Baccus 6's figures were impressive, though. There's a lot of detail there, the spears look like spears and not telegraph poles and the proportions and anatomy aren't too bad. In other words, "Nice!".

I'll let the figures speak for themselves, because I don't know enough to comment on their accuracy. I'm sure that anyone who has an interest in the period will know exactly what they're looking at. To me, military history started with the Byzantines- anyone earlier was simply a thug with a sharp stick. (DON'T e-mail me to tell me how wrong I am- after all, this is the "Totally Biased Figure Review" site and I'm merely expressing my bias!)

One advantage of 6mm figures is that you can make realistic looking units, dressed in multiple ranks and with a decent amount of figures. I've heard of people who play DBX, substituting 4 or 6 6mm figures for each 15mm or 25+mm figures. It's a good idea, as my mind's eye has never been really satisfied with 12 figures representing a rampaging warband.

To get the weapons to be a scale thickness Pete Berry has had to cut a lot of channels to let the metal flow in the moulds. This means there's a bit of cleaning up to do. But the thinness of the metal means that it only requires a quick sweep of the knife to remove the bits you don't want. And, in the pics above, there's been no cleaning up done. In that respect these figures are better than many of their larger bretheren from some companies!

Recommended! Maybe you can't paint the floral patterns on the quivers as you can with 28's. (Maybe you can!) The figures, individually, do lack the visual impact of their larger bretheren. But I've seen 6mm figures and, painted well and fielded in numbers, they have a visual impact that a few scattered figures in a larger scale completely lack. Why not have a look at these for your next army or period?

Have Fun!

Dal.