This is review was made as part of a cooperation between From Warsaw with Wargames and Wargames News and Terrain regarding the publishing of wargame related reviews. By this cooperation we can offer you interesting reviews about wargame products of scales and genres we currently don't play and also as experienced by another seasoned wargamer. As these reviews were originally made by Ignacy over at From Warsaw with Wargames I cannot answer questions regarding the reviewed products but if you have questions, please comment and I will forward the question to Ignacy.
Oddział Ósmy (Unit Eight) is a small company from Łódź which makes 3mm WW2 and modern minis (and they have just released their first 3mm sci-fi vehicles) as well as 15mm sci-fi minis. Today I'm going to review one set from this last line. It's called the AP Team and it's quite an unusual set, as it represents sci-fi versions of people involved in the making of the PMC 2640 game... including me. It's kinda strange to review a miniature version of myself, but I'll try to be fair nonetheless. As with all 15mm sets from O8, for 13 PLN (or 4.25$ at PicoArmor) you get 6 miniatures. In case of these sets, they are (quoting from the Assault Publishing website):
- Sgt. Pogodyn - heavy equipment specialist,
- Lt. Sarmor - EW specialist and famous translation officer,
- Col. Gerkovith - shareholder and commander in field of MKG Inc.,
- M.K. - legendary commando and saboteur,
- Tomash K. - renegade commander,
- Sandra "Savannah" Brooks - freebooter sniper and assassin"
Now, Col. Gerkovith is a miniature version of the author of PMC 2640, Tomash and M.K. are from Oddział Ósmy, and the remaining three are the playtesters of the game. The minis come in a small zipper bag attached with a staple to a small piece of cardboard with the PMC 2640 logo and some info about both O8 and AP. That might not seem like much packaging, but in most cases it's enough - the miniatures are made from a very strong metal and the risk of any damage is extremely low. (However, in case of 3mm vehicles, the thin barrels sometimes break in transport, so these need to be better secured when sent.)
Taken straight out of the box... bag, that is, the minis had thin pieces of metal attached to their bases. These are found quite often on O8's miniatures, but thankfully are very easy to break off, even with your fingers.
Apart from these, all miniatures have mold lines, though really small. However, due to the hard metal used by O8, a knife might be not enough to remove them, and filing them is a bit harder than in case of minis from other manufacturers.
Sadly, it seems that the molds were a bit misaligned when my copy of col. Gerkovith was cast. Fortunately, he wasn't deformed in any way, but it meant more work when cleaning the mini. Nevertheless, this happens very rarely and overall the casting quality of O8 is splendid.
When it comes to the sculpts themselves, they're great. They're full of little details, ordinary ones like pouches & bags, as well as some more characterful, like Tomash's cigar or Sandra's goggles. My favourite is the inscription on Pogodyn's t-shirt. Weapons too are very detailed and look quite realistic (no wacky rayguns, sorry!). The poses are ok, though not very dynamic - with the exception of running Sandra, which is in my opinion one of the most interesting sculpts by O8.
Scale comparison
I must admit, that my collection of 15mm sci-fi minis is very limited, made of Oddział Ósmy's and Ground Zero Games' products only, so I can't make a better comparison (maybe in the future that'll change). Nevertheless, as you can see below, the AP Team scales quite nice with GZG minis, with Pogodyn towering over all other characters.
The conclusion
All in all, the AP Team is a fantastic set, which can be used either to add some special characters to your existing army, or create a group of misfits to roam the galaxy in search of adventure. Available here.
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