Scotia MicroModels minis (longish)

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I'd ordered a batch of stuff from
Scotia MicroModels in the UK, and that I'd do a sort of report on the
minis when I got them. Well, the minis got here a couple days ago, and
here's the report, for those of you who might be thinking of ordering
stuff from Scotia or elsewhere.

I'm not connected in any way with Scotia, except as a customer...I don't
even live in the same country...so here goes...

INFANTRY WALKERS: approx. 13mm tall, so almost double man-height. Reg.
units have one gun-arm, one hand-arm. Command units have smaller
gun-arm,
one hand arm, radio backpack w/ 5mm antenna sticking up overhead. Heavy
Wpns have smaller gun-arm, hand-arm, large backpack unit w/ large tube
sticking a few mm overhead (Mortar tube? Vertical Launch AT missles?
whatever...) Casting is very clean, no flaws in the 12 I have (8 reg., 2
Cmnd, 2 HvyWpns). Units have large forward thrusting helmets, slightly
'hunched' appearance.
	Paint job: I've painted mine dark green all over, with tan patch
on the back, black gun, black visor-slit, and with light green
highlights
and drybrushing all over and some black shadows to emphasize some parts.
The Cmnd. units have black antennas, black backpacks w/ one yellow spot.
Hvy Wpns. have black backpcks, black gun-tube thingies, w/ a tan
section.
	Last word: These I'd buy again (and will). They're very cool,
quite 'powerful' looking, and the quality is good.

POWERED ARMOUR TROOPS: approx. 9mm tall, just slightly taller than man
height. Slim design, w/ narrow waist, slightly pointed helmet, one
rifle-arm, one hand-arm, small backpack type thing. Of the 54 I got (two
packs of 27) just a few (no more that 4/5) were missing the right arm
from
shoulder to wrist- the shoulder pad was there, the rifle was there, but
the bits in between were gone. All were, however, very crisp, free of
flash, etc.
	Paint job: I based these in groups of four, two platoons of six
bases plus one four-grp. and one two-base left over. One platoon was
painted dark green, with slightly bluish green patches for camo. Second
platoon had same dark green base, w/ light green patches and dry
brushing.
All had black rifles and some black shadow-painting.
	Last Word: Another canidate for repeat buying...(can you tell by
now that I'm enthusiastic about Scotia's stuff?) Just work on that
missing-arm problem, guys...

Heavy Weapons Troops: A large batch of mixed units, mostly line-inf.
type
figures, approx. 7mm tall. 10 two-man missle (GMS/L) teams, molded right
onto a base together. Some APSW teams (5). Some 'snipers'
(guys lying down w/ rifles, 10), and finally two types of standing
soldiers (total 20). I used the standing guys to flesh out the APSW and
mortar teams (see next) to two-man units as per DS2 rules, gluing them
all
to styrene plastic rectangles. The 'snipers' and the rest of the
standing soldiers I used for a few infantry teams, as militia/line inf.
All these castings are pretty clean, no flash, a few irregularities but
no
major flaws.
	Paint job: Dark green base coat, then drybrushing only the
figures w/ lighter green to give a camo-blotch effect. APSWs, GMS/Ls,
some
other details in black. Eventually I'll add flocking to the bases, for
grass. (Also to the Power Inf. and every other base...)
	Last word: I'd buy more of these, except that there's so many
pieces in this batch I have all the heavy wpn. units I'm going to need
for
the near future! It's the largest set, by a long way - 40 pieces.

SMALL MORTARS: Five little mortars from the Neutral/ww2/modern line in
Scotia's catolog. I suppose I could have built my own, but what the
heck.
Approx. 3-4mm tall. I used some of the standing soldiers from the Heavy
Wpn Troops above to man these, two to a mortar, as Infantry
(Man-Portable)
Mortars. Painted as the Hvy. Wpns guys, dark green plus lighter green
drybrushing. In the future I'll scratchbuild my own from wire and
stretched sprue, but for those with less scratchbuiling ability or less
time, these're cool.

HORSE CAVALRY: These aren't from Scotia's SF line, they're from their
WW2
microarmour line - the Polish cavalry troopers of tank-charging
fame...poor bastards...Anyway, the cav is cool, about 10mm long by 10mm
high, and the only 6mm scale cav. I've ever seen. (Apparently Evil
Empire
has their Rough R*d*rs for E*p*c, but, well, um....) The casting of
these
isn't as crisp as the others. They're a bit rougher, more 'sketched-in'
looking. But no flash, only a few flaws (mostly horses missing part of a
rear leg), and they are more complex minis that the rest, really. You
get
27 of them in a pack, so I'm going to base mine 4 to a base, each base
approx. 1.5" x .5" or so.
	Paint job: I haven't got these guys finished yet, or really
started, but they're going to be tan & green camo soldiers mounted on
varied horses - black, white, greys, roan, etc all the horse colors,
just
for variety. Rifles etc will be black, as usual.
	Last Word: I bought these mostly to see what they were like, I'm
not sure how much they'll get used in actual play. Oh well, I can always
get into 6mm fantasy or something...They're nice minis, anyway.

Just for interest, before I painted all those I washed them in warm
soapy
water, let them air-dry, then gave them a white undercoat with a spray
can. All the rest of the painting was done with brushes. The paint was
all
Humbrol model paints, enamel based, thinned for washes with paint
thinner/turps. I'm going to coat all the minis with matte spray varnish
(Dullcote) before I use them for play, to protect the paint job.

The product codes, for those of you who're interested:

Powered Armour Troopers: SF1008
Powered Armour Command: SF1009
Powered Arm. Hvy. Wpn: SF10010

Power Infantry: SF1003

Heavy Weapons: SF1004

Mortars: NE1

Cavalry (Polish WW2): PS1003

And the address:

Scotia MicroModels
32 West Hemming St.
Letham
Angus DD8 2PU
United Kingdom

Tel#: 01307 818707

And that's all, folks...